• 43 questions

APUSH Period 1 Practice Test

Unofficial multiple-choice practice for Period 1 of AP United States History, 1491 to 1607.

By about 1050 dozens of great houses in Chaco Canyon were joined by roads to more than 150 others across the San Juan Basin. What does this network show about Ancestral Puebloan society?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: A to D pick, Enter checks.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the College Board. Bank checked October 8, 2026.

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All 43 questions

Topic 1.2: Native American societies before contact 10

  • By about 1050 dozens of great houses in Chaco Canyon were joined by roads to more than 150 others across the San Juan Basin. What does this network show about Ancestral Puebloan society? National Park Service, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, "History & Culture"; course topic 1.2
  • How did the ancestral Sonoran Desert people who built the Casa Grande, in what is now Arizona, farm an arid land? National Park Service, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, "History & Culture"; course topic 1.2
  • How did the Chumash of the California coast and Channel Islands support settled villages without farming? National Park Service, Channel Islands National Park, "Native Inhabitants"; course topic 1.2
  • In the 1580s John White drew the Algonquian village of Secotan, near the Outer Banks of today's North Carolina. Which way of life did the people of Secotan follow? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "What Came To Be Called America"; course topic 1.2
  • In the year 1250 the Native settlement of Cahokia, in the Mississippi Valley, was larger than London. What does Cahokia show about North America before European contact? National Park Service, "Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site & Interpretive Center"; course topic 1.2
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Topic 1.2: Native American societies before contact, continued

  • Iroquois farmers planted corn, beans and squash together in the same hills. How did the three crops help one another? U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library, "The Three Sisters"; course topic 1.2
  • Mica, shark's teeth, obsidian, copper and marine shells have been found at the Hopewell earthworks of Ohio. What are they evidence of? National Park Service, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, "History & Culture"; course topic 1.2
  • What did the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk pledge when they united in a confederation about the year 1200? National Park Service, "The Six Nations Confederacy During the American Revolution"; course topic 1.2
  • Which resource was central to the life of the Native nations of the Great Plains for thousands of years? National Park Service, Bison, "People and Bison"; course topic 1.2
  • Which statement best describes North America in the 16th century? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "What Came To Be Called America"; course topic 1.2

Topic 1.3: European exploration 8

  • Christopher Columbus, Journal (1492): "Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith ... determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India." Which motive for exploration does the passage state? Christopher Columbus, Journal (1492), extracts, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University; course topic 1.3
  • First Charter of Virginia (1606): the colonists may "dig, mine, and search for all Manner of Mines of Gold, Silver, and Copper," yielding to the king "the fifth Part only of all the same Gold and Silver." Which motive for colonization does the charter show? The First Charter of Virginia, April 10, 1606, Avalon Project, Yale Law School; course topic 1.3
  • In 1565 a Spanish attack destroyed the colony that French Huguenots had founded in Florida, and Spain established St. Augustine. What does the episode show? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.3
  • What became of the first English attempts to colonize North America, on Roanoke Island between 1584 and 1590? National Park Service, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, "History & Culture"; National Park Service, "A Short History of Jamestown"; course topic 1.3
  • What did Queen Isabel and King Fernando agree to give Columbus if his first voyage succeeded? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Christopher Columbus: Man and Myth"; course topic 1.3
  • What did Spain and Portugal agree in the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494? Treaty between Spain and Portugal concluded at Tordesillas, June 7, 1494, Avalon Project, Yale Law School; Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.3
  • Which development of the 15th century made long Atlantic voyages practical for Portuguese and Spanish sailors? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "The Mediterranean World"; course topic 1.3
  • Which goals drew European expeditions to North America in the 1500s? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.3

Topic 1.4: Columbian Exchange and conquest 9

  • A Brulé winter count, a calendar kept in pictures, marks a change in the years 1580 to 1640 that followed Spanish expeditions into the Southeast and Southwest. What was the change? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Epilogue"; course topic 1.4
  • By the Library of Congress's estimate, what happened to the native population of Hispaniola in the twenty years after the Spanish arrived? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.4
  • Francisco Pizarro reached Peru late in 1531 with about 180 men and 30 horses. What helped so small a force topple the Inca ruler Atahualpa in 1532? Library of Congress, Exploring the Early Americas, "Pizarro and the Incas"; course topic 1.4
  • How did a joint-stock company such as the Virginia Company of London, chartered in 1606, pay for a colony? National Park Service, Historic Jamestowne, "The Virginia Company of London"; course topic 1.4
  • The people of Huejotzingo and of Tlaxcala are examples of which feature of the Spanish conquest of Mexico? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; Library of Congress, Exploring the Early Americas, "Cortes and the Aztecs"; course topic 1.4
  • Two years after Hernando Cortés reached Mexico, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan lay destroyed. Which two forces brought the city down? Library of Congress, Exploring the Early Americas, "Cortes and the Aztecs"; Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.4
  • What assured that the economy of New Spain would flourish after the conquest? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.4
  • What did Francisco Vázquez de Coronado find in 1540 when he reached the "golden cities" of Cíbola? National Park Service, Coronado National Memorial, "History & Culture"; course topic 1.4
  • Which of these did Europeans bring to the Americas after 1492? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.4

