APUSH Review for AP Exam!
Unit One:
● As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America
over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and
transforming their diverse environments.
○ Before European Contact, Native Americans developed diverse environments
○ spread of maize from present-day Mexico, supported economic development,
settlement, advanced irrigation, and social diversification (male-female roles)
(shows that they are complex, contrary to European belief at first)
■ corn does not move, so you have to stay in one place (settlement)
■ Pueblos
○ societies responded to the aridity of the Great Basin and the grasslands of the
western Great Plains by developing largely mobile (nomadic) lifestyles
■ no horses until European contact
■ Sioux
○ in the Northeast (Iroquois), the Mississippi River Valley, and across the Atlantic
seaboard (Boston to Charleston, Cherokee), some societies developed mixed
agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies and economies that favored the
development of permanent villages
○ societies in the northwest and present-day California supported themselves by
hunting and gathering and in some areas developed settled communities
supported by the vast resources of the ocean (fish, salmon)
● Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian
Exchange and significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean
■ triangular trade: back-and forth-trade between Europe, New World, and
Africa
○ European nations’ efforts to explore and conquer the New World stemmed from a
search for new sources of wealth, economic and military competition, and a
desire to spread Christianity
■ God (religion), Glory (military), and Gold (economics)
■ gold means taking it from natives because they already found gold
○ The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas,
stimulating European population growth, and new sources of mineral wealth,
which facilitated the European shift from feudalism to capitalism.
■ Europeans are coming to America because it’s a competition
■ Columbian Exchange: exchange of goods, ideas, and people across the
Atlantic
● no horses until Europeans show up
● germs
● tobacco and cotton were mainly New World-grown
● stimulated European population growth
, ■ mercantilism: more exports than imports (buy more, dominant power)
■ feudalism (based on land ownership) and capitalism
○ Improvements in maritime technology and more organized methods for
conducting international trade, such as joint-stock companies, helped change
economies in Europe and the Americas.
■ compasses
■ mercantilism into capitalism
■ joint-stock companies: people joined to buy ownership (Virginia Company,
private investors in England who pay people to come to VA to find gold,
then grow tobacco)
○ The Columbian Exchange and the development of the Spanish Empire in the
Western Hemisphere resulted in extensive demographic, economic, and social
changes.
■ most men come first, but they interact with Natives and have children
(mestizos)
■ Native American matriarchal societies impacted
○ Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and
furthered by widespread deadly epidemics that devastated native populations
and by the introduction of crops and animals not found in the Americas.
■ smallpox, many Natives succumbed to these diseases and could not
resist European settlement because they were dying
■ wheat was introduced to the New World
○ In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native
American labor to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious
metals and other resources.
■ the first attempt by the Spanish government to set up how their
settlements in the New World would be run
■ Bartholomé de las Casas
■ treat natives reasonably so they can use their labor, but many do not treat
them fairly, so they move to the Repartamento system
■ plantation-based failed because Native Americans died due to being
treated so poorly, so the Spanish imported enslaved people from Africa
■ BLACK LEGEND
○ European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced
slavery to extract enslaved laborers from the Americas forcibly. The Spanish
imported enslaved Africans to labor in plantation agriculture and mining.
■ origin of the Atlantic slave trade
■ Middle Passage
○ The Spanish developed a caste system that incorporated and carefully defined
the status of, the diverse population of Europeans, Africans, and Native
Americans in their empire.
■ mestizo
■ ranking based on genetic makeup
, ○ In their interactions, Europeans and Native Americans asserted divergent
worldviews regarding religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power.
○ Mutual misunderstandings between Europeans and Native Americans often
defined the early years of interaction and trade as each group sought to make
sense of the other. Over time, Europeans and Native Americans adopted some
useful aspects of each other’s culture.
■ don’t speak the same languages
○ As European encroachments on Native Americans’ lands and demands on their
labor increased, native peoples sought to defend and maintain their political
sovereignty, economic prosperity, religious beliefs, and concepts of gender
relations through diplomatic negotiations and military resistance.
■ differences led to conflict
○ Extended contact with Native Americans and Africans fostered a debate among
European religious and political leaders about how non-Europeans should be
treated, as well as evolving religious, cultural, and racial justifications for the
subjugation of Africans and Native Americans.
■ de Las Casas argues against what the Spanish are doing because
Natives have souls
■ animism
■ Protestant Reformation era
■ conversion
Unit Two:
● Europeans developed a variety (create a list) of colonization and migration patterns,
influenced by different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American
environments where they settled, and they competed with each other and American
Indians for resources.
○ Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different economic and
imperial goals involving land and labor that shaped the social and political
development of their colonies as well as their relationships with native
populations.
■ God, Gold, Glory
■ Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop
institutions based on subjugating (forcing/controlling) native populations,
converting them to Christianity (De Las Casas), and incorporating them,
along with enslaved and free Africans, into the Spanish colonial society.
● incorporated Natives into society
■ French and Dutch colonial efforts involved relatively few Europeans and
relied on trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build
economic and diplomatic relationships and acquire furs and other
products for export to Europe.
● coexisted with natives
■ English colonization efforts attracted a comparatively large number of
male and female British migrants, as well as other European migrants, all
of whom sought social mobility (able to move between different classes),
Unit One:
● As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America
over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and
transforming their diverse environments.
