AP US History Chapter 1 Notes

There were about $400$ Native American tribes in the area of today’s U.S.; they were diverse, not a homogeneous group.
Columbus sought a trade route to the East Indies; soon others realized a New World existed and claimed lands for European powers (Spain/Portugal ahead of France and England).
The encounter between worlds produced a global exchange: foods and ideas moved both ways, but also devastating disease; Native populations plummeted (roughly $90\%$ ) due to epidemic diseases.
By $1600$ , Europeans had helped create the world’s first truly global economy; massive human costs accompanied this “age of discovery.”

$1$ ) Greater interest in Eastern products (Asia) spurred by Crusades and population growth; demand for spices and luxury goods.
$2$ ) Wealth motive: gold and silver rumors from Asia (Marco Polo’s tales).
$3$ ) Economic competition: Italian city-states dominated trade; need for an all-water route to Asia after the fall of Constantinople in $1453$ .
$4$ ) Rise of nation-states: centralized monarchies could fund exploration via taxation and unified policy.
$5$ ) Nationalism: competitive European states sought prestige and power.
$6$ ) Growth of a merchant middle class and expanding tax bases.
$7$ ) Technological advances: compass, astrolabe, caravel/lateen sails, printing press.
$8$ ) Renaissance spirit: Humanism and new questions challenged old notions.
$9$ ) Missionary zeal: religious competition (Protestant Reformation began in $1517$ ) encouraged outreach.

Population of roughly $100\text{ million}$ by $1500$ CE.
Arrival via the Bering Land Bridge (likely around $33{,}000$ BCE); by $8{,}000$ BCE populations reached the tip of South America.
Major cultural regions and civilizations: Mesoamerica (Aztecs, Mayans) and the Andean/South American civilizations (Incas); diverse groups across North America (Pueblo, Mississippian, Iroquois, Northwest Coast, Great Basin, Plains, California, Southeast).
Some notable exceptions to large centralized empires include Pueblo peoples and mound-building cultures in the Southeast; the Iroquois Confederacy later formed a powerful political-military alliance.

From Europe to the Americas: horses, cattle, pigs, wheat, smallpox and other diseases; iron; new technologies.
From the Americas to Europe/Africa/Asia: maize, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, beans, squash, cacao, peppers; syphilis (and other crops).
Net impact: dramatic diet changes and ecological upheaval on both sides; devastating effects on Native populations due to disease.

Key milestones: Columbus’s voyages; Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) dividing spheres of influence between Spain and Portugal.
Conquerors: Hernán Cortés (Aztecs) and Francisco Pizarro (Incas).
Permanent settlements: St. Augustine (founded in $1565$ ) as the oldest European settlement in what is now the U.S.
Social systems: encomienda and mission systems; intermarriage produced a mestizo population; Pope’s Rebellion (Pueblo Revolt) in $1680$ as a major Indigenous resistance.

Canada and the Great Lakes region became French territory; Quebec founded by Samuel de Champlain in $1608$ .
Economy centered on the fur trade; Indians became important trading partners rather than subjugated populations.
French colonial practices: beaver trade, coureurs de bois, voyageurs; Jesuit missionaries sought to convert Indigenous peoples.

Motivations: relieve pressure from overcrowded England, seek religious freedom, economic opportunity, and adventure; commercial ventures via joint-stock companies.
Early rivalry with Spain; defeat of the Spanish Armada in $1588$ opened overseas opportunities; Roanoke failed (late $1580s/early 1590s$ ); Jamestown founded in $1607$ .
English colonization differed: less centralized imperial control; more diverse religious and economic motives; varied colonial forms.

The Chesapeake (Virginia/Maryland): economics-driven, tobacco-based plantations; reliance on indentured servants; later slavery.
New England: family-centered communities; Puritan influence; emphasis on religion, education, and town governance.
Middle Colonies: mixture of farming and commerce; greater religious and ethnic diversity; more tolerant social climate.
The Carolinas & Georgia: plantation-based economies in the South; slave labor increasingly important; later reforms and conflicts.

Spain: objective to Christianize and control through encomienda and missions; population decline among Indigenous peoples due to disease and forced labor; Pope’s Rebellion highlighted resistance.
France: emphasis on trade (especially beaver) and alliances; Jesuit missions; relative cooperation with Indigenous peoples.
England: frontier of exclusion and removal; often conflict and displacement of Native peoples; episodic alliances but widespread westward expansion caused tension and wars.

Amerindians: catastrophic population losses (estimates around $90\%$ by $1600$ ); cultural transformations and new animals, crops, and technologies (horses, firearms).
Europeans: global empires and the Commercial Revolution; dramatic changes in diet and global trade networks.

Spain: Christianization + control via encomienda and missions; mestizos; Pueblo revolts.
France: trade-based alliances with Indigenous groups; missionary work; limited settlement.
England: territorial expansion and westward displacement; conflicts with Indigenous peoples; various colonial models.