AP US History
UNIT ONE
Land-Bridge Theory
 The first people to enter
North America are said
to have entered the land
bridge from present-day
Siberia to Alaska which is
now the Bering Strait.
Sustaining Life
 Around 5000 BC corn
was developed and
harvested.
 This spread across the
Americas and changed
the life of the Natives.
 Many of the Native
societies were
“matrilineal”.
Strength in Numbers
 The Natives of Central
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and South America were
more urbanized than the
spread out tribes of
North America
Aztecs (Mexico)
Incas (Peru)
Mayans (Guatemala)
Taino (Caribbean)
North American Natives
 Many of these groups
spread out throughout
North America.
 These societies did not
compare to the
organization and size of
the South American
empires.
 This caused them to be
easily taken over by the
Europeans upon contact.
Meanwhile in Europe….
 Many of the European
powers were looking for
short-cuts to the East
Indies to attain goods
and luxury items not
available in Europe.
 Drugs for medical use,
silk for clothing, colorful
draperies for castles, and
spices…..especially sugar.
How can we get there?
 Travel down the southern
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tip of Africa was impossible
due to the trade winds.
Until the Portuguese invent
the caravel.
This made the Portuguese
very competitive in trading.
They set up trading posts
along the coast of Africa.
In 1498 Vasco da Gama
reaches India in 1498 for
Portugal.
Plantation System
 The Portuguese
purchased slaves and
gold along the coast.
 They built a system of
slave labor to work the
sugar plantations.
 The slave trade is now a
big business in the
fifteenth century (1400’s)
European Rivalry
 Spain becomes unified
through the marriage of
Ferdinand and Isabella
 They want to outdo their
neighbors to the west.
 The Portuguese already
controlled the coast of
Africa
 Their only way to the
Indies was west…..enter
Christopher Columbus
Dawning a new era in Europe
 Political unity and the
Renaissance in the 14th
century brought on a
feeling of ambition,
optimism, and
adventure.
 The Printing Press in
1450 and spreading of
scientific knowledge
 Also the invention of the
compass motivated
exploration west.
Columbus in the “New World”
 On October 12, 1492
Columbus and his crew
land in the Bahamas.
 This set the stage for an
eventual global economy
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Europe provides the
market, capital,
technology
Africa supplies the labor
New World offers its raw
materials

Metals, soil, sugar
World’s Colliding
 With the introduction of
Europeans to the New
World we see our first
global economy at work
 This was given the name
“Columbian Exchange”
 Horses and weapons
changed the culture of
Native Americans
forever.
The Number One Killer
 Diseases such as
smallpox, yellow fever,
and malaria devastated
the Native American
population
 The natives are said to
have given the gift of
disease back to the
Europeans in the form of
the STD syphilis.
The Spanish
 The conquistadores
 Spain takes over as
colonizing power in
1500’s
 Their three main goals
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Gold
God- convert natives to
Christianity
Glory
Notable Conquistadors
 Vasco Nunez Balboa
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Founder of Pacific Ocean
 Ferdinand Magellan

1522 First
circumnavigation of the
world
 Juan Ponce de Leon

Explored Florida 1521
 Francisco Coronado
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Explored AZ and NM for
“golden cities”
 Hernando de Soto
 Francisco Pizarro

Conquered the Inca
Empire in Peru
 Hernan Cortes

Conquered the Aztec
Empire of Mexico
Main Voyages of European Discovery
Encomienda
 This system of slave
labor for the Spanish
said that natives would
be given to colonists if
they promised to attempt
to Christianize them.
 This was their way of
rationalizing the
captivity of the natives.
Here come the English and French!
 English send Giovanni
Caboto to North America
in 1498
 French send Giovanni da
Verrazano to explore
eastern shores in 1524
 French also send Jacques
Cartier who journeyed on
the St. Lawrence River of
today Canada
Spanish dominate in the Southwest
 Missions are established
in San Antonio (the
Alamo)
 Missions also set up
along coast of California
in 1542
 21 missions set up in San
Diego in 1769
Eurocentric Textbook?
 Direct quotation from our textbook:

