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1400
Age of Discovery
Historical period between the 15th and 18th Century during which Europeans made contact and sought to explore and colonize the "New World".(1400's and 1600's) -
1400
PreColumbian Era
The period before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the new world. when North America was populated by Native Americans. Before 1492. -
1492
Columbian Exchange
Exchanging of goods, ideas, diseases, and people between the America's, Africa, and Europe. Each region was significantly impacted as a result of trade and contact. -
1493
Encomienda system
Spanish system of granting land to colonists in the new world. Exploited natives and resources; eventually, Natives were replaced with African slave labor. -
1507
Small Pox
Smallpox was introduced to the America's around 1507 and led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans in North and South America. -
Powhatan Confederacy
Alliance of Native Americans tribes living in the region of the initial Virginia settlement Powhatan, the leader of this alliance, tried to live in peace with the English settlers when they arrived in 1607 and even helped the colonists learn how to farm. -
Jamestown
Established in 1607 and was the first permanent English settlement; located in Virginia and led through the starving time by John Smith. It was the only successful after tobacco was established as a cash crop. -
Santa Fe
Spain established its first permanent settlement in the southwest Santa Fe, New Mexico. -
King Philip's War
It was a war between the Native American tribes of New England and British colonists that took place from 1675-1676. The war was the result of tension caused by encroaching settlers. -
Po'pay uprising
A Native American religious leader named Pope or Po'pay organized an uprising to drive the Spaniards out. He organized about 2000 warriors who killed 400 Spanish colonists and forced the rest of the colonists out, but this did not last very long. But this did give the Spanish more of a tolerance to Native American religions. -
Salem Witch Trials
1692 outbreak of witchcraft accusations in a Puritan village marked by an atmosphere of fear, hysteria and stress from encroaching settlers without Puritanical viewpoints. -
Scots- Irish Immigration
English-speaking Presbyterians and protestants from Ulster of complicated ancestry who moved to Ulster to help subdue Irish Catholic resistance in Northern Ireland after the "Nine Years War", then were later dispossessed by English lords between 1717-1775; many who lost their land moved to the American colonies, settling along the Appalachian frontier from western Pennsylvania to Georgia. -
Great awakening
A 1730's and 1740's religious movement characterized by emotional preaching . The first cultural movement to unite the thirteen colonies; associated with the democratization of religion. -
Stono Rebellion
Sometimes called Cato's Rebellion, occurred in 1739 in South Carolina; It was the largest slave rebellion in the mainland colonies. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The shot heard around the world. These two battles occurred on the same day. They were the first military conflicts of the war. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
First major battle of the revolution. It showed that the Americans could hold their own, but the British were also not easy to defeat. Ultimately, the Americans were forced to withdraw after running out of ammunition, and Bunker Hill was in British hands. However, the British suffered more deaths. -
Articles of Confederation
This document was the nation's first constitution. The document was limited because states held most of the power, and congress lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, or control coinage, there were border disputes, and the states blamed each other for issues. -
Yorktown
American victory that ended the revolutionary war. Under the command of George Washington, the Americans along with French Regiments beat Cornwallis and his British troops. The continentals surrounded the Cornwallis by land and a French naval in Chesapeake Bay fleet blocked his forces by sea. -
Land Ordinance of 1785
Stated that disputed land the Old Northwest was to be equally divided into townships and sold for federal income; set up guidelines for funding education and ended confusing legal disagreements over land. -
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Stated that disputed land the Old Northwest was to be equally divided into townships and sold for federal income, set up guidelines for funding education, and ended confusing legal disagreements over land. -
The Constitution
The foundation of our country's national government; was drafted in Philadelphia in 1787; this document establishes a government with direct authority over all citizens, it defines the powers of the national government, and it establishes protection for the rights of states and of every individual. -
Romanticism
Aesthetic movement beginning in the late 18th century and continuing in influence into the mid-19th century, revolted against the rationalism of the 18th century. Authors of this time period wrote about inner life and self discovery, also about the environment. -
Louisiana Purchase
Doubled the size of the United States and opened up land for expansion. Jefferson changed his interpretation from strict to loose on this issue. -
Cult of Domesticity
Widespread cultural creed that glorified the traditional functions of the homemaker around the mid-19th century; married women were regarded to have moral power, and they increasingly made decisions that altered the family. -
Monroe Doctrine
Mostly the work of secretary, John Quincy Adams, this declared that Europe should not interfere in the affairs of the western hemisphere and that any attempt at interference by a European power would be seen as a threat to the US. -
Erie Canal
This was opened as a toll waterway connecting New York to the Great Lakes. This helped connect the northern cities to the agrarian west. The transportation of food from the mid-west farms especially allowed for growth of New York. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
American slave who started the largest slave rebellion in Virginia; slaughtered white civilians during the uprising and terrified plantation owners in the south. -
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
1842 treaty between the US and Britain that set the Oregon boundary line at the 49'. -
