• the hardships and obstacles that all American colonists overcame to win their independence
• the actions taken by the colonial army to turn the war in their favor & ultimately defeat the British at Yorktown
• the terms and conditions of the peace settlement between Great Britain and the U.S.

• Hamilton's vision for America and the views of those who opposed him (namely Jefferson)
• how our government survived early challenges like the Whiskey Rebellion and Jay's Treaty
• the development of early factions that eventually became political parties

• the methods the U.S Government used to deal with the Native Americans in the "old northwest"
• the ways in which Native Americans reacted to encroachment by the U.S. in the late 1700's & early 1800's
• the reasons why the War of 1812 broke out between Great Britain and the U.S.

• Compare and contrast the development of the regional economies of the North and South between 1800-1850

• Relations between the United States and Mexico in the early 1800's
• The process Texas went through to gain its independence from Mexico and become a part of the U.S.
• The causes and key outcomes of the Mexican/American War
• The reasons why miners and Mormons settled the west in the mid-1800's

The Test will have an objective section (True/False, Multiple Choice, etc.) and an essay.  For your essay you will need to trace a key idea (e.g. the Puritan notion of being "chosen", the belief in natural rights of man, the republican ideas of Thomas Jefferson) through the first 250 years of our nation's history.  The most straightforward way to do this is to connect the idea to specific events and movements.