Advanced Placement U.S. History: Unit 1 and Unit 2 (1491-1754) Study Guide

Topic 1.1: Contextualizing Period 1 (1491–1607)

• The Synthesis of America: The United States currently represents a synthesis or combination of global populations. The arrival of the first humans in the Americas occurred at least $10,000$ years ago.

• Learning Objective: To explain the context for European encounters in the Americas from $1491$ to $1607$.

• The Turning Point of 1492: Christopher Columbus's first voyage in $1492$ established lasting contact between the hemispheres, fundamentally altering life on every continent through subsequent exploration and settlement.

• The Landmark of 1607: The founding of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement, established the framework for a new nation.

• Cultural Diversity: Existing indigenous cultures varied based on geography and climate.

  • Tropical Islands: Developed around sugar cultivation.

  • Forests: Rich in animal life.

  • Fertile Land: Ideal for corn (maize).

• Environmental Transformation:

  • Dry Regions: Inhabitants created irrigation systems.

  • Forested Regions: Fire was used to clear land for agriculture.

• Motives for European Exploration:

  • Spreading Christianity: Religious conversion was a primary driver.

  • Economic Wealth: Seeking an all-water route to Asia, establishing fur-trading posts, operating gold and silver mines, or developing plantations.

  • National Competition: Spanish and Portuguese (first), followed by French, Dutch, and later English, competed for land.

• Transatlantic Exchange (The Columbian Exchange):

  • From Americas to Europe: Corn (maize), potatoes, and tomatoes.

  • From Europe to Americas: Germs and diseases (smallpox, measles) caused massive epidemics.

  • Population Impact: Native populations typically declined by $90\,\%$ within a century of contact.

• Labor Systems and Diversity:

  • Enslaved Africans: Introduced to provide low-cost labor for mines and plantations.

  • Resistance: Africans and Native Americans resisted European domination by maintaining cultural elements.

  • Spanish Wealth: Massive silver production from mines in Mexico and South America made Spain the wealthiest European empire in the $16\text{th}$ and $17\text{th}$ centuries.

Topic 1.2: Native American Societies Before European Contact

• Migration and Settlement: Migrants from Asia crossed a land bridge (now submerged under the Bering Sea) between Siberia and Alaska roughly $10,000$ to $40,000$ years ago. Populations spread from the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America.

• Demographics: By $1491$, the population was estimated between $50,000,000$ and $100,000,000$.

• Central and South American Civilizations:

  • Mayas (300–800): Built cities in the rain forests of the Yucat!n Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico).

  • Aztecs: Based in Central Mexico. Capital: Tenochtitl!n (population $200,000$, equivalent to the largest European cities).

  • Incas: Based in Peru; developed a vast empire in western South America.

  • Commonalities: Highly organized societies, extensive trade, calendars based on scientific observation, and stable food supplies (maize for Mayas/Aztecs, potatoes for Incas).

• North American Cultures: Population north of Mexico in the $1490\text{s}$ ranged from $1,000,000$ to over $10,000,000$.

  • General Patterns: Societies were smaller and less socially complex than those in Mexico/South America due to the slow northward spread of maize cultivation.

  • Social Structure: Men generally made tools and hunted; women gathered plants/nuts or grew crops (maize, beans, tobacco).

• Language Diversity: Over $20$ language families including Indo-European and American Indian families such as Algonquian (Northeast), Siouan (Great Plains), and Athabaskan (Southwest), comprising over $400$ distinct languages.

• Regional Settlements:

  • Southwest: Hohokam, Anasazi, and Pueblos developed multifaceted societies in New Mexico and Arizona. They used irrigation and lived in caves, under cliffs, or multistoried stone/masonry buildings.

  • Northwest: Lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses along the Pacific coast (Alaska to Northern California). Diet included hunting, fishing, and gathering. Carved totem poles for storytelling. Isolated by high mountain ranges.

  • Great Basin and Great Plains:

    • Nomadic: Traveled in tepees, hunting buffalo (used for food, tools, clothing, and decorations).

    • Sedentary: Lived in earthen lodges along rivers; grew maize, beans, and squash.

    • Acquisition of Horses: In the $17\text{th}$ century, acquired from Spanish settlers, allowing the Lakota Sioux to track buffalo more easily.

  • Mississippi River Valley: Woodland American Indians. Adena-Hopewell culture (Ohio) built earthen mounds up to $300\,\text{feet}$ long. Cahokia (near East St. Louis, Illinois) housed up to $30,000$ people.

