APUSH Cram Review Notes
Credit and Introduction
- This guide compiles information from Tim Chong, Paul Kang, Tim Joo, and outside resources.
- Credit to Barrons AP book.
- Credit to Paul Kang for the Detailed + Condensed Review Document put together by Tim Chong TC.
- The guide is meant to help cram/review for the AP US History exam.
- The guide is not everything needed to study, only important/cram material.
Schedule
- Work for 12 hours a day.
- Sleep at 7:30 PM and wake up at 3:30 AM.
- Use 30 minutes upon waking up to make coffee, a light breakfast, and shower.
- This allows for 8 hours of sleep and starts studying at 4 AM.
- Study for one hour, then take a 10-minute break.
- For example: study from 4 AM - 5 AM and take a break from 5 AM - 5:10 AM. Study from 5:10 AM - 6:10 AM. Break from 6:10 AM - 6:20 AM.
- This lets you finish studying at 3:30 PM to relax or finish other school work until sleep at 7:30 PM.
Eliminate Distractions
- Block social media and YouTube.
- Set up a clean and productive work environment.
Table of Contents
- Detailed review (Barrons) Pgs 3-171
- Condensed review (Barrons) Pgs 172-205
- Key concepts Pgs 206-239
- Practice tests Pg 240
- How to write: SAQ Pg 241
- How to write: LEQ (in-person only) Pg 242
- How to write: DBQ Pgs 243-244
- MUST KNOW CONCEPTS Pgs 245-248
Period 1: Native American Societies Before European Contact
Societies of the Southwest
- Depend on maize.
- Spread from Mexico to North America.
- Fostered economic development and social diversification among Native Americans.
- Pueblo people (Anasazi).
- Lived in small towns - pueblos starting from year 900.
- Four corners - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico.
- 13th-14th century - volcano + drought - dispersed and led to conflict.
- Some joined with Zunis and Hopis in New Mexico, others joined communities in the Rio Grande.
- Great Migration.
Societies of the Great Basin and Great Plains
- Mobile lifestyles - lack of natural resources.
- Shoshone, Paiute, and Ute Peoples of the Great Basin.
- Great Basin - area between Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains.
- Desert, arid conditions, drought.
- “Desert culture” - made baskets as opposed to sedentary groups that made pottery.
- American Indians of the Great Plains.
- Great Plains - Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
- Plains Indians are stereotype Native Americans.
- Most hunted on foot and maintained a mobile lifestyle.
- Some who were closer to the Mississippi developed more sedentary, agrarian lifestyles.
Societies of the East
- Atlantic = mix of agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies.
- Fostered the development of permanent settlements.
- Algonquian Peoples.
- Atlantic coast - hunted, fished, grew corn.
- Those in the upper Great Lakes/New England - cold = no agriculture, relied on hunting and fishing.
- Iroquois Great League of Peace.
- A group of Iroquoian-speaking people formed the Iroquois League.
- Formed in order to end fighting among is groups.
- They lived in permanent villages.
- Relied on farming, gathering, hunting, and fishing - mostly farming however.
- Three sisters - corn, beans, squash.
- Traditionally matrilineal society - inheritance and descent pass through the mother’s line.
Societies of the Pacific Northwest
- In areas of present day California - foraging + hunting + resources of the Pacific Ocean and rivers.
- Chinook People of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Chinook people lived in Washington and Oregon.
- High degree of economic development and social stratification.
- A higher caste of people - shamans, warriors, wealthy merchants - lived separate from the commoners.
- Many Chinook people lived in longhouses - 50 ppl.
European Exploration in the Americas
- Factors contributing to European Exploration.
- Explain why the age of exploration took place when it did.
- The Crusades and the Revival of Trade.
- Trade routes and international economic activity shifted power.
- Became interested in finding new trade routes with the east.
- Black Death and the Decline of Feudalism.
- Black Death played a role in the decline of feudalism.
- Opened up opportunities for survivors - work was in high demand and food and land were more plentiful.
- Renaissance.
- Spirit of exploration.
- Scholarly spirit to map new areas.
- Gutenberg’s printing press.
- Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
- Puritans flee to North America.
- Jesuits devote themselves to spreading their gospel throughout the world.
Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest
- The Impact of Exploration and Conquest on Europe.
- New sources of wealth helped the transition from feudalism to capitalism.
- New crops + livestock = population growth in Europe.
- The Impact of the Columbian Exchange on Europe.
- Revolutionized agriculture.
- Supplemented the meager diets of the peasants.
- Introduction of tobacco.
- Economic Impact of Conquest.
- Conquest did not necessarily bring improvements to Spain.
- The influx of gold and silver caused inflation.
- Taxes went up fivefold to pay for military expenditure.
- Spain went into debt and borrowed money from European banks, eventually ending in a depression on the Spanish economy.
Technological Advances and New Economic Structures
- Technological Advances and a Revolution in Navigation.
- Compass.
- Astrolabe.
- Quadrant.
- Hourglass.
- Portolani - detailed maps.
- Joint-stock company.
- Important engine for exploration and colonization.
