AP U.S. History Concept Outline, Effective Fall 2019

AP U.S. History

Concept Outline

The concept outline for AP U.S. History presents the course content organized by key

concept rather than in sequential units. The coding that appears in the AP U.S. History

Course and Exam Description, Effective Fall 2019 corresponds to the organization of the

course content found in this conceptual outline.

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Key Concept 1.1 — As native populations migrated and settled across

the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed distinct and

increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their

diverse environments.

I. Dierent native societies adapted to and transformed their environments through

innovations in agriculture, resource use, and social structure.

A. The spread of maize cultivation from present-day Mexico northward into the

present-day American Southwest and beyond supported economic development,

settlement, advanced irrigation, and social diversication among societies.

B. Societies responded to the aridity of the Great Basin and the grasslands of the

western Great Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles.

C. In the Northeast, the Mississippi River Valley, and along the Atlantic seaboard

some societies developed mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economies

that favored the development of permanent villages.

D. Societies in the Northwest and present-day California supported themselves by

hunting and gathering, and in some areas developed settled communities

supported by the vast resources of the ocean.

Key Concept 1.2 — Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and

Africans resulted in the Columbian Exchange and signicant social, cultural,

and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

I. European expansion into the Western Hemisphere generated intense social,

religious, political, and economic competition and changes within European

societies.

A. European nations’ eorts to explore and conquer the New World stemmed from

a search for new sources of wealth, economic and military competition, and a

desire to spread Christianity.

B. The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas,

stimulating European population growth, and new sources of mineral wealth,

which facilitated the European shift from feudalism to capitalism.

C. Improvements in maritime technology and more organized methods for

conducting international trade, such as joint-stock companies, helped drive

changes to economies in Europe and the Americas.

II. The Columbian Exchange and development of the Spanish Empire in the Western

Hemisphere resulted in extensive demographic, economic, and social changes.

A. Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and

furthered by widespread deadly epidemics that devastated native populations

and by the introduction of crops and animals not found in the Americas.

B. In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native

American labor to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious

metals and other resources.

C. European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced

slavery to forcibly extract enslaved laborers for the Americas. The Spanish

imported enslaved Africans to labor in plantation agriculture and mining.

D. The Spanish developed a caste system that incorporated, and carefully dened

the status of, the diverse population of Europeans, Africans, and Native

Americans in their empire.

Period 1: c. 1491–c. 1607

III. In their interactions, Europeans and Native Americans asserted divergent worldviews

regarding issues such as religion, gender roles, family, land use, and power.

A. Mutual misunderstandings between Europeans and Native Americans often

dened the early years of interaction and trade as each group sought to make

sense of the other. Over time, Europeans and Native Americans adopted some

useful aspects of each other’s culture.

B. As European encroachments on Native Americans’ lands and demands on their

labor increased, native peoples sought to defend and maintain their political

sovereignty, economic prosperity, religious beliefs, and concepts of gender

relations through diplomatic negotiations and military resistance.

C. Extended contact with Native Americans and Africans fostered a debate among

European religious and political leaders about how non-Europeans should be

treated, as well as evolving religious, cultural, and racial justications for the

subjugation of Africans and Native Americans.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 1: c. 1491–c. 1607

Key Concept 2.1 — Europeans developed a variety of colonization and

migration patterns, inuenced by dierent imperial goals, cultures, and the

varied North American environments where they settled, and they competed

with each other and American Indians for resources.

I. Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had dierent economic and imperial

goals involving land and labor that shaped the social and political development of

their colonies as well as their relationships with native populations.

A. Spanish eorts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop institutions

based on subjugating native populations, converting them to Christianity, and

incorporating them, along with enslaved and free Africans, into the Spanish

colonial society.

B. French and Dutch colonial eorts involved relatively few Europeans and relied

on trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build economic

and diplomatic relationships and acquire furs and other products for export

to Europe.

C. English colonization eorts attracted a comparatively large number of male

and female British migrants, as well as other European migrants, all of whom

sought social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom, and improved

living conditions. These colonists focused on agriculture and settled on land

taken from Native Americans, from whom they lived separately.

II. In the 17th century, early British colonies developed along the Atlantic coast,

with regional dierences that reected various environmental, economic, cultural,

and demographic factors.

A. The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting

tobacco—a labor-intensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male

indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans.

B. The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small

towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture

and commerce.

C. The middle colonies supported a ourishing export economy based on cereal

crops and attracted a broad range of European migrants, leading to societies

with greater cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.

D. The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used

long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting

staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans, who often

constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed their

own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.

E. Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention led to the colonies creating

self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era. The New

England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn

elected members to their colonial legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite

planters exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies.

III. Competition over resources between European rivals and American Indians

encouraged industry and trade and led to conict in the Americas.

A. An Atlantic economy developed in which goods, as well as enslaved Africans

and American Indians, were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the

Americas through extensive trade networks. European colonial economies

focused on acquiring, producing, and exporting commodities that were valued

in Europe and gaining new sources of labor.

Period 2: c. 1607–c. 1754

B. Continuing trade with Europeans increased the ow of goods in and out of

American Indian communities, stimulating cultural and economic changes and

spreading epidemic diseases that caused radical demographic shifts.

C. Interactions between European rivals and American Indian populations fostered

both accommodation and conict. French, Dutch, British, and Spanish colonies

allied with and armed American Indian groups, who frequently sought alliances

with Europeans against other American Indian groups.

D. The goals and interests of European leaders and colonists at times diverged,

leading to a growing mistrust on both sides of the Atlantic. Colonists, especially

in British North America, expressed dissatisfaction over issues including

territorial settlements, frontier defense, self-rule, and trade.

E. British conicts with American Indians over land, resources, and political

boundaries led to military confrontations, such as Metacom’s War (King Philip’s

War) in New England.

F. American Indian resistance to Spanish colonizing eorts in North America,

particularly after the Pueblo Revolt, led to Spanish accommodation of some

aspects of American Indian culture in the Southwest.

