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Period: 30,000 BCE to
Beginning to Exploration
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10,000 BCE
Bering Land Bridge
During the Ice Age, many individuals from East Asia moved into the Americas through this bridge that was made connecting Alaska to Russia. Three different major waves of people past thru the Bering Land Bridge due to them more than likely following the herd of animals since the people of the time were hunter & gatherers. -
2000 BCE
The Mayans
The Mayans were located in now today Central America and southern Mexico. The Mayans continued many customs from the Olmecs like bloodletting, the mesoamerican ballgame and the calendar. They as well advanced human sacrifice, had a caste system and had a written language. -
476
Fall of Rome
Rome processed a decline due to failing to enforce its rule, and its territory was divided into many different other countries. Their was a variety of factors that led to the fall, but most historians agree it was the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the strength of their economy, and the health and numbers of the Roman population. After, its fall a Dark Age fell upon Europe since their was no form of education after the Roman Empire collapsed. -
1353
The Black Death
A disease that came from Asia that spread into Europe from its southern seaports. The ships that brought the disease into Europe came in Europe and the people on board were all either dead or very ill with a distinguishable black boils around their body. Even though authorities ordered these ships to go elsewhere it was already to late and Rats in the city spread the disease which lead to the death of 1/3 of Europe's population. -
1492
The Columbian Exchange
A trading system between the new world and the old world where goods and other things will be traded. The old world benefited from it the most since they now had been introduced to many different new goods. The new world received many negative things from it like diseases. It was named after Christopher Columbus. Africa also was part of it. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesilla
A treaty signed in Tordesillas between the Portuguese empire and the Crown of Castile (Spain). The treaty settled with the line marking the division will be in between the Cape Verde islands owned by the Portuguese and the lands discovered by Columbus. The west will belong to the Spanish and the east to the Portuguese. -
May 20, 1506
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was a Italian-born explorer, navigator, and colonizer. Born in the Republic of Genoa, under the name of the Monarchs of Spain, Columbus completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. The voyages and his efforts helped establish the island of Hispaniola which initiated the European colonization of the New World. He died not knowing he had discovered a new world. -
Chesapeake Colonies
The Chesapeake Colonies were the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Province of Maryland, later Maryland, both colonies centered on the Chesapeake Bay thus getting there name.The area gained most of its income by growing tobacco since its fertile land was perfect for it. -
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English Colonial Societies
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New England Colonies
The New England Colonies included the Connecticut Colony, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Province of New Hampshire these colonies unlike the Chesapeake Colonies couldn't rely on agriculture so they focused more on fishing and ship building to make money. The region was first colonized by a group named the Puritans who came to make the world fit their ideology once they came they named their region the Massachusetts Bay colony. -
Buffer Colonies
Buffer Colonies were used by Britain to protect the other colonies from potential danger from other nations. They would usually store goods in these nations since they were closer to the Caribbeans. Examples of these buffer colonies include Georgia with its sole purpose at first being a land shield between the English Colonies and Spanish-owned Florida -
Proprietary Colonies
A type of colony from Britain in which the King would give away the land to his closest allies and people he owed in which they would control all the land and also how they would split it up meaning it didn't technically belong to the British. Examples of these colonies was when King Charles II gave the New Netherlands charter to his younger brother the Duke of York and named it New York. Another example would be when William Penn received a charter and he named it Pennsylvania. -
Glorious Revolution
Nicknamed the "Bloodless Revolution" is when King James II was overthrown by future King James II and his daughter due to him being a Catholic. The reason it was called the Bloodless Revolution was because they were allowed to freely go into the Kingdom and overthrow the king. This affected the colonies since the British weren't as focused anymore causing a sense of independence. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions on people who were wrongly accused of performing witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. It is seen as a case of Mass Hysteria due to isolationism, religious extremism, and false accusations. The people affected by the prosecutions were 20 people with 14 being women and only one of them not being hanged. The others died in prison with two being infant children. -
Act of Union
The Act of Union of 1707 was the unification of Scotland and England creating the United Kingdom. Before this Scotland and England had the same monarch, but were still technically two different nations. There was other attempts in unifying the nations, but they ultimately failed. Scotland wanted the Unification due to being in economical depression and hoped the unification would help them out. -
Period: to
Colonial America
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The Enlightment
The Enlightenment nicknamed "the age of Philosophy" was a movement that promoted intelligence and philosophy. The Enlightenment brought the ideas of liberty, tolerance, and many other things. The enlightenment mostly emphasized the scientific method as well as questioning religion. -
The Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was a revival of the Protestant religion that swept Europe and British America.The revival was due to using different preaching methods that resonated more with listeners and gave them more of a personal revelation in the need of salvation. It pulled religion away from old rituals and made it more personal for the average person. -
The Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade was the transportation of slaves from Africa to the Americas, and their sale there. The slave trade used the triangular trade route and the Middle Passage. Unlike popular belief most of the slaves were sold to the Caribbeans and South America. The Atlantic slave trade was primarily participated on by the Portuguese, British, French, Spanish, and Dutch. -
Colonial Economies
The colonies of British America were divided into 3 regions and each made their money in different ways. The north didn't have the soil to live off agriculture so they instead manufactured ships and fished. The middle colonies had soil, but relied more on tobacco as their cash crop. The southern colonies had much humid and hotter weather so the cash crop for them was rice. -
Fort William Henry
A British fort in the province of New York. The fort is most well known for the massacre committed by the Huron Tribes against the British who had already surrendered after the French had already siege the location and were told they were allowed to withdraw. The French after the massacre destroyed the place. -
Seven Years War
A global conflict that was fought in between 1756 and 1763 and it was fought in 5 continents and every major European power was involved. There was two sides fighting in the war with the UK leading one side and France the other. The result of the war led to the end of French Dominance in Europe and led the UK to be the predominant power in the world. -
Treaty Of Paris
The treaty ended the Seven Years War in between Great Britain and France. The result of the treaty resulted with France being forced to lose all its North American territories, ending any military threat for the British in colonial america. Most of the old territories of France were then taken over by Great Britain. -
Period: to
Revolutionary War
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Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre is the incident in which British Army soldiers shot and killed 5 people while being under attack by a mob. The event was used as propaganda by the Patriots to encourage rebellion against the British. The British officers were being pummeled with rocks before they started firing and John Adams defended them as their lawyer the officers were charged with less harsh sentences. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty. The ones who did ti disguised themselves as Native Americans to go against the Tea Act. They destroyed an entire shipment of tea from the East India Company. They boarded the ship and threw the tea into the Boston Harbor. The British government responded very harshly and the whole thing escalated into the American Revolution. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The first battles of the Revolutionary War marking the the first armed outbreak between the colonist and Great Britain. After the colonies agreed to train militia in case of hostilities. The British Army was called in to stop them since they were in a state of rebellion. 700 British marched towards Concord when Paul Revere with several riders spotted them and sent info about their plans. The first shots were fired in Lexington before the British broke threw and reached Concord but retreated -
Common Sense
A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine to persuade people to advocate for independence against Great Britain in the Thirteen Colonies. Paine used moral and political arguments to encourage the average person to fight for an egalitarian government. It was published anonymously and once it was released in the beginning of the Revolution it became an immediate sensation. -
The Declaration of Independence
Adopted in the Second Continental Congress announced to the Kingdom of Great Britain that they now regarded themselves as thirteen independent states, no longer under their rule. The now independent states would call themselves the United States of America. The voting for the Declaration of Independence actually happened in the 2nd of July, but it was approved in the 4th making that independence day. -
The Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last major land battle in the Revolutionary War. The commander in charge of the American Continental Army was George Washington and the British being led by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. The surrendering of Cornwallis and his troops made the British negotiate to end the conflict. The battle as well boosted American Morale that was faltering. -
Treaty of Paris
King George III and American representatives signed a treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War. The treaty set the boundaries for Britain and the US with most of the lines being generous to the US. The US would get all British land to the east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Canada. However, the British wanted the Americans to return the stolen property of the loyalist back to them or they will blockade them. -
Articles of Confederation
The first Constitution of the US approved in 1776 and came into force in March 1, 1781 after being ratified by all 13 states. The main principle of AOC was that it preserved independence and sovereignty of the states and the Federal Government was very limited. Under the AOC the federal government couldn't tax people so they couldn't make back what they lost from the war causing a huge problem until it was replaced by the US constitution -
Period: to
The Constitution
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Shay's Rebellion
An armed uprising in Massachusetts with four thousand rebels being led by veteran Daniel Shays in protest of civil and economic injustices. The rebels marched into Springfield unsuccessfully trying to get weaponry to overthrow the government. The rebellion served as a catalyst to make a change from the AOC as well brought George Washington back into the public life with him personally stopping the rebellion. -
Constitutional Convention