“The Spanish paid the Native Americans the high compliment
of fusing with them through marriage and incorporating
indigenous culture into their own, rather than shunning the
Indians as their English adversaries would do.”
Colonizing North America
 First European settlements
in North America
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Spanish in Santa Fe in 1610
French in Quebec in 1608
English at Jamestown in
1607
 England couldn’t compete
with Spain in the 1500’s in
the race to colonize and
explore the “New World”
 At first, they were allies
with Spain so to compete
was of little interest.
English Colonies: North vs. South
 Linked by common language and allegiance to
England
 Different according to patterns of settlement,
economies, political systems, and sets of values.
Religious trouble in Europe
 King Henry VIII broke ties
with the Roman Catholic
Church of England.
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The Pope refused to grant
him a divorce to his wife so
he declared himself the
power over the new church
of England. (He had 6 wives)
In 1558 Queen Elizabeth I
(loyal to Protestants) is
crowned royalty in England.
This creates tension between
England and Spain (loyal to
the Catholic Church).
Martin Luther nails his protests of
the Catholic Church in 1517. Started
the Protestant Reformation.
Unity in England
 Seizing and raiding Spanish ships and settlements became the
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goal of many English “sea dogs” such as Sir Francis Drake
His half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, convinced Elizabeth to
fund a colonization effort in the New World.
He first landed on Roanoke Island in 1585.
Three years later efforts to continue funding were halted when
Spain’s Philip II sent an Armada of Ships to invade England.
(Spanish Armada) 1588
England’s victory against Spain ended Spain’s domination
over seas.
This unified the state of England, brought on religious unity
for Protestants, a sense of Nationalism, and made Elizabeth
that much more popular among the people.
Broadening Horizons
 Along with this sense of
nationalism was a time of
great interest in William
Shakespeare’s dramas.
 A new spirit was born in
England
 One of thirst for
adventure, curiosity,
patriotism, faith and
finally peace with Spain
in 1604.
Heading West!
 Population growth, unemployment, religious
freedom, prospect of riches, and rich joint-stock
companies funding voyages urged many people to
make the voyage to the New World.
 The first voyage and attempt to colonize was funded
by the Virginia Company.
 Those taking the voyage would receive the same
rights as English citizens in the colony upon arrival.
 The Virginia Company’s three boats landed in the
Chesapeake Bay on the banks of the James River.
Jamestown: 1607
 Disease, malnutrition,
starvation, “gentlemen” not
ready to work (except to
look for gold), and violence
with natives (Powhatan
Indians)
 John Smith: “You don’t
work, you don’t eat”….
 Eating dogs, cats, rats,
mice, even corpses of those
already dead.
 Only 60 survived the
“starving time”: winter
1609-1610
Jamestown continued…
 Lord De La Warr arrives
in 1610
 Carries out raids on
Indian villages burning
them to the ground
 Causes the first AngloPowhatan War
 Peace was found with the
marriage of Pocahontas
and John Rolfe in 1614
Downfall of the Powhatan
 Three D’s
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Disease
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Small pox, measles
Disorganization
Disposability

No longer needed for labor
or food
Europeans Impacting Native Culture
 Horses
 Caused migration to the
Great Plains
 Now mounted nomadic
herders/hunters
 Disease
 Number one killer of natives
 Trade
 Firearms
 Forever alters hunting
 Beaver fur
 Intensified intertribal
fighting over hunting
grounds
 Over-killing of bison for
trade
Southern Colonies
 Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia
 Economy based on plantation
agriculture