Key Concept 2.2 — The British colonies participated in political, social,

cultural, and economic exchanges with Great Britain that encouraged both

stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to Britain’s control.

I. Transatlantic commercial, religious, philosophical, and political exchanges led

residents of the British colonies to evolve in their political and cultural attitudes as

they became increasingly tied to Britain and one another.

A. The presence of dierent European religious and ethnic groups contributed

to a signicant degree of pluralism and intellectual exchange, which were

later enhanced by the rst Great Awakening and the spread of European

Enlightenment ideas.

B. The British colonies experienced a gradual Anglicization over time, developing

autonomous political communities based on English models with inuence

from intercolonial commercial ties, the emergence of a transatlantic print culture,

and the spread of Protestant evangelicalism.

C. The British government increasingly attempted to incorporate its North

American colonies into a coherent, hierarchical, and imperial structure in

order to pursue mercantilist economic aims, but conicts with colonists and

American Indians led to erratic enforcement of imperial policies.

D. Colonists’ resistance to imperial control drew on local experiences

of self-government, evolving ideas of liberty, the political thought of the

Enlightenment, greater religious independence and diversity, and an

ideology critical of perceived corruption in the imperial system.

II. Like other European empires in the Americas that participated in the Atlantic slave

trade, the English colonies developed a system of slavery that reected the specic

economic, demographic, and geographic characteristics of those colonies.

A. All the British colonies participated to varying degrees in the Atlantic slave

trade due to the abundance of land and a growing European demand for colonial

goods, as well as a shortage of indentured servants. Small New England farms

used relatively few enslaved laborers, all port cities held signicant minorities

of enslaved people, and the emerging plantation systems of the Chesapeake and

the southern Atlantic coast had large numbers of enslaved workers, while the

great majority of enslaved Africans were sent to the West Indies.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 2: c. 1607–c. 1754

B. As chattel slavery became the dominant labor system in many southern

colonies, new laws created a strict racial system that prohibited interracial

relationships and dened the descendants of African American mothers as

black and enslaved in perpetuity.

C. Africans developed both overt and covert means to resist the dehumanizing

nature of slavery and maintain their family and gender systems, culture,

and religion.

Period 2: c. 1607–c. 1754

Key Concept 3.1 — British attempts to assert tighter control over its North

American colonies and the colonial resolve to pursue self-government led to a

colonial independence movement and the Revolutionary War.

I. The competition among the British, French, and American Indians for economic and

political advantage in North America culminated in the Seven Years’ War (the French

and Indian War), in which Britain defeated France and allied American Indians.

A. Colonial rivalry intensied between Britain and France in the mid-18th century,

as the growing population of the British colonies expanded into the interior of

North America, threatening French–Indian trade networks and American Indian

autonomy.

B. Britain achieved a major expansion of its territorial holdings by defeating the

French, but at tremendous expense, setting the stage for imperial eorts to raise

revenue and consolidate control over the colonies.

C. After the British victory, imperial ocials’ attempts to prevent colonists from

moving westward generated colonial opposition, while native groups sought

to both continue trading with Europeans and resist the encroachments of

colonists on tribal lands.

II. The desire of many colonists to assert ideals of self-government in the face of renewed

British imperial eorts led to a colonial independence movement and war with Britain.

A. The imperial struggles of the mid-18th century, as well as new British eorts

to collect taxes without direct colonial representation or consent and to assert

imperial authority in the colonies, began to unite the colonists against perceived

and real constraints on their economic activities and political rights.

B. Colonial leaders based their calls for resistance to Britain on arguments about

the rights of British subjects, the rights of the individual, local traditions of self-

rule, and the ideas of the Enlightenment.

C. The eort for American independence was energized by colonial leaders such as

Benjamin Franklin, as well as by popular movements that included the political

activism of laborers, artisans, and women.

D. In the face of economic shortages and the British military occupation of some

regions, men and women mobilized in large numbers to provide nancial and

material support to the Patriot movement.

E. Despite considerable loyalist opposition, as well as Great Britain’s apparently

overwhelming military and nancial advantages, the Patriot cause succeeded

because of the actions of colonial militias and the Continental Army, George

Washington’s military leadership, the colonists’ ideological commitment and

resilience, and assistance sent by European allies.

Key Concept 3.2 — The American Revolution’s democratic and republican

ideals inspired new experiments with dierent forms of government.

I. The ideals that inspired the revolutionary cause reected new beliefs about politics,

religion, and society that had been developing over the course of the 18th century.

A. Enlightenment ideas and philosophy inspired many American political

thinkers to emphasize individual talent over hereditary privilege, while religion

strengthened Americans’ view of themselves as a people blessed with liberty.

B. The colonists’ belief in the superiority of republican forms of government based

on the natural rights of the people found expression in Thomas Paine’s Common

Sense and the Declaration of Independence. The ideas in these documents

resonated throughout American history, shaping Americans’ understanding of

the ideals on which the nation was based.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 3: c. 1754–c. 1800

C. During and after the American Revolution, an increased awareness of inequalities

in society motivated some individuals and groups to call for the abolition of

slavery and greater political democracy in the new state and national governments.

D. In response to women’s participation in the American Revolution, Enlightenment

ideas, and women’s appeals for expanded roles, an ideal of “republican motherhood”

gained popularity. It called on women to teach republican values within the family

and granted women a new importance in American political culture.

E. The American Revolution and the ideals set forth in the Declaration of

Independence reverberated in France, Haiti, and Latin America, inspiring future

independence movements.

II. After declaring independence, American political leaders created new constitutions

and declarations of rights that articulated the role of the state and federal

governments while protecting individual liberties and limiting both centralized

power and excessive popular inuence.

A. Many new state constitutions placed power in the hands of the legislative

branch and maintained property qualications for voting and citizenship.

