HIS-110 Early United States History
This course begins the exploration of the social, political, economic, intellectual and cultural development of the United States, from the pre-Columbian era to 1865. Topics include: the first European settlements, the American Revolution, the Age of Jefferson, Westward Expansion, Slavery and the Old South, and the Civil War. This course fulfills the SUNY General Education knowledge and skills area for U.S. History and Civic Engagement.
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Course Outline
Course Description
This course begins the exploration of the social, political, economic, intellectual and cultural development of the United States, from the pre-Columbian era to 1865. Topics include: the first European settlements, the American Revolution, the Age of Jefferson, Westward Expansion, Slavery and the Old South, and the Civil War. This course fulfills the SUNY General Education knowledge and skills area for U.S. History and Civic Engagement.
Credit Hours
3SUNY General Education Course
- US History and Civic Engagement
Course Learning Outcomes
- Students will identify the major issues, events, and themes of American history from the pre-Columbian era to1865.
- Students will trace the historical evolution of key American institutions, traditions and structures (Constitution, Bill of Rights, Congress, Supreme Court, presidency etc.), and will describe the role of individual participation and collective action (in community-based and governmental bodies) in shaping early American history.
- Students will apply historical evidence to draw, support, or verify conclusions about the early American past.
- Students will describe America's evolving relationship with the wider world prior to 1865.
- Students will describe the role of unity and diversity in shaping the early American past.
Topic Outline
- 1. The first Americans (America on the eve of European contact)
- 2. The first European settlements, 1500–1625
- a. Columbus and the Spanish Empire in the Americas
- b. The "Columbian Exchange"
- c. Britain in the New World: Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay
- d. New Netherland and New France
- 3. The emergence of the colonial societies, 1625–1750
- a. Colonial life
- b. "Middle Passage": the triangular trade and slavery in colonial America
- c. The "Great Awakening" and the Enlightenment
- 4. The road to revolution, 1750–1775
- a. French and Indian War, 1754–63
- b. Stirrings of revolt: Anglo-American relations from the Sugar Act to the
- Intolerable Acts, 1763–74
- 5. American Revolution, 1775–1787
- a. Declaration of Independence, 1776
- b. Campaigns and battles: from Lexington Green to Yorktown
- c. Washington as commander in chief
- d. Patriots and Loyalists
- e. From colonies to states
- f. Articles of Confederation
- 6. Defining nationhood and launching the new republic, 1787–1800
- a. Constitutional Convention, the Constitution of 1787, and the Bill of Rights
- b. Federalists and Anti-Federalists
- c. The Washington presidency, 1789–96
- d. The John Adams presidency and American foreign policy
- 7. The early republic: the Age of Jefferson, 1800–15
- a. Jeffersonian democracy
- b. Jefferson presidency, 1800–08
- c. Louisiana Purchase
- d. Exploring the West: the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- e. Burr Conspiracy
- f. War of 1812
- 8. Sectionalism and nationalism, 1815–1850
- a. Monroe presidency and the "Monroe Doctrine"
- b. Missouri Compromise
- c. John Quincy Adams presidency
- d. Westward expansion, Manifest Destiny, and Native American relations
- e. The Marshall Court, 1801–35
- f. Market Revolution
- 9. Age of Jackson, 1829–37
- a. Jacksonian democracy and the rise of mass politics
- b. Nullification Crisis, 1832–33
- c. Indian removals, 1830–35
- d. Jackson and the "Bank War"
- e. The Taney Court
- f. Emergence of the Second Party System
- g. Van Buren and the Panic of 1837
- 10. Slavery and the Old South, 1800–60
- a. "King Cotton" and the planter class
- b. The "peculiar institution"
- c. Slave life: culture, religion, and family
- d. Nat Turner's Rebellion
- 11. Antebellum America
- a. Immigration and urban growth
- b. Transportation and communication revolution: Erie Canal, railroad, and
- telegraph
- c. Industrialization
- d. Romanticism, transcendentalism, and American literature
- e. Remaking society: temperance, educational, health, and penal reform
- f. Birth of the women's rights movement: Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
- g. Antislavery movement: W. L. Garrison, Frederick Douglass, H. B. Stowe,
- and the abolitionist movement
- 12. The looming crisis, 1838–60
- a. "Manifest Destiny": westward migration and the Oregon Trail
- b. California Gold Rush
- c. Mexican War, 1846–48
- d. Slavery and the western territories
- e. Compromise of 1850
- f. Fugitive Slave Act
- g. Rise of the Republican Party
- h. "Bleeding Kansas"
- i. John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- j. Election of Abraham Lincoln, 1860
- 13. Civil War, 1861–1865
- a. Secession crisis of 1860 and the failure of compromise
- b. Causes of the Civil War
- c. Mobilization of the North
- d. Lincoln as wartime president
- e. Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy
- f. Campaigns and battles: from Fort Sumter to Appomattox
- g. Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment
- h. Sherman's March to the Sea and the fall of the Confederacy
- i. Hampton Roads and efforts to make peace
- j. Assassination of Lincoln