APUSH Time Periods

Period 1: 1491–1607

Native societies before European contact; early exploration; the Columbian Exchange; beginnings of European colonization.

Period 2: 1607–1754

Development of British colonies; regional colonial differences; Atlantic slave trade; early colonial conflicts with Native Americans.

Period 3: 1754–1800

Causes and effects of the American Revolution; Articles of Confederation; U.S. Constitution; early national government.

Period 4: 1800–1848

Expansion of democracy (Jefferson to Jackson); market revolution; Second Great Awakening; reform movements; westward expansion.

Period 5: 1844–1877

Manifest Destiny; sectional tensions; Civil War; Reconstruction and efforts to reunify and integrate the South.

Period 6: 1865–1898

Gilded Age; industrialization; rise of big business; labor unions; immigration and urbanization; political corruption.

Period 7: 1890–1945

Progressive reforms; U.S. imperialism; WWI and WWII; the Great Depression; New Deal; emergence of the U.S. as a world power.

Period 8: 1945–1980

Cold War; civil rights movement; Vietnam War; liberal reform movements; cultural changes of the 1960s–70s.

Period 9: 1980–Present

Rise of conservatism (Reagan era); end of the Cold War; globalization; war on terror; political polarization and technological change.