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AP United States History

One lesson for each of the course’s 105 topics, in the order the course teaches them. The first 3 units are free for everyone; the rest come with the AP United States History plan. Read a lesson, try its quick checks, then practice the topic with exam-style questions.

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Period 1: 1491–1607

Unit 1Free7 lessons
  1. 1.1Contextualizing Period 1Place the first encounters between Europeans, Native Americans and Africans (1491-1607) in their broader setting, and write context that earns the essay point.
  2. 1.2Native American Societies Before European ContactCompare how Native societies in the Southwest, Great Basin, Plains, East and Pacific coast lived off and reshaped their environments before 1492.
  3. 1.3European Exploration in the AmericasExplain why Portugal, Spain, France and England explored and conquered in the Americas, weighing wealth, rivalry and religion as causes, with evidence.
  4. 1.4Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and ConquestExplain what crossed the Atlantic after 1492, how disease and new species aided Spanish conquest, and how American silver and crops changed Europe's economy.
  5. 1.5Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial SystemExplain how Spain forced Native and African people to work its mines and plantations, and how a caste hierarchy ranked everyone in its American empire.
  6. 1.6Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and AfricansExplain how Europeans and Native Americans misread each other's beliefs about religion, gender, land and power, what each borrowed, and how Native peoples resisted.
  7. 1.7Causation in Period 1Explain the effects of transatlantic voyages from 1491 to 1607 and turn them into a historically defensible claim with a clear line of reasoning.

Period 2: 1607–1754

Unit 2Free8 lessons
  1. 2.1Contextualizing Period 2Explain why England, France and the Netherlands colonized North America after 1607, and write the context sentences that earn the essay point.
  2. 2.2European ColonizationExplain how Spanish, French, Dutch and English colonies differed in goals, labor and settlers, and why those differences shaped their relations with American Indians.
  3. 2.3The Regions of British ColoniesExplain how climate, soil, crops and settlers made the Chesapeake, New England, middle colonies and the far South into four different societies.
  4. 2.4Transatlantic TradeExplain how the Atlantic economy moved goods and enslaved people, how it changed American Indian societies, and why Britain enforced its trade laws so unevenly.
  5. 2.5Interactions Between American Indians and EuropeansExplain why relations between Native nations and the Spanish, French, Dutch and English shifted between trade, alliance and war from 1607 to 1754.
  6. 2.6Slavery in the British ColoniesExplain why every British colony took part in the Atlantic slave trade, how slavery differed by region, and how colonial laws made slavery racial and hereditary.
  7. 2.7Colonial Society and CultureExplain how immigration, religious toleration, the Great Awakening, the Enlightenment and English models shaped the culture of the British colonies before 1754.
  8. 2.8Comparison in Period 2Compare how colonial societies developed across the Spanish, French, Dutch and British empires and British regions, and back each comparison with specific evidence.

Period 3: 1754–1800

Unit 3Free13 lessons
  1. 3.1Contextualizing Period 3Place the Revolution and the new nation (1754-1800) in their wider setting, and write context for a source or essay that earns the point.
  2. 3.2The Seven Years' War (The French and Indian War)Explain why Britain, France and Native nations fought for the Ohio Valley, how Britain won, and how the war's cost and the Proclamation of 1763 led to crisis.
  3. 3.3Taxation Without RepresentationExplain how British taxes and controls after 1763 united colonists in resistance, what they argued, and who resisted, from Franklin to artisans and women.
  4. 3.4Philosophical Foundations of the American RevolutionExplain how Enlightenment ideas, religion, Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence changed colonial beliefs about government, and why those ideas lasted.
  5. 3.5The American RevolutionExplain how the Patriots beat Britain despite Loyalists and British power, citing militias, the Continental Army, Washington, resilience and French aid.
  6. 3.6The Influence of Revolutionary IdealsExplain how the Revolution's ideals spurred northern abolition, wider democracy and republican motherhood, and how they echoed in France, Haiti and Latin America.
  7. 3.7The Articles of ConfederationExplain how state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation organized power after 1776, why the Articles faltered, and what the Northwest Ordinance did.
  8. 3.8The Constitutional Convention and Debates over RatificationExplain how the 1787 Convention's compromises built the Constitution, what Federalists and Anti-Federalists argued, and why a Bill of Rights followed.
  9. 3.9The ConstitutionExplain how the Constitution built a limited but flexible government through federalism, separation of powers and checks and balances, and what it changed.
  10. 3.10Shaping a New RepublicExplain how Washington and Adams put the Constitution to work, why the first parties formed, and how Britain, Spain, France and Native nations tested the new republic.
  11. 3.11Developing an American IdentityExplain how Americans built a national culture in art, writing, architecture and religion from 1754 to 1800, and why regional cultures persisted beside it.
  12. 3.12Movement in the Early RepublicExplain how westward migration after 1783 set settlers, Indian nations, Britain and the federal government against one another, and how slavery split the regions.
  13. 3.13Continuity and Change in Period 3Argue how far the independence movement changed American society from 1754 to 1800, and back each claim with specific, dated evidence that you explain.