The Convention even although at first it was to revise the AOC, the intentions of most of the people was to replace it with a new one some of them being James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. The delegates chose George Washington to preside the Convention and the result of the Convention was the creation of the US convention after many different plans coming into fluidity like the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. -
Virginia Plan
A proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch drafted by James Madison. The plan is notable for setting the role of the debates and the idea of population-weighted representation in the national legislature. The idea was that it would fill the office with a certain amount based on population and Virginia being the most populated at the time would have the most representatives. -
New Jersey Plan
A proposal for the structure of the United States Government by William Paterson it was a response to the Virginia Plan. They proposed an alternative plan that would keep one vote per state and only under one legislative body like in the AOC. The plan was opposed by James Madison and Edmund Rudolph the ones who created the Virginia Plan. Ultimately, this plan was rejected as well but served as a basis for the new constitution. -
The Connecticut Plan
A compromise between both the large and small states that ended the Constitutional Convention defining the legislative structure and the representation that each state will have in the new US Constitution. It had a bicameral constitution with the lower house having it proportional to population and the upper house weighted equally between the states. It would also have an judicial branch and executive branch. -
The Federalist
A collection of 85 articles and essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that promoted the ratification of the United States Constitution. The Federalist papers are also notable for their opposition to what later became the United States Bill of Rights. Most of the essays came from Alexander Hamilton and James Madison due to John Hay getting sick only doing 5. -
Period: to
New Republic
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Election of 1788
The first election of the United States under the US Constitution since the AOC had no head of state and the executive branch. With George Washington getting 100 percent of the votes due to being seen as a God-Like figure and John Adams being the VP since their was no running mates at the time and second place becomes the VP until the 12th Ammendment. -
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendment of the US Constitution following bitter debates between the Anti-Federalist and the Federalist. The amendments guarantee specific rights and personal freedom, limiting the Judaical and other proceedings. The Bill of Rights took 2 years to finally be ratified and took into account other documents like the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. -
Whiskey Rebellion
A protest against taxes in the United States during the Presidency of George Washington. The whiskey tax was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the new federal government. The tax applied to all spirits and protesters used violence and intimidated tax collectors. The protestors stormed into Pittsburgh but were met with the newly constructed US army and leading them was George Washington making the first and only time the President leads an army into battle. -
Bank of the United States
The first Secretary of Treasure, Alexander Hamilton believed a national bank was necessary to stabilize and improve the nation's credit. He also wanted to improve the handling of the financial side of the United States government under the newly ratified Constitution. The first Bank building was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the bank help regulate the price of the dollar. -
Jay's Treaty
a treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted war and resolved issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783 which facilitated peace between the two nation for ten years with peaceful trade as well during the French revolutionary wars. The treaty was designed by Alexander Hamilton and supported by the President. The treaty was then negotiated by John Jay and manged to accomplish many of America's goals. -
Pinckney's Treaty
Signed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial and established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain. It also defined the border between the US and Spanish Florida and guaranteed the US navigation rights on the Mississippi River. The controversy called the West Florida Controversy came to a close. -
Election of 1796
The first contested American election after George Washington refused a third term and the first time a president and VP from different parties.Adams won the presidency and Thomas Jefferson won the VP since he had more electoral votes than Pinckney. This also saw the rise of the new party of the Democratic-Republicans -
Period: to
The Age of Jefferson
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Louisiana Purchase
The acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million francs ($11,250,000 USD) and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs.The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. France's failure to put down the revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States. -
Embargo Act of 1807
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general embargo enacted by the United States Congress against Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars. The embargo was imposed in response to violations of the United States neutrality, in which American merchantmen and their cargo were seized as contraband of war by the belligerent European navies. -
War of 1812
a conflict fought between the United States and the UK due to Britain impressed American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy.On June 18, 1812, President James Madison, after receiving heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress, signed the American declaration of war into law. With the majority of their army in Europe fighting Napoleon, the British adopted a defensive strategy. American prosecution of the war effort suffered from its unpopularity, especially in New England -
Battle of New Orleans
