
APUSH Unit 1
Big Idea - Natives of American continents were a diverse people that had diverse societies based on the environments they lived in.
Native Americans before European
Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans were organized into diverse cultures
Nomadic hunters, farmers, fishing societies - very diverse set of people to deal with
Three major civilizations in central and south America
Aztecs/Mexica/Seneca
Capital city Tenochtitlan
Written language
Human sacrifice
Mayans
Irrigation
Powerful stone temples
Inca
Mountains in Peru
Covered around 350,000 square miles
Elaborate terrace irrigation
All three used maize as a primary crop; helped advance irrigation
Southwest Native Americans
Pueblo People
Farmers, planted maize
Sedentary - didn’t move around a lot
Pretty advanced
Made urban centers out of clay
Great Plains/Great Basin
Nomadic hunters, not super organized, but stayed in kinship bands
Ute
Nomadic
Northwest
Fishing villages
Developed permanent settlements
Examples
Chinook
Had extensive trade routes
Chumash
Mississippi River Valley
Good for farming, fertile soil
Trade up and down the river
Hopewell People - Traded extensively throughout America
Cahokia - Largest settlement, peak was 10-30,000 people
Northeast
Iroquois - Lots of farming, longhouses with extended family living there
European Exploration
Reasons for exploration
Population increase - population was finally rebounding after the Black plague
Political Unification - centralized governments led by monarchs
Desire for luxury goods - People want more stuff from Asia
Europeans wanted a water based route to Asia because land based route was controlled by Muslims - meant Europeans had no access to these trade routes
Prince Henry the Navigator - works for Portugal, wants to use Atlantic Ocean, goes around Africa
Updated astronomical charts, easier to keep track of where they were
Used Caravels, ships dedicated to trade
Astrolabe and Stern-Post Rudder
Spain wants to do this as well, and want to spread Christianity
Spain’s monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, sponsor Columbus’ project
Spain sends Columbus across the Atlantic, he wants to prove the World is round
End up discovering the Caribbean
Columbus lands in San Salvadore, Natives were kind to Columbus
Columbus sees gold, enslaves them
Columbian Exchange
Transfer of food, animals, minerals, people, and diseases between Old World and New World
Spanish shows up in Americas, want to conquer
Hernan Cortes shows up at Tenochtitlan with only around 1000 men, were 200-400 thousand Natives
Smallpox - Natives were not exposed to this disease, were not immune, heavily damaged them
Hispanola - Arawak and Taino People lost 300,000 people
Incas - 9 million to 500k
Food
Americas to Europe - Maize, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Cacao, Tobacco
Europe/Africa to Americas - Rice, Wheat, Soybeans, Rye, Oats, Lemons, Oranges
Animals
Europe/Africa to Americas - Horses, pigs, cattle, chickens
Minerals - Spanish plunder the Native American tribes for silver and gold, transforms their wealth - makes them really rich
Unprecedented Economic Growth
Europe was mainly defined by Feudalism, work for nobles for protection
Capitalism grows, economic system based on private ownership and trade between these people
Slave trade prominent as well - Native Americans, but mainly Africans
Middle Passage
Many European nations would go with Spain to the New World
Mercantilism - Depends on heavy government intervention
Joint Stock Companies - new model of funding, limited liability organization in which a plurality of investors pool their money to fund a venture
Labor Systems/Societal Restructuring in Americas
Europeans get involved in slave trade, change it significantly
Before, prisoners of war were made slaves, sometimes had more legal rights, and slave status was very rarely inherited
At ports in Africa, Europeans traded goods for people, specifically guns
Europeans found Africans weird due to different customs, refused to see them as human to justify slavery
Europeans say that Africans are descended from Canan, a Biblical figure who was cursed to be a servant for the rest of his life - use this to justify slavery
Europeans bring slaves over to solve labor problems - Native Americans make bad laborers
Encomienda System - Encomenderos (leading men) granted land, all natives that lived there are labor force, justified on religious grounds
Ferdinand and Isabella, monarchs of Spain, issue Requerimiento - pope granted Spanish monarchs to convert whoever was found in the Americas
Priests would be sent to the New World, whoever converted to Christianity would be protected
Christian natives would end up being enslaved anyway
System wasn’t working because the Natives would escape, die from disease, etc.