Period 4: 1800–1848

Unit 4With the plan14 lessons
  1. 4.1Contextualizing Period 4Explain the setting the republic grew in from 1800 to 1848, from the 1790s' expansion and party fights to Atlantic revolutions, and write context that scores.
  2. 4.2The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of JeffersonExplain what the two parties fought over after 1800, how the Marshall Court made federal law supreme, and why Jefferson bought and explored Louisiana.
  3. 4.3Politics and Regional InterestsExplain how the Northeast, South and West split over the tariff, the American System and slavery, and why the Missouri Compromise held only for a time.
  4. 4.4America on the World StageExplain how the young United States fought for its trade, won the War of 1812's peace, took Florida, and warned Europe off the hemisphere with the Monroe Doctrine.
  5. 4.5Market Revolution: IndustrializationExplain how factories, machines, canals and railroads tied Americans into national and world markets from 1800 to 1848, and use that evidence to support an argument.
  6. 4.6Market Revolution: Society and CultureExplain how the market revolution moved Americans into cities, mills and the West, split society into new classes, and reshaped women's and family roles.
  7. 4.7Expanding DemocracyExplain why states replaced property tests with white manhood suffrage from 1800 to 1848, how mass parties grew with it, and who was shut out.
  8. 4.8Jackson and Federal PowerExplain how Democrats and Whigs fought over the bank, tariffs and internal improvements, and how settler pressure and Native resistance led to Indian removal.
  9. 4.9The Development of an American CultureExplain how writers, painters, architects and thinkers built a national culture from 1800 to 1848, mixing American subjects, European ideas and regional styles.
  10. 4.10The Second Great AwakeningExplain why a wave of Protestant revivals swept the United States from about 1800 to the 1840s and how it compared with the First Great Awakening.
  11. 4.11An Age of ReformExplain why reform movements from temperance to abolition and women's rights grew between 1800 and 1848, who led them, and what they achieved.
  12. 4.12African Americans in the Early RepublicExplain what changed and what stayed the same for enslaved and free African Americans from 1800 to 1848, from rebellions to churches and the antislavery press.
  13. 4.13The Society of the South in the Early RepublicExplain how climate, soil and rivers shaped the South's staple economy, why slavery moved west, and why most white Southerners defended it from 1800 to 1848.
  14. 4.14Causation in Period 4Weigh how politics, the economy and foreign policy built an American national identity from 1800 to 1848, and link evidence into causal arguments that score.

Period 5: 1844–1877

Unit 5With the plan12 lessons
  1. 5.1Contextualizing Period 5Explain the setting for 1844 to 1877, from Period 4's slavery fights and expansion to famine migration and world abolition, and write context that scores.
  2. 5.2Manifest DestinyExplain why Americans moved west from 1844 to 1877, how Manifest Destiny justified expansion and conflict, and how laws and Asian trade drove it.
  3. 5.3The Mexican–American WarExplain why the U.S. and Mexico went to war in 1846, what the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo took, and what it meant for slavery, Mexicans and Native peoples.
  4. 5.4The Compromise of 1850Explain how the Mexican Cession reopened the fight over slavery, what each part of the Compromise of 1850 did, and why it postponed the crisis instead of ending it.
  5. 5.5Sectional Conflict: Regional DifferencesExplain how mass immigration, nativism, free-labor and free-soil ideas, abolitionism and the defense of slavery pulled North and South apart before 1860.
  6. 5.6Failure of CompromiseExplain how the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas and the Dred Scott decision deepened the slavery crisis and broke the Whig-Democrat party system.
  7. 5.7Election of 1860 and SecessionExplain how Lincoln won the presidency in 1860 with no Southern electoral votes, why seven Deep South states seceded at once, and why four more waited until Fort Sumter.
  8. 5.8Military Conflict in the Civil WarExplain how both sides mobilized for war despite opposition at home, why the Confederacy won early, and why the Union won by 1865.
  9. 5.9Government Policies During the Civil WarExplain how Lincoln moved the Union's war aim from saving the Union to ending slavery, and how emancipation, Black soldiers and diplomacy shaped the war.
  10. 5.10ReconstructionExplain how Reconstruction policy, from Johnson's plan to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, redefined citizenship and federal power from 1865 to 1877.
  11. 5.11Failure of ReconstructionExplain why freed people did not get land, how sharecropping, terror, court rulings and Northern retreat undid Reconstruction, and what it left behind.
  12. 5.12Comparison in Period 5Compare which effects of the Civil War changed American values most, and connect pieces of evidence from 1844 to 1877 into a weighed argument.