  • Northeast Settlements: Combined hunting and farming; used longhouses (up to $200\,\text{feet}$ long) for families related through maternal lineage.

  • Iroquois Confederation (Haudenosaunee): A powerful political union of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and later Tuscaroras. Battled rival tribes and Europeans from the $16\text{th}$ century through the American Revolution.

  • Atlantic Seaboard: People of the Coastal Plains (e.g., Cherokee and Lumbee) built timber and bark lodgings along rivers.

Topic 1.3: European Exploration in the Americas

• Initial Contacts: Vikings visited Greenland and North America around the year $1000$, but voyages had no lasting impact.

• Context for Change: The Renaissance (outburst of artistic/scientific activity in the $15\text{th}$ and $16\text{th}$ centuries).

  • Technology: Gunpowder (Chinese), sailing compass (Arab/Chinese), printing press ($1450\text{s}$), and improvements in shipbuilding and mapmaking.

• Religious Motives:

  • Catholic Victory: Queen Isabella (Castile) and King Ferdinand (Aragon) united Spain in $1469$. In $1492$, they conquered the last Moorish stronghold (Granada) and funded Columbus.

  • Protestant Revolt: The Protestant Reformation in the early $1500\text{s}$ saw Northern European countries (Germany, England, France, Holland) challenge the Pope. This added religious competition to exploration motives.

• Expanding Trade:

  • Context: The land route to Asia was blocked in $1453$ when Ottoman Turks seized Constantinople.

  • New Routes: Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored voyages around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. Vasco da Gama reached India in $1498$.

• Developing Nation-States: Countries replaced multiethnic empires (like the Holy Roman Empire) with nations sharing common culture and loyalty. Monarchs used trade for revenue and the church for justification of power.

• Dividing the Americas:

  • Line of Demarcation ($1493$): The Pope drew a north-south line; Spain got lands to the west, Portugal to the east.

  • Treaty of Tordesillas ($1494$): Moved the line a few degrees west. This established Portugal's claim to Brazil, with Spain claiming the rest.

• National Claims:

  • English: John Cabot explored Newfoundland in $1497$. Exploration paused due to Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church. Later, Queen Elizabeth I challenged Spain. Sir Francis Drake attacked Spanish ships; Sir Walter Raleigh failed to settle Roanoke Island in $1587$.

  • French: Sponsored Giovanni da Verrazzano ($1524$) to find a northwest passage; Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River ($1534–1542$). Colonization delayed by internal wars between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants).

Topic 1.4: Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest

• Christopher Columbus's Voyages: Sought financial support for eight years before the backing of Isabella and Ferdinand. Left the Canary Islands on September 6, reaching the Bahamas on October 12, $1492$. Made three subsequent voyages; viewed as a failure for finding little gold.

• The Exchange Items:

  • To Eurasia/Africa: Beans, corn, sweet/white potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco. Resulted in rapid population growth.

  • To Americas: Sugar cane, bluegrasses, pigs, horses, the wheel, iron implements, guns, and diseases (smallpox, measles).

• Demographic Decline: Mexico's native population dropped from $22,000,000$ in $1492$ to $4,000,000$ by the mid-$16\text{th}$ century.

• Economic Shift: Feudalism (monarchs granting land to nobles for military service) declined. Capitalism (control of money/machinery) rose.

• Joint-Stock Companies: A business owned by investors to finance expensive/dangerous ocean voyages with reduced individual risk.

• Historical Perspective on Columbus:

  • Hero: Celebrated for navigation skills; President Franklin Roosevelt declared October 12 a holiday in $1934$.

  • Conqueror: Revisionist view of him as a religious fanatic who killed and converted natives.

  • Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. argued Columbus was motivated by the "challenge of the unknown."

Topic 1.5: Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

• Conquistadores:

  • Vasco N!ñez de Balboa: Crossed Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific.

  • Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigated the world.

  • Hern!n Cortés: Conquered Aztecs.

  • Francisco Pizarro: Conquered Incas.

• Native Labor: The Encomienda System granted tracts of land and native labor to Spaniards. Indians were forced to farm or mine; Spaniards were supposed to "care" for them.

• African Labor: The Asiento System required colonists to pay a tax to the Spanish king on each enslaved person imported.

