AP US History Notes

AP U.S. HISTORY by DR. WILLIAMS

Period 1: 1491 - 1607

  • Topic 1.1: Contextualizing Period 1

    • Native populations migrated and settled across North America, developing distinct societies that adapted to diverse environments.

      • Innovations in agriculture, resource use, and social structures.

    • Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian Exchange and significant changes.

      • European expansion led to social, religious, political, and economic competition within Europe.

      • The Columbian Exchange and the Spanish Empire caused demographic, economic, and social changes.

      • Europeans and Native Americans had divergent worldviews regarding religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power.

  • Topic 1.2: Native American Societies Before European Contact

    • Maize cultivation spread from Mexico, supporting economic development and social diversification.

    • Societies in the Great Basin and Great Plains developed mobile lifestyles due to aridity.

    • In the Northeast, Mississippi River Valley, and Atlantic seaboard, societies developed mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies with permanent villages.

    • Pacific Northwest societies supported themselves by hunting and gathering, developing settled communities due to ocean resources.

    • Key terms:

      • Maize

      • Great Basin

      • Great Plains

      • Mississippi River Valley

      • Atlantic Seaboard

      • Northeast Groups

      • Pacific Northwest

      • Three-sister crop

      • Cahokia Settlement

      • Iroquois

      • Tlingit

  • Topic 1.3: European Exploration in the Americas

    • European exploration and conquest stemmed from the search for wealth, economic and military competition, and the desire to spread Christianity.

    • Key terms:

      • Spain and Exploration

      • Portugal and Exploration

      • Christopher Columbus

      • Hernan Cortes

      • Azores

      • Reconquista

      • Crusades

      • Marco Polo

      • Portuguese Slave Trade

      • Battle of Grenada

      • Jesuits

      • Hernando de Soto

      • Ponce de Leon

      • Francisco Coronado

      • John Cabot

      • Jacques Cartier

  • Topic 1.4: Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration and Conquest

    • The Columbian Exchange introduced new crops to Europe, stimulating population growth and mineral wealth, facilitating the shift from feudalism to capitalism.

    • Maritime technology and organized trade methods, like joint-stock companies, drove economic changes.

    • Spanish exploration led to deadly epidemics that devastated native populations and introduced new crops and animals.

    • Key terms:

      • Columbian Exchange

      • Corn

      • Potatoes

      • Tomatoes

      • Tobacco

      • Beans

      • Chocolate

      • Horses

      • Cows

      • Pigs

      • Smallpox

      • Measles

      • Wheat

      • Sugar

      • Rice

      • Feudalism

      • Capitalism

      • Caravel

      • Astrolabe

      • Population Growth

      • Joint-stock company

  • Topic 1.5: Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

    • The encomienda system marshaled Native American labor for plantation agriculture and extracting resources.

    • European traders partnered with West African groups to extract slave labor.

    • The Spanish developed a caste system defining the status of Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans.

    • Key terms:

      • Encomienda System

      • Mestizos

      • West African Slavery

      • Aztecs

      • Conquistadors

      • Battle of Acoma

      • Pope’s Rebellion

  • Topic 1.6: Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

    • Europeans and Native Americans had divergent worldviews regarding religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power.

    • Mutual misunderstandings defined early interactions as each group tried to understand the other.

    • Over time, Europeans and Native Americans adopted aspects of each other’s culture.

    • Native Americans sought to defend their sovereignty through diplomacy and military resistance.

    • Debates arose among European leaders about how non-Europeans should be treated.

    • Key terms:

      • Three-Sister Farming

      • Native American Religion

      • European Religion

      • Native American Gender Roles

      • European Gender Roles

      • Native American Family Structure

      • European Family Structure

      • Native American Land Use

      • European Land Use

      • Native American Use of Power

      • European Use of Power

      • Juan Sepulveda

      • BartolomĂ© De Las Casas

      • Horse Culture

  • Topic 1.7: Causation in Period 1

    • Native populations developed distinct societies by adapting to diverse environments.

    • Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian Exchange.

    • European expansion led to social, religious, political, and economic competition within Europe.

    • The Columbian Exchange and the Spanish Empire caused demographic, economic, and social changes.

    • Europeans and Native Americans had divergent worldviews regarding religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power.