- Investors propelled expeditions to the New World.
- Risks were spread out across multiple shareholders.
Spanish and Portuguese Models
- First expeditions were by the Spanish and Portuguese.
- Portugal and Spain Lead the Way.
- Prince Henry the Navigator searched for new trade routes to Asia that avoided the Mediterranean.
- Eventually sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and reached India.
- Spain sent Columbus and reached the Carribean.
- Spanish and Portuguese Ambitions.
- Treaty of Tordesillas.
- Spaniards later established the first permanent European settlement at St. Augustine, Florida.
- Conquistadores and the Defeat of Native Peoples.
- Defeat of the Aztecs by Cortes and defeat of the Incas by Pizarro.
- Disease and Death.
- No immunities to European diseases.
- 90% of them died.
Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System
- Spanish Exploitation of New World Resources.
- Spain created the encomienda system to extract gold and silver and ship it to Spain.
- Spain soon became the wealthiest country in Europe with the influx of precious metals.
- Silver and the Encomienda System.
- Spanish settlers were granted tracts of land and the right to extract labor from natives.
- Old World Feudalism.
- Bartholomew de Las Casas.
Spain and the African Slave Trade
- Impact of the Slave Trade.
- Slavery existed in Europe even before the discovery of the New World.
- Destabilized African communities by taking out strong, young people.
- Introduction of European goods undermined the African economy.
- Resistance to Slavery and the Development of Maroon Communities.
- Africans developed cultural resistance that attempted to preserve traditional cultural patterns and maintain autonomy.
- Maroons were Africans who escaped slavery in the New World and established independent communities - many in Carribean and Brazil.
- Preserve African traditions using medicinal herbs, special drumming and dancing as part of healing rituals.
- Most significant Maroon communities - Palmares - 30,000 residents independent until conquered by Portuguese in 1694.
Social Structure of Spanish America
- Spanish Caste system.
- The Casta System.
- Spaniards were always outnumbered by natives.
- Spanish men outnumbered spanish women → intermarriage.
- Caste:
- Peninsulares - born in Spain
- Creoles - born in the New World of Spanish Parents
- Mestizos - children of Spanish men and Indian women - 4-5% of Spain’s New World Empire
- Mulattos - children of Spanish men and African women
- Native Americans
- Africans
Cultural Interactions between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans
- Interactions, Trade, and Cultural Adaptations in the New World.
- Each side adopted some useful aspects of the other’s culture.
- Cultural Misunderstandings.
- Conflict between Indians and Europeans as both groups tried to make sense of each other.
- Matrilineal vs. Patrilineal.
- Indians did not understand individual ownership of land - it was seen as a community resource.
- Religious Adaptation in the New World.
- Some Native Americans adopted Christianity.
- Some adopted Catholicism completely while others incorporated some aspects into traditional practices.
Resistance by American Indians and Africans
- Native American Resistance in Spain’s New World Colonies.
- Some fled from Spaniards.
- Some Guale Indians led a revolt against the mission at St. Augustine - Juanillo’s Revolt - resulting in the death of several missionaries.
- Juan de Onate and the Acoma Pueblo People.
- New Mexico.
- Juan de Onate and his soldiers occupied held by the Acoma Pueblo people.
- The Acoma attacked the Spanish occupiers, killing 15.
- Onate responded by firing cannons and killing over 800 natives.
- The remaining 500 were enslaved.
Debates around Perceptions of American Indians
- Development of the Belief of White Superiority.
- As mixing of races occurred → pure blood.
- European control of Natives and Africans → white supremacy.
- Justified the Spanish belief that they were at the top of the hierarchy.
- Debates over Spain’s Actions in the New World.
- Encomienda System → Bartholomew de Las Casas.
- Juan Gines de Sepulveda - asserted that Indians were beings of an inferior order.
- Natural slaves according to natural law.
The Nature of Spanish Conquest and Colonization
- “Black Legend” was a term coined in 1914 to describe the anti-Spanish propaganda written by the English, Italian, Dutch, and other European writers.
- English writers may have been trying to demonize the Spanish to portray English behavior in the New World in a more favorable light.
- Look at the source of the documents in question.
Period 2: European Colonization
Spain’s New World Colonies
- Maintained tight control over its colonial empire in the new world.
- Evolution of Spanish America.
- Encomienda System.
- Replaced by the repartimiento system - mandated that natives be paid wages.
- Many times, the work of natives was supplemented by black slave labor.
- Still highly exploitative.
- North part was the Viceroyalty of New Spain, south was Viceroyalty of Peru.
French and Dutch Colonies
- Few French or Dutch people actually settled.
- Their colonies served as trading outposts.
- Intermarried with natives, promoting trade, acquiring furs and other valuable goods for export.
- France’s New World Empire.
- New France stretched from Quebec, encompassed Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley, and the Great Basin.
- Port Royal.
- Quebec.
- French-American Indian Diplomacy.
- Had few colonists - had to rely on diplomacy.
- Accommodation and adaptation to American Indian Ways.
- The Metis of the French Colonies.
