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AP US HISTORY -- FULL COURSE DETAILED NOTES
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An incredibly in depth study guide of all of the content covered in AP US History, going in chronological order. Perfect for studying for the AP Exam.
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Michael Krone AP US HistoryAP US History Study Guide
Chapter 1: New World Beginnings 33,000 B.C.E.—1769 A.D.
General Topography of the US
o Around 225 million years ago, there was only one supercontinent on Earth called
Pangaea. Over time, this separated to form the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and
Indian Oceans, and all of the continents, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and
most importantly, Europe, and North and South America. The Appalachian
Mountains were formed about 350 million years ago, and the western ranges, the
Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and the Rockies are “American mountains,” because
they formed 135-25 million years ago after North America had broken free. The
Canadian Shield is a mass that was the first North American mass over sea level.
Aside from that, the continent is relatively flat, with the eastern coastal plain, the
Mississippi Basin, the Great Basin, and the San Francisco, San Joaquin, and
Willamette-Puget Valleys. The Great Ice Age had a lot of impact on American
topography because 10,000 years ago when the glaciers retreated, they revealed
the Great Lakes, and caused the St. Lawrence River, Mississippi River, and Snake
and Columbia Rivers to be formed. Lake Bonneville was formed, but got depleted
and turned into the Great Salt Lake.
Ice Age Travelers Arrive
o With the glaciers so large, the oceans’ supply was depleted revealing a land
bridge between North America and Eurasia along the Bering Strait (connecting
Alaska and Siberia). People travelled over the bridge for over 2,000 miles over
250 centuries until the Bering Land Bridge was covered by water again 10,000
years ago.
Native American Settlements
o Before Columbus came, it is estimated that 54 million people inhabited the
Americas, developing 2,000 different languages and cultures. Three prominent
civilizations were the Inca in Peru, the Maya in Central America, and the Aztecs
in Mexico. Their lives were based around the cultivation of corn, which fed
almost 20 million people just in Mexico. The Mayans were gifted in math and the
Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on many occasions. Corn was important to these
cultures and shaped the Pueblo culture of the American southwest at around 1200
B.C.E. They built irrigation systems and multistoried terraced buildings. Other
cultures were the Mound Builders in Ohio, the Mississippians, and the Anasazis,
who built elaborate pueblos but died out by 1300 C.E. Most Native Americans
used the “three-sister” method of corn, beans, and squash. The thinly spread out
Native Americans treated the land gently and sacredly, unlike the Europeans, and
gave women an equal role in society. That was also unlike Europe.
Iroquois “Confederation”
o Under the brave leader Hiawatha, the Iroquois Confederacy formed in the
American northeast out of five tribes (and eventually a sixth) to create a powerful
political and military alliance. It remained powerful from the 16th century until it
split during the American Revolution.
Vikings in North America
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o Boarding from Scandinavia in the year 1000, the blonde and red-bearded Leif
Erickson and his Viking men landed at a point in modern day Newfoundland
called L’Anse aux Meadows. It was abundant in grapes, so they named it Vinland.
They did not desire money or power from their discoveries, so the short-lived
settlements only remained in the Viking sagas. The other Europeans sought
money and trade, so they broadcast news of their discoveries all throughout the
continent.
The Crusades
o The Christian crusaders dressed in armor to defend the Holy Land from the
Muslims in the 11th to 14th century. In this quest, with military failures, they went
to Asia and found luxuries such as silk, drugs, and spices like sugar, a rarity in
Europe. The trade journeys were rough, especially because Muslim middle-men
on the Mediterranean charged a large toll. This led to the quest for a cheaper route
to Asia. Marco Polo was an early explorer who went to India and China and
returned to Spain in 1295 with tales of gold and spices. Europeans then went
through Africa south of the Sahara Desert and eventually, Portuguese explorers
such as Bartholomeu Diaz and Vasco da Gama found routes in 1488 around the
southern tip of the “Dark Continent” and reached India. Spain finally became
united after expulsion of the Muslim Moors and the marriage of Ferdinand of
Aragon and Isabella of Castile, but with the Portuguese controlling Africa, they
looked west.
Christopher Columbus
o In the fifteenth century, the Renaissance contributed to the birth of African slave
labor, a printing press, a mariner’s compass, and other inventions to aid in travel
and communications. It also spurred prosperity and led to exploration.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian mapmaker and seafarer who earned the
respect and aid of the Spanish monarchy to fund him with three ships, the Nina,
the Pinta, and the Santa Maria to take him on a western route to the Orient. He
landed in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 after six weeks at sea. This is one of
the best failures of all time, as he had thought he found a route to the Indies, and
he called the natives Indians. This was the first time Europe, the Americas, and
Africa were converged and it led to the birth of a new world.
The Columbian Exchange
o What followed Columbus’ landing in 1492 was the greatest exchange of resources
of all time. The Old World saw iguanas and rattlesnakes and received foods such
as tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and the potato, and the sweet potato, and
vanilla, chocolate, and pineapples. Columbus then left and returned with 1,200
men to Hispaniola (Haiti) in 1493 with cattle, pigs, and horses, which
revolutionized Native American transportation. He brought also sugar, wheat,
rice, coffee, and most importantly, diseases such as smallpox, measles, bubonic
plague, influenza, typhus, diphtheria, and scarlet fever. With no immunity, this
killed many Native Americans such as the Taino that lost almost 100% of its
population. 90% of all Native Americans perished, but got revenge by trading
syphilis.