B. The Articles of Confederation unied the newly independent states, creating a

central government with limited power. After the Revolution, diculties over

international trade, nances, interstate commerce, foreign relations, and internal

unrest led to calls for a stronger central government.

C. Delegates from the states participated in the Constitutional Convention and

through negotiation, collaboration, and compromise proposed a constitution that

created a limited but dynamic central government embodying federalism and

providing for a separation of powers between its three branches.

D. The Constitutional Convention compromised over the representation of slave states

in Congress and the role of the federal government in regulating both slavery and

the slave trade, allowing the prohibition of the international slave trade after 1808.

E. In the debate over ratifying the Constitution, Anti-Federalists opposing

ratication battled with Federalists, whose principles were articulated in the

Federalist Papers (primarily written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison).

Federalists ensured the ratication of the Constitution by promising the addition

of a Bill of Rights that enumerated individual rights and explicitly restricted

the powers of the federal government.

III. New forms of national culture and political institutions developed in the United

States alongside continued regional variations and dierences over economic,

political, social, and foreign policy issues.

A. During the presidential administrations of George Washington and John Adams,

political leaders created institutions and precedents that put the principles of

the Constitution into practice.

B. Political leaders in the 1790s took a variety of positions on issues such as

the relationship between the national government and the states, economic

policy, foreign policy, and the balance between liberty and order. This led to

the formation of political parties—most signicantly the Federalists, led by

Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas

Jeerson and James Madison.

C. The expansion of slavery in the deep South and adjacent western lands and

rising antislavery sentiment began to create distinctive regional attitudes

toward the institution.

D. Ideas about national identity increasingly found expression in works of art,

literature, and architecture.

Period 3: c. 1754–c. 1800

Key Concept 3.3 — Migration within North America and competition

over resources, boundaries, and trade intensied conicts among peoples

and nations.

I. In the decades after American independence, interactions among dierent groups

resulted in competition for resources, shifting alliances, and cultural blending.

A. Various American Indian groups repeatedly evaluated and adjusted their

alliances with Europeans, other tribes, and the United States, seeking to limit

migration of white settlers and maintain control of tribal lands and natural

resources. British alliances with American Indians contributed to tensions

between the United States and Britain.

B. As increasing numbers of migrants from North America and other parts of the

world continued to move westward, frontier cultures that had emerged in the

colonial period continued to grow, fueling social, political, and ethnic tensions.

C. As settlers moved westward during the 1780s, Congress enacted the Northwest

Ordinance for admitting new states; the ordinance promoted public education,

the protection of private property, and a ban on slavery in the Northwest

Territory.

D. An ambiguous relationship between the federal government and American

Indian tribes contributed to problems regarding treaties and American Indian

legal claims relating to the seizure of their lands.

E. The Spanish, supported by the bonded labor of the local American Indians,

expanded their mission settlements into California; these provided opportunities

for social mobility among soldiers and led to new cultural blending.

II. The continued presence of European powers in North America challenged the

United States to nd ways to safeguard its borders, maintain neutral trading rights,

and promote its economic interests.

A. The U.S. government forged diplomatic initiatives aimed at dealing with the

continued British and Spanish presence in North America, as U.S. settlers

migrated beyond the Appalachians and sought free navigation of the Mississippi

River.

B. War between France and Britain resulting from the French Revolution presented

challenges to the United States over issues of free trade and foreign policy and

fostered political disagreement.

C. George Washington’s Farewell Address encouraged national unity, as he

cautioned against political factions and warned about the danger of permanent

foreign alliances.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 3: c. 1754–c. 1800

Key Concept 4.1 — The United States began to develop a modern democracy

and celebrated a new national culture, while Americans sought to dene

the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to

match them.

I. The nation’s transition to a more participatory democracy was achieved by

expanding surage from a system based on property ownership to one based

on voting by all adult white men, and it was accompanied by the growth of

political parties.

A. In the early 1800s, national political parties continued to debate issues such

as the tari, powers of the federal government, and relations with European

powers.

B. Supreme Court decisions established the primacy of the judiciary in determining

the meaning of the Constitution and asserted that federal laws took precedence

over state laws.

C. By the 1820s and 1830s, new political parties arose—the Democrats, led by

Andrew Jackson, and the Whigs, led by Henry Clay—that disagreed about

the role and powers of the federal government and issues such as the national

bank, taris, and federally funded internal improvements.

D. Regional interests often trumped national concerns as the basis for many

political leaders’ positions on slavery and economic policy.

II. While Americans embraced a new national culture, various groups developed

distinctive cultures of their own.

A. The rise of democratic and individualistic beliefs, a response to rationalism,

and changes to society caused by the market revolution, along with greater

social and geographical mobility, contributed to a Second Great Awakening

among Protestants that inuenced moral and social reforms and inspired

utopian and other religious movements.

B. A new national culture emerged that combined American elements, European

inuences, and regional cultural sensibilities.

C. Liberal social ideas from abroad and Romantic beliefs in human perfectibility

inuenced literature, art, philosophy, and architecture.

D. Enslaved blacks and free African Americans created communities and strategies

to protect their dignity and family structures, and they joined political eorts

aimed at changing their status.

III. Increasing numbers of Americans, many inspired by new religious and

intellectual movements, worked primarily outside of government institutions

to advance their ideals.

A. Americans formed new voluntary organizations that aimed to change

individual behaviors and improve society through temperance and other

reform eorts.

B. Abolitionist and antislavery movements gradually achieved emancipation in

the North, contributing to the growth of the free African American population,

even as many state governments restricted African Americans’ rights.

Antislavery eorts in the South were largely limited to unsuccessful rebellions

by enslaved persons.

C. A women’s rights movement sought to create greater equality and opportunities

for women, expressing its ideals at the Seneca Falls Convention.

Period 4: c. 1800–c. 1848

Key Concept 4.2 — Innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce

powerfully accelerated the American economy, precipitating profound changes

to U.S. society and to national and regional identities.

I. New transportation systems and technologies dramatically expanded manufacturing

and agricultural production.