Telegraph
This revolutionized long distance communication; worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. -
Annexation of Texas
Nearly a decade after Texas declared itself the Republic of Texas, the US annexed it into statehood starting the Mexican American War. -
Fort Sumter
Site of the opening engagement of the civil war. South Carolina had seceded from the Union, and had demanded that all federal property in the state be surrendered to state authorities. -
Rugged Individualism
Ideal of resourcefulness, individual problem-solving, that people can succeed by their own efforts with minimal help from others or the government. -
Black codes
Passed by all southern state legislatures, hindered the freedom of blacks, set of regulations limited movement by blacks, prohibited interracial marriage, insisted that blacks obtain special certficates to hold certain jobs. -
Reconstruction Act
An act placing southern states under military rule and barring former supporters of the confederacy from voting. -
14th Amendment
Granted citizenship to African Americans with no interference in their civil and political rights, all citizens were guaranteed the right to vote, citizenship would be the same in all states, states that denied the freedom to vote would have reduced representation in Congress. -
Transcontinental Railroad
Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
Established the doctrine of "separate but equal" upheld Jim Crow laws in the south. Led to increased discrimination against African Americans; later overturned by Brown V. Board. -
15th Ammendment
Stated no American could be denied the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
Denied any additional Chinese laborers to enter the country while allowing students and merchants to immigrate. This is due to American workers feeling threatened by the job competition. -
American Federation of Labor
This as led by Samuel Gompers, a union for skilled laborers that fought for workers rights in a non-violent way. It provided skilled laborers with a union that was unified, large and strong. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
First federal action against monopolies; it was signed into law by Harrison and was extensively used by Theodore Roosevelt for trust busting. However it was initially misused against labor unions. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
1890 massacre of Sioux Indians by American cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota; sent to suppress the Ghost Dance, soldiers caught up with fleeing Lakota's and killed as many as 300. This was the end of Native American uprising. -
WWI
Known as the first world war, the great war, or the war to end all wars. It was the first global war that began when the archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. -
Harlem Renaissance
The flourishing of African American literature and art in the 1920's, born in Harlem, New York, and spread to urban centers across America. -
19th Amendment
Amendment to the US constitution giving women the right to vote in federal and state elections. -
Great Depression
Te deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the western industrialized world. -
Dust Bowl
A period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the United States during the 1930's. -
Yalta conference
The meeting of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill (the Big Three). Since Allied victory in Europe was almost secure they discussed engaging the USSR to become involved in the pacific theater to defeat Japan. -
WWII
The second great global conflict to occur. It was the deadliest and the most widespread war in history, involving more than 30 countries and over 50 million military and civilian casualties. -
Cold War
A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. There were never any physical confrontations, but there were plenty of threats. -
Cuban missile crisis
An international crisis that was the closest approach to nuclear war at any time between the US and the Soviet Union, when the US discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy demanded the removal of these missiles and had a naval blockade of the island, eventually after a week the missiles were removed. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal. It also gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places. -
National Organization for Women
Founded in 1966, this called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women. Also campaigned for the legalization of abortion and the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution. -
World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee inented the World Wide Web. WWW is a global information medium which users can read and write via computers connected to the internet. -
Persian Gulf war
Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army invade Kuwait. The US sends in troops to turn back the approaching Iraqi army and liberate Kuwait. -
START I
An agreement reached by President Bush and new Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, worked to dismantle the large amount of nuclear warheads that had been built up over the past four decades. Signed in 1991 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), drastically reduced number of warheads in both countries. -
End of Cold War
The cold war lasted for over 50 years and ended after the dissolve of the Soviet Union into 15 individual republics. -
Fear of Terrorism
The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a bomb that killed 168 people. Igniting Americas fear of terrorism due to it being the first act of terrorism on US soil. -
Y2K Bug
A class of computer bugs related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates beginning in the year 2000. -
9/11
A series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the Unites States. Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners, two of these planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. -
War on Terrorism
President Bush launched an international military campaign after the September 11 attacks against terrorism. -
Invasion of Iraq
The invasion of Iraq after Saddam Hussein refused to cooperate with UN weapons inspections, causing people to speculate that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. -
Recession
A sharp decline in economic activity. It is generally considered the largest downturn since the great depression.