APUSH AMSCO UNIT 1 (CHAPTERS 1-4)
EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS. VERIFIED 2025/2026.
Mayas - ANS built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatan Peninsula (present-day
Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico).
Aztecs - ANS were dominating Mexico and Central America,
Incas - ANS based in Peru developed a vast empire in South America.
Cultures of Central and South America - ANS 1. All three civilizations developed highly
organized societies, carried on an extensive trade, and created calendars that were based on
accurate scientific observations.
2. All three cultivated crops that provided a stable food supply, particularly corn (maize) for the
Mayas and Aztecs and potatoes for the Incas.
Language - ANS 1. American Indian languages constituted more than 20 language families.
2. Among the largest of these were Algonquian in the Northeast, Siouan on the Great Plains,
and Athabaskan in the Southwest. Together, these 20 families included more than 400 distinct
languages.
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,Southwest Settlements - ANS 1. Pueblos evolved multifaceted societies supported by farming
with irrigation systems. they lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings. By the
time Europeans arrived, extreme drought and other hostile natives had taken their toll on these
groups.
2. Their life was preserved in the arid land and their stone and masonry dwellings.
Northwest Settlements - ANS 1. people lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses.
2. They had a rich diet based on hunting, fishing, and gathering nuts, berries, and roots.
3. To save stories, legends, and myths, they carved large totem poles. The high mountain ranges
in this region isolated tribes from one another, creating barriers to development.
Great Plains - ANS 1. either nomadic hunters or sedentary people who farmed and traded.
2. The nomadic tribes survived on hunting, principally the buffalo, which supplied their food as
well as decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing.
3. They lived in tepees, frames of poles covered in animal skins, which were easily disassembled
and transported. While the farming tribes also hunted buffalo, they lived permanently in
earthen lodges often along rivers.
4. Not until the 17th century did American Indians acquire horses by trading or stealing them
from Spanish settlers.
5. The plains tribes would at times merge or split apart as conditions changed. Migration also
was common. For example, the Apaches gradually migrated southward from Canada to Texas.
Midwest Settlements - ANS 1. prospered with a rich food supply. Supported by hunting,
fishing, and agriculture, many permanent settlements developed in the Mississippi and Ohio
River valleys and elsewhere.
2. famous for the large earthen mounds it created, some as large as 300 feet long.
Northeast Settlements - ANS 1. Their culture combined hunting and farming. However, their
farming techniques exhausted the soil quickly, so people had to move to fresh land frequently.
2 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,2. the Iroquois were a powerful force, battling rival American Indians as well as Europeans.
Iroquois Confederation - ANS a political union of five independent tribes who lived in the
Mohawk Valley of New York. The five tribes were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and
Mohawk.
Europe Moves Toward Exploration - ANS Until the late 1400s, Americans and the people of
Europe, Africa, and Asia had no knowledge of the people on the other side of the Atlantic
Ocean.
Improvements in Technology - ANS 1. In Europe, a rebirth of classical learning prompted an
outburst of artistic and scientific activity in the 15th and 16th centuries known as the
Renaissance.
2.they began to use gunpowder (invented by the Chinese) and the sailing compass (adopted
from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese).
3.Europeans also made major improvements in shipbuilding and mapmaking. In addition, the
invention of the printing press in the 1450s aided the spread of knowledge across Europe.
Protestant Revolt in Northern Europe - ANS 1. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants led
to a series of religious wars. The conflict also caused the Catholics of Spain and Portugal and the
Protestants of England and Holland to want to spread their own versions of Christianity to
people in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Thus, a religious motive for exploration and
colonization was added to political and economic motives.
Expanding Trade - ANS Economic motives for exploration grew out of a fierce competition
among European kingdoms for increased trade with Africa, India, and China.
New Routes - ANS 1. Voyages of exploration sponsored by Portugal's Prince Henry the
Navigator eventually succeeded in opening up a long sea route around South Africa's Cape of
Good Hope.
3 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
, 2. In 1498, the Portuguese sea captain Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach India via
this route. By this time, Columbus had attempted what he mistakenly believed would be a
shorter route to Asia.
Slave Trading - ANS 1. They used the slaves to work newly established sugar plantations on
the Madeira and Azores islands off the African coast.
2. Producing sugar with slave labor was so profitable that when Europeans later established
colonies in the Americas, they used the slave system there.
African Resistance - ANS 1. Enslaved Africans resisted slavery in whatever ways they could.
2. they often ran away, sabotaged work, or revolted. And for generations they maintained
aspects of their African culture, particularly in music, religion, and folkways.
Nation-states - ANS countries in which the majority of people shared both a common culture
and common loyalty toward a central government.
Christopher Columbus - ANS But three subsequent voyages across the Atlantic were
disappointing-he found little gold, few spices, and no simple path to China and India.
Columbus's Legacy - ANS 1. Spaniards viewed Columbus as a failure because they suspected
that he had found not a valuable trade route, but a "New World."
2. Columbus's voyages brought about, for the first time in history, permanent interaction
between people from all over the globe. He changed the world forever.
Columbian Exchange, - ANS a transfer of plants, animals, and germs from one side of the
Atlantic to the other for the first time.
-Europeans introduced to the Americas sugar cane, bluegrasses, pigs, and horses, as well as the
wheel, iron implements, and guns
4 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS. VERIFIED 2025/2026.