The last major battle of the War of 1812, American combatants, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, prevented a much larger British force from seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the Louisiana Purchase. The battle boosted the reputation of Andrew Jackson and helped to propel him ultimately to the White House. Across the nation, it used the great victory to ridicule the Federalists as cowards, defeatists, and secessionists. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
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Adam-Onis Treaty
a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. It settled a standing border dispute between the two countries and was considered a triumph of American diplomacy.Florida had become a burden to Spain, which could not afford to send settlers or garrisons. Madrid decided to cede the territory to the United States through the Adams–Onís Treaty -
Monroe Doctrine
a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in The Americas beginning in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. -
Panic of 1819
The first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States followed by a general collapse of the American economy persisting through 1821. The Panic announced the transition of the nation from its colonial commercial status with Europe toward an independent economy, increasingly characterized by the financial and industrial imperatives of central bank monetary policy, making it susceptible to boom and bust cycles. -
Cotton Gin
A machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.The fibers are then processed into various cotton goods such as linens, while any undamaged cotton is used largely for textiles like clothing. Seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil. Increasing slavery due to more cotton being able to be produced. -
Period: to
Cultural Changes
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Steamboats
A boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. The steamboat unlike water transportation in the past could go upstream saving months worth of time and opening trade some more. The steamboat also held more cargo then past transportation increasing trade. -
Revivalism
The increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or society, with a local, national or global effect. Rev. Charles Finney (1792–1875) was a key leader of the evangelical revival movement in America. From 1821 onwards he conducted revival meetings across many north-eastern states and won many converts. For him, a revival was not a miracle but a change of mindset that was ultimately a matter for the individual's free will. -
Election of 1824
The election was the only one in history to be decided by the House of Representatives under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution after no candidate secured a majority of the electoral vote. the only presidential election in which the candidate who received the most electoral votes (Andrew Jackson) did not become President, a source of great bitterness for Jackson and his supporters, who proclaimed the election of Adams a corrupt bargain. -
Period: to
Age of Jackson
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John Quincy Adams
The son of ex-president John Adams, Quincy served as the sixth president of the United States as a Democratic-Republican. Quincy was a important factor in negotiating major treaties like the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812. Adams was good morale person showing in his policies thinking of ways to modernized the economy of the US and to promote education. -
Temperance Movement
a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements typically criticize alcohol intoxication, promote complete abstinence (teetotalism), or use its political influence to press the government to enact alcohol laws to regulate the availability of alcohol or even its complete prohibition. Before this, although there were pieces published against drunkenness and excess,[1] total abstinence from alcohol (i.e. teetotalism) was very rarely advocated or practiced. -
Election of 1828
It featured a re-match between incumbent President John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson, who won a plurality of the electoral college vote in the 1824 election. The election ushered Jacksonian Democracy into prominence, thus marking the transition from the First Party System (which resulted in the ascendance of Jeffersonian Democracy) to the Second Party System. The campaign was marked by large amounts of nasty "mudslinging." Jackson's marriage, for example, came in for vicious attack. -
John C. Calhoun
an American politician and political theorist from South Carolina, and the seventh Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He is remembered for strongly defending slavery and for advancing the concept of minority rights in politics, which he did in the context of defending white Southern interests from perceived Northern threats. Calhoun had a difficult relationship with Jackson primarily due to the Nullification Crisis and the Petticoat affair. -
Andrew Jackson
An ex-american soldier and serving as the seventh President of the United States. Before being elected Jackson gained a lot of fame by being a general and leading the US to a win in the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson was a man of the people always trying to think for the "common man" and fought against "corruption". His nickname was Old Hickory due to his attitude and past actions. -
Spoils System
a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government civil service jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a merit system, where offices are awarded on the basis of some measure of merit, independent of political activity. -
Abolitionasim
The abolitionist movement was the social movement that wanted to end slavery. There was two sides of the movement. Gradualism which was the gradual release of slaves into Africa causing Liberia to be created but was never really popular with the African Americans. Immediatism was the immediate release of slaves and they wanted to give them the right to vote. -
Transcendentalism
a philosophical movement, it arose as a reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time. A core belief of transcendentalism is in the inherent goodness of people and nature. Adherents believe that society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, and they have faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. -