Tobacco, rice, sugar, indigo
 Slavery found in all plantation
colonies
 Status in the south was based
on land ownership (the
‘Gentry’ class)
 These colonies wanted to
resemble English society as
much as possible.
 Loyal to the Anglican Church
(Church of England).
Life in the Chesapeake (Virginia Colony)
 Men outnumbered women 6-1 in 1650
 Life expectancy: 50% made it into 20’s.
 Marriages only lasted on avg. 7 years due to death.
 Causes weak family ties.
 Diseases ravaged populations.
Virginia’s Tobacco Economy
 Perfected by John Rolfe
 1612
 European demand
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increases
Many settlers look for
tracts of new land
Created first plantation
system
Demand for labor increases
First slaves arrive in Va. In
1619 from a Dutch warship
The North American slave
trade system had begun
“Poor Man’s Crop”
Tobacco Labor
 Many tobacco farmers of
Virginia couldn’t afford
slave labor.
 Introduction of
Indentured Servants.
 Headright System
 If you paid for someone
to come across from
Europe you received 50
acres of land
Bacon’s Rebellion
 Many impoverished free
men looking for land to
start a farm and women
to marry.
 1676
 Nathaniel Bacon
 Virginia governor
William Berkeley chased
out of Jamestown for not
retaliating on Natives for
attacking backwoods
settlements.
House of Burgesses
 With thriving economy of
Virginia they begin to
create a government of
their own.
 First legislative body in
North America
 1619: House of Burgesses
 James I
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Not happy!
Revokes Virginia Company
charter and places colony
under his direct control.
Maryland: Refuge for Catholics
 Founded 1634
 By Lord Baltimore
 Those loyal to the Catholic
Church in England continued
to be persecuted against.
 Tobacco plantations labored
by Indentured Servants
mainly
 Permitted freedom of worship
(Act of Toleration 1649)
 Death penalty to Jews and
Atheist who denounced Jesus
as the Messiah and Savior of
Mankind.
From Barbados to S. Carolina
 Slave codes of Barbados
(1661) traveled up the
coast of N. America to
South Carolina where
many of the English left the
sugar plantations.
 Slaves were denied even
the most fundamental of
rights as humans.
 Their master was in
complete control over their
lives.
 S. Carolina adopted the
Barbados slave code in
1696.
Slave trade intensifies in N. America
 Sugar plantations boom
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in the West Indies
(Caribbean) early 1600’s
Rich man’s crop: only
wealthy growers could
cultivate sugar
Very labor intensive
Imported thousands of
slaves from Africa
By 1700, slaves
outnumbered whites 4-1
Middle Passage
 Middle Passage
described the journey
slaves took from west coast
of Africa to the auction
blocks of ports such as
Rhode Island and
Charleston, South Carolina.
 Difference between a slave
and indentured servant
becomes race
 Slavery was worse in the
deep south.
South Carolina
 Settlers from Barbados
bring the system of slavery
with them to the Carolinas.
 Rice and sugar become the
principal export.
 Rice was grown in Africa
which made those slaves of
high demand in Carolina.
 Charles Town becomes the
busiest port in the South of
the slave trade.
North Carolina: The Rebel Colony
 Poverty-stricken
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Virginians and
“squatters”
Small-scale tobacco
farms
Resisted authority to
government
Seen as riff-raff and
irreligious
Separated from South
Carolina in 1712
North Carolina continued…
 Most democratic of
colonies
 Most independent
minded
 Least aristocratic
 North Carolina
sandwiched between
Aristocratic Virginia and
South Carolina
Buffer Colony: Georgia
 Founded in 1733
 Last of the 13 colonies
 Strategically created to
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protect the more valuable S.
Carolina colony from the
Spanish in Florida and French
in Louisiana
Produced silk and wine
Founded by James
Oglethorpe
Haven for debtors and
religious tolerance (except for
Catholics)
John Wesley (founder of
Methodist Church) was a
missionary in Ga.
New England Colonies
 Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire
 Mainly settled for
religious purposes

Purification, persecution,
refuge
 Economy based on
lumber, shipbuilding,
small farming, fishing,
trading (Boston Harbor)
Calvinism
 John Calvin of Geneva
 Follower of Martin Luther
and Protestant movement
 Idea of Predestination

