1 ) Compare effects of economic, geographic, social, and political conditions before and after European explorations of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries on Europeans, American colonists, Africans, and indigenous Americans.
2 ) Compare regional differences among early New England, Middle, and Southern colonies regarding economics, geography, culture, government, and American Indian relations
3 ) Trace the chronology of events leading to the American Revolution, including the French and Indian War, passage of the Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, passage of the Intolerable Acts, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the publication of Common Sense, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
4 ) Describe the political system of the United States based on the Constitution of the United States.
5 ) Explain key cases that helped shape the United States Supreme Court, including Marbury versus Madison, McCulloch versus Maryland, and Cherokee Nation versus Georgia.
6 ) Describe relations of the United States with Britain and France from 1781 to 1823, including the XYZ Affair, the War of 1812, and the Monroe Doctrine.
7 ) Describe causes, courses, and consequences of United States' expansionism prior to the Civil War, including the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the Northwest Ordinance of 1785, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Louisiana Purchase, the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, Manifest Destiny, the Mexican War and Cession, Texas Independence, the acquisition of Oregon, the California Gold Rush, and the Western Trails.
8 ) Compare major events in Alabama from 1781 to 1823, including statehood as part of the expanding nation, acquisition of land, settlement, and the Creek War, to those of the developing nation.
9 ) Explain dynamics of economic nationalism during the Era of Good Feelings, including transportation systems, Henry Clay's American System, slavery and the emergence of the plantation system, and the beginning of industrialism in the Northeast.
10 ) Analyze key ideas of Jacksonian Democracy for their impact on political participation, political parties, and constitutional government.
11 ) Evaluate the impact of American social and political reform on the emergence of a distinct culture.
12 ) Describe the founding of the first abolitionist societies by Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin and the role played by later critics of slavery, including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, Henry David Thoreau, and Charles Sumner.
13 ) Summarize major legislation and court decisions from 1800 to 1861 that led to increasing sectionalism, including the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Acts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision.
14 ) Describe how the Civil War influenced the United States, including the Anaconda Plan and the major battles of Bull Run, Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg and Sherman's March to the Sea.
15 ) Compare congressional and presidential reconstruction plans, including African-American political participation.
16 ) Explain the transition of the United States from an agrarian society to an industrial nation prior to World War I.
