Humanities · Subjects

US History

Major periods and documents from colonization through the present, with the events students are tested on most.

1607 - 1800

Colonization & the founding era

Event	Significance
Jamestown (1607)	First permanent English colony in North America
Declaration of Independence (1776)	Announced the 13 colonies' break from Britain; authored primarily by Thomas Jefferson
Revolutionary War (1775-1783)	Colonists won independence from Britain with French support
The Constitution (1787)	Established the federal government's structure - three branches, checks and balances
Bill of Rights (1791)	First 10 amendments guaranteeing individual liberties (speech, religion, due process)

1800 - 1877

Manifest Destiny: The 19th-century belief that the US was destined to expand across North America, driving westward settlement.
Missouri Compromise (1820): Attempted to balance free and slave states as the nation expanded west - one of several failed compromises over slavery.
Civil War (1861-1865): Fought between the Union and the Confederacy primarily over slavery and states' rights; ended with the Union's victory and slavery's abolition.
Emancipation Proclamation (1863): Declared enslaved people in Confederate states free; the 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery nationwide.
Reconstruction (1865-1877): The postwar period of rebuilding the South and integrating formerly enslaved people, which ended with the withdrawal of federal troops.

1877 - 1920

Event / Movement	Significance
Gilded Age	Rapid industrialization and wealth inequality in the late 1800s; rise of monopolies (Rockefeller, Carnegie)
Progressive Era	Early 1900s reform movement targeting corruption, labor conditions, and public health
19th Amendment (1920)	Granted women the right to vote after decades of suffrage activism

1920 - present

The Great Depression (1929-1939): Severe economic collapse following the 1929 stock market crash; the New Deal under FDR expanded the federal government's role in the economy.
World War II (1941-1945, US involvement): The US entered after the attack on Pearl Harbor; emerged as a global superpower afterward.
Cold War (1947-1991): Decades-long geopolitical tension between the US and Soviet Union, fought through proxy conflicts, an arms race, and the Space Race rather than direct war.
Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s): Campaign to end racial segregation and discrimination, led by figures like Martin Luther King Jr.; resulted in the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965).