- 1607 pre-Colonial
- 1607-1765 Colonial period
- 1730s-40s First Great Awakening<< confirm dates
- 1765-1783 Revolutionary Era
- 1783-1789 Articles of Confederation period (post-Revolution)
- 1789-1815 Early Republic
- 1815-1827 Era of Good Feelings
- 1827-1833 Jacksonian period
- 1830s-40s Second Great Awakening
- 1833-1850s Antebellum
- 1860-1865 Civil War
- 1865-1876 Reconstruction
- 1876-1898 Industrialization
- 1898-1917 Progressive Era
- 1917-1919 World War I
- 1920s Roaring Twenties
- 1929-1941 Great Depression
- 1941-1945 World War II
- 1946-1989 Cold War
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BIG IDEAS
What does it MEAN?
- every issue, dispute, event, represents someone’s perspective, ideal or outlook
connections
- how are events related?
- what common themes occur across American history
causality
Constitutionalism
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"The American Experience"
- religious, economic & political freedom
- “land of opportunity”
- "The American Promise”
- slavery, segregation, discrimination
- land ownership
- self-governance & political participation
- >> get into modern experience
colonialism & push-pull factors
- opportunity
- primogeniture
>> build out
American colonial perceptions viz Britain
- citizens or subjects?
- duty & responsibilities as British
- direct v. indirect representation
Enlightenment ideas
Declaration of Independence
self-governance/ self-government
- extents and limits of self-government
- to consider:
- what does it mean and how do different people & times interpret it?
- what is democracy? How can it work? What are its limits? How does it empower people?
faction & disagreement
- sectionalism
- political parties
- compromise
- conflict
- radicalism
- dissent
- to consider:
- How do Americans resolve disputes?
- Why do some Americans feel isolated and start radical movements?
- How do the big political parties adapt to those movements?
Constitution
- forms the structure of the federal government
- what does "to form a more perfect union" mean?
- Bill of Rights
- Constitutional principles
- judicial review
- change over time in interpretations,
Bill of Rights
- = strong expression of what is important to Americans:
- 1st amendment as expression of American ideals: freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition of government
Electoral College
Two-party system
slavery
- expansion of slavery
- experience of slaves
- consequences of slavery
- upon slaves and former slaves
- upon slave-owners
- upon white non-slave owners
"frontier" western expansion
List of major territorial acquisitions & treaties
- 1818 Treaty of 1818
- Britain ceded land northwest of the Northwest Territory (western modern MN and north & east ND)
- US ceded lands north of the 49th parallel above modern MT
- established the 49th parallel as the border of US and Canada
- 1842 Webster–Ashburton Treaty
- settled border disputes along modern US-Canadian border, including in the modern states of ME, MN, MT, ID & WA (reaffirming the 49th parallel)
- 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- 1853 Gadsden Purchase
- negotiated after the Mexican-American war to purchase Mexican territory in the south of modern AZ and southwest area of NM
- includes modern AZ cities of Yuma & Tucson
- cost was $10 million and motive for Mexico to sell it was likely to get the money before the Americans fully populated and/or seized it
- US was motivated by railroad route through the region
religious awakenings
politics & democracy
- Tocqueville
- cultural expression
- news and journalism, “pamphleteering”
- radio/ tv
- political participation
dissent
reform movements
- public and private
- religious awakenings
- agitation for reform
- reform (public/ private)
- fear, crisis, opportunism
economics
- banks/ debt
- hard money v. soft money
- tariff
- business / commerce
- prosperity
panics, recessions, depressions
- usually the result of over-production, speculation (in land or businesses), money supply, war
- >> to do: chart of panics causes & effects
- Panic of 1837 ><?
- Panic of 1893
- Panic of 1907
- Recession of 1920
private v public lives of Americans
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