Period 1 (1491-1607)

Overview

Welcome to Period 1! This period accounts for roughly 5% of the exam. Although you will not see a Long Essay or DBQ based solely on this time period, you could see a topic that incorporates this period as part of a larger idea.

Why were these years chosen for this period?

1491 marks one year prior to the arrival of Columbus and Europeans in large numbers to the Americas. Additionally, 1607 is the year that the first permanent English settlement was established in Jamestown, Virginia. Period 1 focuses significantly on Native American life PRIOR to the arrival of Europeans. Furthermore impacts of the Columbian Exchange on Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans are important to know.

Thematic Questions

American & National Identity: How did the identities of colonizing and indigenous American societies change as a result of contact in the Americas?

Work, Exchange, & Technology: How did the Columbian Exchange—the mutual transfer of material goods, commodities, animals, and diseases—affect interaction between Europeans and natives and among indigenous peoples in North America?

Migration & Settlement: Where did different groups settle in the Americas (before contact) and how and why did they move to and within the Americas (after contact)?

Politics and Power: How did Spain’s early entry into colonization in the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America shape European and American developments in this period?

America in the World: How did European attempts to dominate the Americas shape relations between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans?

Geography & the Environment: How did pre‐contact populations of North America relate to their environments? How did contact with Europeans and Africans change these relations in North America?

Culture & Society: How did cultural contact challenge the religious and other values systems of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?