The Americas Before European Arrival

Unit 1 Topic 2: The Americas Before European Arrival

Introduction

• This video covers Unit 1 Topic 2 of the AP U.S. History curriculum, focusing on the diverse cultures of Native America before European contact.
• The video skips Unit 1 Topic 1, as it is an overview of the entire unit (covered in separate videos).
• The key concept is the diversity of Native American cultures, contrary to the common stereotype.

Diversity of Native American Cultures

• Native Americans organized themselves into diverse cultures based on their geographic location.
• Common misconception: Native Americans are often stereotyped as solely nomadic hunters on horseback living in teepees, which is untrue.
• Diverse lifestyles: fishing villages, nomadic hunters, settled farmers, and city-based empires.

Central and South America

• Three major civilizations with large urban centers, complex political systems, and developed religions:
  • Aztecs (Mexica) in Mesoamerica:
    • Capital city: Tenochtitlan (300,000 people at its height).
    • Written language and complex irrigation systems.
    • Cult of fertility upheld by human sacrifice.
  • Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula:
    • Large cities with complex irrigation and water storage.
    • Giant stone temples and palaces for rulers believed to be descended from gods.
  • Inca in the Andes Mountains (present-day Peru):
    • Massive empire: 16,000,000 people, 350,000 square miles.
    • Cultivation of fertile mountain valleys using elaborate irrigation for crops like potatoes.
• Commonality: Cultivation of maize (corn), a nutritious crop that supported economic development and social diversification as it spread north.

North America

• Diversity of native peoples.

Southwest

• Pueblo people (present-day New Mexico and Arizona):
  • Sedentary farmers of maize and other crops.
  • Adobe and masonry homes built in the open and into cliffs.
  • Highly organized society with administrative offices, religious centers, and craft shops.

Great Plains and Great Basin

• Nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples due to the aridity of the region.
• Example: Ute people, living in small, egalitarian, kinship-based bands.

Pacific Northwest

• Fishing villages relying on the sea and elk from the forests.
• Example: Chinook people, constructing giant plank houses from cedar trees housing up to 70 family members.
• Chumash people (present-day California):
  • Hunters and gatherers in permanent settlements with sufficient game and vegetation.

Mississippi River Valley

• Larger societies due to fertile soil for farming.
  • Hopewell people:
    • Towns of 4,000-6,000 people.
    • Extensive trade networks reaching Florida and the Rocky Mountains.
  • Cahokia people:
    • Largest settlement (10,000-30,000 people).
    • Centralized government led by powerful chieftains.
    • Extensive trade networks from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

Northeast

• Iroquois:
  • Villages of several hundred people.
  • Cultivation of maize, squash, and beans.
  • Longhouses housing 30-50 family members.