- Intermarriage = children who were known as Metis - mixed blood.
- Metis communities combined Catholic and indigenous religious practices.
- The Dutch Presence in the Americas.
- Forts and small settlements in Guyana.
- Island settlements in the Carribean.
- Focused on sugar production.
- Dutch New Amsterdam.
- Dutch East India Company.
- Northwest passage to Asia.
- Delaware to Cape Cod.
- Economy of New Amsterdam.
- Few Dutch settlers initially came.
- The company provided land incentives.
- New Amsterdam was attacked by King Charles II of England, and was surrendered to the British - who renamed it New York.
English Colonial Patterns
- Not few colonists - English migrated in substantial numbers.
- Population Pressures and English Colonization.
- Enclosure Acts in England created a food crisis and a population surplus.
- The English Merchant Class and the Expansion of Trade.
- Merchants were growing wealthy, formed joint-stock companies.
- Mercantilism - formed companies such as the East India Company.
- New World Colonization - diminish population and provide new markets.
- Colonization of Ireland.
The Regions of British Colonies
- The Chesapeake and the Upper South.
- Came to rely on labor-intensive tobacco, using white indentured servants and slaves.
- Founding of Jamestown and the “Starving Time”.
- Chartered by King James I and funded by the Virginia Company.
- Mostly hoped to find gold and silver.
- Were not prepared to establish permanent colonies.
- 3 years later, only 60 of the original 500 survived.
- Jamestown and its American Indian Neighbors.
- Relations deteriorated rapidly.
- Powhatan and the local Alogonquians traded corn.
- When they could not supply enough, the English raided them.
- Whites consistently encroached on American Indian lands and defeated them.
A Tobacco Economy
- John Rolfe experimented with growing tobacco.
- Most important crop of the Chesapeake region.
- ¾ of exports from the region.
- Shaped the development of Virginia + Carolina.
- Required large tracts of land → quickly exhausted the nutrients in the soil.
- Led them to seek territory that belonged to the natives.
- Pattern of large crop production continued with cotton in the 1800s.
- Required a large number of laborers → indentured servants → slaves.
- Labor and Tobacco.
- Head-right system → new immigrants were offered a 50 acre incentive.
- Indentured servitude.
- Potential immigrant would agree to work for a certain amount of years in exchange for free passage.
Maryland
- Similar to Virginia in that in exported tobacco and used indentured servants and slaves.
- First proprietary colony - instead of joint-stock.
- Owner was George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
- Wanted to created refuge for Catholics.
- Son took over when he died - Cecelius Calvert.
- Protestants actually outnumbered Catholics, but Catholicism was tolerated.
North Carolina
- Carolina was founded by wealthy plantation owners from Barbados.
- They created an economy in the South of Carolina that resembled Barbados’ sugar economy.
- The English made the North resemble Chesapeake colonies’ economy.
- Tensions between the two groups led to a split.
The New England Colonies
- Driven by religious reasons.
- Origins of Puritanism.
- Protestant Reformation.
- Those who wanted to purify the Church of England of Catholic practices.
- Puritan Beliefs and Practices.
- Took inspiration from Calvinism.
- Predestination, Protestant work ethic, community.
- Plymouth and the Mayflower Compact.
- A group of separatists, known as the “Pilgrims”.
- Founded Plymouth, but failed to attract large numbers of mainline Puritans from England.
Massachusetts Bay Colony - “A City Set Upon a Hill”
- King Charles I sought to suppress the religious practices of Puritans.
- Granted a charter to Massachusetts Bay Company.
- Led by John Winthrop.
- Was a much more successful haven for Puritans than Plymouth.
- The “Great Migration” and the Growth of New England.
- Had a difficult first year.
- By 1640, however, a “great migration” of 20,000 settlers came to Massachusetts.
- They were farmers, carpenters, etc. not aristocrats.
- Attracted families.
- Eager to build permanent, cohesive communities.
New Hampshire
- Originally settled by the English fishing villages.
- Massachusetts soon claimed the region and an agreement in 1641 gave it jurisdiction over New Hampshire.
- A royal decree separated the two colonies in 1679.
Roger Williams and the Founding of Rhode Island
- Roger Williams was a devout Puritan minister.
- Concerned about the mistreatment of the natives.
- Worried that civil government would distract ministers from godly matters.
- Founded Rhode Island.
- Separation of church and state.
The Banishment of Anne Hutchinson
- Argued that ministers were not needed to interpret and convey teachings of the Bible.
- God could communicate directly to true believers.
- Accused Puritan leaders of resorting to the idea that salvation was determined solely by God’s divine plan, not by the actions of individuals.
- In 1638, Winthrop and other leaders banished her.
- She and her supporters established a settlement in Rhode Island.
The Founding of Connecticut
- Winthrop insisted that new members be able to demonstrate to the church that they had a conversion experience.
- Thomas Hooker argued that they only had to live a godly life.
- Founded Hartford in the Connecticut River Valley.
- Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted in 1639.
- Splintering of Puritanism.
- Second and third generation Puritans did not have the same zeal.
- Decline in church membership.