We welcome reader feedback and suggestions for improvement. The users are invited to tweak and refine this book until there is nothing better available.The authors are confident that this will happen because of the success of the Wikipedia site. Europeans "discovered" and colonized the North American continent and, even after they lost political control over its territory, their influence has predominated due to a common language, social ideals, and culture.The peoples of Europe have had a tremendous effect on the development of the United States throughout the course of U. Therefore, when endeavoring to understand the history of the United States, it is helpful to briefly describe their European origin.

This textbook is based on the College Entrance Examination Board test in Advanced Placement United States History.

The test is a standard on the subject, covering what most students in the United States study in high school and college, so we treat it as the best reference.

The text was reorganized and edited in November 2008 to be closer to the content and organization the college board requires.

The content was carefully chosen for significance and interest. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the world's first open content US History Textbook.

These polities existed side by side, sometimes warring with each other, at one time combining against an invading army from Persia.

Ancient Athens is known for its literary achievements in drama, history, and personal narrative.

The individual city-states did not usually see themselves as a single entity.

By 800 BCE, various Greek city-states, sharing a language and a culture based on slavery, pioneered novel political cultures.

In the Greek city of Athens, by about 500 BCE, the male citizens who owned land began to elect their leaders.

These elections by the minority of a minority represent the first democracy in the world.

Other states in Greece experimented with other forms of rule, as in the totalitarian state of Sparta.