Making of a Continental Power: The Expansion of the U.S. from 1607-1890

Dr. Gary Darden, Associate Professor of History, Chair, Department of Social Sciences and History, Fairleigh Dickinson University

5 Monday afternoons 1:30 - 3:30 pm:  Jan 26, Feb 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2026

This in-person lecture series analyzes the formation of British North America in the 17th Century as a chain of separate colonies competing with rival European powers for the lands of indigenous Americans and in many colonies with the labor of African slaves; the maturation of the 13 British colonies and their rebellion for independence in the 18th Century with the creation of a Republic; the tension between Northern free labor and Southern slavery over expansion out West; and lastly the rapid conquest and settlement of a preserved Union across the West in the late 19th Century. 

1. British North America – Colonial Origins (1607-1763)

2. American Republic – Revolution & Nation Building (1763-1789)

3. Republic or Empire – Expansion across the Continent (1789-1854)

4. Fate of Expansion – Free Labor vs Slavery in the Continental Empire (1820-1877)

5. Conquest & Settlement of the West – Closing the Last Frontier (1862-1890)