A. Entrepreneurs helped to create a market revolution in production and commerce,

in which market relationships between producers and consumers came to

prevail as the manufacture of goods became more organized.

B. Innovations including textile machinery, steam engines, interchangeable parts,

the telegraph, and agricultural inventions increased the eciency of production

methods.

C. Legislation and judicial systems supported the development of roads, canals,

and railroads, which extended and enlarged markets and helped foster regional

interdependence. Transportation networks linked the North and Midwest more

closely than they linked regions in the South.

II. The changes caused by the market revolution had signicant eects on U.S. society,

workers’ lives, and gender and family relations.

A. Increasing numbers of Americans, especially women and men working

in factories, no longer relied on semisubsistence agriculture; instead they

supported themselves producing goods for distant markets.

B. The growth of manufacturing drove a signicant increase in prosperity and

standards of living for some; this led to the emergence of a larger middle

class and a small but wealthy business elite but also to a large and growing

population of laboring poor.

C. Gender and family roles changed in response to the market revolution,

particularly with the growth of denitions of domestic ideals that emphasized

the separation of public and private spheres.

III. Economic development shaped settlement and trade patterns, helping to unify the

nation while also encouraging the growth of dierent regions.

A. Large numbers of international migrants moved to industrializing northern

cities, while many Americans moved west of the Appalachians, developing

thriving new communities along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

B. Increasing Southern cotton production and the related growth of Northern

manufacturing, banking, and shipping industries promoted the development

of national and international commercial ties.

C. Southern business leaders continued to rely on the production and export

of traditional agricultural staples, contributing to the growth of a distinctive

Southern regional identity.

D. Plans to further unify the U.S. economy, such as the American System,

generated debates over whether such policies would benet agriculture or

industry, potentially favoring dierent sections of the country.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 4: c. 1800–c. 1848

Key Concept 4.3 — The U.S. interest in increasing foreign trade and

expanding its national borders shaped the nation’s foreign policy and spurred

government and private initiatives.

I. Struggling to create an independent global presence, the United States sought

to claim territory throughout the North American continent and promote foreign

trade.

A. Following the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. government sought inuence

and control over North America and the Western Hemisphere through a

variety of means, including exploration, military actions, American Indian

removal, and diplomatic eorts such as the Monroe Doctrine.

B. Frontier settlers tended to champion expansion eorts, while American Indian

resistance led to a sequence of wars and federal eorts to control and relocate

American Indian populations.

II. The United States’ acquisition of lands in the West gave rise to contests over the

extension of slavery into new territories.

A. As overcultivation depleted arable land in the Southeast, slaveholders began

relocating their plantations to more fertile lands west of the Appalachians,

where the institution of slavery continued to grow.

B. Antislavery eorts increased in the North, while in the South, although the

majority of Southerners owned no enslaved persons, most leaders argued that

slavery was part of the Southern way of life.

C. Congressional attempts at political compromise, such as the Missouri

Compromise, only temporarily stemmed growing tensions between opponents

and defenders of slavery.

Period 4: c. 1800–c. 1848

Key Concept 5.1 — The United States became more connected with the

world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere,

and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.

I. Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion, bolstered by economic and security

interests, resulted in the acquisition of new territories, substantial migration

westward, and new overseas initiatives.

A. The desire for access to natural and mineral resources and the hope of many

settlers for economic opportunities or religious refuge led to an increased

migration to and settlement in the West.

B. Advocates of annexing western lands argued that Manifest Destiny and the

superiority of American institutions compelled the United States to expand its

borders westward to the Pacic Ocean.

C. The United States added large territories in the West through victory in the

Mexican–American War and diplomatic negotiations, raising questions about

the status of slavery, American Indians, and Mexicans in the newly acquired

lands.

D. Westward migration was boosted during and after the Civil War by the passage

of new legislation promoting western transportation and economic development.

E. U.S. interest in expanding trade led to economic, diplomatic, and cultural

initiatives to create more ties with Asia.

II. In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans continued to debate questions about rights

and citizenship for various groups of U.S. inhabitants.

A. Substantial numbers of international migrants continued to arrive in the United

States from Europe and Asia, mainly from Ireland and Germany, often settling in

ethnic communities where they could preserve elements of their languages and

customs.

B. A strongly anti-Catholic nativist movement arose that was aimed at limiting

new immigrants’ political power and cultural inuence.

C. U.S. government interaction and conict with Mexican Americans and American

Indians increased in regions newly taken from American Indians and Mexico,

altering these groups’ economic self-suciency and cultures.

Key Concept 5.2 — Intensied by expansion and deepening regional

divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political

issues led the nation into civil war.

I. Ideological and economic dierences over slavery produced an array of diverging

responses from Americans in the North and the South.

A. The North’s expanding manufacturing economy relied on free labor in contrast

to the Southern economy’s dependence on enslaved labor. Some Northerners

did not object to slavery on principle but claimed that slavery would undermine

the free-labor market. As a result, a free-soil movement arose that portrayed the

expansion of slavery as incompatible with free labor.

B. African American and white abolitionists, although a minority in the North,

mounted a highly visible campaign against slavery, presenting moral arguments

against the institution, assisting escapes, and sometimes expressing a

willingness to use violence to achieve their goals.

C. Defenders of slavery based their arguments on racial doctrines, the view that

slavery was a positive social good, and the belief that slavery and states’ rights

were protected by the Constitution.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 5: c. 1844–c. 1877

II. Debates over slavery came to dominate political discussion in the 1850s,

culminating in the bitter election of 1860 and the secession of Southern states.

A. The Mexican Cession led to heated controversies over whether to allow slavery

in the newly acquired territories.

B. The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of

slavery in the territories, including the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska

Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these ultimately failed to reduce conict.

C. The Second Party System ended when the issues of slavery and anti-immigrant

nativism weakened loyalties to the two major parties and fostered the emergence

of sectional parties, most notably the Republican Party in the North.

