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Columbus’s arrival launched an era of initial encounters between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans that continued for nearly 300 years. This video examines how these contacts began the phenomenon now known as the Columbian Exchange, profoundly altering the way of life of peoples around the globe.

As encounter changed to settlement, relations between Native Americans and European colonial powers became more complex. This unit charts the changing interactions between competing European powers and Native Americans, and the increasing reliance on the race-based enslavement of Africans.

In the eighteenth century, Enlightenment-based ideas of freedom and equality swept through the British colonies.

Following the War of Independence, Americans disagreed—often passionately—about the form and function of the federal government. This unit explores how those conflicts played out as the new Republic defined its identity in relation to other nations.

The United States acquired vast territories between the time of the Revolution and the Civil War, paying a price economically, socially, and politically.

From the 1940s to the 1970s, the African American civil rights movement galvanized other communities of color to end discrimination.

From the 1970s to the present, conservatism, globalization, and an emphasis on individual rights and non-discrimination have changed the United States.

As a response to increasing social ills, the nineteenth century generated reform movements: temperance, abolition, school and prison reform, as well as others.

Although the Civil War is viewed today through the lens of the Union’s ultimate victory, for much of the war that victory was far from certain.

Emancipation was only the beginning of a long road to freedom for those released from slavery. Following the Civil War, an immense economic and political effort was undertaken, focused on reunifying the divided nation.

After Reconstruction, America experienced an "era of incorporation" with mass social movements, tremendous economic change, and national consolidation.

A new era of mass production arose in the United States because of technological innovations, a favorable patent system, new forms of factory organization, an abundant supply of natural resources, and foreign investment.

By the early 1900s, many Americans had left rural areas and moved to cities to take jobs in factories and offices.

Through imperial ambitions and the mobilization for World War I, businesses and the government established a new relationship to bolster American business interests and build the United States military.

The Great Depression drew attention to problems with the United States economy that needed government regulation.