By the end of the course students should be familiar with the nature of the English colonies established in North America and how they differed from all other English colonies. In addition, the students should understand how the conditions in Colonial America shaped the ideas and attitudes of the colonists, how they differed from the attitudes of the English, and how the clash of unpopular English policies towards the colonies and the colonists' attitudes led to the American Revolution in the late 18th century.

Students should also understand the type of government the Americans established as a result of their experiences before and during the Revolution, how the combination of westward expansion and the issue of slavery produced a national crisis that eventually led to the Civil War, and how the Civil War changed the United States.