Why did British colonial regions develop differently?
Revisit this after every topic.
AP U.S. History · Unit 2
Period 2: 1607–1754
Examine how European colonies developed distinct regional societies, labor systems, trade networks, and relationships with American Indians.
- Time period
- 1607–1754
- Learning path
- 8 topics
- Exam weighting
- 6%–8%
Your topic pathway
Explore all 8 topics
Follow the official sequence from Topic 2.1 through Topic 2.8, then open any topic to see its objectives and study-resource availability.
- Topic 2.1Contextualizing Period 2Place colonial growth within continuing Indigenous sovereignty, competing European empires, distinct English regions, Atlantic commerce and slavery, and developing political and religious cultures.19 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.2European ColonizationCompare why Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonization developed differently and evaluate how land, labor, commerce, religion, Native sovereignty, and rivalry shaped their effects.20 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.3The Regions of British ColoniesCompare how environment, migration, staple crops, labor, religion, settlement, and Atlantic markets produced distinct British colonial regions.20 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.4Transatlantic TradeExplain how commodities, coerced migration, Native exchange, mercantilist policy, consumer demand, and port commerce connected British North America to an unequal Atlantic economy.21 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.5Interactions Between American Indians and EuropeansExplain how Native sovereignty, European rivalry, trade, religion, disease, land pressure, diplomacy, and warfare produced both accommodation and conflict from 1607 to 1754.22 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.6Slavery in the British ColoniesExplain why every British colonial region participated in slavery while law, staple crops, labor organization, demography, culture, family life, and resistance differed by place.23 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.7Colonial Society and CultureTrace how migration, pluralism, Anglicization, evangelical revival, Enlightenment thought, print culture, and self-government reshaped colonial culture and colonists’ relationship with Britain.24 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
- Topic 2.8Comparison in Period 2Compare how imperial goals, environments, migration, labor, Native diplomacy, Atlantic exchange, regional culture, and political institutions produced distinct colonial societies by 1754.25 min overviewNotesPracticeFlashcardsExplore topic
Think like a historian
Questions to carry through the unit
How did Atlantic trade shape colonial labor and society?
Revisit this after every topic.
How did colonists and American Indians adapt to sustained contact?
Revisit this after every topic.