As the United States expanded westward, major issues, some of them from the first years of the nation, began to challenge the stability of the nation. As the nation expanded, issues of states’ rights, the institution of slavery, and economic development culminated in a Civil War. This war formally ended slavery and strengthened the power of the Federal government. The era after the Civil War was a time of major economic development and technological innovation.
Standard IV: Students will understand that the 19th century was a time of incredible change for the United States, including geographic expansion, constitutional crisis, and economic growth.
Objective 2: Assess the geographic, cultural, political, and economic divisions between regions that contributed to the Civil War.
Objective 3: Evaluate the course of events of the Civil War and its impact both immediate and long-term.
Objective 4: Understand the impact of major economic forces at work in the post-Civil War.
Standard IV: Students will understand that the 19th century was a time of incredible change for the United States, including geographic expansion, constitutional crisis, and economic growth.
Objective 2: Assess the geographic, cultural, political, and economic divisions between regions that contributed to the Civil War.
- Describe the impact of physical geography on the cultures of the northern and southern regions (e.g. industrial resources, agriculture, and climate).
- Compare how cultural and economic differences of the North and South led to tensions.
- Identify the range of individual responses to the growing political conflicts between the North and South (e.g. states’ rights advocates, abolitionists, slaveholders, and enslaved people).
Objective 3: Evaluate the course of events of the Civil War and its impact both immediate and long-term.
- Identify the key ideas, events, and leaders of the Civil War using primary sources (e.g. Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, news accounts, photographic records, and diaries).
- Contrast the impact of the war on individuals in various regions (e.g. North, South, and West).
- Explain how the Civil War helped forge ideas of national identity.
- Examine the difficulties of reconciliation within the nation.
Objective 4: Understand the impact of major economic forces at work in the post-Civil War.
- Assess how the free-market system in the United States serves as an engine of change and innovation.
- Describe the wide-ranging impact of the Industrial Revolution (e.g. inventions, industries, innovations).
- Evaluate the roles new immigrants played in the economy of this time.