APUSH Unit 1

Cultivation of maize

Determined in they stayed or moved, first in Mexico, developed more complex societies and were more sedentary

Effects of maize

Economic development (trade networks developed), permanent settlements, advanced irrigation techniques and population growth, social diversification (bigger societies make more specialized labor and social hierarchies

Great Basin and Great Plains

Arid climate, nomadic, small societies, mobile shelters, men hunted, women gathered, moved w/ seasons

Mississippians (Cahokia)

Rich soil, so large societies, traded via rivers, social hierarchy, mound builders (religious traditions and class systems)

Iroquois

semi-sedentary, used timber to build longhouses, families lived together (Iroquois Confederacy had council and facilitated trade partnerships)

Cherokee (Atlantic coast)

Maize, beans, squash, agricultural society, semi-sedentary, women grew crops, matrilineal

Pacific Coast

No agriculture, but hunter/gatherers, build permanent settlements, abundance of food from the oceans

European states before exploration

States were diminished and weak, Black Plague diminished populations, Little Ice Age

Europe stabilizes

Climate warmed, improved agricultural productivity, more food=more babies, desire for Asian trade, the Renaissance, political unification

Causes for exploration

3 Gs

Cause: Gold

-demand for luxury goods from Asia, improved banking systems, Portugal was first (Prince Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama)

-Spain wanted a different way to Asian markets- King Ferdinand and Isabella funded Columbus to go west and he landed in Caribbean

God

-dominant belief system was Roman Catholicism, but some criticized simony and indulgences (Martin Luther)

-Fight for Catholic Christianity vs Protestant Christianity

Glory

competition for colonial possessions to shift balance of power to themselves (not Spain), new nation-states emerge so there’s competition, Spain vs Portugal regarding claims in Americas, Treaty of Tordesillas

Causes of increased trade

-Improvements in maritime technology (fast ships, compass, astrolabe

-Joint stock companies: anyone with money could invest in exploration relied on state

Columbian Exchange

Transfer of diseases, animals, plants, and minerals from Old World to New World

Diseases

Native populations diminished because they weren’t immune (smallpox, measles), Great Dying

Food and Plants

Europeans: wheat, olives, grapes, (rice, bananas, sugar from Africa)

Indigenous: maize, potatoes

Led to European population explosion

Animals

Horses (from the Old World gave advantages to hunting), pigs, sheep, cattle

Minerals

Spanish conquistadores conquered both Aztec and Incas got gold and silver, Potosi Mountain caused Price Rev

Shift from feudalism to capitalism

Spain takes over

Colonizers began taking gold from natives by force because they wouldn’t trade

Requerimiento

legal document claiming Spain possessed biblical authority to rule in the Americas and threatened violence to native groups if they defied (trying to justify their right to conquer)

Cortes and Pizarro

Cortes: got Aztecs because Spanish diseases weakened Aztecs, and he allied with indigenous groups under Aztec rule

Pizarro: got Incas

Encomienda system

Spanish crown gave land to Spanish encomenderos who forced the indigenous people in its land into mining and plantations

In return, they had to provide protection and Christianization

Sources of Spanish wealth

mining for gold and silver, export of cash crops

Shift from indigenous to African slave labor

Natives are familiar with the land, so they escape and others die of disease

So, they imported African slaves to work mines and plantations, and Spanish merchants partnered with West African groups to trade goods for slaves

African slaves

Middle Passage: crammed, disease, malnutrition

Slaves were good because they were less likely to escape and were immune to disease

Caste system

Spanish conquistadores made a new social structure to be top of pyramid, more white=more social power, ordered by standards of small minority (consolidated Spanish control)

European worldviews

Thought land could be owned, Christian and monotheistic, patriarchal, and believed in the nuclear family

Native worldviews

Thought land was communal, believed in multiple gods, more equal/matrilineal, and lived in extended families

Native cultural adoption

Indigenous peoples converted to Christianity bc of Spanish missionaries and blended Christianity with their own worldview

English cultural adoption

Settlers learned local agriculture techniques and French intermarried to benefit from fur relations

Taino Rebellion

Native people of Puerto Rico rebelled against Spanish, but Spanish weaponry suppressed them

Valladolid Debates

Bartolome de las Casas was an advocate

Juan Gines de Sepulveda: indigenous are less than human

Curse of Ham in bible says that slavery is justified