Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Sub-Saharan Africa
From European colonialism to independence movements and beyond, learn how foreign influence and history have shaped the region.
AP U.S. History
Explore free resources that align with your AP U.S. History Curriculum.
CFR Education offers a range of free resources that can supplement your AP U.S. History curriculum. Browse readings, timelines, videos, and simulations covering developments that have shaped the United States from c. 1491 to the present.
Skills students learn with CFR Education U.S. History Resources:
- putting historical developments into context
- making connections between and among historical processes
- developing arguments through historical simulations
- evaluating and analyzing primary and secondary sources
Unit 1: Period 1 1491-1607
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Europe and Eurasia
From World War I to the War in Ukraine, learn how history and U.S. intervention has shaped the region.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 2: Period 2 1607-1754
- Timelines
250 Years of American Foreign Policy
The United States developed from a fragile union focused on survival to a superpower with global interests. Throughout that journey, the country has grappled with recurring questions about how to protect its interests, articulate its values, and define its role in the world. Trace the path of U.S. foreign policy with the timeline below.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Sub-Saharan Africa
From European colonialism to independence movements and beyond, learn how foreign influence and history have shaped the region.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Europe and Eurasia
From World War I to the War in Ukraine, learn how history and U.S. intervention has shaped the region.
- Readings
What Is the Enlightenment and How Did It Transform Politics?
Explore how calls for liberty, equality, and individual rights caused revolutions around the world, from the American Revolution to the French and Haitian Revolutions.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 3: Period 3 1754-1800
- Timelines
250 Years of American Foreign Policy
The United States developed from a fragile union focused on survival to a superpower with global interests. Throughout that journey, the country has grappled with recurring questions about how to protect its interests, articulate its values, and define its role in the world. Trace the path of U.S. foreign policy with the timeline below.
- Readings
What Roles Do Congress and the President Play in U.S. Foreign Policy?
What does the Constitution say about foreign policy? In this free resource, explore how the powers of Congress and the president protect and advance the country’s interests abroad.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 4: Period 4 1800-1848
- Timelines
250 Years of American Foreign Policy
The United States developed from a fragile union focused on survival to a superpower with global interests. Throughout that journey, the country has grappled with recurring questions about how to protect its interests, articulate its values, and define its role in the world. Trace the path of U.S. foreign policy with the timeline below.
- Mini Simulations
Sovereignty and Neutrality in 1807
Should the United States remain neutral during the war between France and England? Explore this simulation set in 1807.
- Readings
What Are the Causes and Consequences of Industrialization?
Learn about the Industrial Revolution and how technological innovations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continue to shape society today.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 5: Period 5 1844-1877
- Timelines
250 Years of American Foreign Policy
The United States developed from a fragile union focused on survival to a superpower with global interests. Throughout that journey, the country has grappled with recurring questions about how to protect its interests, articulate its values, and define its role in the world. Trace the path of U.S. foreign policy with the timeline below.
- Mini Simulations
Oregon Boundary Dispute in 1845
How should the United States respond to British naval buildup near the Oregon Country? Explore this historical simulation.
- Readings
What Are the Causes and Consequences of Industrialization?
Learn about the Industrial Revolution and how technological innovations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continue to shape society today.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 6: Period 6 1865-1898
- Timelines
250 Years of American Foreign Policy
The United States developed from a fragile union focused on survival to a superpower with global interests. Throughout that journey, the country has grappled with recurring questions about how to protect its interests, articulate its values, and define its role in the world. Trace the path of U.S. foreign policy with the timeline below.
- Readings
What Are the Causes and Consequences of Industrialization?
Learn about the Industrial Revolution and how technological innovations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries continue to shape society today.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 7: Period 7 1890-1945
- Mini Simulations
The Zimmerman Telegram in 1917
Should the United States take action against Germany? Explore this historical simulation set in 1917.
- Mini Simulations
Explosion of the USS Maine in 1898
How should the United States intervene against Spanish colonial rule in Cuba? Explore this historical simulation set in 1898.
- Mini Simulations
Influenza and War in 1918
How should the United States address a deadly pandemic during World War I? Explore this historical simulation set in 1918.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Europe and Eurasia
From World War I to the War in Ukraine, learn how history and U.S. intervention has shaped the region.
- Videos
How Do Countries Decide Whether to Go to War?
Learn how balances and imbalances of power contributed to World Wars I and II in this historical video.
- Readings
Why Did World War II Happen?
In this free resource on World War II, understand the causes of World War II and why these issues drove countries back to battle just two decades after World War I.
- Readings
Why Did World War I Happen?