• Statistics on Slave Trade: Between $10,000,000$ and $15,000,000$ people were sent from Africa. The Middle Passage had a death rate of $10\text{--}15\,\%$.

• Spanish Caste System: Hierarchical status based on heritage.

  1. Pure-blooded Spaniards (Top).

  2. Mixed Heritage (Middle - varies by European, Native, or African mix).

  3. Pure Indian or Black heritage (Bottom).

Topic 1.6: Cultural Interactions in the Americas

• Conflicting Worldviews:

  • Religion: Monotheistic Europeans vs. polytheistic Native Americans.

  • Gender: Native American women often held decision-making roles (tribal dependent); European women did not.

  • Land: Legal documents (European) vs. tradition (Native American).

• Spanish Policy: Subjugation through encomienda.

  • Bartolomé de Las Casas: A priest and advocate for natives. Influenced the New Laws of 1542 to end native slavery and the encomienda (though partially repealed).

  • Valladolid Debate (1550–1551): Las Casas (Indians are human/morally equal) vs. Juan Ginés de Sepùlveda (Indians are less than human and benefit from service).

• English Policy: Favored expulsion rather than subjugation. Fished/traded initially; relationship soured as English seized land for their growing population, viewing natives as "savage."

• French Policy: Viewed natives as economic/military allies. Intermarried with native women (guides/negotiators). Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in $1608$. Assisted the Huron against the Iroquois.

• Native Survival Strategies: Ally with specific European powers (e.g., Delawares/Shawnees with the French) and migrating west (leading to inter-tribal conflict).

• African Influence: Introduced rice cultivation to South Carolina and Louisiana; brought musical styles and the banjo.

Topic 2.1: Contextualizing Period 2 (1607–1754)

• Chronology: Exploration (dominated by Spain, $1491–1607$) gave way to colonization ($1607–1754$).

• Colonial Powers: Spanish, French, Dutch, and British. The British established $13$ colonies.

• Labor Sources: Enslavement of natives failed as they escaped too easily. Indentured servants worked for a set period (usually $7$ years) in exchange for passage. This was eventually replaced by enslaved Africans.

• Landmark Events:

  • $1607$: Jamestown settlement.

  • $1608$: Quebec founded.

  • $1619$: Dutch traders sell first Africans in Jamestown; first elected legislature in English colonies.

  • $1620$: Pilgrims land in Plymouth.

  • $1676$: King Philip’s War.

  • $1754$: Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War) begins.

Topic 2.2: European Colonization in North America

• Spanish Expansion: Driven by missionary zeal.

  • Florida: St. Augustine founded in $1565$ (oldest European city in US mainland).

  • New Mexico: Santa Fe founded in $1610$.

  • California: San Diego founded in $1769$. Father Junípero Serra established missions by $1784$.

• French Expansion: Focused on fur trade and river systems.

  • Louisiana: Mississippi basin named by Robert de La Salle in $1682$.

  • New Orleans: Founded in $1718$; became a prosperous trade center.

• Dutch Expansion:

  • Henry Hudson: Sailed the Hudson River in $1609$.

  • New Amsterdam: Controlled by the Dutch West India Company.

• British Expansion: Higher percentage of families and single females; high interest in farming. Mostly migrated for better lives or religious freedom.

Topic 2.3: The Regions of British Colonies

• Charter Types:

  • Corporate: Operated by joint-stock companies (e.g., Jamestown).

  • Royal: Direct rule of the King’s government (e.g., Virginia after $1624$).

  • Proprietary: Under authority of individuals granted charters by the King (e.g., Maryland, Pennsylvania).

• Jamestown ($1607$): Location in a swampy area; survivors faced dysentery, malaria, and starvation.

  • Captain John Smith: Provided early leadership.

  • John Rolfe: Developed tobacco as a profitable crop.

  • Headright System: Offered $50\,\text{acres}$ of land to anyone who paid for their own or another's passage.

• New England Colonies:

  • Plymouth ($1620$): Settled by Pilgrims (Separatists) aboard the Mayflower. Created the Mayflower Compact, a form of self-government.

  • Massachusetts Bay ($1630$): Settled by Puritans led by John Winthrop. Driven by the Great Migration ($15,000$ settlers).

  • Rhode Island: Founded by Roger Williams ($1636$) and Anne Hutchinson (Portsmouth, $1638$) after banishment from Massachusetts. Religious toleration.

  • Connecticut: Thomas Hooker founded Hartford ($1636$). Developed the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639), the first written constitution.

