hey there and welcome to a new year at heimler's  history this year we're going to be working our way through the ap u.s history curriculum one  topic at a time and i'm glad to have you along in this video we're going to begin with unit 1  topic 2 which is all about the americas before the europeans arrive so we've got no time to waste  get them brain cows ready i'm about to milk them let's get to it all right let me begin by telling you why we're starting with unit one topic two and not unit one topic one in every unit of the ap u.s  history curriculum the first and the last topics basically just review the whole unit and i've  got videos reviewing the whole unit so we're just gonna skip those good good good so we begin our  study of united states history before there even was a united states namely in native america now  the big idea that you need to take away from this video is that before the europeans arrived on the  american shores native american peoples organized  themselves into diverse cultures depending on  where they live and it's the diverse cultures part that i need to emphasize commonly when we think  of native americans we think of guys on horses killing buffalo and retiring to their teepees at  night we just sort of paced that idea over the whole continent but that is patently untrue some  native americans lived in fishing villages others roamed the land as nomadic hunters and gatherers  some settled down and got their farm on while others congregated in giant city-based empires  so you have to realize that when we encounter the americas before the european arrival we're dealing  with a very diverse set of folks so let's just take a jaunt around the american continents and  see what's going on first let's talk about central and south america there three major civilizations  emerged all of them boasting large urban centers complex political systems and well-formed  religions let's start with our friends the aztecs in central america or mesoamerica now you may  hear these people referred to as the mexica which is what they call themselves so don't get  confused azdek's mexica semiconductor they had a Aztecs magnificent capital city called tenochtitlan which  at its height was home to 300 000 people they had  a written language they employed complex systems  of irrigation priests upheld a cult of fertility both for the land and for the people and such  fertility was only upheld by human sacrifice all  right people the crops are looking a little peaked  population is down i think you know where this is headed kevin you about to get sacrificed hey kevin  is back and if you're here for ap world you might remember kevin he's always getting sacrificed by  the aztecs anyway let's move along to the second Maya civilization in this region the maya now they  established themselves on the yucatan peninsula and the maya also developed large cities they  made use of complex irrigation and water storage systems they built giant stone temples and palaces  for rulers whom they believed were descended from  the gods and then going even further south  into south america we've got the inca people Inca they established their civilization in the andes  mountains along the pacific coast in what is today peru and this empire was massive at its height it  ruled 16 million people and covered something like 350 000 square miles that's a lot of land tony now  the key to the success of the inca people was the Maize cultivation of fertile mountain valleys where they  grew potatoes and other crops which were watered by elaborate systems of irrigation now one thing  all three of these civilizations had in common was the cultivation of maize which is a corn like crop  and you know what if you never tasted it trust me  it's amazing you know no matter how many times  i recycle that joke it's always funny but the cultivation of maize is important because it was  a nutritious crop and as it spread north into the  present day american southwest the establishment  of this crop supported economic development the settlement of peoples advanced irrigation  and social diversification among societies so the point is maize is a big deal and i'm  not going to make any more corny jokes about it sorry anyway as i said maize cultivation  spread north and so we ought to spread our learning a little bit north too so on the north  american continent we also meet a diversity of  native peoples and just for poops and  giggles let's start with the southwest let me introduce you to the pueblo people who  lived in present-day new mexico and arizona Pueblo they were a sedentary population which means they  kind of stayed in one place and didn't move around  there were farmers of maize and other crops and  they built adobe and masonry homes both in the  open and right into the sides of cliffs they were  a highly organized society with administrative  offices religious centers and craft shops and  then if we move a little bit north to the great  plains and the great basin regions we find not  sedentary folks but nomadic peoples and these  regions were populated with hunter-gatherer-type  people who needed a lot of land to do said hunting  and gathering because of the aridity of the  region a good example of this kind of people  was the ute people who lived out this lifestyle in  small egalitarian kinship based bands and then if  we head over to the pacific northwest we meet a  different kind of people all together the folks  Pacific Northwest who lived over here lived by the sea and settled  themselves into fishing villages and they also  relied on elk which they found in abundance  in their forests a good example is the chinook  people and they made use of the great cedar trees  around them to construct giant plank houses which could house up to 70 members of the same kinship  band the chumash people lived on the coast but  further south in present-day california and they  were actually still hunters and gatherers but they did live in permanent settlements which they  constructed in places where there was enough game  and vegetation to support all their hunting  and gathering all right now let's head over to the mississippi river valley where we're going  to find much larger and more complex societies chiefly because the fertile soil surrounding  the rivers meant that societies could stay put  and farm and develop i'll introduce you to two of  them first the hopewell people they lived in towns Mississippi River Valley of about four thousand to six thousand people  and they traded extensively with other regions as far away as florida and the rocky mountain  also in that region we have the cahokia people Cahokia who boasted the largest settlement in that region  and at its height the settlement counted somewhere between 10 and 30 000 people the government was  led by powerful chieftains who centralized the  government and engaged in extensive trade networks  from the great lakes all the way down to the gulf of mexico and finally let me introduce you to some  folks living in the northeast of america namely  Iroquois the iroquois they lived in villages made up of  several hundred people where they grew crops like  maize and squash and beans also like their pacific  northwest counterparts they built and lived in longhouses where they lived with anywhere between  30 and 50 of their family members all right that's  what you need to know about unit one topic two of  ap us history if you need any help getting an a in  at heimler's history then go ahead and subscribe  and i'll keep making videos for you heimler out