Trail of Tears
a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory. The forced relocation was carried out by various government authorities following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The relocated people suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route, and more than four thousand died before reaching their various destinations. -
Nat Turners Slave Rebellion
Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, the largest and deadliest slave uprising in U.S. history. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. The rebellion was effectively suppressed at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, 1831. -
Henry Clay
an American lawyer, planter, and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives. as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Clay helped elect John Quincy Adams as president, and Adams subsequently appointed Clay as Secretary of State. Known as "The Great Compromiser", Clay brokered important agreements during the Nullification Crisis and on the slavery issue. -
The Second Great Awakening
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 past its peak by the late 1850s. The Second Great Awakening reflected Romanticism characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, and an appeal to the super-natural. -
Shakers
a millenarian restorationist Christian sect founded in the 18th century in England. They were initially known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. They practice a celibate and communal lifestyle, pacifism, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, and furniture. -
Manifest Destiny
a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. O'Sullivan wrote another essay titled Annexation in the Democratic Review, in which he first used the phrase manifest destiny. In this article he urged the U.S. to annex the Republic of Texas -
Oregon Trail
The historic east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas, and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The Oregon Trail was laid by fur traders and traders from about 1811 to 1840, and was only passable on foot or by horseback. -
Telegraph
the long-distance transmission of textual or symbolic (as opposed to verbal or audio) messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Telegraphy requires that the method used for encoding the message be known to both sender and receiver. Many methods are designed according to the limits of the signalling medium used. The use of smoke signals, beacons, reflected light signals, and flag semaphore signals are early examples. -
Period: to
Westward Expansion
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Mormons
a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity, initiated by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the Mormons followed Brigham Young to what would become the Utah Territory due to constantly getting harassed by other people. -
James K. Polk
Nicknamed "New Hickory" an American politician who served as the 11th President of the United States (1845–1849). As a protégé of Andrew Jackson, Polk was a member of the Democratic Party and an advocate of Jacksonian democracy and Manifest Destiny. During his presidency, the United States expanded significantly with the annexation of the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Treaty, and the close of the Mexican-American War. -
Annexation of Texas
the 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of America, which was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.The Republic of Texas declared independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836. At the time the vast majority of the Texan population favored the annexation of the Republic by the United States. The leadership of both major U.S. political parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, opposed the introduction of Texas, due to it being a slave state -
Mexican America War
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, which Mexico still considered its northeastern province and a part of its territory. President James K. Polk made a proposition to the Mexican government to purchase the disputed lands between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande river further south. The offer was rejected leading to the war. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo
The peace treaty between the US and Mexico that was signed in the Villa de Guadalupe Hildalgo which ended the Mexican American War. With the defeat of its army and the fall of its capital, Mexico entered into negotiations to end the war. The treaty called gave the United States the Rio Grande as a boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California and a large area comprising roughly half of New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. -
Wilmot Proviso
An idea that proposed an American law to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War. The conflict over the Wilmot proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War. It passed the House but failed in the Senate, where the South had greater representation. It was reintroduced in February 1847 and again passed the House and failed in the Senate. In 1848, an attempt to make it part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo also failed. -
Californian Gold Rush
It began once gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of immigration and gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and California became one of the few American states to go directly to statehood without first being a territory, in the Compromise of 1850. -
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Sectionalism
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Compromise of 1850
A package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress it helped defuse an argument between the south and the north on whether or not the states that were brought in during the Mexican-American War would be slave or free states. The Compromise was greeted with relief, but each side disliked some of its specific provisions like Texas giving up it New Mexico territory and the South preventing the Wilmot Proviso. -
Fugitive Slave Act
