APUSH - Unit 1

How did native societies adapt to their environments before European arrival?

Through innovations in agriculture, resource use, and social structure based on the diverse environments they lived in.

What crops were the basis of the Mayan, Aztec, and Incan food supply?

Mayans and Aztecs grew corn; Incas grew potatoes.

Why were North American native societies generally less complex than those in Central and South America?

Because the cultivation of corn spread more slowly northward, leading to smaller, semi

What role did gender play in native societies?

Men hunted and made tools; women gathered plants or farmed crops like corn, beans, and tobacco.

What were the Southwest natives known for before European contact?

Farming with irrigation systems and living in caves, under cliffs, or in multistory buildings.

How did the Northwest native tribes sustain themselves?

Through hunting, fishing, gathering, and using totem poles to save stories.

What was the lifestyle of Great Plains tribes before horses arrived?

Nomadic hunters using buffalo or sedentary farmers living in earthen lodges.

How did horses change life for Great Plains tribes like the Lakota Sioux?

They shifted from farming to full

What were some major cultural developments of the Midwest natives?

Built large earthen mounds; Cahokia was the largest settlement.

What was the Iroquois Confederation and why was it important?

A political alliance of five tribes in New York that remained powerful through the American Revolution.

What region did descendants of the Woodland mound builders settle?

The Atlantic Seaboard, building timber and bark lodgings along rivers.

What technological improvements made European exploration possible?

Gunpowder, sailing compass, improved ships/maps, and the printing press.

What major religious event helped motivate exploration?

The Protestant Reformation and Catholic efforts to spread Christianity.

How did the Portuguese influence the African slave trade?

They began trading for slaves from West Africa to work on sugar plantations.

What was the Columbian Exchange?

The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and goods between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

What were two major effects of the Columbian Exchange on Native Americans?

Death from diseases like smallpox/measles and the introduction of new animals like horses and pigs.

What did the Treaty of Tordesillas do?

It split the Americas between Spain and Portugal, giving Brazil to Portugal and most of the Americas to Spain.

How did Spain become the wealthiest European nation in the 1500s?

Through conquest of the Aztecs and Incas and shipping huge amounts of gold and silver back to Spain.

What was the encomienda system?

A system where Spaniards were granted land and Native laborers by the Spanish king.

Why did Spain import African slaves through the asiento system?

Because disease wiped out Native populations, and they needed new labor sources.

How were the French different from the Spanish and English in their approach to Native Americans?

They developed cooperative trade relationships (especially for furs) and posed less of a threat.

Why did Native American tribes struggle to resist European colonization?

They were divided into distinct tribes and lacked a unified defense.

What was a major social cause for European exploration?

Spreading Christianity (especially Catholicism).

What were some social effects of European exploration?

Native American discrimination, slavery systems (like encomienda), and racial hierarchies.

What was a major political cause of European exploration?

Competition between nations like Spain and England to expand their empires.

What political effects came from European colonization?

Native displacement, massive death from disease, creation of colonial social systems, and treaties like Tordesillas.

What was a major economic cause for European exploration?

The search for wealth through trade, mining, and cash crops.

What economic effects came from European colonization?

Spain's wealth explosion, creation of the Atlantic slave trade, and control of the fur trade by the French and Dutch.