Session 1: Settlement through the American Revolution

About the ExamThe Exam is 3 hour and 15 minutes and

consists of 2 sections: 55-minute multiple-choice section130-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.

Period Covered

Pre-Columbian to 1789

1790 to 1914

1915 to the present

Approximate Percentage of the test

20%

45%

35%

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%

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 contact2. 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

College Board Topics OutlineColonial North America, 1690–1754

Population growth and immigrationTransatlantic trade and the growth of seaportsThe eighteenth-century back countryGrowth of plantation economies and slave societiesThe Enlightenment and the Great AwakeningColonial governments and imperial policy in British

North AmericaThe American Revolutionary Era, 1754–1789

The French and Indian WarThe Imperial Crisis and resistance to BritainThe War for Independence

Mayan CivilizationCorn was the basis of the civilizationMayans 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,

Aztec CivilizationIn present day Mexico, Aztecs founded

Tenochitlan as their capitalPracticed human sacrifices to please their

godsFell after rapid spread of smallpox and an

unfortunate myth regarding their gods

Incan CivilizationIn present day Peru/Andes MountainsLargest, oldest and best organized of the

Indian civilizationsIncans 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

European ConquestsEuropeans were looking for new trade and new lands1492—Columbus sets sail and “discovers” the New WorldSpain 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

Key Exports and ConsequencesGold, silverTobacco, rubber, cacao and cotton

Potatoes and CornDestruction of indigenous lifeCreation 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