What are the APUSH units?
The nine units follow nine overlapping historical Periods. Teachers may organize lessons differently, but the course framework provides a common sequence. Use the map to locate a development, then connect it to an earlier cause and a later consequence.
| Period and dates | Focus | MCQ weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Period 1: 1491–1607 | Indigenous societies and Atlantic contact | 4%–6% |
| Period 2: 1607–1754 | Colonial regions, labor, and imperial connections | 6%–8% |
| Period 3: 1754–1800 | Revolution, constitutions, and a new republic | 10%–17% |
| Period 4: 1800–1848 | Expansion, markets, democracy, and reform | 10%–17% |
| Period 5: 1844–1877 | Expansion, Civil War, emancipation, and Reconstruction | 10%–17% |
| Period 6: 1865–1898 | Industrial capitalism and struggles over power | 10%–17% |
| Period 7: 1890–1945 | Reform, global wars, and the federal state | 10%–17% |
| Period 8: 1945–1980 | Cold War, civil rights, and contested prosperity | 10%–17% |
| Period 9: 1980–Present | Conservatism, globalization, and a changing world | 4%–6% |
Read across overlapping boundaries
Period 4 ends in 1848 while Period 5 begins in 1844. Expansion and political change form one story; expansion and sectional conflict form another. Likewise, Reconstruction belongs centrally to Period 5, while industrialization and postwar labor changes begin Period 6 in 1865. Overlap is a prompt to change the analytical question, not a contradictory date.
Do not treat low-weight Periods as optional. Period 1 supplies foundations for later encounters and land conflicts. Period 9 connects earlier debates over federal power, migration, and globalization to recent developments.
Topics to organize within each Period
Period 1: Indigenous societies and Atlantic contact
1.1 Contextualizing Period 1 · 1.2 Native American Societies Before European Contact · 1.3 European Exploration in the Americas · 1.4 Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest · 1.5 Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System · 1.6 Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans · 1.7 Causation in Period 1
Reasoning goal: Compare the Southwest and Northwest Coast: both supported complex communities, but irrigated agriculture and maritime food resources supported different economic arrangements. The comparison requires evidence about subsistence and settlement, not a claim that one region was more advanced.
Period 2: Colonial regions, labor, and imperial connections
2.1 Contextualizing Period 2 · 2.2 European Colonization · 2.3 The Regions of British Colonies · 2.4 Transatlantic Trade · 2.5 Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans · 2.6 Slavery in the British Colonies · 2.7 Colonial Society and Culture · 2.8 Comparison in Period 2
Reasoning goal: Compare Chesapeake and New England settlement through labor, exports, and community institutions. Both participated in an Atlantic economy; the different balance of plantation exports, maritime trade, and household agriculture helps explain different settlement patterns. Shared British identity did not eliminate regional differences.
Period 3: Revolution, constitutions, and a new republic
3.1 Contextualizing Period 3 · 3.2 The Seven Years’ War · 3.3 Taxation Without Representation · 3.4 Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution · 3.5 The American Revolution · 3.6 The Influence of Revolutionary Ideals · 3.7 The Articles of Confederation · 3.8 The Constitutional Convention and Debates over Ratification · 3.9 The Constitution · 3.10 Shaping a New Republic · 3.11 Developing an American Identity · 3.12 Movement in the Early Republic · 3.13 Continuity and Change in Period 3
Reasoning goal: Compare Shays’ Rebellion with the Whiskey Rebellion. Both involved resistance linked to economic pressures and taxation. The stronger federal response in the latter illustrates a change in national capacity under the Constitution. Do not claim the same government handled both uprisings.
Period 4: Expansion, markets, democracy, and reform
4.1 Contextualizing Period 4 · 4.2 The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson · 4.3 Politics and Regional Interests · 4.4 America on the World Stage · 4.5 Market Revolution: Industrialization · 4.6 Market Revolution: Society and Culture · 4.7 Expanding Democracy · 4.8 Jackson and Federal Power · 4.9 The Development of an American Culture · 4.10 The Second Great Awakening · 4.11 An Age of Reform · 4.12 African Americans in the Early Republic · 4.13 The Society of the South in the Early Republic · 4.14 Causation in Period 4
Reasoning goal: Compare the First and Second Great Awakenings through challenges to authority and social consequences. Both involved evangelical revival, but the later movement had important connections to nineteenth-century voluntary reform. Then qualify the relationship: reformers also drew on secular ideas and political experiences.
