-
1491
Natives cross the Bering Strait
The Bering Strait was the ancient land bridge where Native Americans traveled from Asia to America between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. I do not really know when this was used -
Period: 1491 to
Unit 1: Early Contact
-
1492
The Columbian Exchange is established
The Columbian Exchange is the exchange of goods, ideas, diseases, and people between the Americas, Africa, and Europe; each region was significantly impacted as a result of trade and contact -
1492
Spanish Conquistadors reach the Americas
Conquistadors were early-sixteenth-century Spanish adventurers who conquered Mexico, Central America, and Peru (Examples Cortez, Pizarro, Francisco) -
Aug 3, 1492
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue
The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not really “discover” the New World—millions of people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of transatlantic conquest and colonization. -
1512
Spanish made the Ecomienda System
The Ecomienda System was the Spanish system of granting land to colonists in the new world; exploited natives and resources; eventually, Natives were replaced with African slave labor -
1514
Bartolome de Las Casas writes about the Spanish
Bartolome de Las Casas debated Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in the Valladolid Debate; Spanish priest that wrote about the atrocities the Spanish committed against the Native Americans and sought to end the encomienda system; his writings were later used by the British to perpetuate the "Black Legend" -
1520
Small Pox kills Natives
Small Pox is disease spread by Europeans in the Americas; led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans in North and South America -
The Colonization of Jamestown
The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in Virginia. Jamestown was named for King James I of England. It was destroyed later in the seventeenth century in an uprising of Virginians against the governor. They got wealthy and managed due to tobacco production -
European Colonization of America
Though it really began in 1492 when Columbus sailed over here, im talking about the Dutch, French, English, and Spanish settlements in American how they shaped it and decimated the Natives -
Period: to
Unit 2: The Atlantic World
-
House of Burgesses
The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, which created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America, and to make conditions in the colony more agreeable for its current inhabitants. -
Indentured Servants
A person under contract to work for another person for a definite period of time, usually without pay but in exchange for free passage to a new country. During the seventeenth century most of the white laborers in Maryland and Virginia came from England as indentured servants. -
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
The transatlantic slave trade was the biggest deportation in history and a determining factor in the world economy of the 18th century. Millions of Africans were torn from their homes, deported to the American continent and sold as slaves. Triangular Trade. -
Mercantilism in America
Beginning around 1650, the British government pursued a policy of mercantilism in international trade. These laws created a trade system whereby Americans provided raw goods to Britain, and Britain used the raw goods to produce manufactured goods that were sold in European markets and back to the colonies. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. This is significant because it proves that people will not tolerate any rules that benefit only the wealthy. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. Both sides were supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and France, as well as by American Indian allies. -
Period: to
Unit 3: The New Nation
-
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators in defiance of the Tea Act of 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. -
The American Revolution
The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America. -
Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. These states would found a new nation – the United States of America. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in Massachusetts when Daniel Shays led four thousand rebels in an uprising against perceived economic and civil rights injustices.The rebellion took place in a political climate where reform of the country's governing document, the Articles of Confederation, was widely seen as necessary. The events of the rebellion served as a catalyst for the calling of the U.S. Constitutional Convention, and ultimately the shape of the new government. -
The Great Compromise
The combination of the New Jersey and Virginia plans, which gave equal representation to each state and representation due to population in separate branches of the house. -
Washington becomes President
George Washington was an American statesman and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. This is critical for he was the First presidency since America got its independence -
Period: to
Unit 4: The Market Revolution
-
Invention of the Cotton GIn
The Cotton Gin is a machine that separates the seeds from raw cotton, this invention is really important because it lead to the up rise of slave labor. Actually invented on March 3rd, 1791 -
Louisiana Purchase
The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803. -
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies. http://www.history.com/topics/war-of-1812 -
Election of 1816
The United States presidential election of 1816 came at the end of the two-term presidency of Democratic-Republican James Monroe. Monroe's presidency was important for it was the Era of Good Feelings, it was also when the Monroe Doctrine was signed -
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. It was one of the many reformations of the market revolution -
Missouri Compromise
The compromise was to add Missouri as a Slave state and Maine as a free state to keep the balance of Slave and free states equal. No slavery above 36' 30' line except Missouri -
Signing of the Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was the authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Period: to
Unit 5: The Civil War
-
Start of the Mexican American War
The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States (Mexico) from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 American annexation of the independent Republic of Texas -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, California was free, Utah and New Mexico vote on slavery, the slave trade was Abolished in D.C., and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Election of 1860
