The history of the United States as covered in American schools and universities typically begins with either Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Americas or with the prehistory of the Native peoples, with the latter approach having become increasingly common in recent decades.[1]

Indigenous peoples lived in what is now the United States for thousands of years and developed complex cultures before European colonists began to arrive, mostly from England, after 1600. The Spanish had early settlements in Florida and the Southwest, and the French along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. By the 1770s, thirteen British colonies contained two and a half million people along the Atlantic coast, east of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonies were prosperous and growing rapidly, and had developed their own autonomous political and legal systems. However, with the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Great Britain altered its relationships with the colonies by imposing tighter administrative controls and greater financial obligations on the colonists.[2] Tensions grew, eventually leading to armed conflict beginning in April 1775. On July 4, 1776, the colonies declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

With large-scale military and financial support from France and military leadership by General George Washington, the American rebels won the Revolutionary War and peace was achieved in 1783. During and after the war, the 13 states were united under a weak federal government established by the Articles of Confederation. When these proved unworkable, a new Constitution was adopted in 1789; it became the basis of the United States federal government, and later included a Bill of Rights. With Washington as the nation's first president and Alexander Hamilton his chief financial adviser, a strong national government was created. In the First Party