Pre-Columbian America – Indigenous civilizations flourish and perish; the slave trade begins.
European-American Encounter – European and native cultures clash—and occasionally coalesce.
Early Colonial Societies – The age of Spanish, English, and Dutch settlement; colonial unrest.
American Revolutionary Period – Colonial unrest becomes active resistance.
The Early Republic – The Constitutional and Federalist period.
War of 1812 Years – England and the U.S. clash.
Antebellum Period – Abolition in the North, expansion in the West; Indian removal.
Mexican-American War Years – The U.S. expands in the West and Southwest through war.
Civil War Years – Union vs. Confederacy in a “fiery trial”.
Period of Reconstruction – More westward expansion; Indian wars.
Post-Reconstruction and the Gilded Age – Period of industrialization and immigration; Spanish-American War.
Progressive Era – Imperialism abroad; early women's and civil rights movements.
World War I Years – The U.S. involved in global conflict.
Jazz Age – Post-WWI years to the stock market crash.
Great Depression – The U.S. economy falters.
New Deal Era – FDR's period of economic resuscitation.
World War II Years – The U.S. involved in its second global conflict.
Korean War Years – The U.S. involved in east Asian conflict.
Cold War Years – Period of the defining conflict of the latter 20th century.
Vietnam War Counterculture Years – U.S. entanglement in southeast Asia; civil rights and youth movements.
Watergate Years – Crisis in the Nixon administration.
Carter Years – Domestic fuel shortage; Iranian hostage crisis.
Reagan Years – AIDS epidemic begins; economic boom and bust.
Post-Cold War Years – Communism falls; Clinton administration and Balkan conflict; second Bush administration, 9-11 attacks and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
