Unit 1: 1491-1607
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences using evidence from your text. Each
answer must be accompanied by at least 1 page number reference to your evidence.
 Key Question 1.1: As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North
America over time, how did they develop distinct and increasingly complex societies? In what
ways did they adapt to and transform their diverse environments?
 Identifying Question 1: How did different native societies adapt to and transform their
environments? What specific innovations and adaptations did they make in agriculture, resource
use, and social structure?
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Supporting Question A: In what ways did the spread of maize cultivation from present- day Mexico
northward into the present-day American Southwest and beyond support economic development,
settlement, advanced irrigation, and social diversification among societies?
Supporting Question B: How did environmental factors in the Great Basin and the western Great Plains
lead to development of largely mobile societies?
Supporting Question C: Why did natives in the Northeast, the Mississippi River Valley, and along the
Atlantic seaboard societies mixed agricultural and hunter- gatherer economies that favored the development
of permanent villages?
Supporting Question D: What environmental issues enabled societies in the Northwest and present-day
California to support themselves by hunting and gathering and to develop some settled communities? What
role did their proximity to the ocean play in these societies?
 Key Question 1.2: What interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic came
about as a result of the Columbian Exchange?
 Identifying Question 2.1: What extensive demographic and social changes were triggered on
both sides of the Atlantic after the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere in the 15th
and 16th centuries?
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Supporting Question A: What drove European nations efforts to explore and conquer the New World?
Supporting Question B: How did the Columbian Exchange stimulate European population growth and new
sources of mineral wealth? In what ways did these changes facilitate the shift from feudalism to capitalism?
Supporting Question C: In what ways did maritime technological improvements and new organizational
methods for conducting international business help drive change to economies in Europe and the Americas?
 Identifying Question 2.2: What significant demographic and social changes were triggered on
both sides of the Atlantic after the Columbian Exchange and the development of the Spanish
Empire in the Western Hemisphere?
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Supporting Question A: In what ways did the Spanish exploration and conquest of the America’s affect the
American continents?
Supporting Question B: How did the Spanish colonial economies utilize native populations to extract precious
metals and other resources?
Supporting Question C: Explain the introduction and evolution of African Slavery into Spanish economies in
the New World.
Supporting Question D: Analyze the development and evolution of the Spanish caste system in their colonial
empire.
 Identifying Question 2.3: How did contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans
result in significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean?
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Supporting Question A: How did mutual misunderstandings between Europeans and Native Americans define
the early years of interaction and trade? In what ways did both groups adopt some useful aspects of each
other’s culture?
Supporting Question B: How did Native Americans attempt to defend their political sovereignty, economic
prosperity, religious beliefs, and concepts of gender relations against European encroachments on Native
American lands and increased labor demands?
Supporting Question C: In what ways did extended contact with Native Americans and Africans foster debate
among European religious and political leaders about how non-Europeans should be treated? In what ways did
these debates influence evolving religious, cultural and racial justifications for the subjugation of Africans and
Native Americas?