Period 6: 1865–1898

Unit 6With the plan14 lessons
  1. 6.1Contextualizing Period 6Explain the setting for the rise of industrial capitalism from 1865 to 1898, from Civil War policy to world markets, and write context that earns the point.
  2. 6.2Westward Expansion: Economic DevelopmentExplain how railroads, mining, ranching, farm machines and federal policy built the western economy after 1865, and why farmers organized against it.
  3. 6.3Westward Expansion: Social and Cultural DevelopmentExplain who settled the West after 1865 and why, how the bison's destruction and broken treaties led to war, and how American Indians resisted assimilation.
  4. 6.4The “New South”Explain what changed and what stayed the same in the South from 1877 to 1898: new mills beside old cotton tenancy, Jim Crow, Plessy, and Black resistance.
  5. 6.5Technological InnovationExplain how steel, oil, electricity, the telephone and new machines multiplied American production after 1865, and connect them to earlier and later technological change.
  6. 6.6The Rise of Industrial CapitalismExplain how railroads, new corporate structures, trusts and holding companies built giant firms after 1865, concentrated wealth, and pushed business abroad.
  7. 6.7Labor in the Gilded AgeExplain why Gilded Age workers gained buying power yet fought employers in strikes, and how the Knights of Labor, the AFL and the great strikes turned out.
  8. 6.8Immigration and Migration in the Gilded AgeExplain who moved to American cities from 1865 to 1898, from Italy, Russia, China and the rural South, why they came, and how ethnic neighborhoods shaped city life.
  9. 6.9Responses to Immigration in the Gilded AgeExplain how Americans met Gilded Age immigration, from Americanization and settlement houses to Chinese exclusion and Social Darwinism, and how immigrants adapted.
  10. 6.10Development of the Middle ClassExplain why a white-collar middle class grew after 1865, how schools, leisure and shopping shaped it, and how the Gospel of Wealth justified philanthropy.
  11. 6.11Reform in the Gilded AgeExplain how agrarians, utopians, socialists, Social Gospel ministers and women reformers answered industrial capitalism, and source their documents.
  12. 6.12Controversies over the Role of Government in the Gilded AgeExplain the laissez-faire case, how far Gilded Age government really stayed out of the economy, and why policymakers sought markets in the Pacific and Latin America.
  13. 6.13Politics in the Gilded AgeCompare Gilded Age Republicans and Democrats, explain why city machines and the Populist Party arose, and test a source's claims with evidence.
  14. 6.14Continuity and Change in Period 6Weigh how much industrialization changed the United States from 1865 to 1898, and build a complex argument that corroborates, qualifies or modifies a claim.

Period 7: 1890–1945

Unit 7With the plan15 lessons
  1. 7.1Contextualizing Period 7Explain the setting for 1890 to 1945, from Gilded Age industry and the 1893 depression to world empires and war, and write context that earns the point.
  2. 7.2Imperialism: DebatesExplain why Americans argued over overseas empire around 1898, compare imperialist and anti-imperialist arguments, and source documents from the debate.
  3. 7.3The Spanish–American WarExplain why the United States fought Spain in 1898 and how victory brought island colonies, a deeper role in Asia, and a war against Filipino independence.
  4. 7.4The ProgressivesExplain what Progressive reformers attacked and changed from the 1890s to 1920, from muckraking to four amendments, and where they disagreed with each other.
  5. 7.5World War I: Military and DiplomacyExplain why the United States left neutrality for war in 1917, how its troops helped decide 1918, and why the Senate rejected Versailles and the League.
  6. 7.6World War I: Home FrontExplain how World War I curbed free speech, fed nativism and a Red Scare, and pulled Americans, above all Black southerners, into northern cities.
  7. 7.71920s: Innovations in Communication and TechnologyExplain how the assembly line, electricity, cars, radio and movies built a consumer economy and a national mass culture in the 1920s, and who was left out.
  8. 7.81920s: Cultural and Political ControversiesExplain the 1920s clashes over immigration, race, religion, science, gender and alcohol, the Harlem Renaissance, and how to put them in context.
  9. 7.9The Great DepressionExplain what caused the Great Depression, how it wrecked the economy, why it led to bank regulation, and how it pushed Americans toward a welfare state.
  10. 7.10The New DealExplain how the New Deal used federal power for relief, recovery and reform, who pushed it left and right, what it left behind, and how it remade party politics.
  11. 7.11Interwar Foreign PolicyExplain how the U.S. used treaties, loans and selective force after 1919, why most Americans resisted war in the 1930s, and how Pearl Harbor ended that debate.
  12. 7.12World War II: MobilizationExplain how war production ended the Depression, how mobilization opened jobs to women and minorities, and why it also brought internment and racial conflict.
  13. 7.13World War II: MilitaryExplain why the Allies beat the Axis, from D-Day and island-hopping to science and the Holocaust's revelation, and argue the debate over the atomic bomb.
  14. 7.14Postwar DiplomacyExplain why the U.S. left World War II as the world's strongest power, what Yalta, Potsdam, Bretton Woods and the UN decided, and how to source the documents.
  15. 7.15Comparison in Period 7Weigh which events from 1890 to 1945 did most to shape American identity, and build a complex argument with diverse and alternative evidence.

