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St Augustine, present-day Florida - founded by the Spanish. North America is already inhabited by several distinct groups people, who go into decline following the arrival of settlers.
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Plymouth Colony, near Cape Cod, is founded by the Pilgrim Fathers, whose example is followed by other English Puritans in New England.
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Colonists form First Continental Congress as Britain closes down Boston harbour and deploys troops in Massachusetts.
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American Revolution: George Washington leads colonist Continental Army to fight against British rule.
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Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence endorsed by Congress; colonies declare independence.
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Rebel states form loose confederation, codified in Articles of Confederation, after defeating the British at the Battle of Yorktown.
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Residual resistance by indigenous people crushed as immigration from Europe assumes mass proportions, with settlers moving westwards and claiming "manifest destiny" to control North America; number of states in the union rises from 17 to 45.
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War of 1812 between the US and Britain, partly over the effects of British restrictions on US trade during the Napoleonic Wars.
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US acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.
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Opponents of slavery, or abolitionists, set up Republican Party.
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Eleven pro-slavery southern states secede from Union and form Confederate States of America under leadership of Jefferson Davis, triggering civil war with abolitionist northern states.
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Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.
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Confederates defeated; slavery abolished under Thirteenth Amendment. Lincoln is assassinated.
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13 million people become unemployed after the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 triggers what becomes known as the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover rejects direct federal relief.
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