The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and their societies were reorganized after the See more

Norse exploration
The earliest recorded European mention of America is in a historical treatise by the medieval chronicler See more

Second Party System
After the First Party System of Federalists and Republicans withered away in the 1820s, the stage was set for the emergence of a new party system based on well organized local parties that appealed for the … See more

It is not definitively known how or when Native Americans first settled the Americas and the present-day United States. The prevailing theory proposes that people from See more

Lead-up to the Revolution
An upper class emerged in South Carolina and Virginia, with wealth based on large plantations operated by slave labor. A unique class system operated in upstate New York, where Dutch tenant farmers rented land from … See more

President George Washington
George Washington became the first president of the United States under the new Constitution in 1789. The national capital moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 and finally settled in Washington, D.C., … See more

Divisions between North and South
The central issue after 1848 was the expansion of slavery, with the anti-slavery elements in the North pitted against the pro-slavery elements … See more