Analyze the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the major compromises of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the structural principles of separation of powers and federalism.

Examine economic systems, free enterprise, taxes, and consumer decision-making across early American history.

Examine pre-contact Indigenous societies, European colonization, distinct regional economies across the Thirteen Colonies, and the growth of the transatlantic slave trade.

Examine early 19th-century territorial growth through the Louisiana Purchase and evaluate the policies, legal struggles, and forced displacements experienced by Native nations.

Analyze primary and secondary sources from diverse perspectives and use geographic tools to examine early American physical and human systems.

Analyze British economic controls, territorial conflicts among European powers and Indigenous nations, and the growing political resistance in the colonies.

Investigate the expansion of voting rights for white men, the rise of popular political parties, and early reform movements for social justice.

Analyze how the ideology of Manifest Destiny drove overland migration, border conflicts with Mexico, the California Gold Rush, and the completion of the contiguous United States border.