D. Abraham Lincoln’s victory on the Republicans’ free-soil platform in the

presidential election of 1860 was accomplished without any Southern electoral

votes. After a series of contested debates about secession, most slave states

voted to secede from the Union, precipitating the Civil War.

Key Concept 5.3 — The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested

reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but

left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government

and citizenship rights.

I. The North’s greater manpower and industrial resources, the leadership of Abraham

Lincoln and others, and the decision to emancipate enslaved persons eventually led

to the Union military victory over the Confederacy in the devastating Civil War.

A. Both the Union and the Confederacy mobilized their economies and societies to

wage the war even while facing considerable home front opposition.

B. Lincoln and most Union supporters began the Civil War to preserve the Union, but

Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reframed the purpose of

the war and helped prevent the Confederacy from gaining full diplomatic support

from European powers. Many African Americans ed southern plantations and

enlisted in the Union Army, helping to undermine the Confederacy.

C. Lincoln sought to reunify the country and used speeches such as the Gettysburg

Address to portray the struggle against slavery as the fulllment of America’s

founding democratic ideals.

D. Although the Confederacy showed military initiative and daring early in the war,

the Union ultimately succeeded due to improvements in leadership and strategy,

key victories, greater resources, and the wartime destruction of the South’s

infrastructure.

II. Reconstruction and the Civil War ended slavery, altered relationships between

the states and the federal government, and led to debates over new denitions of

citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and

other minorities.

A. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments

granted African Americans citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and

voting rights.

B. The women’s rights movement was both emboldened and divided over the

14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.

C. Eorts by radical and moderate Republicans to change the balance of power

between Congress and the presidency and to reorder race relations in the

defeated South yielded some short-term successes. Reconstruction opened up

political opportunities and other leadership roles to formerly enslaved persons,

but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the

North’s waning resolve.

Period 5: c. 1844–c. 1877

D. Southern plantation owners continued to own the majority of the region’s land

even after Reconstruction. Formerly enslaved persons sought land ownership

but generally fell short of self-suciency, as an exploitative and soil-intensive

sharecropping system limited blacks’ and poor whites’ access to land in the

South.

E. Segregation, violence, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics

progressively stripped away African American rights, but the 14th and

15th amendments eventually became the basis for court decisions upholding

civil rights in the 20th century.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 5: c. 1844–c. 1877

Key Concept 6.1 — Technological advances, large-scale production methods,

and the opening of new markets encouraged the rise of industrial capitalism

in the United States.

I. Large-scale industrial production—accompanied by massive technological

change, expanding international communication networks, and pro-growth

government policies—generated rapid economic development and business

consolidation.

A. Following the Civil War, government subsidies for transportation and

communication systems helped open new markets in North America.

B. Businesses made use of technological innovations, greater access to natural

resources, redesigned nancial and management structures, advances in

marketing, and a growing labor force to dramatically increase the production

of goods.

C. As the price of many goods decreased, workers’ real wages increased, providing

new access to a variety of goods and services; many Americans’ standards of

living improved, while the gap between rich and poor grew.

D. Many business leaders sought increased prots by consolidating

corporations into large trusts and holding companies, which further

concentrated wealth.

E. Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders

in an eort to gain greater inuence and control over markets and natural

resources in the Pacic Rim, Asia, and Latin America.

II. A variety of perspectives on the economy and labor developed during a time of

nancial panics and downturns.

A. Some argued that laissez-faire policies and competition promoted economic

growth in the long run, and they opposed government intervention during

economic downturns.

B. The industrial workforce expanded and became more diverse through internal

and international migration; child labor also increased.

C. Labor and management battled over wages and working conditions, with

workers organizing local and national unions and/or directly confronting

business leaders.

D. Despite the industrialization of some segments of the Southern

economy—a change promoted by Southern leaders who called for a

“NewSouth”—agriculture based on sharecropping and tenant farming

continued to be the primary economic activity in the South.

III. New systems of production and transportation enabled consolidation within

agriculture, which, along with periods of instability, spurred a variety of responses

from farmers.

A. Improvements in mechanization helped agricultural production increase

substantially and contributed to declines in food prices.

B. Many farmers responded to the increasing consolidation in agricultural markets

and their dependence on the evolving railroad system by creating local and

regional cooperative organizations.

C. Economic instability inspired agrarian activists to create the People’s (Populist)

Party, which called for a stronger governmental role in regulating the American

economic system.

Period 6: c. 1865–c. 1898

Key Concept 6.2 — The migrations that accompanied industrialization

transformed both urban and rural areas of the United States and caused

dramatic social and cultural change.

I. International and internal migration increased urban populations and fostered the

growth of a new urban culture.

A. As cities became areas of economic growth featuring new factories and

businesses, they attracted immigrants from Asia and from southern and eastern

Europe, as well as African American migrants within and out of the South.

Many migrants moved to escape poverty, religious persecution, and limited

opportunities for social mobility in their home countries or regions.

B. Urban neighborhoods based on particular ethnicities, races, and classes

provided new cultural opportunities for city dwellers.

C. Increasing public debates over assimilation and Americanization accompanied

the growth of international migration. Many immigrants negotiated compromises

between the cultures they brought and the culture they found in the United States.

D. In an urban atmosphere where the access to power was unequally distributed,

political machines thrived, in part by providing immigrants and the poor with

social services.

E. Corporations’ need for managers and for male and female clerical workers as

well as increased access to educational institutions, fostered the growth of a

distinctive middle class. A growing amount of leisure time also helped expand

consumer culture.

II. Larger numbers of migrants moved to the West in search of land and economic

opportunity, frequently provoking competition and violent conict.

A. The building of transcontinental railroads, the discovery of mineral resources,

and government policies promoted economic growth and created new

communities and centers of commercial activity.

B. In hopes of achieving ideals of self-suciency and independence, migrants

moved to both rural and boomtown areas of the West for opportunities, such as

building the railroads, mining, farming, and ranching.

