United Grade 11 AP United States History
Chapters: 9
1. Period 1: 1491-1607
Contextualizing Period 1 · Native American Societies Before European Contact · European Exploration in the Americas · Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest · Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System · Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans · Causation in Period 1
- Colonization: How European Empires Spread Across the World (1450–1750) – Colonization means one country takes control of land far away, sends its people or officials there and uses the land, its people and its goods for its own gain. From about 1450 to 1750 European powers (Spain, Portugal, Britain, France and the Netherlands) built empires across the oceans. In the Americas, diseases and conquest destroyed many native societies; the Spanish ran a strict labour system and a social ladder; Britain built settler colonies such as the thirteen colonies; and millions of Africans were forced across the Atlantic in the slave trade. In Asia, Europeans mostly built trading posts, which later grew into empires, as in India.
2. Period 2: 1607-1754
Contextualizing Period 2 · European Colonization · The Regions of British Colonies · Transatlantic Trade · Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans · Slavery in the British Colonies · Colonial Society and Culture · Comparison in Period 2
- Colonization: How European Empires Spread Across the World (1450–1750) – Colonization means one country takes control of land far away, sends its people or officials there and uses the land, its people and its goods for its own gain. From about 1450 to 1750 European powers (Spain, Portugal, Britain, France and the Netherlands) built empires across the oceans. In the Americas, diseases and conquest destroyed many native societies; the Spanish ran a strict labour system and a social ladder; Britain built settler colonies such as the thirteen colonies; and millions of Africans were forced across the Atlantic in the slave trade. In Asia, Europeans mostly built trading posts, which later grew into empires, as in India.
3. Period 3: 1754-1800
Contextualizing Period 3 · The Seven Years' War (The French and Indian War) · Taxation Without Representation · Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution · The American Revolution · The Influence of Revolutionary Ideals · The Articles of Confederation · The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification · The Constitution · Shaping a New Republic · Developing an American Identity · Movement in the Early Republic · Continuity and Change in Period 3
- The American Revolution (1763–1791) – Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America broke away from Britain and formed the United States. After the Seven Years' War (1756–63), Britain was deeply in debt and tried to tighten control: the Proclamation of 1763 limited westward settlement, and new taxes (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, Tea Act) were passed by a Parliament in which the colonists had no members. Colonists protested with the slogan "no taxation without representation", boycotts, the Sons of Liberty and the Boston Tea Party. Britain replied with the Coercive ("Intolerable") Acts, and fighting began at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Enlightenment ideas of natural rights and government by consent, spread by Thomas Paine's Common Sense, led to the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. With help from France, Spain and the Dutch Republic, the Continental Army under George Washington won at Saratoga and Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris (1783) recognised independence. The weak Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution of 1787, with separation of powers, checks and balances and federalism, plus the Bill of Rights (1791). The new republic under Washington and Adams saw the first political parties. The Revolution inspired others, but rights were limited: slavery continued, Native nations lost land and women could not vote.
4. Period 4: 1800-1848
Contextualizing Period 4 · The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson · Politics and Regional Interests · America on the World Stage · Market Revolution: Industrialization · Market Revolution: Society and Culture · Expanding Democracy · Jackson and Federal Power · The Development of an American Culture · The Second Great Awakening · An Age of Reform · African Americans in the Early Republic · The Society of the South in the Early Republic · Causation in Period 4
- The Early American Republic, 1789–1848 – After the Constitution came into force in 1789, the young United States grew fast. Two parties formed and power passed peacefully in 1800. The Louisiana Purchase doubled its land, and the War of 1812 built national pride. Canals, factories and railways created a market economy. Under Andrew Jackson, voting spread to almost all white men, while Native nations were forced west and slavery grew with cotton. Religious revival inspired reformers who fought slavery and demanded women's rights. Regional tensions over slavery set the stage for later conflict.
5. Period 5: 1844-1877
Contextualizing Period 5 · Manifest Destiny · The Mexican-American War · The Compromise of 1850 · Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences · Failure of Compromise · Election of 1860 and Secession · Military Conflict in the Civil War · Government Policies During the Civil War · Reconstruction · Failure of Reconstruction · Comparison in Period 5
- The American Civil War and Reconstruction (1845–1877) – Between 1845 and 1877 the United States grew west, split over slavery, fought a civil war and then tried to rebuild. The North had factories and free labour; the South grew cotton with about 4 million enslaved people. New western land raised one question again and again: would new states allow slavery? Compromises (1820, 1850) failed, and after Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election, 11 Southern states left the Union. The war (1861–65) killed about 620,000 soldiers. The North won with more people, factories and railways, and slavery was ended by the 13th Amendment. Reconstruction (1865–77) gave citizenship and the vote to Black men, but when federal troops left in 1877, many of these rights were taken away for almost a century.
