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History of the United States and Its Colonial Origins: Before 1800s

HIST XL 13A

The first in a sequence of three courses (XL 13A, 13B, 13C), this course offers a comprehensive understanding of the cultural heritages, political institutions, economic developments, and social interactions that created contemporary American society.

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What you can learn.

Understand the history of the establishment and development of European colonies in North America
Learn how colonization impacted indigenous groups, as well as other groups such as African slaves, who were swept up in the colonizing process
Develop a basic understanding/perspective on how social development includes the development of race and gender ideologies, and how these developments impact people differently, depending upon their class position
Improve critical reading, thinking, and writing skills, through completion of a rigorous selection of historical texts and documents

About this course:

The first in a sequence of three courses (XL 13A, 13B, 13C), this course offers a comprehensive understanding of the cultural heritages, political institutions, economic developments, and social interactions that created contemporary American society. Instruction covers colonial origins and the first nation-building acts. More specifically, the course covers American settler society, its geographic limits and interactions with indigenous peoples, and how those two preconditions influenced political ideology and institution-building; the Revolutionary War; the Articles of Confederation; the U.S. Constitution and fight for constitutional reform; the Alien and Sedition Acts; and the Jeffersonian Resolution. The course also explores the national culture that developed and drew strength from the symbolism of the Revolutionary War and was codified, in small part, in the Constitution.