C. As migrant populations increased in number and the American bison population

was decimated, competition for land and resources in the West among white

settlers, American Indians, and Mexican Americans led to an increase in violent

conict.

D. The U.S. government violated treaties with American Indians and responded

to resistance with military force, eventually conning American Indians to

reservations and denying tribal sovereignty.

E. Many American Indians preserved their cultures and tribal identities despite

government policies promoting assimilation, and they attempted to develop

self-sustaining economic practices.

Key Concept 6.3 — The Gilded Age produced new cultural and intellectual

movements, public reform eorts, and political debates over economic and

social policies.

I. New cultural and intellectual movements both buttressed and challenged the social

order of the Gilded Age.

A. Social commentators advocated theories later described as Social Darwinism

to justify the success of those at the top of the socioeconomic structure as

both appropriate and inevitable.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 6: c. 1865–c. 1898

B. Some business leaders argued that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help

the less fortunate and improve society, as articulated in the idea known as the

Gospel of Wealth, and they made philanthropic contributions that enhanced

educational opportunities and urban environments.

C. A number of artists and critics, including agrarians, utopians, socialists, and

advocates of the Social Gospel, championed alternative visions for the economy

and U.S. society.

II. Dramatic social changes in the period inspired political debates over citizenship,

corruption, and the proper relationship between business and government.

A. The major political parties appealed to lingering divisions from the Civil War

and contended over taris and currency issues, even as reformers argued that

economic greed and self-interest had corrupted all levels of government.

B. Many women sought greater equality with men, often joining voluntary

organizations, going to college, promoting social and political reform, and,

like Jane Addams, working in settlement houses to help immigrants adapt

to U.S. language and customs.

C. The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld racial

segregation helped to mark the end of most of the political gains African

Americans made during Reconstruction. Facing increased violence,

discrimination, and scientic theories of race, African American reformers

continued to ght for political and social equality.

Period 6: c. 1865–c. 1898

Key Concept 7.1 — Growth expanded opportunity, while economic instability

led to new eorts to reform U.S. society and its economic system.

I. The United States continued its transition from a rural, agricultural economy to an

urban, industrial economy led by large companies.

A. New technologies and manufacturing techniques helped focus the U.S.

economy on the production of consumer goods, contributing to improved

standards of living, greater personal mobility, and better communications

systems.

B. By 1920, a majority of the U.S. population lived in urban centers, which

oered new economic opportunities for women, international migrants, and

internal migrants.

C. Episodes of credit and market instability in the early 20th century, in

particular the Great Depression, led to calls for a stronger nancial regulatory

system.

II. In the Progressive Era of the early 20th century, Progressives responded to

political corruption, economic instability, and social concerns by calling for greater

government action and other political and social measures.

A. Some Progressive Era journalists attacked what they saw as political

corruption, social injustice, and economic inequality, while reformers, often

from the middle and upper classes and including many women, worked to

eect social changes in cities and among immigrant populations.

B. On the national level, Progressives sought federal legislation that they believed

would eectively regulate the economy, expand democracy, and generate moral

reform. Progressive amendments to the Constitution dealt with issues such as

prohibition and woman surage.

C. Preservationists and conservationists both supported the establishment of

national parks while advocating dierent government responses to the overuse

of natural resources.

D. The Progressives were divided over many issues. Some Progressives

supported Southern segregation, while others ignored its presence. Some

Progressives advocated expanding popular participation in government,

while others called for greater reliance on professional and technical experts

to make government more ecient. Progressives also disagreed about

immigration restriction.

III. During the 1930s, policymakers responded to the mass unemployment and social

upheavals of the Great Depression by transforming the U.S. into a limited welfare

state, redening the goals and ideas of modern American liberalism.

A. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal attempted to end the Great Depression by using

government power to provide relief to the poor, stimulate recovery, and reform

the American economy.

B. Radical, union, and populist movements pushed Roosevelt toward

more extensive eorts to change the American economic system, while

conservatives in Congress and the Supreme Court sought to limit the

New Deal’s scope.

C. Although the New Deal did not end the Depression, it left a legacy of reforms

and regulatory agencies and fostered a long-term political realignment in which

many ethnic groups, African Americans, and working-class communities

identied with the Democratic Party.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 7: c. 1890–c. 1945

Key Concept 7.2 — Innovations in communications and technology

contributed to the growth of mass culture, while signicant changes occurred

in internal and international migration patterns.

I. Popular culture grew in inuence in U.S. society, even as debates increased over the

eects of culture on public values, morals, and American national identity.

A. New forms of mass media, such as radio and cinema, contributed to the spread

of national culture as well as greater awareness of regional cultures.

B. Migration gave rise to new forms of art and literature that expressed ethnic and

regional identities, such the Harlem Renaissance movement.

C. Ocial restrictions on freedom of speech grew during World War I, as increased

anxiety about radicalism led to a Red Scare and attacks on labor activism and

immigrant culture.

D. In the 1920s, cultural and political controversies emerged as Americans debated

gender roles, modernism, science, religion, and issues related to race and

immigration.

II. Economic pressures, global events, and political developments caused sharp

variations in the numbers, sources, and experiences of both international and

internal migrants.

A. Immigration from Europe reached its peak in the years before World War I.

During and after World War I, nativist campaigns against some ethnic groups

led to the passage of quotas that restricted immigration, particularly from

southern and eastern Europe, and increased barriers to Asian immigration.

B. The increased demand for war production and labor during World War I and

World War II and the economic diculties of the 1930s led many Americans to

migrate to urban centers in search of economic opportunities.

C. In the Great Migration during and after World War I, African Americans

escaping segregation, racial violence, and limited economic opportunity in the

South moved to the North and West, where they found new opportunities but

still encountered discrimination.

D. Migration to the United States from Mexico and elsewhere in the Western

Hemisphere increased, in spite of contradictory government policies toward

Mexican immigration.

Key Concept 7.3 — Participation in a series of global conicts propelled the

United States into a position of international power while renewing domestic

debates over the nation’s proper role in the world.

I. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, new U.S. territorial ambitions and

acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacic accompanied heightened

public debates over America’s role in the world.

A. Imperialists cited economic opportunities, racial theories, competition with

European empires, and the perception in the 1890s that the western frontier

was “closed” to argue that Americans were destined to expand their culture and

institutions to peoples around the globe.

B. Anti-imperialists cited principles of self-determination and invoked both racial

theories and the U.S. foreign policy tradition of isolationism to argue that the

United States should not extend its territory overseas.

C. The American victory in the Spanish–American War led to the U.S. acquisition

of island territories in the Caribbean and the Pacic, an increase in involvement

in Asia, and the suppression of a nationalist movement in the Philippines.

Period 7: c. 1890–c. 1945

II. World War I and its aftermath intensied ongoing debates about the nation’s

role in the world and how best to achieve national security and pursue American

interests.

A. After initial neutrality in World War I, the nation entered the conict,

departing from the U.S. foreign policy tradition of noninvolvement in European

aairs, in response to Woodrow Wilson’s call for the defense of humanitarian

and democratic principles.

B. Although the American Expeditionary Forces played a relatively limited role in

combat, the United States’ entry helped to tip the balance of the conict in favor

of the Allies.

C. Despite Wilson’s deep involvement in postwar negotiations, the U.S. Senate

refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles or join the League of Nations.

D. In the years following World War I, the United States pursued a unilateral foreign

policy that used international investment, peace treaties, and select military

intervention to promote a vision of international order, even while maintaining

U.S. isolationism.

E. In the 1930s, while many Americans were concerned about the rise of fascism

and totalitarianism, most opposed taking military action against the aggression

of Nazi Germany and Japan until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew the

United States into World War II.

III. U.S. participation in World War II transformed American society, while the

victory of the United States and its allies over the Axis powers vaulted the U.S.

into a position of global, political, and military leadership.

A. Americans viewed the war as a ght for the survival of freedom and democracy

against fascist and militarist ideologies. This perspective was later reinforced by

revelations about Japanese wartime atrocities, Nazi concentration camps, and

the Holocaust.

B. The mass mobilization of American society helped end the Great Depression,

and the country’s strong industrial base played a pivotal role in winning the

war by equipping and provisioning allies and millions of U.S. troops.

C. Mobilization and military service provided opportunities for women and

minorities to improve their socioeconomic positions for the war’s duration,

while also leading to debates over racial segregation. Wartime experiences

also generated challenges to civil liberties, such as the internment of

Japanese Americans.

D. The United States and its allies achieved military victory through Allied

cooperation, technological and scientic advances, the contributions of

servicemen and women, and campaigns such as Pacic “island-hopping” and

the D-Day invasion. The use of atomic bombs hastened the end of the war and

sparked debates about the morality of using atomic weapons.

E. The war-ravaged condition of Asia and Europe, and the dominant U.S. role in

the Allied victory and postwar peace settlements, allowed the United States

to emerge from the war as the most powerful nation on Earth.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 7: c. 1890–c. 1945

Key Concept 8.1 — The United States responded to an uncertain and unstable

postwar world by asserting and working to maintain a position of global

leadership, with far-reaching domestic and international consequences.

I. United States policymakers engaged in a cold war with the authoritarian Soviet Union,

seeking to limit the growth of Communist military power and ideological inuence,

create a free-market global economy, and build an international security system.

A. As postwar tensions dissolved the wartime alliance between Western

democracies and the Soviet Union, the United States developed a foreign policy

based on collective security, international aid, and economic institutions that

bolstered non-Communist nations.

B. Concerned by expansionist Communist ideology and Soviet repression, the

United States sought to contain communism through a variety of measures,

including major military engagements in Korea and Vietnam.

C. The Cold War uctuated between periods of direct and indirect military

confrontation and periods of mutual coexistence (or détente).

D. Postwar decolonization and the emergence of powerful nationalist movements

in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East led both sides in the Cold War to seek allies

among new nations, many of which remained nonaligned.

E. Cold War competition extended to Latin America, where the United States supported

non-Communist regimes that had varying levels of commitment to democracy.

II. Cold War policies led to public debates over the power of the federal government

and acceptable means for pursuing international and domestic goals while

protecting civil liberties.

A. Americans debated policies and methods designed to expose suspected

communists within the United States even as both parties supported the broader

strategy of containing communism.

B. Although anticommunist foreign policy faced little domestic opposition in

previous years, the Vietnam War inspired sizable and passionate antiwar protests

that became more numerous as the war escalated and sometimes led to violence.

C. Americans debated the merits of a large nuclear arsenal, the military-industrial

complex, and the appropriate power of the executive branch in conducting

foreign and military policy.

D. Ideological, military, and economic concerns shaped U.S. involvement in the

Middle East, with several oil crises in the region eventually sparking attempts at

creating a national energy policy.

Key Concept 8.2 — New movements for civil rights and liberal eorts to expand

the role of government generated a range of political and cultural responses.

I. Seeking to fulll Reconstruction-era promises, civil rights activists and political

leaders achieved some legal and political successes in ending segregation, although

progress toward racial equality was slow.

A. During and after World War II, civil rights activists and leaders, most notably

Martin Luther King Jr., combatted racial discrimination utilizing a variety of

strategies, including legal challenges, direct action, and nonviolent protest tactics.

B. The three branches of the federal government used measures including

desegregation of the armed services, Brown v. Board of Education, and the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 to promote greater racial equality.

C. Continuing resistance slowed eorts at desegregation, sparking social and

political unrest across the nation. Debates among civil rights activists over the

ecacy of nonviolence increased after 1965.

Period 8: c. 1945–c. 1980

II. Responding to social conditions and the African American civil rights movement,

a variety of movements emerged that focused on issues of identity, social justice,

and the environment.

A. Feminist and gay and lesbian activists mobilized behind claims for legal,

economic, and social equality.

