APUSH - Period 1 (1491-1607)

• Period 1 focuses on pre-contact Native American societies, the colliding of the old world and the new world with the Columbian Exchange, and the focus of European exploration
• Pre-contact Native American cultures


  • Developed advanced and unique societies that were culturally and politically complex
  • Influenced by geography and development of agriculture
• Advanced Native American societies


  • Aztec
  • Inca
  • Mayan
• Maize


  Agricultural staple used to support societies in various ways
• Christopher Columbus voyages and the Columbian Exchange begins


  1492
• Columbian Exchange


  Leads to transfer of crops, germs, culture, religion, and people between the old world and new world
• Columbian Exchange


  Leads to population growth, wealth, and power for Europe, but decimation of native populations due to disease
• The Treaty of Tordesillas enabled Spain to dominate the new world while Portugal dominated the African slave trade
• Spanish conquistadors


  • Used violence to subdue indigenous populations
  • Subjected them to systems like encomienda to extract wealth
• The Catholic Church sent missionaries to convert native populations in Spanish territories
• Casta system


  Racial hierarchy that developed in Spanish colonies due to mixing of races and introduction of African slaves
• Spanish treatment of natives


  Led to the Valladolid debates between Las Casas and Sepulveda
• Las Casas supported better treatment and conversion of natives, while Sepulveda believed natives were barbaric and incapable of learning