6. Period 6: 1865-1898
Contextualizing Period 6 · Westward Expansion: Economic Development · Westward Expansion: Social and Cultural Development · The "New South" · Technological Innovation · The Rise of Industrial Capitalism · Labor in the Gilded Age · Immigration and Migration in the Gilded Age · Responses to Immigration in the Gilded Age · Development of the Middle Class · Reform in the Gilded Age · Controversies over the Role of Government in the Gilded Age · Politics in the Gilded Age · Continuity and Change Period 6
- The Industrial Revolution: Causes, Effects and Reform (1760–1914) – Between about 1760 and 1914 work moved from hand tools at home to machines in factories. A first wave (about 1760–1840) began in Britain with coal, iron, steam power and cotton mills. A second wave (about 1870–1914) brought steel, electricity, chemicals and oil, and spread to Western Europe, the United States, Japan and Russia. Towns grew fast; workers faced long hours, child labour and dirty housing. Workers organised in unions, new ideas (liberalism, socialism, conservatism) argued about what to do, and governments slowly passed factory, health and voting reforms.
7. Period 7: 1890-1945
Contextualizing Period 7 · Imperialism: Debates · The Spanish-American War · The Progressives · World War I: Military and Diplomacy · World War I: Home Front · 1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology · 1920s: Cultural and Political Controversies · The Great Depression · The New Deal · Interwar Foreign Policy · World War II: Mobilization · World War II: Military · Postwar Diplomacy · Comparison in Period 7
- World War II (1939–1945) – World War II was the deadliest war in history. Its roots were the anger left by World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan. It began when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. The Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) fought the Allies (Britain and its empire, France, the USSR, the USA, China and others). It was a total war and a war of annihilation: about 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and 70–85 million people died. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945. The war led to the United Nations, the Cold War and the end of empires.
8. Period 8: 1945-1980
Contextualizing Period 8 · The Cold War from 1945 to 1980 · The Red Scare · Economy After 1945 · Culture after 1945 · Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement (1940s and 1950s) · America as a World Power · The Vietnam War · The Great Society · The African American Civil Rights Movement (1960s) · The Civil Rights Movement Expands · Youth Culture of the 1960s · The Environment and Natural Resources from 1968 to 1980 · Society in Transition · Continuity and Change in Period 8
- The Cold War (1945–1991) – The Cold War was a long contest (1945–1991) between two superpowers: the USA with its Western allies (capitalism, multi-party elections) and the USSR with its Eastern allies (communism, one-party rule). They never fought each other directly. Instead they formed rival alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), raced to build nuclear weapons and reach space, backed opposite sides in proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan) and came close to nuclear war in Cuba in 1962. Many new nations, led by India and others, stayed non-aligned. Détente eased tension in the 1970s. Reforms in the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the break-up of the USSR (1991) ended it.
9. Period 9: 1980-Present
Contextualizing Period 9 · Reagan and Conservatism · The End of the Cold War · A Changing Economy · Migration and Immigration in the 1990s and 2000s · Challenges of the 21st Century · Causation in Period 9
- Modern US History: From 1865 to Today – After the Civil War the USA became the world's biggest industrial economy and then a superpower. The Gilded Age (1865–1900) brought railways, factories and millions of migrants, but also deep inequality. Populists and Progressives (1890–1920) pushed for reforms, and the USA expanded overseas and joined the First World War. The 1920s boom ended in the 1929 crash and the Great Depression; Roosevelt's New Deal and the Second World War rebuilt the economy. After 1945 most Americans enjoyed new wealth while the civil rights movement fought segregation, the country led one side of the Cold War, and the Vietnam War and Watergate shook public trust. From 1980, Reagan's conservatism, the end of the Cold War, the internet economy, new migration, 9/11 and the 2008 crisis shaped the present. A useful lens for the whole period: who got opportunity, and who faced inequality?