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Which is the second main clause in the following sentence (I suppose it is a compound sentence)?

He teaches math and I teach history.

Is it "And I teach history." or "I teach history.", leaving out the coordinator 'and'?

I think "And I teach history" can be an independent clause and so the sentence is compound. Is that right?

Similarly,

I went to bed early because I was extremely tired. (I suppose it is a complex sentence)

Is the second clause "because I was extremely tired" ?

If the conjunction 'because' is left out, both clauses become independent. I wonder if "because I was extremely tired" can be an independent clause?

Can someone help me?

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You understand the difference quite well. We consider the conjunction to be a part of the clause that it introduces.

As you write, the coordinating conjunctions introduce independent clauses. As such, they can be punctuated as independent sentences. (Some teachers dispute this position, but they are wrong.1, 2) Thus, And I teach history is an independent clause.

The subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns introduce dependent clauses. Such clauses cannot be punctuated as independent sentences. Doing so creates a sentence fragment. Creative writers often write fragments deliberately, but fragments should be avoided in formal writing.

With reference to your specific question, because I was extremely tired should not be punctuated as an independent sentence. It should be attached to an independent clause.

As to your other terms, traditional textbooks call a sentence compound when it contains independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. They call a sentence complex when it contains an independent clause and a dependent clause. They call a sentence compound-complex when it contains independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction AND a dependent clause. These labels are pretty useless.

1 and. A. Beginning Sentences with. It is rank superstition that this coordinating conjunction cannot properly begin a sentence.

2 but. A. Beginning Sentences with. It is a gross canard that beginning a sentence with but is stylistically slipshod. In fact, doing so is highly desirable in any number of contexts

Bryan Garner, Garner's Modern English Usage

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  • Quite helpful. But does it work in the following case: "The police could not understand / how the thief had escaped." Is the first clause independent? Understand what? Does it not require an object?
    – Pradeep
    Commented Sep 13, 2022 at 7:01
  • @Pradeep, The first clause is independent. The second is dependent. Depending on the grammar book you read, it may be called a noun clause or a content clause or a few other terms. As you have guessed, it functions here as the object of "understand." You could also use it as a subject: "How the thief had escaped was a mystery to the police."
    – Jeffrey Carney
    Commented Sep 13, 2022 at 10:52
  • This is not clear to me. The verb in the first clause requires an object after it, which obviously is not present within the clause. Then how is the clause complete and independent?
    – Pradeep
    Commented Sep 15, 2022 at 7:11
  • I wrote the answer too quickly. The "second" clause is embedded within the independent (first) clause. The independent clause is actually the entire sentence. The "second" clause is the object of the transitive verb "understand," so it is required to complete the meaning of the first clause. In this case, the labels "first" and "second" are a little misleading.
    – Jeffrey Carney
    Commented Sep 15, 2022 at 15:16
  • True. Maybe I can put it this way. In a compound sentence, the independent clauses have independent meanings. In a complex sentence, the meaning of the subordinate clause is dependent on the meaning of the independent clause. The two are related in meaning.
    – Pradeep
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 8:07

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