Apush Unit 1 Study Guide

1. General characteristics and conditions of the Native Americans: Where they came from and their cultures. a. Where: 35,000 (33,000?) B.C.: First ‘immigrant’ ancestors of the Native Americans traveled down the Bering land bridge from Eurasia to North America during the Ice Age i. Trekked across Bering isthmus and peopled the Americas for 250 centuries, eventually reaching the southern tip of South America ii. Isolated by the melting of glaciers at the end of the Ice Age (10,000 B.C.) b. Cultures: iii. Mexican & South American tribes 1. Incas in Peru, Mayans in Central America, Aztecs in Mexico a. Advanced agricultural practices, sophisticated civilizations, far-flung commerce, astronomy, ritual sacrifices 2. Staple crop (developed 5000 B.C.) was corn or maize (Indian corn) b. Foundation of life and the centralized Aztec and Incan nation-states, originated from Mexican heartland c. Nomadic hunting bands became settled agricultural villages d. 1200 B.C.: Reached American Southwest: molded Pueblo culture (irrigation systems, terraced buildings) iv. North and East of Pueblos 3. Mound Builders of Ohio River valley, Mississippian culture of lower Midwest, Anasazi peoples of Southwest e. Cultures declined A.D. 1300 4. Corn cultivation reached these areas considerably later f. No ‘society’, dense concentrations of people, nation-states comparable to Aztecs v. Southeastern Atlantic seaboard region 5. AD 1000: ‘three-sister’ farming: maize (corns), beans, squash g. Rich diet produced high population densities (Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee) vi. Iroquois Confederacy (northeastern woodlands) 6. Developed by Hiawatha 7. Political and organizational skills in a military alliance c. Society: