AP US History:: Period 1

Prior to sustained European contact in 1492, Native American societies across North America were best characterized by:

- **A)** A single, uniform culture and language shared identically by every Native American group across the entire continent, with no meaningful regional variation of any kind
- **B)** A total population so small that European colonization had essentially no meaningful demographic impact of any kind on any pre-existing Native society
- **C)** Enormous diversity in language, political organization, economy, and religious practice, shaped significantly by each specific group's own local environment - Pacific Northwest peoples relied heavily on salmon fishing and lived in dense, permanent settlements; Great Plains peoples (before the horse, introduced later via the Columbian Exchange discussed below) relied on a mix of farming and bison hunting; Southwestern Pueblo peoples built multi-story adobe dwellings and practiced irrigation agriculture; and Northeastern Woodland peoples, including the Iroquois Confederacy discussed further below, combined farming with hunting and seasonal settlement patterns
- **D)** Exclusively nomadic hunter-gatherer bands, with no meaningful agricultural society, permanent settlement, or complex political organization of any kind present anywhere in pre-contact North America

The "Three Sisters" agricultural system, widely practiced among many Native American farming societies (particularly in the Eastern Woodlands), refers to the practice of:

- **A)** A political alliance between three specific Native nations, a description that instead relates to a political confederation concept (such as the Iroquois Confederacy, discussed further below), not the Three Sisters agricultural practice specifically
- **B)** Planting corn (maize), beans, and squash together in the same mound - the tall corn stalk provided a natural structure for the bean vine to climb, the nitrogen-fixing bean plant helped replenish soil nutrients that the corn depleted, and the broad-leafed squash spread along the ground, helping to suppress weeds and retain soil moisture - this companion-planting system supported a stable, productive agricultural surplus for many Native farming societies well before European contact
- **C)** A ceremonial religious practice involving three specific sacred sites, with no meaningful agricultural or crop-related component of any kind
- **D)** A system of trading three specific goods (furs, tools, and textiles) between different Native trading networks, rather than accurately describing an agricultural planting practice

European motivations for overseas exploration and colonization beginning in the late 15th century are often summarized using the shorthand "God, Gold, and Glory," referring respectively to:

- **A)** A desire to eliminate all religious practice, a desire to avoid any economic gain, and a desire to remain entirely unknown to history - the exact reverse of what each of these three specific motivating factors actually represented
- **B)** Three entirely unrelated concepts with no meaningful connection to religious conversion, economic profit, or national prestige of any kind
- **C)** A specific religious denomination, a specific mineral resource, and a specific military rank, rather than accurately describing the three broader categories of motivation this shorthand is actually meant to summarize
- **D)** The desire to spread Christianity (particularly Catholicism, for Spain and Portugal) and convert non-Christian peoples; the pursuit of wealth through precious metals, trade goods, and new resources; and the pursuit of national prestige and personal fame for the explorer and the sponsoring monarchy - together, these three motivations help explain why European monarchs were willing to fund risky, expensive overseas voyages during this period

Which combination of technological developments was most significant in enabling the long-distance ocean voyages of exploration discussed throughout this unit?

- **A)** The caravel (a smaller, more maneuverable ship design capable of sailing effectively against the wind), the magnetic compass (allowing navigation without reliance on visible landmarks or clear skies), and the astrolabe (allowing sailors to calculate their latitude by measuring the angle of the sun or stars) - together, these innovations allowed European sailors to navigate farther from familiar coastlines with considerably greater confidence and safety than earlier ship and navigation technology would have allowed
- **B)** The steam engine and the telegraph, both of which were not developed until many centuries after the exploration voyages discussed throughout this unit had already taken place
- **C)** Technological development having no meaningful, describable relationship to the specific ship design, navigation instruments, or exploration voyages discussed throughout this unit
- **D)** The printing press alone, with no meaningful role for any specific ship design or navigation instrument in enabling the long-distance ocean voyages discussed throughout this unit

The Columbian Exchange, the widespread transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and people between the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere following Columbus's 1492 voyage, is best understood as:

- **A)** A transfer that flowed in only a single direction, from the Americas to Europe, with absolutely nothing of any kind transferred from Europe, Africa, or Asia back to the Americas
- **B)** A transfer limited exclusively to precious metals such as gold and silver, with no meaningful exchange of any crop, animal, disease, or population involved
- **C)** A two-way exchange that fundamentally transformed both hemispheres: American crops such as maize, potatoes, and tomatoes eventually contributed to significant population growth in Europe, Africa, and Asia, while Old World livestock (horses, cattle, pigs) and crops (wheat, sugar) transformed American agriculture and, in the case of the horse in particular, dramatically altered the culture and mobility of many Great Plains Native societies - but the exchange also carried devastating Old World diseases (such as smallpox) to Native American populations, who had no prior immunity, resulting in catastrophic demographic collapse across the Americas
- **D)** A purely beneficial process for every population involved on every continent, with no meaningful negative consequence of any kind for any group discussed anywhere in this unit

The introduction of Old World diseases (such as smallpox, measles, and influenza) to the Americas, a central component of the Columbian Exchange discussed above, resulted in a catastrophic demographic collapse among Native American populations primarily because:

- **A)** Native American populations had, in fact, already been exposed to and developed full immunity against these specific diseases long before European contact, the general opposite of the total lack of prior immunity that actually explains this catastrophic demographic collapse
- **B)** Native American populations, having developed in relative biological isolation from Eastern Hemisphere populations for many thousands of years, had no prior exposure or immunity to diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, which had long circulated among European, African, and Asian populations - lacking this immunity, Native communities often suffered mortality rates far higher than those experienced by European populations exposed to the very same diseases, and in many regions disease spread ahead of direct European contact itself, devastating some Native communities even before they had ever personally encountered a European colonizer
- **C)** European colonizers deliberately manufactured every single disease that affected Native American populations specifically for this purpose, rather than these diseases already circulating naturally among Old World populations prior to 1492
- **D)** Disease transmission during this period had no meaningful, describable relationship to prior immunity, population isolation, or demographic collapse of any kind

Hernan Cortes's conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519-1521), a major event in the early Spanish colonization of the Americas, was significantly aided by:

- **A)** A Spanish military force that vastly outnumbered the Aztec Empire's own total population and army, a description that inaccurately characterizes the actual, well-documented numerical imbalance, in which the Spanish force was in fact vastly outnumbered by Aztec forces
- **B)** Cortes's conquest having no meaningful, describable relationship to Native alliances, disease, or any other significant contributing factor of any kind
- **C)** The complete absence of any political division or rivalry among Native peoples within or near the Aztec Empire, the general opposite of the significant political divisions Cortes actually exploited
- **D)** Alliances with Native peoples who resented Aztec rule and were willing to fight alongside the Spanish against a shared rival, along with the devastating effect of Old World disease (discussed above) weakening the Aztec population, and Spanish technological advantages such as steel weapons, horses, and firearms - this combination of factors, rather than Spanish numbers alone, helps explain how a comparatively small Spanish force was able to overthrow a large, powerful empire

Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire (1532-1533), occurring roughly a decade after Cortes's conquest of the Aztec Empire (discussed above), is frequently compared to that earlier conquest primarily because both conquests shared:

- **A)** A broadly similar combination of contributing factors - a comparatively small Spanish force exploiting existing internal political divisions (in the Inca case, a recent civil war of succession that had already weakened and divided the empire), the devastating effect of Old World disease that had, in the Inca case, arrived and spread even before Pizarro's own forces had physically arrived, and Spanish technological/military advantages - illustrating a broader pattern in Spanish conquest of the major American empires during this period, rather than each conquest resulting from an entirely unique, unrelated set of circumstances
- **B)** No meaningful similarity of any kind, with each conquest instead resulting from an entirely unique, unrelated set of circumstances that shared no comparable factor whatsoever with the other conquest
- **C)** A complete absence of any Native alliance, disease impact, or political division in either conquest, contradicting the well-documented role each of these specific factors played in both the Aztec and Inca conquests
- **D)** An Inca Empire that was, in fact, considerably weaker and smaller than the Aztec Empire from the very outset, before any Spanish contact had even occurred, rather than the two comparably powerful, large empires actually being described in this comparison