  • Halfway Covenant: Offered partial church membership to maintain influence as religious conversion experiences declined.

• Chesapeake and Middle Colonies:

  • Maryland: Proprietary colony for Catholics. Act of Toleration (1649) granted religious freedom to all Christians.

  • New York: Taken from the Dutch (1664) by the Duke of York (James II).

  • Pennsylvania: Founded by William Penn for Quakers. "The Holy Experiment" guaranteed freedom of worship and fair treatment of natives.

• Georgia ($1733$): The last colony. Served as a defensive buffer against Spanish Florida and a place for English debtors to restart life.

Topic 2.4: Transatlantic Trade

• Triangular Trade:

  1. New England rum to West Africa.

  2. Middle Passage: Slaves to West Indies (traded for sugar).

  3. Sugar to New England ports to make more rum.

• Mercantilism: Theory that a country's wealth is based on exporting more than importing. Colonies exist to provide raw materials to the parent country.

• Navigation Acts (1650–1673):

  • Trade only via English/colonial ships.

  • All imports must pass through English ports.

  • "Enumerated" goods (like tobacco) only exported to England.

• Salutary Neglect: Economic policy of the British government being lax in enforcing trade regulations due to distance and domestic upheavals.

• Dominion of New England: Created in $1686$ by James II to increase control; governed by Sir Edmund Andros. Ended after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 replaced James II with William and Mary.

Topic 2.5: Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans

• New England Confederation (1643): Military alliance between Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven for protection against natives, Dutch, and French.

• Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War, 1675–1676): Wampanoag chief Metacom (King Philip) united tribes against English encroachment. Resulted in thousands of deaths and ended native resistance in New England.

• Bacon’s Rebellion (1676): Nathaniel Bacon led western farmers against Virginia Governor Sir William Berkeley over failure to protect against native attacks and class grievances. Highlighted class differences and resistance to royal control.

• Pueblo Revolt (1680): Southwest tribes united against Spanish encomienda and forced Catholicism. Drove Spanish out for $12$ years.

Topic 2.6: Slavery in the British Colonies

• Slavery Institution: By the $1660\text{s}$, Virginia enacted laws for lifelong bondage; in $1641$, Massachusetts became the first to recognize enslavement of "lawful" captives.

• Demographics: By $1750$, $50\,\%$ of Virginia's population and $2/3$ of South Carolina's were enslaved. Only $5\,\%$ of total transatlantic slaves went to North America; $95\,\%$ went to the West Indies or Brazil.

• Factors for Increased Demand: Reduced migration to the colonies due to higher wages in England; demand for a dependable workforce after Bacon's Rebellion; and low-cost labor for high-requirement crops (rice, indigo).

• Resistance: Africans resisted through family-tie maintenance, cultural preservation (song/storytelling), sabotaging work, or running away.

Topic 2.7: Colonial Society and Culture

• Population: Grew from $250,000$ ($1701$) to $2,500,000$ ($1775$).

• Immigrant Groups:

  • Germans: $6\,\%$ of population; settled west of Philadelphia.

  • Scotch-Irish: $7\,\%$ of population; settled the western frontier.

  • Africans: $20\,\%$ of population; primarily in the South.

• Social Structure: No hereditary aristocracy. Narrow class system based on economics (owners at top, small farmers/craft workers in middle). High social mobility for Whites.

• Regional Economies:

  • New England: Subsistence farming, logging, shipbuilding, fishing.

  • Middle: "Bread basket" (wheat and corn); iron-making.

  • Southern: Large self-sufficient plantations; tobacco (Chesapeake), rice/indigo (South).

• Religion:

  • The Great Awakening (1730s–1740s): Emotional religious revival among the masses led by Jonathan Edwards ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God") and George Whitefield.

  • Impact: Democratizing effect; taught people to make independent religious (and eventually political) decisions.

• The Enlightenment: $18\text{th}$-century philosophy stressing reason. John Locke (Two Treatises of Government) argued for "natural laws" and sovereignty residing with the people.

• The Press: John Peter Zenger Case (1735); jury acquitted Zenger of libel for criticizing the royal governor, encouraging press criticism of government.

• Political Structure:

  • Lower House: Elected by White male property owners.

  • Upper House: Appointed by King or proprietor (except RI and CT).

  • Local Governance: Town meetings (New England) vs. the County/Sheriff system (South).