Unit 1 APUSH Notes

Native Societies Before European Arrival

  • Native societies in the Americas were diverse, shaped by their environments.

  • Not a monolithic group; diversity existed in lifestyles and societal structures.

Pueblo People

  • Located in present-day Utah and Colorado.

  • Farmers: settled population.

  • Cultivated beans, squash, and maize (corn).

  • Advanced irrigation systems.

  • Small urban centers made of hardened clay bricks.

  • Famous cliff dwellings.

Great Basin and Great Plains Region

  • Present-day Colorado to Canada.

  • Nomadic hunter-gatherers.

  • Hunted buffalo and gathered food.

  • Organized into small egalitarian kinship bands.

  • Example: Ute people

Pacific Coast (Chumash & Chinook)

  • Permanent settlements due to abundant resources (fish, small game, plant life).

  • Chumash (California): villages of nearly 1,000 people, regional trade networks.

  • Chinook (Pacific Northwest): similar to Chumash, extensive plank houses for families/kin groups.

Northeast (Iroquois)

  • Farmers.

  • Lived communally in longhouses (constructed from timber).

Mississippi River Valley (Cahokia)

  • Farmers due to rich soil.

  • Trade along waterways.

  • Cahokia: largest civilization (40,000 people), centralized government led by chieftains.

Summary of Native Societies

  • Developed distinct, complex societies shaped by their environment.

  • Extensive trading networks across North and South America.

European Arrival

European Kingdoms (1300s-1400s)

  • Political unification, stronger centralized states governed by monarchs.

  • Wealthy upper class desired luxury goods from Asia.

  • Muslims controlled land-based trade routes to Asia.

  • Europeans sought sea-based routes for trade.

Portugal

  • Established trading posts around Africa (trading post empire).

  • Gained foothold in Indian Ocean trade network.

  • Utilized new maritime technology and adapted old technology.

  • Maritime: Having to deal with the sea

  • Updated astronomical charts, astrolabe.

  • New ship designs: smaller, faster dedicated to trade.

  • Borrowed technology: Latine sail, Stone Post rudder.

Spain

  • Finished reconquest of Iberian Peninsula.

  • Desire to spread Catholic Christianity.

  • Sought new economic opportunities in the East.

  • Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492.

  • Landed in the Caribbean and discovered wealth.

The Columbian Exchange

  • Turning point in world and US history.

  • Transfer of people, animals, plants, diseases between East and West hemispheres.

  • From Americas to Europe: potatoes, tomatoes, maize.

  • From Europe to Americas: wheat, rice, soybeans.

  • Animals: turkeys (Americas), cattle, pigs, horses (Europe).

  • Gold and silver from Americas to Europe.

  • People: Europeans to Americas, enslaved Africans to Americas.

  • Diseases: smallpox from Europe decimated native populations; syphilis (possibly) from Americas to Europe.

Impact of Wealth on Europe

  • Influx of wealth shifted feudalism to capitalism.

  • Capitalism: Economic system based on private ownership and free exchange.

  • Rise of joint stock companies to fund exploration.

  • Joint stock company: Limited liability organization where investors pool money; shared profits and limited risk.

Spanish Colonization

Economic System

  • Agriculture became primary source of wealth.

  • Encomienda system: Spaniards forced natives to work on plantations and extract gold/silver.

Problems with Encomienda System

  • Difficulty keeping natives subservient (escape).

  • Natives dying from smallpox.

Solutions

  • Importation of African slave laborers.

  • Africans less likely to escape (didn't know the geography).

  • Africans had more immunity to European diseases.

Social Reordering: The Casta System

  • System of social classes based on racial ancestry.

  • Peninsularis: Spaniards born in Spain (Iberian Peninsula).

  • Criollos/Creoles: Spaniards born in the Americas.

  • Castas:

    • Mestizos: Spanish and Native American blood.

    • Mulatos: Spanish and African blood.

  • Africans.

  • Native Americans (lowest).

European Views of Native Americans

  • Europeans viewed natives as good for exploitation, military alliances, forced labor, Christian conversion.

  • Relationships between Europeans and natives were difficult and brutal.

  • Europeans developed belief systems to justify their treatment of natives.

Belief Systems and Justification

  • Some Spaniards (Juan Guines de Sepulveda) believed natives were less than human.

  • Bartolome de las Casas defended natives and persuaded king to end slavery but wealthy nobles got the laws repealed.

  • Exploitation of African laborers justified through biblical interpretations.

Biblical Justification

  • Noah's son Ham sinned, descendants cursed to be slaves.

  • Europeans associated black skin with the curse, justifying enslavement of Africans (misinterpretation of the Bible).