Mayas - ANS built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatan Peninsula (present-day
Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico).
Aztecs - ANS were dominating Mexico and Central America,
Incas - ANS based in Peru developed a vast empire in South America.
Cultures of Central and South America - ANS 1. All three civilizations developed highly
organized societies, carried on an extensive trade, and created calendars that were based on
accurate scientific observations.
2. All three cultivated crops that provided a stable food supply, particularly corn (maize) for the
Mayas and Aztecs and potatoes for the Incas.
Language - ANS 1. American Indian languages constituted more than 20 language families.
2. Among the largest of these were Algonquian in the Northeast, Siouan on the Great Plains,
and Athabaskan in the Southwest. Together, these 20 families included more than 400 distinct
languages.
1 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,Southwest Settlements - ANS 1. Pueblos evolved multifaceted societies supported by farming
with irrigation systems. they lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings. By the
time Europeans arrived, extreme drought and other hostile natives had taken their toll on these
groups.
2. Their life was preserved in the arid land and their stone and masonry dwellings.
Northwest Settlements - ANS 1. people lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses.
2. They had a rich diet based on hunting, fishing, and gathering nuts, berries, and roots.
3. To save stories, legends, and myths, they carved large totem poles. The high mountain ranges
in this region isolated tribes from one another, creating barriers to development.
Great Plains - ANS 1. either nomadic hunters or sedentary people who farmed and traded.
2. The nomadic tribes survived on hunting, principally the buffalo, which supplied their food as
well as decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing.
3. They lived in tepees, frames of poles covered in animal skins, which were easily disassembled
and transported. While the farming tribes also hunted buffalo, they lived permanently in
earthen lodges often along rivers.
4. Not until the 17th century did American Indians acquire horses by trading or stealing them
from Spanish settlers.
5. The plains tribes would at times merge or split apart as conditions changed. Migration also
was common. For example, the Apaches gradually migrated southward from Canada to Texas.
Midwest Settlements - ANS 1. prospered with a rich food supply. Supported by hunting,
fishing, and agriculture, many permanent settlements developed in the Mississippi and Ohio
River valleys and elsewhere.
2. famous for the large earthen mounds it created, some as large as 300 feet long.
Northeast Settlements - ANS 1. Their culture combined hunting and farming. However, their
farming techniques exhausted the soil quickly, so people had to move to fresh land frequently.
2 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
,2. the Iroquois were a powerful force, battling rival American Indians as well as Europeans.
Iroquois Confederation - ANS a political union of five independent tribes who lived in the
Mohawk Valley of New York. The five tribes were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and
Mohawk.
Europe Moves Toward Exploration - ANS Until the late 1400s, Americans and the people of
Europe, Africa, and Asia had no knowledge of the people on the other side of the Atlantic
Ocean.
Improvements in Technology - ANS 1. In Europe, a rebirth of classical learning prompted an
outburst of artistic and scientific activity in the 15th and 16th centuries known as the
Renaissance.
2.they began to use gunpowder (invented by the Chinese) and the sailing compass (adopted
from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese).
3.Europeans also made major improvements in shipbuilding and mapmaking. In addition, the
invention of the printing press in the 1450s aided the spread of knowledge across Europe.
Protestant Revolt in Northern Europe - ANS 1. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants led
to a series of religious wars. The conflict also caused the Catholics of Spain and Portugal and the
Protestants of England and Holland to want to spread their own versions of Christianity to
people in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Thus, a religious motive for exploration and
colonization was added to political and economic motives.
Expanding Trade - ANS Economic motives for exploration grew out of a fierce competition
among European kingdoms for increased trade with Africa, India, and China.
New Routes - ANS 1. Voyages of exploration sponsored by Portugal's Prince Henry the
Navigator eventually succeeded in opening up a long sea route around South Africa's Cape of
Good Hope.
3 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
, 2. In 1498, the Portuguese sea captain Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach India via
this route. By this time, Columbus had attempted what he mistakenly believed would be a
shorter route to Asia.
Slave Trading - ANS 1. They used the slaves to work newly established sugar plantations on
the Madeira and Azores islands off the African coast.
2. Producing sugar with slave labor was so profitable that when Europeans later established
colonies in the Americas, they used the slave system there.
African Resistance - ANS 1. Enslaved Africans resisted slavery in whatever ways they could.
2. they often ran away, sabotaged work, or revolted. And for generations they maintained
aspects of their African culture, particularly in music, religion, and folkways.
Nation-states - ANS countries in which the majority of people shared both a common culture
and common loyalty toward a central government.
Christopher Columbus - ANS But three subsequent voyages across the Atlantic were
disappointing-he found little gold, few spices, and no simple path to China and India.
Columbus's Legacy - ANS 1. Spaniards viewed Columbus as a failure because they suspected
that he had found not a valuable trade route, but a "New World."
2. Columbus's voyages brought about, for the first time in history, permanent interaction
between people from all over the globe. He changed the world forever.
Columbian Exchange, - ANS a transfer of plants, animals, and germs from one side of the
Atlantic to the other for the first time.
-Europeans introduced to the Americas sugar cane, bluegrasses, pigs, and horses, as well as the
wheel, iron implements, and guns
4 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