Africans didn’t know land as well and were immune to these diseases
Makes Spanish super wealthy, but mainly the upper class/nobles just getting richer
Spanish make a caste system so that they can tax people at the bottom more
Caste system was based on race
Peninsulares - Spanish and born in Spain
Criollos - Spanish, but born in Americas
Mestizos - Spanish and Native-American ancestry
Mulattoes - Spanish and African ancestry
Africans
Native Americans
Cultural Interactions between Europeans, Natives, and Africans
New society imposed on Americas by Spanish Hegemony
Hegemony = Domination of one nation by another
Spanish continues American expansion northwards, use missionaries to spread Christianity, known as the Mission system
Fundamentally different worldviews
Natives
Pantheists/Animists - Believe in natural world filled with spirits
Land is not a commodity - Cannot be carved up, bought and sold
Kinship networks of up to 70 people
Spanish
Catholic - Belief in single deity
Believe land is meant for private ownership
Spanish respects kinship, but focus on nuclear family
Adopted any ideas that would be useful
Natives adopt metal tools and horses, use them for warfare
Spain wants in on the fur trade, marry into Native tribes to get into it
Pueblo people do convert to Christianity in a way - worship him along with their other gods
Conquistadors have forced conversion, Natives see them and their Christ as evil - Pueblo people fight against them, kill 400 conquistadors, burn churches
Conquistadors return and once again conquer their land
News reaches Spain about the morality of this
A lot of people argue that they are bringing the worldview of the Old World to the Natives, and therefore helping them
Sepulveda - argues that Natives are less than human, benefit from the labor
Others disagree, most important was Bartolome de Las Casas - says that people who allowed this would lose god, Natives would end up hating god
de Las Casas saw the awful conditions for Natives with the Encomienda System, doesn’t want it in practice
de Las Casas ends up suggesting the use of Africans for labor instead, which is what Spain does
Big Idea - Natives of American continents were a diverse people that had diverse societies based on the environments they lived in.
Native Americans before European
Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans were organized into diverse cultures
Nomadic hunters, farmers, fishing societies - very diverse set of people to deal with
Three major civilizations in central and south America
Aztecs/Mexica/Seneca
Capital city Tenochtitlan
Written language
Human sacrifice
Mayans
Irrigation
Powerful stone temples
Inca
Mountains in Peru
Covered around 350,000 square miles
Elaborate terrace irrigation
All three used maize as a primary crop; helped advance irrigation
Southwest Native Americans
Pueblo People
Farmers, planted maize
Sedentary - didn’t move around a lot
Pretty advanced
Made urban centers out of clay
Great Plains/Great Basin
Nomadic hunters, not super organized, but stayed in kinship bands
Ute
Nomadic
Northwest
Fishing villages
Developed permanent settlements
Examples
Chinook
Had extensive trade routes
Chumash
Mississippi River Valley
Good for farming, fertile soil
Trade up and down the river
Hopewell People - Traded extensively throughout America
Cahokia - Largest settlement, peak was 10-30,000 people
Northeast
Iroquois - Lots of farming, longhouses with extended family living there
European Exploration
Reasons for exploration
Population increase - population was finally rebounding after the Black plague
Political Unification - centralized governments led by monarchs
Desire for luxury goods - People want more stuff from Asia
Europeans wanted a water based route to Asia because land based route was controlled by Muslims - meant Europeans had no access to these trade routes
Prince Henry the Navigator - works for Portugal, wants to use Atlantic Ocean, goes around Africa
Updated astronomical charts, easier to keep track of where they were
Used Caravels, ships dedicated to trade
Astrolabe and Stern-Post Rudder
Spain wants to do this as well, and want to spread Christianity
Spain’s monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, sponsor Columbus’ project
Spain sends Columbus across the Atlantic, he wants to prove the World is round
End up discovering the Caribbean
Columbus lands in San Salvadore, Natives were kind to Columbus
Columbus sees gold, enslaves them
Columbian Exchange
Transfer of food, animals, minerals, people, and diseases between Old World and New World
