An inquiry into the history of the United States from the introduction of African and European peoples into the existing populations of the Americas through the period of the Civil War. Includes the cultural origins and initial interactions of African, European and Native American peoples in the Western Hemisphere and the initial phases of a global economy, British Colonization and the establishment of diverse cultures in North America, the Period of the American Revolution, Confederation and Constitution, the establishment of unique political, social and economic structures in the early Republic, cultural and political conflict between Free and Slave States, and the Civil War and Reconstruction.