Period 8: 1945–1980

Unit 8With the plan15 lessons
  1. 8.1Contextualizing Period 8Explain the setting for 1945 to 1980, from wartime victory and the Soviet rivalry to postwar affluence, and write context paragraphs that earn the point.
  2. 8.2The Cold War from 1945 to 1980Explain how containment held steady from Truman to Carter while its methods swung between war, nuclear brinkmanship and détente, and source Cold War documents.
  3. 8.3The Red ScareExplain why fear of communist subversion surged after 1945, how loyalty programs and investigations worked, and why Americans who agreed on containment fought over them.
  4. 8.4Economy After 1945Explain what drove the postwar boom (private demand, federal spending, the baby boom, new technology) and why it moved Americans to the suburbs and the Sun Belt.
  5. 8.5Culture After 1945Explain why American mass culture grew more uniform after 1945 and how intellectuals, Beat writers, artists and rock-and-roll teenagers pushed back against it.
  6. 8.6Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement (1940s and 1950s)Explain how presidents, the Supreme Court and Black activists began dismantling legal segregation from 1945 to 1960, and why progress stayed slow.
  7. 8.7America as a World PowerExplain how the Cold War shaped U.S. policy toward Latin America and the new nations of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and why Americans argued over the bomb.
  8. 8.8The Vietnam WarExplain why the United States went to war in Vietnam, how it escalated and ended, and how it changed American politics and the war powers of the president.
  9. 8.9The Great SocietyExplain why poverty became a national issue in an affluent America, what Johnson's Great Society did about it, and how the 1965 immigration law changed who came.
  10. 8.10The African American Civil Rights Movement (1960s)Explain how 1960s activists used direct action, nonviolence and the law to win federal civil rights laws, why resistance persisted, and why the movement split after 1965.
  11. 8.11The Civil Rights Movement ExpandsExplain how feminist, gay rights, Latino, American Indian and Asian American movements pressed for equality and redress from 1960 to 1980, and who pushed back.
  12. 8.12Youth Culture of the 1960sExplain why young Americans in the 1960s turned against the Vietnam War, against liberal leaders, and against their parents' values, and what changed as a result.
  13. 8.13The Environment and Natural Resources from 1968 to 1980Explain how pollution disasters built an environmental movement and new federal laws, and how Middle East oil crises pushed Washington to try a national energy policy.
  14. 8.14Society in TransitionExplain how conservatives challenged 1960s liberalism, why trust in government collapsed in the 1970s, and how clashes over culture, race and rights reshaped politics.
  15. 8.15Continuity and Change in Period 8Weigh how far the Cold War, the rights revolutions and postwar prosperity reshaped American national identity from 1945 to 1980, and build a complex argument about it.

Period 9: 1980–Present

Unit 9With the plan7 lessons
  1. 9.1Contextualizing Period 9Explain the setting for 1980 to the present, from stagflation, distrust and détente's collapse to a world turning toward markets, and write context that earns the point.
  2. 9.2Reagan and ConservatismExplain how the conservative movement won power in 1980, what it changed in taxes, regulation and welfare, where it hit limits, and the debates it left.
  3. 9.3The End of the Cold WarExplain how Reagan pressured the Soviet Union, why the Cold War ended between 1989 and 1991, and how the United States used its power in the decade after.
  4. 9.4A Changing EconomyExplain how computers, the internet and global trade remade American work after 1980: rising productivity, fewer factory and union jobs, flat wages and wider inequality.
  5. 9.5Migration and Immigration in the 1990s and 2000sExplain why Americans moved south and west and why immigrants came from Latin America and Asia after 1980, and what those moves did to politics, work and culture.
  6. 9.6Challenges of the 21st CenturyExplain how 9/11 led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a security state that tested civil liberties, a fight over oil and climate, and a superpower under strain.
  7. 9.7Causation in Period 9Weigh which changes after 1980 most reshaped American national identity, and corroborate, qualify or modify a claim about them to build a complex argument.

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