Part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy". It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and President Franklin Pierce. Nebraska will enter as a slave state while popular sovereignty in Kansas led pro- and anti-slaverysupporters to flood into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down, resulting in Bleeding Kansas. -
Underground Railroad
A network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives. -
Confederate States of America
An unrecognized country in North America that existed from 1861 to 1865. The Confederacy was originally formed by seven secessionist slave-holding states – South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas that seceded due to Lincoln winning the election. Whose regional economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves. -
Election of 1860
The nineteenth quadrennial presidential election to select the President and Vice President of the United States won by the Republican Party, with President Abraham Lincoln and Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. The election of Lincoln led to the immediate secession of the 7 lower Cotton States in the South, who formed the Confederacy in February 1861, before Lincoln took office. The reason Lincoln won was due to the Democratic Party being divided. -
North (UNION)
The North had many advantages over the south including its population which was around 22 million at the time and its Industrialization was only just behind Britain's it had 97% of the weapon manufacturers and 94% of the clothes, but its only downfall was its lack of military leadership making the war last longer than it needed too. -
South (Confederacy)
The South was very behind in many compared to the North with only having a population of 5.5 million whites and 3.5 million being blacks they lacked manpower and the Industrialization with only being worth an 155 million dollar industry compared to the 1.5 billion industry of the North. The South however had very good military leadership and was well known for it, but still it hoped Britain would join the war on their side. -
Period: to
The Civil War
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Emancipation Proclamation
A presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln It changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved people in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave became legally free. Ultimately, the rebel surrender liberated and resulted in the proclamation's application to all of the designated slaves. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The battle was the bloodiest of the Civil War and is often seen as the turning point of the war. Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign hoping to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. However, with the Union victory at Gettysburg, Lee was forced to retreat halting his invasion. -
Election of 1864
The 20th quadrennial presidential election, Republican Abraham Lincoln ran for reelection against Democratic candidate George B. McClellan (who hated Lincoln) , tried to portray himself to the voters as the "peace candidate" who wanted to bring the American Civil War to a speedy end. However, Lincoln was re-elected president by a landslide in the Electoral College. -
Lincoln's 10% plan
Nicknamed the Amnesty & Reconstruction Plan 1863, it will pardon all Southerners except for the officers and officials, but would make them take an oath to never betray the US ever again. Then it would make them apply for Federal Recognition and help them form new state governments. The plan was never conceived due to Lincoln's death. -
Wade-Davis Bill
The Radical Republicans plan, they wanted to punish the Confederate leaders by stripping them of their citizenship and make them take an oath they never were with the Confederacy , destroy slave society once and for all by readmitting slaves once they showed clear commitment, but they reached common ground with Lincoln after while -
Appomattox Courthouse
The Final official battle of the Civil War. Lee, having abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, after the ten-month Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, retreated west, hoping to join his army with the remaining Confederate forces in North Carolina of the Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. However, he was beaten and signed surrender papers ending the Civil War -
Freedman's Bureau
The relief agency appointed to look after the slaves in the worn-torn south. The agency provided food, schools, confiscated lands from whites to give to the African Americans, and also provided emergency service. The agency was the only Major Institution dedicated for Reconstruction and it was made up of mostly abolitionist, and educated African Americans. -
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Reconstruction
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Lincoln's Assasination
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died the following day at 7:22 a.m., in the Petersen House opposite the theater. This made Lincoln the first President to be assassinated and his funeral and burial cause an extended period of national mourning. -
14th Amendment
The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. The amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by the states of the defeated Confederacy, which were forced to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress. -
Panic of 1973
a financial crisis that triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879 The Panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression had several underlying causes, of which economic historians debate the relative importance. American post-Civil War inflation, rampant speculative investments (overwhelmingly in railroads), the demonetization of silver in Germany and the US, a large trade deficit,etc. -
Compromise of 1877
a purported informal, unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era. Through the Compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops. -
Sharecroppers
a form of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land. Most of the former slaves had no money and no land. A solution was the sharecropping system focused on cotton, which was the only crop that could generate cash for the croppers, landowners, merchants and the tax collector. Poor white farmers, who previously had done little cotton farming, needed cash as well and became sharecroppers.