In this free resource on World War I, explore the causes and effects of the Great War to understand how the conflict shaped world history.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
- Videos
History of U.S. Immigration Policy
Explore how the United States has responded to migrants throughout history—from the Chinese Exclusion Act to DACA—and how immigration policy influences the society, economy, and politics of a country.
Unit 8: Period 8 1945-1980
- Mini Simulations
Strategic Ambiguity Toward Taiwan
Should the United States maintain its longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan? Explore this simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Opposing Communism in 1947
How should the United States support Greece in its fight against communist rebels? Explore this simulation set in 1947.
- Mini Simulations
Economic Statecraft: Foreign Assistance
How should the United States employ foreign aid to help a country in crisis? Explore this hypothetical simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Cuban Immigration in 1980
How should the United States respond to the massive influx of Cuban migrants? Explore this historical simulation set in 1980.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Europe and Eurasia
From World War I to the War in Ukraine, learn how history and U.S. intervention has shaped the region.
- Readings
How Did Mass Production and Mass Consumption Take Off After World War II?
Discover how consumer goods have become cheap and ubiquitous in the global era.
- Readings
What Is the UN Security Council?
In this free resource, learn more about the United Nations’ most powerful body working to maintain international peace and security. Explore the security council’s failures and successes, and why the UN Security Council’s veto power is so controversial.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
Unit 9: Period 9 1980-present
- Simulations
NATO Enlargement in 1994 (NSC)
Set in January 1994. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many former Soviet states express interest in joining NATO.
- Simulations
Russia and NATO in the Baltics in 2016 (NSC)
Set in July 2016. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a NATO summit approaches as the Baltics face threats from Russia.
- Simulations
Drones in Pakistan in 2011 (NSC)
Set in Spring 2011. The United States has the opportunity to eliminate or capture a senior al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan.
- Readings
How Climate Change Worsens Inequality
Climate Change is bad for everyone, but it’s worse for some.
- Videos
How Climate Change is a Collective Action Problem
The world can work together in the fight against climate change, but there are challenges to international cooperation.
- Videos
How the Paris Agreement Helps Stop Climate Change
The Paris Agreement offers the world a pathway for addressing climate change, but challenges persist.
- Readings
How Are International Agreements Helping Fight Global Warming?
Explore the challenges facing international cooperation and the major treaties where the world has agreed to work together.
- Mini Simulations
Negotiating Ukrainian Security in 1993
How should the United States manage dismantling Ukraine’s nuclear arsenal while safeguarding against renewed conflict in Europe? Explore this historical simulation set in 1993.
- Mini Simulations
Strategic Ambiguity Toward Taiwan
Should the United States maintain its longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan? Explore this simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Response to 9/11
Should the United States strike al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in response to 9/11? Explore this historical simulation set in 2001.
- Mini Simulations
Preparing for and Managing the Next Pandemic
What should the United States do to secure global health preparedness before the next pandemic? Explore this simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Economic Statecraft: Foreign Assistance
How should the United States employ foreign aid to help a country in crisis? Explore this hypothetical simulation.
- Mini Simulations
Cuban Immigration in 1980
How should the United States respond to the massive influx of Cuban migrants? Explore this historical simulation set in 1980.
- Readings
A Global Semiconductor Shortage
Expensive cars? Phone order delays? Learn how today’s globalized supply chain can affect our daily lives by exploring the global semiconductor shortage.
- Readings
How Can AI Combat Climate Change?
In this free climate change resource, learn how AI is helping countries reduce carbon emissions, but some innovations could ultimately contribute to a warming planet.
- Readings
What Is the Relationship Between Domestic and Foreign Policy?
Explore maps and charts that illustrate how climate change, terrorism, COVID-19, and internet freedom require both international and domestic solutions in an increasingly interconnected world.
- Readings
How Do Forces Outside Government Influence Policymaking?
Learn how journalism, social media, public opinion, and lobbies are all a part of American democracy and influence U.S. foreign policy.
- Readings
What Is the National Security Council?
Learn how the president’s advisors protect U.S. national security and help with foreign policy decision-making and coordination across the executive branch.
- Videos
What the Kyoto Protocol Can Tell Us About How Treaties Are Made Today
In this U.S. foreign policy video, understand the challenges of negotiating treaties and dive into two international climate agreements.
- Videos
Why Does U.S. Foreign Policy Matter?
In this educational video on U.S. foreign policy, learn how the United States has shaped the world with its military and economic might.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: Europe and Eurasia
From World War I to the War in Ukraine, learn how history and U.S. intervention has shaped the region.
- Videos
How Do Countries Select Their Foreign Policy Tools?