Where people would spend
eternity after death.
 People sought signs of
conversion that they had
received God’s gift of
salvation.
 Heavily influenced
Puritans
Puritans: Purifying the Church
 The group of Puritans that
wanted to break away from
the Church of England were
known as the Separatists
 These “Pilgrims” (group of
Separatists from Holland)
crowded the Mayflower to
start a new life in the New
World.
 Each signed the Mayflower
Compact which said that
each would submit to the
authority of the majority. Selfgovernment apart from the
crown.
 They landed off the coast of
New England in 1620
Only 44/102 survived the first winter
Merging the Massachusetts Bay
 The Separatists of
Plymouth, low in
population, merged with
the Massachusetts Bay
colony with other nonSeparatist Puritans in 1691.
 First governor was John
Winthrop
 He proclaimed they would
be a “city upon a hill”.
 New Hampshire was
purchased by the Bay
colony in 1641 followed by
Maine in 1677.
Life in the Bay Colony
 Focus was religion
 Those not in the church could
not vote in the Town
Meetings.
 The purpose of government
was to enforce God’s laws
 People paid taxes to
government-supported
Church
 Very strict lifestyle
 Those who were not Puritans
or those who didn’t follow the
Puritan Ethic were outcasts
such as the Quakers (fled to
Pennsylvania).
 These people were punished
severely with fines, floggings,
and banishment.
 Among them Anne Hutchison
and Roger Williams.
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Williams and others left the
colony.
Williams founded Rhode
Island.
The Good Life
 Clean water, cool
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temperatures
Life expectancy similar
to that of today
Migrated with families
Avg. married woman had
10 children
Family values and
stability
 Women not given
property rights to
maintain roles in
marriage.
 Divorce very rare in New
England society
Organization of towns
 Meeting house for town
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meetings of government
Place of worship
Town Hall
Village Green for military
drill
Small area for crops and
animals
First college ever in New
World: Harvard 1636
 Congregational Church
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government
Ideas of democracy
Very diversified economy
of agriculture and
industry (shipbuilding)
Raising of livestock
Natural harbors for
commerce and shipping
Rhode Island Colony
 Established by Roger
Williams (outcast of
Puritan society)
 Freedom of Religion

Even to Jews and Catholics
 Most liberal English
colony: similar to North
Carolina
 Refuge for dissenters of
government and exiles
 Strong individualistic and
stubborn society
Colony of Connecticut
 Founded in 1638 in New
Haven by Puritans who
wanted even more
government regulation by
the church.
 Led by Reverend Thomas
Hooker
 Governed by the
Fundamental Orders
 A modern constitution in
which the citizens
democratically governed
the colony.
Royal Influence in the Colonies
 During the first half of the
1600’s the royal crown of
England was only involved
to an extent.
 The second half of the
century the crown began to
pay much closer attention
to her colonies.
 1686
 Dominion of New
England
 Colonies began trading
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with rival nations (Spain,
France, and the Dutch)
Sir Edmund Andros
(English military leader)
No more town meetings
Restrictions on freedom of
press, courts, and schools.
Taxed people w/o their
consent.
With dethroning of James
II in England, Dominion of
England collapses.
(Glorious Revolution 16881689)
Middle Colonies
 New York, New Jersey,
Delaware, Pennsylvania
 Most ethnically and
economically diverse
region of English colonies.
 Religious toleration and
democratic control
characterized the Middle
Colonies.
 “Bread Colonies”
 Wheat farming
 Fur trade on major rivers
 Lumbering
 Ship building
 Commerce on natural
harbors and sea ports
 Medium sized landholdings
 Major trading areas
(crossroads between the
Northern and Southern
colonies)
New Netherland = New York
 1623-1624
 Established by Dutch West
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India Company
Created for fur trade along the
Hudson River
Company town
Investors not interested in
religious freedom, speech, or
democracy
Dutch “buy” Manhattan
island from Indians who
didn’t actually own it.
Indian retaliation on the
Dutch cause them to erect a
wall-fort (Wall Street).
Dutch Intruders
 The English regarded the
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Dutch as intruders.
1664
Charles II granted area
to his brother Duke of
York
Area renamed New York
Dutch culture still there:

Harlem, Brooklyn, Easter
eggs, Santa Claus, waffles,
sauerkraut, bowling,
sleighing, skating, golf
Pennsylvania
 1681
 William Penn
 Quakers
 “Quaked” when under deep
religious emotion
 Religious Society of
Friends
 Refused military service in
England (pacifists)
 Bought land from Indians
 Friendly relations with
Natives
Pennsylvania Life
 Representative Assembly
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elected by landowners
Freedom of worship to
all citizens. Very liberal
colony.
Death penalty only for
treason and murder
Held no slaves
“Blue Laws”

No plays, playing cards,
dice, games, excessive
joking/laughing.
 Immediate economic
success.
 Other Quaker
settlements
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
New Jersey 1664
Delaware 1703
By the Swedish
 Named after Lord de la
Warr