Topic 1.5: Labor, slavery and caste 6

  • How did the Spanish law of slavery, set out in the Siete Partidas, differ from the slave codes that later grew up in North America? National Park Service, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, "African Americans in St. Augustine 1565-1821"; course topic 1.5
  • In Peru the labor that Spain demanded of Indian communities was adapted from which earlier practice? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America" and "What Came To Be Called America"; course topic 1.5
  • What was the encomienda system of Spain's American colonies? National Park Service, Cabrillo National Monument, "Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo"; course topic 1.5
  • Which crop was tied to the importing of enslaved Africans into Brazil in the middle of the 16th century? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.5
  • Who lived in Mexico City, the capital of New Spain, by 1550? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.5
  • Why did the Spanish begin to import enslaved Africans to the Caribbean as early as 1502? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.5

Topic 1.6: Cultural interactions 10

  • After the appeals of Las Casas, Emperor Charles V issued the New Laws of the Indies in 1542. What did they do? Library of Congress, Exploring the Early Americas, "Interpreting the Conquest"; course topic 1.6
  • At Hawikuh in 1540 the Zuni drew lines of cornmeal on the ground and warned Coronado's men not to cross, and Coronado urged them to become subjects of his king and be spiritually saved. What does the meeting best illustrate? National Park Service, Coronado National Memorial, "History & Culture"; course topic 1.6
  • Bartolomé de las Casas urged the Council of the Indies that the king should take the Indians as his own vassals, "terminating all the encomiendas which are made in all the Indies." What was he asking for? Library of Congress, Exploring the Early Americas, "Interpreting the Conquest"; course topic 1.6
  • Christopher Columbus, Journal, October 1492: "the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion." What does the entry show about how Columbus saw the islanders? Christopher Columbus, Journal (1492), extracts, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University; course topic 1.6
  • The chronicler Oviedo, who came to America in 1514, described the hammock, the canoe, the pineapple and the smoking of tobacco for readers in Europe. What does his work show? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "What Came To Be Called America"; course topic 1.6
  • On what did the European expeditions that entered North America in the 16th century depend almost entirely? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.6
  • One sheet of the Huejotzingo Codex (1531) shows a banner of gold and precious feathers bearing the Madonna and Child. What is the banner evidence of? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.6
  • What does the Huejotzingo Codex of 1531 record? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.6
  • Which statement best describes how Native peoples first responded to the arrival of Europeans? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.6
  • Why did Juan Ponce de León's expeditions to Florida in 1513 and 1521 fail? Library of Congress, 1492: An Ongoing Voyage, "Europe Claims America"; course topic 1.6

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Unit 1 (Period 1: 1491 to 1607) of the College Board's AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description, effective fall 2026, https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf, read 2026-10-08. Each fact was read on 2026-10-08 in the public page named under its question: the Library of Congress exhibitions 1492: An Ongoing Voyage and Exploring the Early Americas, the National Park Service, the National Agricultural Library of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Avalon Project at Yale Law School and the Internet History Sourcebooks Project at Fordham University. Licence: Own work. Short quotations from the public documents named under each question.

How it works

This AP US History Period 1 practice test has 43 questions of our own on the years 1491 to 1607, before the English colonies. It is unofficial and not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board.

Read the full guide

What Period 1 covers

Period 1 is Unit 1 of the College Board's course description, read October 8, 2026. It lists seven topics, and five have a set of questions on this page: Native American societies before European contact, European exploration, the Columbian Exchange and Spanish conquest, labor and slavery in the Spanish colonies, and cultural interactions among Europeans, Native Americans and Africans. The two remaining topics, on context and on causation, are practiced within those five. How many questions each topic gets is our decision; the description sets none.

Where the answers come from

Each explanation ends with the public page behind it, mostly Library of Congress exhibitions and National Park Service histories of the places named.

  • Match each Native society to its region and its food supply before you answer.
  • Keep three Spanish terms apart: encomienda, the mita and the New Laws of 1542.

Questions and answers

What is Period 1 in APUSH?

Period 1 covers 1491 to 1607: Native American societies before contact, European exploration, the Columbian Exchange, the labor systems of the Spanish colonies and the first meetings of Europeans, Native Americans and Africans.

How much of the APUSH exam is Period 1?

Only 4 to 6% of the exam, by the College Board's course page. Period 9 has the same weighting, and every other period has more.

Is there an APUSH Period 1 and 2 practice test here?

This bank is Period 1 only. Period 2, which the course dates 1607 to 1754, opens in the year the English settled Jamestown, and none of its questions are on this page.

Are these real APUSH Period 1 questions?

No. They are our own, written from the topics the College Board publishes for Unit 1 and checked against public pages. The official Progress Check for the unit is assigned by teachers in AP Classroom.

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