In this educational video on foreign policy, explore how U.S. relations with Japan have changed over the past century, from Pearl Harbor to a peaceful alliance.
- Videos
What Tools Do Foreign Policy-Makers Have at Their Disposal?
In this foreign policy video, learn how leaders further their countries’ interests with political, economic, and military tools such as diplomacy, trade, and intelligence.
- Videos
How Did the United States Approach the Tiananmen Square Crackdown?
In this educational video, learn how idealism and realism shaped U.S. foreign policy following the Chinese government’s massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
- Readings
What Is Diplomacy?
In this free resource on diplomacy, understand how countries advocate for their national interests through foreign policy.
- Readings
What Is Trade Policy?
In this free resource on trade policy, explore how countries leverage their economic power to advance their foreign policy interests.
- Readings
What Is Armed Force?
In this free resource on military action, learn how countries use violence, or armed force, to influence foreign policy.
- Readings
What Is Peacekeeping?
In this free resource on the successes and failures of peacekeeping, learn about the UN missions tasked with transitioning countries out of war.
- Readings
What Is Arms Control?
In this free resource on arms control agreements, learn how countries try to regulate the world’s most powerful weapons through foreign policy.
- Readings
What Is Deterrence?
In this free resource, explore examples of deterrence from the Cold War to present day to learn how countries dissuade bad behavior with the threat of significant punishment.
- Readings
What Is Intelligence?
From Cold War double agents to Chinese spy balloons, explore how lying and spying inform policymaking in this resource on intelligence.
- Readings
What Is Economic Statecraft?
Learn why China lends billions of dollars abroad each year through its Belt and Road Initiative and the implications of that free resource for recipient countries.
- Videos
What Is Nation-Building?
In this free resource on nation-building, learn why developing political, economic, security, and social institutions across borders is a complex business.
- Readings
What Are Economic Sanctions?
In this free resource on sanctions, learn how countries use punitive economic measures to advance their foreign policy priorities.
- Readings
Unilateralism Versus Multilateralism
What is unilateralism? What is multilateralism? In this free resource on foreign policy, explore why leaders address some challenges independently and others as part of a team.
- Readings
Idealism Versus Realism
What is idealism? What is realism? In this free resource, explore two schools of thought on a country’s foreign policy priorities.
- Readings
Radicalization and Right-Wing Extremism
Learn how QAnon, white supremacists, and Silicon Valley have contributed to an evolving domestic terror threat.
- Readings
What Is Water Scarcity?
Is there a global water crisis? In this free resource, learn how climate change is causing water scarcity to worsen worldwide.
- Readings
Social Media: Revolutionizing Communication
Social media has connected people at lightning speeds and upended long-held monopolies on information. But like past innovations, it has also created major societal challenges.
- Videos
How Did the Cold War Stay Cold?
Learn how the world’s superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR), avoided nuclear war.
- Readings
How Did Decolonization Reshape the World?
From India and the Palestinian Territories to Vietnam and Sudan, learn how former colonies sought independence—and how the shadow of colonialism still affects many regions today.
- Readings
How Did Mass Production and Mass Consumption Take Off After World War II?
Discover how consumer goods have become cheap and ubiquitous in the global era.
- Readings
How Did the United States Become a Global Power?
Learn how domestic expansion and three wars—the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II—transformed the United States’ standing in the world.
- Videos
What Is the Liberal World Order?
Explore the organizations and agreements that have promoted global peace and prosperity since the end of World War II, as well as the challenges that the liberal world order now faces in this video.
- Readings
Modern History and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Americas
From colonization to the Cold War, learn about the major historical moments that have shaped the Americas.
- Readings
The Terrorist Money Trail
How do terrorists get funding? Learn about the challenges of targeting the finances of terrorist groups in this free resource on terrorism.
- Videos
The Marshall Plan
Understand how the Marshall Plan, one of the first large foreign aid programs, helped Europe rebuild after World War II, but also served the foreign policy interests of the United States.
- Readings
What Is a Central Bank and What Does It Do for You?
What is the Federal Reserve? Learn how central banks conduct monetary policy by influencing the rate of inflation, money supply, and interest rates.
- Videos
The Suez Canal Crisis
Explore a historical case study on the Suez Canal to understand how monetary policy can also be used as a tool of foreign policy.
- Videos
The Global Role of the U.S. Dollar
Why is the U.S. dollar the world’s most popular currency and how does it help the U.S. economy? Watch this video on the history of U.S. currency.
- Readings
The Global Consequences of Financial Contagion
What caused the Great Recession of 2008? Learn why a financial crisis can spread around the world with our modern globalized economy.