Explorers and Conquistadores
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o The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 took away any Portuguese land claims in the
New World but gave them tracts in West Africa and Asia. It was all Spain’s now.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513 and Ferdinand
Magellan sailed almost around the world until he was killed off in the Philippines.
In 1513 and in 1521, Juan Ponce de Leon went to North America. He was
looking for the fountain of youth, but instead found Florida and death. Francisco
Coronado sought the golden city of El Dorado in the American southwest in
1540-1542 and he saw the Grand Canyon and bison. Hernando de Soto in 1539
was the first European to cross the Mississippi River and was killed by fever after
a battle with Indians. In South America Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in
1532 bringing new wealth in gold and silver to Spain and the rest of Europe. The
new world caused an influx of good economics to the whole continent.
o The Encomienda System
This was a system of give and take with the Indians and the colonists in
the West Indies. The Spanish government would commend (give) Indians
to white colonists in return for promising to Christianize them. It was a
slavery institution that appalled missionary Bartolomé de Las Casas,
saying it was “a moral pestilence invented by Satan.”
o Hernando Cortes set off from Cuba in 1519 with eleven ships bound for Mexico.
On his journey he picked up a Spanish castaway on Cozumel, who spoke Spanish
and Mayan, and an Indian slave Malinche, who spoke Mayan and Nahuatl, the
Aztec language. She was later named Dona Maria as a baptized Spaniard. Near
what is now Vera Cruz, he approached the capital city of Tenochtitlan, in which
the Aztec leader Montezuma II gave him gifts and welcomed Cortes into his
palace. Their misconception was that he was a returning god, Quetzalcoatl,
allowing him to approach the leader freely. Cortes then took all of their gold, and
on noche triste (sad night and June 30, 1520) the Aztecs attacked. The Spaniards
returned and defeated the Aztecs on August 13, 1521. That, combined with a
smallpox epidemic, reduced the Indian population in the area by 90% to 2 million.
Over time, a new culture of mestizos, of Spanish and Indian descent was created,
the name Malinche translates into the Spanish malinchista for traitor, and Dia de
la Raza is celebrated every year in Mexico as Columbus Day.
The New World Spanish Empire
o The English sent John Cabot to explore the eastern North American coast in 1497
and 1498 and France sent Giovanni de Verrazano in 1524 to survey the same area
and Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River valley later. The Spanish
founded the missionary fort St. Augustine in Florida in 1565. They later continued
their conquering efforts in the North American Southwest led by Don Juan de
Onate who conquered in the Battle of Acoma in 1599 and created the New
Mexico province and placed its capital at Santa Fe. Christianity spread rapidly
then, until the Pueblo uprising in Pope’s Rebellion when they built kivas in
protest. Other explorers strolled in the area such as French Robert de La Salle
who sailed the Mississippi and established Texan forts. Spanish explorers were
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who explored coastal California in 1542 but did not find
anything, and Junipero Serra who founded San Diego and Christianized native
Californians with the help of his Franciscan friars. The “Black Legend” dictates
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that the Spanish were so horrible to the Indians, but they were only moderately
vicious to them. It was then the English’s turn to settle.
Chapter 2: The Planting of English America
Reasons to Leave England in the 1600’s
o In the late 16th century and early 17th century, England was experiencing a wave
of victories. There was the Protestant Reformation which separated them from
Spain religiously, and Queen Elizabeth’s “Invincible Armada” being raised,
setting the standard for British navy. Literature flourished in the age of
Shakespeare and explorations in the New World with Francis Drake and Sir
Walter Raleigh at Roanoke failed. Eventually, sheep farming for wool became
popular, but that industry was harmed by a depression, so people wanted to flee
for financial support. There was a population overload, causing people to want to
colonize the New World. Younger sons in family had to leave to find fortune. To
summarize, the four major reasons to leave England were due to unemployment,
or the search for adventure, fortune, or religious freedom.
Jamestown
o The Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, received a charter from King
James I to begin to colonize North America in 1606. They were looking for gold
and a water passage through North America to the Orient. Long-term colonization
was not forethought. The charter is ironic because it provided the colonists with
the same rights as Englishmen, but later, the reason they rebelled was due to lack
of rights. Three ships landed in the Chesapeake Bay region in 1606 and they
traveled up the James River (named for the King) to finally settle at a swampy,
mosquito-ridden spot which they called Jamestown. Initial problems that they
faced were losing men on the journeys and the fact that these men (and only men,
that was another issue) were of high society and did not want to do back breaking
labor. Those who survived did so by eating dogs, cats, mice, and rats, and even
corpses, and they tried to go home, but they were stopped by Lord De La Warr on
the James River, who told them to go back.
John Smith
o Smith was a Captain in 1608 when he came to Jamestown and became its savior.
His famous line is, “He who does not work, does not eat.” This allowed for the
gold hungry men of Jamestown to knuckle down and make progress. He was
kidnapped by an Indian leader Powhatan in 1607, but he was saved by his
daughter, Pocahontas. She later became the translator between the two people
and held them together as a symbol for peaceful relations.
Powhattan Indians
o The ruling party over the Chesapeake Bay Indians was a group known as
“Powhatan’s Confederacy” (see above). At first, they were allied with the
English, but in 1610, Lord De La Warr claimed their land for the Virginia
Company and for England. A battle ensued and De La Warr used Irish tactics to
win the First Anglo-Powhatan war in 1614. The peace was sealed by the marriage
of Pocahontas to Englishman John Rolfe. Later, disease harmed the Indians, and
Indians harmed the settlers until the Second Anglo-Powhatan War in 1644. Peace
was recognized in 1646, and the Indians died out by 1685. The reasons were
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