APUSH AMSCO Chapter 1 Summary
& Notes Exam Questions and Answers
100% Pass
How Native Americans got to the Americas - ✔✔*migrants from Asia crossed a land
bridge that once connect Siberia and Alaska in Bering Sea,
migrated south from Arctic Circle to South America
3 highly developed civilizations - ✔✔Mayans, Aztecs, Incas
Mayan Civilization (300-800 AD) - ✔✔*remarkable cities in rain forests of Yucatan
Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico)
*cultivated corn/maize
Aztec Empire - ✔✔*powerful empire in central Mexico
*Capital in Tenochtitlan
*population ~200k
*planted corn/maize
Katelyn Whitman, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,(200 yrs after decline of Mayan Empire)
Inca Empire - ✔✔*Peru/Andes Mnt (South America)
*cultivated da potato
similarities between Mayas, Incas, Aztecs - ✔✔*highly organized (and large) societies
*extensive trade
*created accurate & scientific calendars
*planted crops
the significant difference between Central/South American and North American Native
America Tribes - ✔✔North American Native Americans were smaller/separate tribes
(as opposed to a big empire),
*less sophisticated
Similarities between Central/South American and North American Tribes -
✔✔established farming systems, language
similarities between North American native cultures - ✔✔*semi-permanent settlements
in small groups
*men: made tools, hunted game
*women: gathered plants/nuts or grew crops like corn/maize, beans, tobacco
Katelyn Whitman, All Rights Reserved © 2025 2
, *animism
language of Native Americans - ✔✔very diverse, more than 20 language families & 400
distinct languages
*larges are Algoquian of Northeast, Siouan in Great Plains, Athabaskan in Southwest
Relationship between resource availability and cultural lifestyle (in general) - ✔✔*great
concentration of resources also created rigidly stratified class structures throughout the
West
*In areas with sparse natural resources, groups were more nomadic and less connected
to others.
Southwest Settlements (present day New Mexico & Arizona) - ✔✔*groups like
Hokokam, Anasazi, Pueblos
*farming with irrigation systems (corn; irrigation allowed Pueblos to plant beans and
squash in addition to corn)
*lived in caves, under cliffs, multistoried buildings
*stone/masonary homes
*drought between 1200-1300 disastrous, caused ancestral Pueblos to flee area
Northwest Settlements (present day Alaska-northern California) - ✔✔*Pacific Coast
*permanent longhouses/plank houses
Katelyn Whitman, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
& Notes Exam Questions and Answers
100% Pass
How Native Americans got to the Americas - ✔✔*migrants from Asia crossed a land
bridge that once connect Siberia and Alaska in Bering Sea,
migrated south from Arctic Circle to South America
3 highly developed civilizations - ✔✔Mayans, Aztecs, Incas
Mayan Civilization (300-800 AD) - ✔✔*remarkable cities in rain forests of Yucatan
Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico)
*cultivated corn/maize
Aztec Empire - ✔✔*powerful empire in central Mexico
*Capital in Tenochtitlan
*population ~200k
*planted corn/maize
Katelyn Whitman, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,(200 yrs after decline of Mayan Empire)
Inca Empire - ✔✔*Peru/Andes Mnt (South America)
*cultivated da potato
similarities between Mayas, Incas, Aztecs - ✔✔*highly organized (and large) societies
*extensive trade
*created accurate & scientific calendars
*planted crops
the significant difference between Central/South American and North American Native
America Tribes - ✔✔North American Native Americans were smaller/separate tribes
(as opposed to a big empire),
*less sophisticated
Similarities between Central/South American and North American Tribes -
✔✔established farming systems, language
similarities between North American native cultures - ✔✔*semi-permanent settlements
in small groups
*men: made tools, hunted game
*women: gathered plants/nuts or grew crops like corn/maize, beans, tobacco
Katelyn Whitman, All Rights Reserved © 2025 2
, *animism
language of Native Americans - ✔✔very diverse, more than 20 language families & 400
distinct languages
*larges are Algoquian of Northeast, Siouan in Great Plains, Athabaskan in Southwest
Relationship between resource availability and cultural lifestyle (in general) - ✔✔*great
concentration of resources also created rigidly stratified class structures throughout the
West
*In areas with sparse natural resources, groups were more nomadic and less connected
to others.
Southwest Settlements (present day New Mexico & Arizona) - ✔✔*groups like
Hokokam, Anasazi, Pueblos
*farming with irrigation systems (corn; irrigation allowed Pueblos to plant beans and
squash in addition to corn)
*lived in caves, under cliffs, multistoried buildings
*stone/masonary homes
*drought between 1200-1300 disastrous, caused ancestral Pueblos to flee area
Northwest Settlements (present day Alaska-northern California) - ✔✔*Pacific Coast
*permanent longhouses/plank houses
Katelyn Whitman, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