American presidential election held on Nov. 6, 1860, in which Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. After this the Confederates seceded from the north and the war began -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. -
Period: to
Unit 6: The Gilded Age
-
Freedmen's Bureau
Congress established The U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau) in 1865 to assist former black slaves and poor whites in the south from the aftermath of the Civil War -
Confederate Army Surrender
near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
Founding of the National Labor Union
National Labor Unions were made up of skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, and reformers, called on Congress to order an eight-hour workday. The National Labor Union was created to pressure Congress to make labor law reforms. Many more came after this one -
The Transcontinental Railroad Opens
The Transcontinental Railroad is a 1,912-mile (3,077 km) continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha to the one in Sacramento -
Rise of the Standard Oil Company
The Standard Oil Company was a monopoly run by Rockefeller that made its way to the top by building trusts. This is a perfect example of the Rise of Big Business back in the Gilded Age -
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Founded in 1874, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is one of the largest and most influential women’s groups of the 19th century by expanding its platform to campaign for labor laws, prison reform and suffrage, as well as the Anti-Saloon League -
Battle of Little Bighorn
This was a battle between the Sioux and George Custer's men, this was the beginning of several interactions that the US had with the Sioux until the Wounded Knee Massacre and Dawes Act's. -
Invention of the Light Bulb
The light bulb was an invented by Thomas Edison. It is a glass bulb that provides light by passing an electric current through a filament or a pocket of inert gas. -
Approval of the Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the US. This quota happened due to the obscure amount of Chinese immigrants during the late 1800's. -
Period: to
Unit 7: Creation of a Mass Culture
-
Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American War was fought between America and the Spanish after the internal explosion of a US Maine. It ended with the Treaty of Paris where Spain lost the Philippines and the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico, as well as Cuba becoming independent -
Founding of the NAACP
The NAACP stands for The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and it is a civil rights organization formed for the advancement of African Americans in society by W. E. B. DuBois and other progressive reformers. -
World War I
World War I began in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States (the Allied Powers). -
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, spanning the 1920's. -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe economic decline that happened mostly throughout the 1930's, what started the this was the Stock Market crash. -
The New Deal
The New Deal was a group of U.S. government programs of the 1930's. President Franklin D. Roosevelt started the programs to help the country recover from the economic problems of the Great Depression. Ultimately what made US leave the Great Depression was the Start of WWII -
World War II
World War II was a global military conflict from 1939 to 1945, which was fought between the Allied powers (United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union) against the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). -
Period: to
Unit 8: Prosperity & Global Responsibility
-
China falls to Communism
Under communist leader Mao Zedong, China fell to communism after the communist revolution, China was then renamed "The People's Republic of China". -
Civil Rights Movement
This was a series of multiple groups, strategies, and social movements whose goal was to end racial discrimination and segregation. Many individuals like MLK and Malcom X spoke for their rights and got assistance from President JFK, this took place from 1954-1968 -
Sputnik launched into space
Sputnik was the first artificial Earth satellite launched by the Soviet Union, this kicked off the Space Race and was the start of many competitive things between the US and the Soviet Union -
Construction of Berlin Wall
In the early Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, -
My Lai Massacre
the My Lai Massacre was the massive killing of 500+ Vietnam civilians that took place during the Vietnam War. One of the most horrific incidents against innocent civilians -
War Powers Act
Federal law intended to check the president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. -
Camp David Accords
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and President Jimmy Carter signed the Camp David Accords. This resulted in formal peace between Egypt and Israel. -
Period: to
Unit 9: Modern America
-
Reagan elected, Iranian Hostages were released
In 1979, Iranian students broke into the US Embassy in Tehran, taking 60+ hostages over a course of 444 days. All hostages were released moments after Ronald Reagan was admitted into office -
The Berlin Wall fell
The GDR constructed a concrete wall separating West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and East Berlin. Eventually they announced a change in city relations and no longer were communist and stated that the wall will be demolished -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
After Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union collapsed, this was a result of declaration 142-H and thus Boris Yeltsin was left the leader for the newly independent Russian state -
President Clinton signed NAFTA
NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement, which negotiated free trade with Canada and Mexico. President Bill Clinton signed this in 1993 but it did not go into effect until 1994 -
September 11, 2001
This is the day on which terrorists apart of Al-Qaeda, hijacked 4 planes and crashed them into the US. Two crashed into the World Trade Center, another crashed into the Pentagon, the last one was found in a field in Pennsylvania. -
US invaded Iraq
An armed conflict that began in 2003 when the US invaded Iraq to topple the government being led by Saddam Hussein. This unleashed a civil war in Iraq that as of now, still has yet to end -
Barack Obama elected President
Obama became the 44th President as well as the first African American to be elected in office. He was president for two terms leading into 2017.
