The following list shows the module-level topics for the course. To see all of the course pages, visit the Table of Contents.
Module 1: The Americas, Europe, and Africa (Before 1492)
- The Americas
- Europe on the Brink of Change
- West Africa and the Role of Slavery
Module 2: Early Globalization — The Atlantic World (1492–1650)
- Portuguese Exploration and Spanish Conquest
- Religious Upheavals in the Developing Atlantic World
- Challenges to Spain’s Supremacy
- New Worlds in the Americas: Labor, Commerce, and the Columbian Exchange
Module 3: Creating New Social Orders — Colonial Societies (1500–1700)
- Spanish Exploration and Colonial Society
- Colonial Rivalries: Dutch and French Colonial Ambitions
- English Settlements in America
- The Impact of Colonization
Module 4: Rule Britannia! The English Empire (1660–1763)
- Charles II and the Restoration Colonies
- The Glorious Revolution and the English Empire
- An Empire of Slavery and the Consumer Revolution
- Great Awakening and Enlightenment
- Wars for Empire
Module 5: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests (1763–1774)
- Confronting the National Debt: The Aftermath of the French and Indian War
- The Stamp Act and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty
- The Townshend Acts and Colonial Protest
- The Destruction of the Tea and the Coercive Acts
- Disaffection: The First Continental Congress and American Identity
Module 6: America’s War for Independence (1775–1783)
- Britain’s Law-and-Order Strategy and Its Consequences
- The Early Years of the Revolution
- War in the South
- Identity during the American Revolution
Module 7: Creating Republican Governments (1776–1783)
- Common Sense: From Monarchy to an American Republic
- How Much Revolutionary Change?
- Debating Democracy
- The Constitutional Convention and Federal Constitution
Module 8: Growing Pains — The New Republic (1790–1820)
- Competing Visions: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
- The New American Republic
- Partisan Politics
- The United States Goes Back to War
Module 9: Industrial Transformation in the North (1800–1850)
- Early Industrialization in the Northeast
- A Vibrant Capitalist Republic
- On the Move: The Transportation Revolution
- A New Social Order: Class Divisions
Module 10: Jacksonian Democracy (1820–1840)
- A New Political Style: From John Quincy Adams to Andrew Jackson
- The Rise of American Democracy
- The Nullification Crisis and the Bank War
- Indian Removal
- The Tyranny and Triumph of the Majority
Module 11: A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion (1800–1860)
- Lewis and Clark
- The Missouri Crisis
- Independence for Texas
- The Mexican-American War, 1846–1848
- Free Soil or Slave? The Dilemma of the West
Module 12: Cotton Is King — The Antebellum South (1800–1860)
- The Economics of Cotton
- African Americans in the Antebellum United States
- Wealth and Culture in the South
- The Filibuster and the Quest for New Slave States
Module 13: Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses (1820–1860)
- An Awakening of Religion and Individualism
- Antebellum Communal Experiments
- Reforms to Human Health
- Addressing Slavery
- Women’s Rights
Module 14: Troubled Times — The Tumultuous 1850s
- The Compromise of 1850
- The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Republican Party
- John Brown and the Election of 1860
- The Dred Scott Decision and Sectional Strife
Module 15: The Civil War (1860–1865)
- The Origins and Outbreak of the Civil War
- Early Mobilization and War
- 1863: The Changing Nature of the War
- The Union Triumphant
- Course Project
Module 16: The Era of Reconstruction (1865–1877)
- Restoring the Union
- Congress and the Remaking of the South, 1865–1866
- Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872
- The Collapse of Reconstruction