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Credit Sprint's Guide to U.S. History, Period 1: Contact and Colonization, 1491 to 1607

AP® weight 4–6%CLEP® Exam I

Before Columbus, millions of Native Americans lived in diverse societies across the Americas. After 1492, contact with Europeans and Africans reshaped both sides of the Atlantic through the Columbian Exchange, new colonial systems and the first forced labor regimes.

The nine periods of U.S. history11491–160721607–175431754–180041800–184851844–187761865–189871890–194581945–198091980–nowAP® periods run in overlapping blocks of years

What you need to know

  • Native societies varied by environment: Pueblo farmers of the Southwest, Mississippian mound builders, Eastern Woodland confederacies such as the Iroquois, Plains hunters and Pacific Northwest fishing peoples.
  • The Columbian Exchange moved crops, animals and diseases across the ocean. Corn, potatoes and tomatoes went east; horses, cattle and wheat went west. Smallpox and other diseases killed the majority of Native people in many regions.
  • Spain built the first large empire. The encomienda system gave colonists the labor of Native people, and the later repartimiento and mission systems shaped New Spain. Spanish conquistadors such as Cortés and Pizarro conquered the Aztec and Inca empires.
  • Spanish society used a racial caste system (casta), with peninsulares at the top and Native and African people at the bottom. Bartolomé de las Casas criticized the abuse of Native workers.
  • The Atlantic slave trade began to grow in the 1500s to supply labor for sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean.
  • France built a fur-trading empire in Canada based on alliances with Native nations. The Dutch founded New Netherland for trade. England arrived later and colonized with settlers.
  • Spain's colonies on the northern frontier, such as St. Augustine and Santa Fe, were military and mission outposts. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove Spain out of New Mexico for over a decade.
  • Europeans justified conquest through religion and a belief in cultural superiority. Native groups responded by trading, fighting, forming alliances and adapting.

Exam traps

Watch forThe Columbian Exchange was not only crops. The largest effect on people was disease.
Watch forDo not treat Native peoples as one group. Exam questions test regional differences and diverse responses to Europeans.
Watch forEncomienda was a grant of Native labor and tribute. It was not the same as the African slave trade, though both were forms of forced labor.

Key terms

  • Columbian Exchange: The movement of plants, animals, people and diseases between the Americas, Europe and Africa after 1492.
  • Encomienda: A Spanish system that granted colonists the labor and tribute of Native people in return for protection and conversion.
  • Conquistador: A Spanish soldier-explorer who conquered Native empires in the Americas, such as Cortés and Pizarro.
  • Casta system: A Spanish colonial hierarchy that ranked people by ancestry, with peninsulares at the top.
  • Mississippian culture: A Native society known for mound-building cities such as Cahokia.
  • Iroquois Confederacy: A league of Native nations in the Northeast with a shared council and a system for settling disputes.
  • Bartolomé de las Casas: A Spanish priest who criticized the cruel treatment of Native people under the encomienda system.
  • Pueblo Revolt (1680): A Native uprising that drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for about twelve years.
  • Mission: A religious settlement used by Spain to convert Native people and extend its control.
  • New France: French colonies in Canada and the Mississippi valley built on the fur trade and alliances with Native nations.
  • New Netherland: A Dutch trading colony in the Hudson Valley, later taken by England and renamed New York.
  • Smallpox: A disease brought by Europeans that killed a majority of Native people in many regions.
  • Atlantic slave trade: The forced shipment of millions of Africans to the Americas to work on plantations.
  • Joint-stock company: A business owned by investors who share profits and risks, used to fund English colonies.
  • Roanoke: An early English colony in North Carolina that vanished, known as the Lost Colony.
  • Maize: Corn, a Native American crop that became a staple around the world.

Practice questions

Five of the 64 Period 1 questions in Credit Sprint. Every choice is explained in the app.

1. Pueblo peoples of the Southwest relied on irrigated maize farming. Which environmental fact best explains this?
  1. Thick forests supplied game and nuts all year long, so crops mattered little
  2. A cold climate kept groups near their stored food through every winter
  3. The region was dry, so farmers had to channel scarce water
  4. Yearly river floods watered the fields without any human work or planning
Show answer

The region was dry, so farmers had to channel scarce water. In an arid climate, reliable harvests depended on irrigation, which also encouraged permanent villages and cooperative labor.

2. The Spanish encomienda system gave colonists the right to
  1. own the ships that carried silver to Spain from the colonies
  2. demand labor and tribute from a group of native people
  3. share in the profits of a company financed by many investors
  4. claim exemption from all taxes owed to the Spanish crown
Show answer

demand labor and tribute from a group of native people. Encomenderos received work and goods from native communities in return for supposedly protecting and instructing them, which often led to abuse.

3. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) was
  1. a charter that created the first English joint-stock company
  2. a pact in which Spain and the Aztec empire shared the Americas
  3. a settlement that ended the Protestant Reformation across Europe
  4. an agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing newly found lands
Show answer

an agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing newly found lands. Brokered with papal involvement, it drew a line that gave Spain most of the Americas and Portugal claims including Brazil.

4. How did the Protestant Reformation shape English colonization?
  1. It set Protestant England against Catholic Spain and France
  2. It ended English interest in overseas trade and exploration
  3. It led England to adopt Spain's system of native tribute
  4. It forced the English government to outlaw all emigration
Show answer

It set Protestant England against Catholic Spain and France. Religious rivalry, along with commercial and political ambition, pushed England to compete for American claims.

5. Portugal led early European exploration of the African coast in the 1400s in order to
  1. prepare a campaign to capture the English capital with ships
  2. respond to demands by the Aztec empire for new trading partners
  3. find a sea route to the wealth of Asian trade
  4. fulfill a treaty requiring Portugal to guard the new American lands
Show answer

find a sea route to the wealth of Asian trade. Prince Henry supported navigation and trading posts, which let Portugal bypass Mediterranean middlemen.