APUSH Period 1: Pre-Columbian to Early Contact

On 12 October 1492, Christopher Columbus, sailing under the Spanish crown, made landfall on an island in the Bahamas archipelago — a chain of low coral islands in the western Atlantic Ocean, between…

Tordesillas, a small town in central Spain on the Castilian plateau between the Tagus and Douro rivers, was where Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The two Iberian powers…

This event is set in Tenochtitlan, the great island city built on a lake in the high Valley of Mexico, sitting atop the broad central plateau between the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre…

This is Cusco, Peru — a highland city sitting deep in the Andes mountain range, far inland from the Pacific coast on the western spine of South America. Around 1500, the Inca civilization used…

Ollantaytambo, in present-day Peru, sits high in the Andes of western South America — exactly where the mountain spine the title described runs through the heart of the continent, far from any coast…

This stone was carved in Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, located in the high Valley of Mexico on a plateau deep in the interior of North America, far south of the Rio Grande and…

In April 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León made the first documented European landing on mainland North America north of Mexico, touching the Atlantic coast of what is now Florida near…

This event unfolded in Tenochtitlan, the island capital of the Aztec Empire, built on a lake in the high Valley of Mexico — a volcanic plateau sitting at roughly 2,200 metres above sea level, almost…

New York Bay is a large sheltered harbour on the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, enclosed by Long Island to the north-east, Staten Island to the south-west, and the New Jersey shore, with a…

This event unfolded in Cusco, Peru — a city perched high in the Andes mountains along South America's western backbone, exactly the highland core the title clue pointed toward. Around 1529, following…

The pin lands at Cajamarca, Peru — a highland city sitting in a narrow Andean valley at roughly 2,750 metres above sea level, on the Pacific side of the continent and just south of the equator…

In the summer of 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, planted a cross at Gaspé Peninsula on the south shore, and claimed the territory for France — the first…

In September 1540, a scouting party from Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's expedition, led by García López de Cárdenas, became the first Europeans to reach and view the Grand Canyon of the Colorado…

In May 1541, Hernando de Soto and his expedition became the first Europeans to reach and cross the Mississippi River, near what is now Memphis, Tennessee. After wintering among the Chickasaw people…

St. Augustine, Florida, on the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United States, sits roughly 350 kilometres north of the Florida Straits — the narrow channel separating North America from Cuba…

In 1576, English navigator Martin Frobisher led the first English expedition into the Canadian Arctic, reaching the southern coast of Baffin Island and sailing into the bay now bearing his name…

In June 1579, English privateer Francis Drake anchored at a bay on the California coast — most likely present-day Drakes Bay at Point Reyes — during his circumnavigation of the globe. He spent five…

Roanoke Island sits off the coast of present-day North Carolina, United States — a small island sheltered behind the Outer Banks, the long ribbon of barrier islands that separates the Atlantic Ocean…