APUSH Unit 1 Review Notes

Native Societies Before European Arrival

  • Native societies in the Americas were diverse, with varied societies based on their environments.

  • Examples:

Pueblo people: farmers in present-day Utah and Colorado with advanced irrigation systems.

  • Great Basin and Great Plains people (e.g., Ute): nomadic hunter-gatherers.

  • Chumash people: lived in present-day California with permanent settlements due to abundant resources.

  • Chinook peoples: Lived in the Pacific Northwest and built plank houses.

  • Iroquois people: farmers in the Northeast who lived in longhouses.

  • Cahokia: a Mississippi River Valley civilization with a centralized government.

European Arrival and Motivations

  • European kingdoms unified and developed stronger states with monarchs.

  • A wealthy upper class desired luxury goods from Asia, but Muslim control of land routes pushed Europeans to seek sea-based routes.

  • Portugal established trading posts around Africa and in the Indian Ocean using maritime technology.

  • Spain sought to spread Christianity and gain economic opportunities.

  • Christopher Columbus sailed west in 1492 and landed in the Caribbean, leading to European exploration and competition.

Columbian Exchange

  • The Columbian Exchange: the transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases between the East and West.

  • Foods: Potatoes, tomatoes, and maize from the Americas to Europe; wheat, rice, and soybeans from Europe to the Americas.

  • Animals: Turkeys from the Americas to Europe; cattle, pigs, and horses from Europe to the Americas.

  • Other: Gold and silver from the Americas to Europe; enslaved Africans to the Americas.

  • Diseases: Smallpox from Europe decimated Native American populations; Europeans contracted syphilis.

Economic and Societal Shift in Europe

  • Influx of wealth shifted European states from feudalism to capitalism.

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

  • Joint stock companies funded exploration.

Spanish Colonization

  • Spain colonized Central and South America, focusing on agriculture.

  • Encomienda system: Spaniards forced natives to work on plantations and extract resources.

  • Importation of African slave laborers replaced native labor due to native resistance and disease.

  • Casta system: a social hierarchy based on racial ancestry:

    • Peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain.

    • Criollos (Creoles): Spaniards born in the Americas.

    • Castas: Mestizos (Spanish and Native American), Mulatos (Spanish and African).

    • Africans and Native Americans.

European-Native American Relations

  • Europeans viewed Native Americans as fit for exploitation, military alliances, forced labor, and conversion.

  • Examples of cultural exchange: Natives taught the English how to hunt and cultivate maize; natives adopted iron tools and weapons.

  • Europeans developed beliefs to justify their treatment of natives and Africans.

  • Juan Guines de Sepulveda argued Native Americans benefited from harsh labor; Bartolome de las Casas defended Native American humanity.

  • Europeans used biblical interpretations (e.g., the curse of Ham) to justify the enslavement of Africans.