Period 2: 1607 - 1754

  • Topic 2.1: Contextualizing Period 2

    • Europeans developed varied colonization patterns influenced by imperial goals and cultures, competing with each other and American Indians for resources.

    • Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different goals shaping their colonies' social and political development.

    • Early British colonies along the Atlantic coast had regional differences reflecting environmental, economic, cultural, and demographic factors.

    • Competition over resources led to conflict.

    • British colonies participated in exchanges with Great Britain, strengthening bonds while fostering resistance.

    • Transatlantic exchanges evolved colonial political and cultural attitudes.

    • English colonies developed a system of slavery reflecting economic and geographic characteristics.

  • Topic 2.2: European Colonization

    • Spanish colonization focused on extracting wealth, subjugating natives, and converting them to Christianity.

    • French and Dutch colonization relied on trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians.

    • English colonization attracted migrants seeking social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom, and improved living conditions, focusing on agriculture and separation from Native Americans.

    • Key terms:

      • Encomienda

      • Patroonship

      • Spanish Colonization Pattern

      • French and Dutch Colonization Pattern

      • English Colonization Pattern

      • Courrier des bois

      • New France

      • New Amsterdam

      • Roanoke Island

      • Jamestown

      • Elizabeth I

      • Defeat of the Spanish Armada

      • Protestant Reformation

      • Sir Walter Raleigh

      • Pocahontas

  • Topic 2.3: The Regions of British Colonies

    • Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies prospered exporting tobacco using indentured servants and enslaved Africans.

    • New England colonies, settled by Puritans, developed around small towns with family farms and mixed economies.

    • Middle colonies had a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops, attracting diverse European migrants.

    • Southern Atlantic coast and British West Indies used long growing seasons for plantation economies, relying on enslaved Africans.

    • British colonies developed self-governing institutions, with New England using town meetings and southern colonies using elite planters.

    • Key terms:

      • Chesapeake

      • NC Colonies

      • New England Colonies

      • Middle Colonies

      • William Penn

      • British West Indies

      • Sugar

      • Indentured Servants

      • Barbados Slave Code

      • John Rolfe

      • William Bradford

      • Anne Hutchinson

      • John Cotton

      • Antinomianism

      • Roger Williams

      • Quakers

      • New England Confederation

      • Dominion of New England

      • Navigation Laws (1651)

      • House of Burgesses

      • Town Meetings

  • Topic 2.4: Transatlantic Trade

    • An Atlantic economy exchanged goods, enslaved Africans, and American Indians between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

    • European colonial economies focused on acquiring, producing, and exporting commodities valued in Europe.

    • Continuing trade changed American Indian communities and spread epidemic diseases.

    • The British government attempted to incorporate its North American colonies into a hierarchical structure for mercantilist aims.

    • Key terms:

      • Transatlantic Trade

      • Mercantilism

      • Navigation Laws (1651)

      • Bacon’s Rebellion

      • Portuguese Sugar Plantations

      • 1619

      • Middle Passage

      • Indentured Servants

      • Headright System

  • Topic 2.5: Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans

    • Interactions between European rivals and American Indian populations fostered both accommodation and conflict.

    • French, Dutch, British, and Spanish colonies allied with American Indian groups.

    • British conflicts with American Indians led to military confrontations like Metacom’s War.

    • American Indian resistance to Spanish efforts led to Spanish accommodation of some American Indian culture after the Pueblo Revolt.

    • Key terms:

      • Metacom’s War (King Philip's War)

      • Pueblo Revolt

      • Powhatan

      • Iroquois Confederacy

      • Anglo-Powhatan Wars

  • Topic 2.6: Slavery in the British Colonies

    • All British colonies participated in the Atlantic slave trade due to land abundance and European demand.

    • New England farms used few enslaved laborers, port cities held enslaved minorities, and Chesapeake and southern coasts had large numbers of enslaved workers.

    • Chattel slavery led to laws creating strict racial systems.

    • Africans resisted slavery covertly and overtly to maintain their culture.

    • Key terms:

      • Bacon’s Rebellion

      • Chattel slavery

      • Barbados Slave Code

      • Stono Rebellion

      • Middle Passage

      • Royal African Company

  • Topic 2.7: Colonial Society and Culture

    • European religious and ethnic groups contributed to pluralism and intellectual exchange.

    • The colonies experienced gradual Anglicization.

    • Diverging goals of European leaders and colonists led to mistrust.

