APUSH Thematic Learning Objectives
American and National Identity
- Explain how ideas about democracy, freedom, and individualism found expression in the development of cultural values, political institutions, and American identity.
- Explain how interpretations of the Constitution and debates over rights, liberties, and definitions of citizenship have affected American values, politics, and society.
- Analyze how ideas about national identity changed in response to U.S. involvement in international conflicts and the growth of the United States.
- Analyze relationships among different regional, social, ethnic, and racial groups, and explain how these groups’ experiences have related to U.S. national identity.
Politics and Power
- Explain how and why political ideas, beliefs, institutions, party systems, and alignments have developed and changed.
- Explain how popular movements, reform efforts, and activist groups have sought to change American society and institutions.
- Explain how different beliefs about the federal government’s role in U.S. social and economic life have affected political debates and policies.
Work, Exchange, and Technology
- Explain how different labor systems developed in North America and the United States, and explain their effects on workers’ lives and U.S. society.
- Explain how patterns of exchange, markets, and private enterprise have developed, and analyze ways that governments have responded to economic issues.
- Analyze how technological innovation has affected economic development and society.
Culture and Society
- Explain how religious groups and ideas have affected American society and political life.
- Explain how artistic, philosophical, and scientific ideas have developed and shaped society and institutions.
- Explain how ideas about women’s rights and gender roles have affected society and politics.
- Explain how different group identities, including racial, ethnic, class, and regional identities, have emerged and changed over time.
Migration and Settlement
- Explain the causes of migration to colonial North America and, later, the United States, and analyze immigration’s effects on U.S. society.
- Analyze causes of internal migration and patterns of settlement in what would become the United States, and explain how migration has affected American life.
Geography and the Environment
- Explain how geographic and environmental factors shaped the development of various communities, and analyze how competition for and debates over natural resources have affected both interactions among different groups and the development of government policies.
America and the World
- Explain how cultural interaction, cooperation, competition, and conflict between empires, nations, and peoples have influenced political, economic, and social developments in North America.
- Analyze the reasons for and results of U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military initiatives in North America and overseas.
APUSH Key Concepts with Major Topics
Period 1: 1491-1607 (5%)
Early Native American societies, Europeans at the time of colonization
Columbian Exchange, colonial-Indian interactions
British, French, Dutch, and Spanish colonies
Period 2: 1607-1754 (10%)
English settlements in north (Puritanism), middle, and south (slavery/slave trade)
Mercantilism, salutary neglect
Rights and liberties of British colonists
Period 3: 1754-1800 (12%)
French and Indian (Seven Years’) War, Proclamation of 1763
Tax collection, British control, colonial responses
American Revolution for Patriots, Loyalists, women, Indians, African Americans
Articles of Confederation, state constitutions, land ordinances
Constitutional Convention, ratification, Bill of Rights, Washington/Adams administrations
Period 4: 1800-1848 (10%)
Election of 1800, Louisiana Purchase, Embargo Act, War of 1812
Era of Good Feeling: Market Revolution, Monroe Doctrine, Missouri Compromise
Jacksonian era: democracy, parties, bank, Trail of Tears, nullification crisis
Second Great Awakening, 19th century reform movements
Period 5: 1844-1877 (13%)
Manifest Destiny: western expansion, Texas/Mexico, Oregon, slavery question
Slave life/culture, slave resistance (Nat Turner), abolition movement, Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act
Republican Party, election of 1860, secession, Civil War, Lincoln presidency
Reconstruction: Radical Republicans, Freedmen’s Bureau, sharecropping, black codes, 13th-15th Amendments, 1877
Period 6: 1865-1898 (13%)
Gilded Age: 2nd industrial revolution, railroads, Robber Barons, labor movement, political corruption
Western expansion and immigration: Indian wars, Dawes Act, Wounded Knee, Chinese, Irish
Social Gospel, Populism, election of 1896
Period 7: 1890-1945 (17%)
Imperialism: Spanish-American War, Cuba, Philippines, anti-imperialism
Progressivism: immigrants, consumers, efficiency, reform, labor unions, Roosevelt/Taft/Wilson
World War I: isolationism, Lusitania/Zimmerman, propaganda, restriction of liberties, 14 Points/League of Nations
Interwar years: 19th Amendment, Roaring ‘20s, farm crisis, pro-business politics, Great Depression, New Deal
World War II: Four Freedoms, Pearl Harbor, home front mobilization, Double-V, Japanese internment, A-bomb
Period 8: 1945-1980 (15%)
Cold War: Marshall Plan, Truman/Eisenhower, Berlin, McCarthy, Cuban, Korean/Vietnam Wars, 1968, Détente
Civil rights: African Americans, women, Latinos, American Indians, LGBTQ, 1968
1950s-1960s: consumerism, economic growth, Baby Boom, cars, segregation, counterculture, 1968
1970s-1980s: conservatism, 1968, Southern Strategy, Watergate, evangelicalism, Iran, abortion, Reagan revolution
Period 9: 1980-Present (5%)
Iran-Contra, end of Cold War, globalization
Iraq, computers/internet, immigration, Clinton presidency
Election of 2000, 9/11 and terrorism, election of 2008