1. Before Westward Expansion
A Quick Summary of US History from exploration to the 1800s

2. Exploration of the Americas
Probably around 1/6 of the world’s population (around million people) lived in the Americas before Columbus arrived in 1492.
Before Columbus, Polynesian mariners made their way to Hawaii, Vikings from Scandinavia had a brief settlement in northern Newfoundland, but nothing was well documented.
But it was Christopher Columbus that has historically gotten the credit for discovery, because he accidentally became the agent of change- sparking new patterns of human migration, cultural transfer, and ecological exchange.

3. European Arrivals The French started
exploring the Northeast of North America, while the Spanish had the Southwest and Southeast - both groups were looking for wealthy cities to conquer and a water passage to the Far East.

4. French and English Exploration

5. The Spanish Empire in the Americas

7. Video Clip
Crash Course

8. The English 13 Colonies

9. 13 Colonies Rebel- The American Revolution
What were some of the causes of the American Revolution?
What were the outcomes of the American Revolution?
Watch “Too Late to Apologize” clip!

10. Articles of Confederation
Now that the colonists have their own country, how are they going to set it up and keep it functioning on its own?!?
The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution

11. Failures of the Articles
The Articles of Confederation created very strong states and a weak central government.
The federal or national government couldn’t tax its citizens or make the states follow the laws it passed.
Without some sort of change, the US might have broken apart due to this weakness to hold the individual states together as a whole.
The leaders of each state convene for the Continental Congress meetings to work out a plan to change the Articles, but end up writing a whole new plan for government called the US Constitution- which is still in use today!

12. So What Happened After the Constitutional Convention?
States needed to ratify by voting.
9 of 13 Must Approve (Needs Big States)
Political Parties Begin: Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists
Born from fight to pass New Constitution
Eventually the Constitution was Ratified in 1791!

13. Parts of the Constitution
Preamble: introduction “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”

14. Parts of the Constitution
Article I: describes the legislative branch- Senate and House of Representatives and all of their powers (in charge of making laws)
Article II: Describes the Executive branch- the President and everyone supporting him/her (in charge of enforcing laws)
Article III: Describes the Judicial branch- the Supreme Court (in charge of saying if laws are constitutional or not)
There are 4 more articles describing the functions of these branches, but these above are the main ones that you will need to know!

15. An Enduring Framework
One of those other articles described how to amend, or make changes, to the Constitution.
This makes the gov flexible enough to adapt to new situations without having to change everything.
Making amendments is very difficult, only 27 have been made although thousands have been proposed.
1st 10 amendments= the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing certain personal freedoms for all citizens