○ Before European Contact, Native Americans developed diverse environments
○ spread of maize from present-day Mexico, supported economic development,
settlement, advanced irrigation, and social diversification (male-female roles)
(shows that they are complex, contrary to European belief at first)
■ corn does not move, so you have to stay in one place (settlement)
■ Pueblos
○ societies responded to the aridity of the Great Basin and the grasslands of the
western Great Plains by developing largely mobile (nomadic) lifestyles
■ no horses until European contact
■ Sioux
○ in the Northeast (Iroquois), the Mississippi River Valley, and across the Atlantic
seaboard (Boston to Charleston, Cherokee), some societies developed mixed
agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies and economies that favored the
development of permanent villages
○ societies in the northwest and present-day California supported themselves by
hunting and gathering and in some areas developed settled communities
supported by the vast resources of the ocean (fish, salmon)
● Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian
Exchange and significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean
■ triangular trade: back-and forth-trade between Europe, New World, and
Africa
○ European nations’ efforts to explore and conquer the New World stemmed from a
search for new sources of wealth, economic and military competition, and a
desire to spread Christianity
■ God (religion), Glory (military), and Gold (economics)
■ gold means taking it from natives because they already found gold
○ The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas,
stimulating European population growth, and new sources of mineral wealth,
which facilitated the European shift from feudalism to capitalism.
■ Europeans are coming to America because it’s a competition
■ Columbian Exchange: exchange of goods, ideas, and people across the
Atlantic
● no horses until Europeans show up
● germs
● tobacco and cotton were mainly New World-grown
● stimulated European population growth
, ■ mercantilism: more exports than imports (buy more, dominant power)
■ feudalism (based on land ownership) and capitalism
○ Improvements in maritime technology and more organized methods for
conducting international trade, such as joint-stock companies, helped change
economies in Europe and the Americas.
■ compasses
■ mercantilism into capitalism
■ joint-stock companies: people joined to buy ownership (Virginia Company,
private investors in England who pay people to come to VA to find gold,
then grow tobacco)
○ The Columbian Exchange and the development of the Spanish Empire in the
Western Hemisphere resulted in extensive demographic, economic, and social
changes.
■ most men come first, but they interact with Natives and have children
(mestizos)
■ Native American matriarchal societies impacted
○ Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and
furthered by widespread deadly epidemics that devastated native populations
and by the introduction of crops and animals not found in the Americas.
■ smallpox, many Natives succumbed to these diseases and could not
resist European settlement because they were dying
■ wheat was introduced to the New World
○ In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native
American labor to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious
metals and other resources.
■ the first attempt by the Spanish government to set up how their
settlements in the New World would be run
■ Bartholomé de las Casas
■ treat natives reasonably so they can use their labor, but many do not treat
them fairly, so they move to the Repartamento system
■ plantation-based failed because Native Americans died due to being
treated so poorly, so the Spanish imported enslaved people from Africa
■ BLACK LEGEND
○ European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced
slavery to extract enslaved laborers from the Americas forcibly. The Spanish
imported enslaved Africans to labor in plantation agriculture and mining.
■ origin of the Atlantic slave trade
■ Middle Passage
○ The Spanish developed a caste system that incorporated and carefully defined
the status of, the diverse population of Europeans, Africans, and Native
Americans in their empire.
■ mestizo
■ ranking based on genetic makeup
, ○ In their interactions, Europeans and Native Americans asserted divergent
worldviews regarding religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power.
○ Mutual misunderstandings between Europeans and Native Americans often
defined the early years of interaction and trade as each group sought to make
sense of the other. Over time, Europeans and Native Americans adopted some
useful aspects of each other’s culture.
■ don’t speak the same languages
○ As European encroachments on Native Americans’ lands and demands on their
labor increased, native peoples sought to defend and maintain their political
sovereignty, economic prosperity, religious beliefs, and concepts of gender
relations through diplomatic negotiations and military resistance.
■ differences led to conflict
○ Extended contact with Native Americans and Africans fostered a debate among
European religious and political leaders about how non-Europeans should be
treated, as well as evolving religious, cultural, and racial justifications for the
subjugation of Africans and Native Americans.
■ de Las Casas argues against what the Spanish are doing because
Natives have souls
■ animism
■ Protestant Reformation era
■ conversion
Unit Two:
● Europeans developed a variety (create a list) of colonization and migration patterns,
influenced by different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American
environments where they settled, and they competed with each other and American
Indians for resources.
○ Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different economic and
imperial goals involving land and labor that shaped the social and political
development of their colonies as well as their relationships with native
populations.
■ God, Gold, Glory
■ Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop
institutions based on subjugating (forcing/controlling) native populations,
converting them to Christianity (De Las Casas), and incorporating them,
along with enslaved and free Africans, into the Spanish colonial society.
● incorporated Natives into society
■ French and Dutch colonial efforts involved relatively few Europeans and
relied on trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build
economic and diplomatic relationships and acquire furs and other
products for export to Europe.
● coexisted with natives
■ English colonization efforts attracted a comparatively large number of
male and female British migrants, as well as other European migrants, all
of whom sought social mobility (able to move between different classes),
