AP US History Exam Review

1. AP US History Exam Review Session 1: Settlement through the American Revolution

2. About the Exam • The Exam is 3 hour and 15 minutes and consists of 2 sections: • 55-minute multiple-choice section • 130-minute free-response section • The free-response section begins with a mandatory 15 minute reading period—students should spend most of the 15 minutes analyzing the docs and planning their DBQ (suggested writing time is 45 minutes for the DBQ) • Parts B and C each include two standard essay questions. Students are required to answer 1 essay question in each part in a total of 70 minutes. It is suggested that students spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing each essay.

3. Period Covered Approximate Percentage of the test Exam Content Pre-Columbian to 1789 1790 to 1914 1915 to the present 20% 45% 35%

4. The Exam Composition continued… Material Covered Approximate Percentage of the test • Public Institutions, behavior and public policy • Social change, and cultural and intellectual developments • Diplomacy and international relations • Economic developments • 35% • 40% • 15% • 10%

5. College Board Topics Outline 1. Pre-Columbian Societies • Early inhabitants of the Americas • American Indian empires in Mesoamerica, the Southwest, and the Mississippi Valley • American Indian cultures of North America at the time of European contact 2. Transatlantic Encounters and Colonial Beginnings, 1492–1690 • First European contacts with Native Americans • Spain’s empire in North America • French colonization of Canada • English settlement of New England, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the South • From servitude to slavery in the Chesapeake region • Religious diversity in the American colonies • Resistance to colonial authority: Bacon’s Rebellion, the Glorious Revolution, and the Pueblo Revolt

6. College Board Topics Outline Colonial North America, 1690–1754 • Population growth and immigration • Transatlantic trade and the growth of seaports • The eighteenth-century back country • Growth of plantation economies and slave societies • The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening • Colonial governments and imperial policy in British North America The American Revolutionary Era, 1754–1789 • The French and Indian War • The Imperial Crisis and resistance to Britain • The War for Independence

9. Mayan Civilization • Corn was the basis of the civilization • Mayans dug an extensive network of canals and water-control ditches than previously known • Only Indians in the Western Hemisphere to invent own type of writing • Invented the zero, developed a calendar based upon astronomy,

10. Aztec Civilization • In present day Mexico, Aztecs founded Tenochitlan as their capital • Practiced human sacrifices to please their gods • Fell after rapid spread of smallpox and an unfortunate myth regarding their gods

11. Incan Civilization • In present day Peru/Andes Mountains • Largest, oldest and best organized of the Indian civilizations • Incans divided land into 3 parts: one for the sun (religion), one for the Inca (government) and one for the ayllu (community) • Developed an impressive agricultural system, complete with terracing, drainage and irrigation which led to impressive food surpluses

12. European Conquests • Europeans were looking for new trade and new lands • 1492—Columbus sets sail and “discovers” the New World • Spain and Portugal were particularly dominant—remember the Treaty of Tordesillas! • In 1517, Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico and named it Vera Cruz—acquire as much gold and silver as possible and spread Christianity; by 1521, the conquest was complete • Francisco Pizarro completed the conquest of Incas by 1535 • By the mid 1500s, Havana, Mexico City, Quito, Buenos Aires, Santiago were founded

13. Key Exports and Consequences • Gold, silver • Tobacco, rubber, cacao and cotton • Potatoes and Corn • Destruction of indigenous life • Creation of “mestizo race” • African slaves brought to New World as early as 1502; unlike in America, the slave system in the New World was not self-sustaining and they had to rely upon slave importation • Creation of a new culture that incorporated indigenous, African, European and Catholic elements