AP® United States History Cheat Sheet

This AP United States History Cheat Sheet offers concise overviews of key events, dates, and figures across all units. It helps students review efficiently, preparing them for multiple-choice and free-response exam sections.

Free AP United States History Practice Test

Download AP United States History Cheatsheet – Pdf

Unit 1 (1491-1607):

• Key Themes: Exploration, Native American societies, Colonization
• Important Concepts:
• Age of Exploration: Motivated by God, glory, and gold.
• Native American Societies: Diverse and shaped by geography.
• Colonization Begins: Columbus, Conquistadors, and the Columbian Exchange.
• European Interactions: Exchange of crops, diseases, and people.
• Colonial Systems: Encomienda and the Spanish Caste System.
• Economic Systems: Joint-stock companies and European migration due to primogeniture laws.

Unit 2 (1607-1754):

• Key Themes: Regional differences, trade, slavery
• Important Concepts:
• Jamestown: First permanent British colony.
• Colonial Economies: New England (subsistence farming), Middle (breadbasket), Southern (cash crops).
• European Competition: British, French, Dutch, and Spanish colonies.
• Transatlantic Trade: Slaves, raw materials, and finished goods.
• Cultural Exchange: Enlightenment, First Great Awakening, Praying Towns.
• Colonial Governance: Mayflower Compact, Virginia House of Burgesses, Salutary Neglect.
• Conflicts: Pequot War, Metacom’s War, Pueblo Revolt.

Unit 3 (1754-1800):

• Key Themes: Revolution, federalism, early American identity
• Important Concepts:
• American Revolution: Ideals of democracy and independence.
• Federalism and Constitution: Separation of powers, Bill of Rights.
• Conflicts with Britain: 7 Years War, Proclamation of 1763, Boston Tea Party.
• Political and Economic Divisions: Federalists vs. Anti-federalists, Hamilton’s Financial Plan.
• Social Changes: Republican Motherhood, early abolitionist movements, loyalists vs. patriots.

Unit 4 (1800-1848):

• Key Themes: Market Revolution, territorial expansion, reform movements
• Important Concepts:
• Manifest Destiny: Belief in American exceptionalism and westward expansion.
• Industrialization: Steam engine, cotton gin, interchangeable parts.
• Political Developments: Louisiana Purchase, Monroe Doctrine, Trail of Tears.
• Reform Movements: Abolition, suffrage, Second Great Awakening, Dorothea Dix (prison reform), Horace Mann (education).
• Economic and Social Change: Panic of 1819, Lowell Mills, anti-slavery resistance.

Unit 5 (1844-1877):

• Key Themes: Sectionalism, Civil War, Reconstruction
• Important Concepts:
• Sectional Tension: States’ rights vs. Union.
• Civil War: Emancipation, Union preserved.
• Reconstruction: 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments; resistance through Jim Crow laws.
• Post-war Economy: Industrial growth, sharecropping in the South.
• Migration and Settlement: Manifest Destiny and westward migration.

Unit 6 (1865-1898):

• Key Themes: Industrialization, immigration, westward expansion
• Important Concepts:
• Industrial Titans: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, and their control of industry.
• Labor Movements: Workers’ unions vs. large corporations.
• Immigration: Southern and Eastern Europeans, ethnic enclaves.
• Federal Policies: Homestead Act, Dawes Act, Pendleton Act.
• Imperialism: Beginnings of US imperialism, expansion in the Pacific and Latin America.
• Social Changes: Social Darwinism, assimilation policies like the Carlisle Indian School.

Unit 7 (1890-1945):

• Key Themes: Progressivism, World Wars, the Great Depression
• Important Concepts:
• Imperialism: Spanish-American War, annexation of Hawaii, Panama Canal.
• Progressive Reforms: Women’s suffrage, muckrakers, conservationism (Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir).
• Great Depression and New Deal: Stock market crash, FDR’s relief, recovery, reform policies.
• World Wars: WWI isolationism, WWII as a turning point in global power, Pearl Harbor, atomic warfare.

Unit 8 (1945-1980):

• Key Themes: Cold War, Civil Rights, counterculture
• Important Concepts:
• Cold War Tensions: Containment, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War.
• Civil Rights Movement: Key figures (MLK, Malcolm X), key legislation (Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act).
• Post-War Prosperity: Baby boom, suburbanization (Levittowns), GI Bill.
• Social Changes: Feminism, birth control, Roe v. Wade, environmental movements.
• Counterculture: Anti-war protests, rock music, Woodstock, Watergate scandal.

Unit 9 (1980-Present):

• Key Themes: Globalization, technology, culture wars
• Important Concepts:
• Reagan Era Policies: Trickle-down economics, Cold War diplomacy, end of the Soviet Union.
• Technology Boom: Internet, cellphones, computers.
• Social and Cultural Changes: Same-sex marriage, climate change activism, debates over immigration (DACA, border security).
• Globalization: War on Terrorism, international conflicts, trade policies.
• Cultural Shifts: Rise of social media, activism, stagnant wages for the middle class.