- Readings
Understanding Currencies and Exchange Rates
Supply and demand influence how much a currency is worth. Learn how exchange rates affect producers and consumers.
- Videos
What Is Monetary Policy?
From inflation to interest rates, understand the basics of monetary policy, currencies, and the flow of money in the global economy with this introductory video.
- Videos
What are Cyberspace and Cybersecurity?
Explore the origins of the internet and the challenges that will define its future.
- Readings
How Does Cyberspace Work?
Learn about the many places information is transferred across the internet—including under the ocean, up in space, and in your pocket.
- Readings
How Companies and Governments Do (and Don’t) Protect Your Data
The spread of the internet has far outpaced domestic and international privacy laws, making global coordination difficult and leaving personal data vulnerable.
- Videos
Should the Internet Respect National Borders?
The United States supports internet freedom. China, a proponent of cyber sovereignty, disagrees.
- Readings
The Internet by the Numbers
In a world where internet access is increasing, digital divides remain.
- Readings
Internally Displaced Persons: Migrants Who Do Not Cross a National Border
Who are IDPs and how are they different from refugees? Understand what happens to people who are forced from their homes but remain inside their own country through country case studies.
- Videos
History of U.S. Immigration Policy
Explore how the United States has responded to migrants throughout history—from the Chinese Exclusion Act to DACA—and how immigration policy influences the society, economy, and politics of a country.
- Readings
For Migrants, Labels Matter
What is the difference between immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? Explore how contested definitions of migrants have a profound effect on the rights and protections of people leaving their homes.
- Videos
What Is Migration?
Why do people migrate? Understand why migration means different things for individuals, countries, and economies in a globalized world.
- Readings
Migration Today
Understand where migrants come from, where they go, and why migration is increasing through maps, charts, and data.
- Videos
Tools of Counterterrorism
What is counterterrorism? Learn how governments try to prevent terrorist attacks in this video on terrorism.
- Readings
The Paris Agreement
What is the Paris Agreement? In this free resource, learn what actions countries are taking to address the global threat of climate change.
- Videos
Climate Change and the Coffee Industry
In this educational video, learn how climate change’s effects on agriculture can have serious economic consequences for the world.
- Readings
Trains, Planes, and Shipping Containers
Three innovations shaped how people and goods move around the world today.
- Videos
What Is Climate Change?
In this educational video, learn why the climate is changing, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.
- Readings
Big in China: The Global Market for Hollywood Movies
Hollywood’s relationship with the Chinese market—and its gatekeepers, Chinese government censors—is changing the way movies are made and promoted.
- Readings
Climate Change Adaptations
Explore how eleven countries are adapting to the effects of climate change in this free resource.
- Videos
What Is Globalization?
Explore examples of globalization to understand the benefits and challenges of our increasingly interconnected world in this video.
- Videos
Tools of Nonproliferation
How do world leaders try to prevent nuclear war? From diplomacy to military force, learn what policy options are most effective in this video.
- Readings
It Takes a Village to Make Your Medicine
Follow the global supply chain across borders and into your pill bottle.
- Videos
How Globalization Affects What’s for Brunch
Globalization’s effects can appear where you least expect them—including on your plate.
- Readings
The Nuclear World
Where are the world’s nuclear weapons today and whom do they protect? Explore maps, charts, and graphs to learn about current and future nuclear weapons states.
- Readings
How Do Countries Create Nuclear Weapons?
What is nuclear power and how can the same process that generates nuclear energy create a nuclear bomb?
- Readings
South Africa: Why Countries Acquire and Abandon Nuclear Bombs
Why did South Africa give up its nuclear weapons? In this historical case study, learn about the only country in the world to have developed and then dismantled its nuclear program.
- Videos
What Is Nuclear Proliferation?
In this video on nuclear proliferation, learn why countries develop nuclear weapons—and what is being done to prevent the spread of these weapons and the possibility of nuclear war.
- Readings
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
What is the NPT and how has the treaty influenced the spread of nuclear weapons?
- Readings
How a Single Phrase Defined the War on Terror
What is the 2001 AUMF and what does it have to do with 9/11? From the invasion of Afghanistan, to the Iraq War, and more, learn how the United States justified U.S. counterterrorism policy for over two decades.
- Videos
Terrorism and the Media
How do terrorists use the media? From Osama bin Laden to the Islamic State, learn how terrorists use internet and media coverage to shape their goals.
- Videos
What Is Terrorism?
Learn how terrorists have sought to achieve their goals all over the world with this video on terrorism.
- Readings
Global Terrorism Trends
Explore terrorism trends through five data charts that help show the threat of terrorism around the world and how it has changed over time.
