The following standards have been taken from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) standards.

Students will understand:

• The cultural and ecological interactions, resulting from early European exploration, among previously unconnected people.
  
  
• Reasons the Americas attracted Europeans, why they brought enslaved Africans to their colonies, and how Europeans struggled for control of North America and the Caribbean.
  
  
• U.S. territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861 and how it affected relations with external powers and Native Americans.