Native American Societies BEFORE 1492 [APUSH Unit 1 Topic 2] 1.2

[0:00]Hey there, and welcome to a new year at Heimler's History. This year we're going to be working our way through the AP US History curriculum, one topic at a time, and I'm glad to have you along. In this video, we're going to begin with Unit 1 topic 2, which is all about the Americas before the Europeans arrived. So, we've got no time to waste, get them brain cows ready. I'm about to milk them. Let's get to it. All right, let me begin by telling you why we're starting with Unit 1 topic 2 and not Unit 1 topic 1. In every unit of the AP US History curriculum, the first and the last topics basically just review the whole unit. And I've got videos reviewing the whole unit, so we're just going to skip those, good? Good, good. So we begin our study of United States history before there even was a United States, namely in Native America. Now, the big idea that you need to take away from this video is that before the Europeans arrived on the American shores, Native American peoples organized themselves into diverse cultures depending on where they lived. And this is the diverse cultures part that I need to emphasize. Commonly, when we think of Native Americans, we think of guys on horses killing Buffalo and retiring to their tepees at night. We just sort of paste that idea over the whole continent, but that is patently untrue. Some Native Americans lived in fishing villages, others roam the land as nomadic hunters and gatherers, some settled down and got their farm on, while others congregated in giant city-based empires. So you have to realize that when we encounter the Americas before the European arrival, we're dealing with a very diverse set of folks. So let's just take a jaunt around the American continents and see what's going on. First, let's talk about Central and South America. There, three major civilizations emerged, all of them boasting large urban centers, complex political systems, and well-formed religions. Let's start with our friends the Aztecs in Central America or Mesoamerica. Now, you may hear these people referred to as the Mexico, which is what they call themselves. So, don't get confused, Aztecs, Mexica, same-ica. They had a magnificent capital city called Tenochtitlan, which at its height was home to 300,000 people. They had a written language, they employed complex systems of irrigation. Priests upheld a cult of fertility both for the land and for the people, and such fertility was only upheld by human sacrifice. All right, people, the crops are looking a little peaked, population is down. I think you know where this is headed. Kevin, you about to get sacrificed. Hey, Kevin is back and if you were here for AP world, you might remember Kevin. He's always getting sacrificed by the Aztecs. Anyway, let's move along to the second civilization in this region, the Maya. Now, they established themselves on the Yucatan peninsula. And the Maya also developed large cities. They made use of complex irrigation and water storage systems. They built giant stone temples and palaces for rulers whom they believed were descended from the gods. And then going even further south into South America, we've got the Inca people. They established their civilization in the Andes mountains along the Pacific coast in what is today Peru, and this empire was massive. At its height, it ruled 16 million people and covered something like 350,000 square miles. That's a lot of land, Tony. Now, the key to the success of the Inca people was the cultivation of fertile mountain valleys where they grew potatoes and other crops, which were watered by elaborate systems of irrigation. Now, one thing all three of these civilizations had in common was the cultivation of maize, which is a corn-like crop, and you know what? If you never tasted it, trust me, it's amazing. You know, no matter how many times I recycle that joke, it's always funny.

[3:29]I'm sorry. Anyway, as I said, maize cultivation spread north, and so we ought to spread our learning a little bit north too. So, on the North American continent, we also meet a diversity of native peoples, and just for poops and giggles, let's start with the Southwest. Let me introduce you to the Pueblo people who lived in present-day New Mexico and Arizona, and they were a sedentary population, which means they kind of stayed in one place and didn't move around. They were farmers of maize and other crops, and they built Adobe and masonry homes both in the open and right into the sides of cliffs. They were a highly organized society with administrative offices, religious centers, and craft shops. And then if we move a little bit north to the Great Plains and the Great Basin regions, we find not sedentary folks, but nomadic peoples. And these regions were populated with hunter-gatherer type people who needed a lot of land to do said hunting and gathering because of the aridity of the region. A good example of this kind of people was the Ute people, who lived out this lifestyle in small egalitarian kinship-based bands. And then if we head over to the Pacific Northwest, we meet a different kind of people altogether. The folks who lived over here lived by the sea and settled themselves into fishing villages. They also relied on elk, which they found in abundance in their forests. A good example is the Chinook people, and they made use of the great cedar trees around them to construct giant plank houses, which could house up to 70 members of the same kinship band. The Chumash people lived on the coast, but further south in present-day California, and they were actually still hunters and gatherers, but they did live in permanent settlements, which they constructed in places where there was enough game and vegetation to support all their hunting and gathering. All right, now let's head over to the Mississippi River Valley, where we're going to find much larger and more complex societies, chiefly because the fertile soil surrounding the rivers meant that societies could stay put and farm and develop. I'll introduce you to two of them. First, the Hopewell people. They lived in towns of about 4,000 to 6,000 people, and they traded extensively with other regions as far away as Florida and the Rocky Mountains. Also in that region, we have the Cahokia people, who boasted the largest settlement in that region, and at its height, the settlement counted somewhere between 10 and 30,000 people. The government was led by powerful chieftains who centralized the government and engaged in extensive trade networks from the Great Lakes all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. And finally, let me introduce you to some folks living in the northeast of America, namely the Iroquois. They lived in villages made up of several hundred people where they grew crops like maze and squash and beans. Also, like their Pacific Northwest counterparts, they built and lived in long houses where they lived with anywhere between 30 and 50 of their family members. All right, that's what you need to know about Unit 1 topic 2 of AP US History. If you need any help getting an A in your class and a 5 in your exam in May, then do yourself a favor and grab my A-push view packet right here. If you're new here and you want to join the bearded enthusiasts here at Heimler's History, then go ahead and subscribe and I'll keep making videos for you. Heimler out.