B. Latino, American Indian, and Asian American movements continued to demand

social and economic equality and a redress of past injustices.

C. Despite an overall auence in postwar America, advocates raised concerns

about the prevalence and persistence of poverty as a national problem.

D. Environmental problems and accidents led to a growing environmental

movement that aimed to use legislative and public eorts to combat pollution

and protect natural resources. The federal government established new

environmental programs and regulations.

III. Liberalism inuenced postwar politics and court decisions, but it came under

increasing attack from the left as well as from a resurgent conservative movement.

A. Liberalism, based on anticommunism abroad and a rm belief in the ecacy

of government power to achieve social goals at home, reached a high point of

political inuence by the mid-1960s.

B. Liberal ideas found expression in Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, which

attempted to use federal legislation and programs to end racial discrimination,

eliminate poverty, and address other social issues. A series of Supreme Court

decisions expanded civil rights and individual liberties.

C. In the 1960s, conservatives challenged liberal laws and court decisions and

perceived moral and cultural decline, seeking to limit the role of the federal

government and enact more assertive foreign policies.

D. Some groups on the left also rejected liberal policies, arguing that political

leaders did too little to transform the racial and economic status quo at home

and pursued immoral policies abroad.

E. Public condence and trust in government’s ability to solve social and economic

problems declined in the 1970s in the wake of economic challenges, political

scandals, and foreign policy crises.

F. The 1970s saw growing clashes between conservatives and liberals over social

and cultural issues, the power of the federal government, race, and movements

for greater individual rights.

Key Concept 8.3 — Postwar economic and demographic changes had

far-reaching consequences for American society, politics, and culture.

I. Rapid economic and social changes in American society fostered a sense of

optimism in the postwar years.

A. A burgeoning private sector, federal spending, the baby boom, and technological

developments helped spur economic growth.

B. As higher education opportunities and new technologies rapidly expanded,

increasing social mobility encouraged the migration of the middle class to the

suburbs and of many Americans to the South and West. The Sun Belt region

emerged as a signicant political and economic force.

C. Immigrants from around the world sought access to the political, social, and

economic opportunities in the United States, especially after the passage of

new immigration laws in 1965.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 8: c. 1945–c. 1980

II. New demographic and social developments, along with anxieties over the Cold War,

changed U.S. culture and led to signicant political and moral debates that sharply

divided the nation.

A. Mass culture became increasingly homogeneous in the postwar years, inspiring

challenges to conformity by artists, intellectuals, and rebellious youth.

B. Feminists and young people who participated in the counterculture of the 1960s

rejected many of the social, economic, and political values of their parents’

generation, introduced greater informality into U.S. culture, and advocated

changes in sexualnorms.

C. The rapid and substantial growth of evangelical Christian churches and

organizations was accompanied by greater political and social activism on the

part of religious conservatives.

Period 8: c. 1945–c. 1980

Key Concept 9.1 — A newly ascendant conservative movement achieved

several political and policy goals during the 1980s and continued to strongly

inuence public discourse in the following decades.

I. Conservative beliefs regarding the need for traditional social values and a reduced

role for government advanced in U.S. politics after 1980.

A. Ronald Reagan’s victory in the presidential election of 1980 represented an

important milestone, allowing conservatives to enact signicant tax cuts and

continue the deregulation of many industries.

B. Conservatives argued that liberal programs were counterproductive in ghting

poverty and stimulating economic growth. Some of their eorts to reduce the

size and scope of government met with inertia and liberal opposition, as many

programs remained popular with voters.

C. Policy debates continued over free-trade agreements, the scope of the

government social safety net, and calls to reform the U.S. nancial system.

Key Concept 9.2 — Moving into the 21st century, the nation experienced

signicant technological, economic, and demographic changes.

I. New developments in science and technology enhanced the economy and

transformed society, while manufacturing decreased.

A. Economic productivity increased as improvements in digital

communications enabled increased American participation in worldwide

economic opportunities.

B. Technological innovations in computing, digital mobile technology, and the

Internet transformed daily life, increased access to information, and led to

new social behaviors and networks.

C. Employment increased in service sectors and decreased in manufacturing, and

union membership declined.

D. Real wages stagnated for the working and middle class amid growing economic

inequality.

II. The U.S. population continued to undergo demographic shifts that had signicant

cultural and political consequences.

A. After 1980, the political, economic, and cultural inuence of the American South

and West continued to increase as population shifted to those areas.

B. International migration from Latin America and Asia increased dramatically.

The new immigrants aected U.S. culture in many ways and supplied the

economy with an important labor force.

C. Intense political and cultural debates continued over issues such as immigration

policy, diversity, gender roles, and family structures.

Key Concept 9.3 — The end of the Cold War and new challenges to

U.S. leadership forced the nation to redene its foreign policy and role in

the world.

I. The Reagan administration promoted an interventionist foreign policy that

continued in later administrations, even after the end of the Cold War.

A. Reagan asserted U.S. opposition to communism through speeches, diplomatic

eorts, limited military interventions, and a buildup of nuclear and conventional

weapons.

AP U.S. History Concept Outline

Period 9: c. 1980–PRESENT

B. Increased U.S. military spending, Reagan’s diplomatic initiatives, and political

changes and economic problems in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were

all important in ending the Cold War.

C. The end of the Cold War led to new diplomatic relationships but also new

U.S. military and peacekeeping interventions, as well as continued debates over

the appropriate use of American power in the world.

II. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. foreign policy eorts focused on

ghting terrorism around the world.

A. In the wake of attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United

States launched military eorts against terrorism and lengthy, controversial

conicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

B. The war on terrorism sought to improve security within the United States but

also raised questions about the protection of civil liberties and human rights.

C. Conicts in the Middle East and concerns about climate change led to debates

over U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and the impact of economic consumption

on the environment.

D. Despite economic and foreign policy challenges, the United States continued

as the world’s leading superpower in the 21st century.

Period 9: c. 1980–PRESENT