Spanish shows up in Americas, want to conquer
Hernan Cortes shows up at Tenochtitlan with only around 1000 men, were 200-400 thousand Natives
Smallpox - Natives were not exposed to this disease, were not immune, heavily damaged them
Hispanola - Arawak and Taino People lost 300,000 people
Incas - 9 million to 500k
Food
Americas to Europe - Maize, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Cacao, Tobacco
Europe/Africa to Americas - Rice, Wheat, Soybeans, Rye, Oats, Lemons, Oranges
Animals
Europe/Africa to Americas - Horses, pigs, cattle, chickens
Minerals - Spanish plunder the Native American tribes for silver and gold, transforms their wealth - makes them really rich
Unprecedented Economic Growth
Europe was mainly defined by Feudalism, work for nobles for protection
Capitalism grows, economic system based on private ownership and trade between these people
Slave trade prominent as well - Native Americans, but mainly Africans
Middle Passage
Many European nations would go with Spain to the New World
Mercantilism - Depends on heavy government intervention
Joint Stock Companies - new model of funding, limited liability organization in which a plurality of investors pool their money to fund a venture
Labor Systems/Societal Restructuring in Americas
Europeans get involved in slave trade, change it significantly
Before, prisoners of war were made slaves, sometimes had more legal rights, and slave status was very rarely inherited
At ports in Africa, Europeans traded goods for people, specifically guns
Europeans found Africans weird due to different customs, refused to see them as human to justify slavery
Europeans say that Africans are descended from Canan, a Biblical figure who was cursed to be a servant for the rest of his life - use this to justify slavery
Europeans bring slaves over to solve labor problems - Native Americans make bad laborers
Encomienda System - Encomenderos (leading men) granted land, all natives that lived there are labor force, justified on religious grounds
Ferdinand and Isabella, monarchs of Spain, issue Requerimiento - pope granted Spanish monarchs to convert whoever was found in the Americas
Priests would be sent to the New World, whoever converted to Christianity would be protected
Christian natives would end up being enslaved anyway
System wasn’t working because the Natives would escape, die from disease, etc.
Africans didn’t know land as well and were immune to these diseases
Makes Spanish super wealthy, but mainly the upper class/nobles just getting richer
Spanish make a caste system so that they can tax people at the bottom more
Caste system was based on race
Peninsulares - Spanish and born in Spain
Criollos - Spanish, but born in Americas
Mestizos - Spanish and Native-American ancestry
Mulattoes - Spanish and African ancestry
Africans
Native Americans
Cultural Interactions between Europeans, Natives, and Africans
New society imposed on Americas by Spanish Hegemony
Hegemony = Domination of one nation by another
Spanish continues American expansion northwards, use missionaries to spread Christianity, known as the Mission system
Fundamentally different worldviews
Natives
Pantheists/Animists - Believe in natural world filled with spirits
Land is not a commodity - Cannot be carved up, bought and sold
Kinship networks of up to 70 people
Spanish
Catholic - Belief in single deity
Believe land is meant for private ownership
Spanish respects kinship, but focus on nuclear family
Adopted any ideas that would be useful
Natives adopt metal tools and horses, use them for warfare
Spain wants in on the fur trade, marry into Native tribes to get into it
Pueblo people do convert to Christianity in a way - worship him along with their other gods
Conquistadors have forced conversion, Natives see them and their Christ as evil - Pueblo people fight against them, kill 400 conquistadors, burn churches
Conquistadors return and once again conquer their land
News reaches Spain about the morality of this
A lot of people argue that they are bringing the worldview of the Old World to the Natives, and therefore helping them
Sepulveda - argues that Natives are less than human, benefit from the labor
Others disagree, most important was Bartolome de Las Casas - says that people who allowed this would lose god, Natives would end up hating god
de Las Casas saw the awful conditions for Natives with the Encomienda System, doesn’t want it in practice
de Las Casas ends up suggesting the use of Africans for labor instead, which is what Spain does