    • Colonists resisted imperial control using self-government and Enlightenment ideas.

    • Key terms:

      • Mayflower Compact

      • Calvinism

      • Predestination

      • Separatists

      • Massachusetts Bay Colony

      • Dominion of New England

      • New England Confederation

      • Anglicization

      • New Lights

      • Old Lights

      • Enlightenment

      • Blue Laws

      • Puritans

      • First Great Awakening

      • George Whitefield

      • Jonathan Edwards

  • Topic 2.8: Comparison in Period 2

    • Europeans developed varied colonization patterns influenced by imperial goals and cultures, competing with each other and American Indians for resources.

    • Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different goals shaping their colonies' social and political development.

    • Early British colonies along the Atlantic coast had regional differences reflecting environmental, economic, cultural, and demographic factors.

    • Competition over resources led to conflict.

    • British colonies participated in exchanges with Great Britain, strengthening bonds while fostering resistance.

    • Transatlantic exchanges evolved colonial political and cultural attitudes.

    • English colonies developed a system of slavery reflecting economic and geographic characteristics.

Period 3: 1754 - 1800

  • Topic 3.1: Contextualizing Period 3

    • British attempts to assert tighter control led to the Revolutionary War.

      • Competition among British, French, and American Indians led to the Seven Years’ War.

      • Colonial desire for self-government led to independence movement.

    • The American Revolution inspired new forms of government.

      • Revolutionary ideals reflected new beliefs about politics, religion, and society.

      • American leaders created constitutions protecting individual liberties.

      • New national culture developed alongside regional differences.

    • Migration intensified conflicts among peoples and nations.

      • Interactions resulted in competition for resources and shifting alliances.

      • European powers challenged the United States.

  • Topic 3.2: The Seven Years’ War (The French and Indian War)

    • Britain gained territory but at a cost which led to revenue raising efforts.

    • Imperial officials tried to prevent westward movement.

    • Key terms:

      • Huguenots

      • Edict of Nantes

      • Coureurs de Bois

      • King William’s War/Queen Anne’s War

      • War of Jenkins Ear

      • King George’s War

      • Acadians

      • French and Indian War (Seven Years War)

      • Albany Congress

      • Battle of Quebec

      • Pontiac’s Uprising

      • Proclamation of 1763

      • French Fur Trading

      • Jesuits

      • Fort Duquesne/Fort Necessity

      • Samuel de Champlain

      • Edward Braddock

      • William Pitt

  • Topic 3.3: Taxation Without Representation

    • British policies united colonists against constraints.

    • Colonial leaders argued for rights.

    • Independence energized by leaders and popular movements.

    • Men and women mobilized to support the Patriot movement.

    • Key terms:

      • Mercantilism

      • Sugar Act

      • Quartering Act

      • Stamp Act

      • Admiralty Courts

      • Stamp Act Congress

      • Sons of Liberty/Daughters of Liberty

      • Declaratory Act

      • Townshend Acts

      • Boston Massacre

      • Committees of Correspondence

      • Boston Tea Party

      • Intolerable Acts

      • Quebec Act

      • First Continental Congress

      • The Association

      • George III

      • George Grenville

      • Crispus Attucks

  • Topic 3.4: Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution

    • Enlightenment emphasized individual talent over privilege and religion strengthened views of liberty.

    • Belief in republican government found expression in Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence.

    • Key terms:

      • Enlightenment

      • Natural Rights

      • Thomas Paine

      • Common Sense

      • Declaration of Independence

      • Radical Whigs

      • Republicanism

      • Great Awakening

      • Individual Talent

      • Hereditary Privilege

  • Topic 3.5: The American Revolution

    • Despite loyalist opposition and British advantages, the Patriot cause succeeded due to colonial militias, Washington’s leadership, and European allies.

    • Key terms:

      • Second Continental Congress

      • Battle of Bunker Hill

      • Olive Branch Petition

      • Hessians

      • Loyalists

      • Patriots

      • Battle of Trenton

      • Battle of Saratoga

      • Model Treaty

      • Armed Neutrality

      • Battle of Yorktown

      • Treaty of Paris

      • Benedict Arnold

      • Benjamin Franklin

      • Admiral de Grasse

  • Topic 3.6: The Influence of Revolutionary Ideals

    • The Revolution increased awareness of inequalities.