Period 5: Expansion, Civil War, emancipation, and Reconstruction
5.1 Contextualizing Period 5 · 5.2 The Idea of Manifest Destiny · 5.3 Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War · 5.4 The Compromise of 1850 · 5.5 Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences · 5.6 Failure of Compromise · 5.7 Election of 1860 and Secession · 5.8 Military Conflict in the Civil War · 5.9 Government Policies During the Civil War · 5.10 Reconstruction · 5.11 Failure of Reconstruction · 5.12 Comparison in Period 5
Reasoning goal: Compare the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments by function: abolition; citizenship and legal protection; voting protection against specified forms of discrimination. A chronology list becomes analytical when it shows why ending slavery did not by itself secure equal legal treatment or political participation.
Period 6: Industrial capitalism and struggles over power
6.1 Contextualizing Period 6 · 6.2 Westward Expansion: Economic Development · 6.3 Westward Expansion: Social and Cultural Development · 6.4 The New South · 6.5 Technological Innovation · 6.6 The Rise of Industrial Capitalism · 6.7 Labor in the Gilded Age · 6.8 Immigration and Migration in the Gilded Age · 6.9 Responses to Immigration in the Gilded Age · 6.10 Development of the Middle Class · 6.11 Reform in the Gilded Age · 6.12 Controversies over the Role of Government in the Gilded Age · 6.13 Politics in the Gilded Age · 6.14 Continuity and Change in Period 6
Reasoning goal: Compare removal and allotment. Removal sought to relocate Native peoples away from desired land; allotment sought to transform landholding and communal institutions on reservations. Both facilitated non-Native acquisition, but an essay should explain the changed mechanism and Native responses.
Period 7: Reform, global wars, and the federal state
7.1 Contextualizing Period 7 · 7.2 Imperialism: Debates · 7.3 The Spanish-American War and U.S. Foreign Policy to 1917 · 7.4 The Progressives · 7.5 World War I: Military and Diplomacy · 7.6 World War I: Home Front · 7.7 1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology · 7.8 1920s: Cultural and Political Controversies · 7.9 The Great Depression · 7.10 The New Deal · 7.11 Interwar Foreign Policy · 7.12 World War II: Mobilization · 7.13 World War II: Military · 7.14 Postwar Diplomacy · 7.15 Comparison in Period 7
Reasoning goal: Compare Progressive reform and the New Deal through the role of government. Both used public power to address economic problems, but depression-era measures expanded direct relief and social insurance on a different scale. Qualify the comparison with persistent exclusions rather than claiming that either movement completed equality.
Period 8: Cold War, civil rights, and contested prosperity
8.1 Contextualizing Period 8 · 8.2 The Cold War from 1945 to 1980 · 8.3 The Red Scare · 8.4 Economy After 1945 · 8.5 Culture After 1945 · 8.6 Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement (1940s and 1950s) · 8.7 America as a World Power · 8.8 The Vietnam War · 8.9 The Great Society · 8.10 The African American Civil Rights Movement (1960s) · 8.11 The Civil Rights Movement Expands · 8.12 Youth Culture of the 1960s · 8.13 The Environment and Natural Resources · 8.14 Society in Transition · 8.15 Continuity and Change in Period 8
Reasoning goal: Compare Reconstruction amendments with civil-rights laws of the 1960s. The constitutional protections established a basis for later claims; organizing and legislation targeted barriers that had survived or developed despite those protections. This is both continuity in demands and change in enforcement tools.
Period 9: Conservatism, globalization, and a changing world
9.1 Contextualizing Period 9 · 9.2 Reagan and Conservatism · 9.3 The End of the Cold War · 9.4 A Changing Economy · 9.5 Migration and Immigration in the 1990s and 2000s · 9.6 Challenges of the 21st Century · 9.7 Causation in Period 9
Reasoning goal: Compare the Cold War and post-September 11 security debates. Both raised conflicts over government power and civil liberties, but the principal adversaries, international structures, and technologies differed. Similarity in a domestic debate does not make the geopolitical settings identical.
Use six historical thinking skills
| Skill | What to do |
|---|---|
| Developments and processes | Identify and explain a development in its historical setting. |
| Sourcing and situation | Explain how a source’s author, audience, purpose, or situation matters. |
| Claims and evidence in sources | Identify an argument and evaluate the evidence used to support it. |
| Contextualization | Connect a specific development to broader circumstances. |
| Making connections | Compare, explain causation, and trace continuity and change. |
| Argumentation | Develop a defensible claim supported by historical evidence and reasoning. |
Practice a cross-Period connection
Show the answer and reasoning
The Fourteenth Amendment established national citizenship and equal protection. Later civil rights campaigns challenged practices that continued to deny equal access. Explain both continuity in conflict over rights and change in laws, federal enforcement, and movement strategies. Compare Period 5 with Period 8.