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1500 BCE
The Olmecs
The Olmecs were the earliest known major civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco.The population of the Olmecs flourished during Mesoamerica's formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. -
1400 BCE
Bloodletting in Mesoamerica.
Bloodletting was the ritualized self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served a number of ideological and cultural functions within ancient Mesoamerican societies, in particular the Maya. When performed by ruling elites, the act was maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. bloodletting was used as a tool to legitimize the ruling lineage's political position and, was important to the perceived well-being of a given society or settlement. -
1300 BCE
Aztecs
Human sacrifice and other forms of torture—self-inflicted or otherwise—were common to many parts of Mesoamerica. Thus the rite was nothing new to the Aztecs when they arrived.The Aztec priests defended themselves as follows:
Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice they gave us life.... They produce our sustenance... which nourishes life.The Aztecs also followed a strict social hierarchy in which individuals were identified as nobles, commoners, serfs, or slaves. -
300 BCE
Mayan Written Language
Mayan script, also known as Mayan hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiable as Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in San Bartolo, Guatemala. Maya writing was in continuous use throughout Mesoamerica until the Spanish conquest of the Maya in the 16th and 17th centuries. -
700
Pueblo Indians
Pueblo Indians are American Indians who live in pueblos and have a long tradition of farming. Another name for the ancestral Pueblo people is Anasazi.Pueblo is the Spanish word for "village" or "town."
In the Southwest, a pueblo is a settlement that has houses made of stone, adobe, and wood. The houses have flat roofs and can be one or more stories tall.Pueblo people have lived in this style of building for more than 1,000 years.The Ancient Pueblo people were superb farmers despite the humidity. -
Period: 1346 to 1353
The Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–1353.The bacterium Yersinia pestis, resulting in several forms of plague, is believed to have been the cause.The plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It is estimated that The Black Death killed 30-60% of the pop. -
1492
The Columbian Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange was a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life. Beginning after 1492 the exchange lasted throughout the years of expansion and discovery. The Exchange impacted the social and cultural makeup of both sides of the Atlantic. Advancements in agriculture,warfare, increased mortality and education are a few examples of the effect of The Columbian Exchange. -
1520
The Puritans
The Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices, maintaining that the Church of England was only partially reformed -
Period: 1550 to
Triangular Trade
The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe. The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. -
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Slavery in Colonial America
The origins of slavery in the colonial United States (1600–1776) are complex and there are several theories that have been proposed to explain the trade. It was largely tied to European colonies' need for labor, especially plantation agricultural labor in their Caribbean sugar colonies operated by Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic. -
Tobacco in the Colonies
Tobacco cultivation and exports formed an essential component of the American colonial economy. During the Civil War, they were distinct from other cash crops in terms of agricultural demands, trade, slave labor, and plantation culture. Many influential American revolutionaries, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, owned tobacco plantations, and were financially devastated by debt to British tobacco merchants shortly before the American Revolution. -
Royal Colonies
A Royal colony was ruled or administered by officials responsible to and appointed by the reigning sovereign of Great Britain. A Royal colony was administered by a royal governor and council that was appointed by the British crown. The Royal Colonies had a representative assembly that was elected by the people.The names of areas governed as Royal Colonies at the start of the American Revolutionary War were: New Hampshire,New York,New Jersey,Virginia,North Carolina,South Carolina,Georgia. -
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The Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North America, during the late 17th and early 18th century. Its participants thought they were illuminating human intellect and culture after the "dark" Middle Ages. Characteristics of the Enlightenment include the rise of concepts such as reason, liberty and the scientific method. -
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Acts of Parliament.
From the years of 1651 to 1774, Parliament imposed certain rules upon the colonists. More often than not these acts were opposed and they simply enraged the colonists.1651 Navigation Acts,1733 Molasses Act,1751 Currency Act,1764 Sugar Act,1765 Stamp Act,1765 Quartering Act,1766 Declaratory Act,1767 Townshend Acts,1773 Tea Act,1774 Coercive or Intolerable Acts. -
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Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were a series of English laws that restricted colonial trade to England. They were first enacted in 1651 and throughout that time until 1663, and were repealed in 1849. They reflected the policy of mercantilism, which sought to keep all the benefits of trade inside the Empire and to minimize the loss of gold and silver to foreigners. They prohibited the colonies from trading directly with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and their colonies. -
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Colonial Economies
The colonies became an important part of the economy even though they didn't have vast supplies of gold and silver as had been hoped. New England provided timber and ships. Grain from the middle colonies fed the booming population. And the South provided tobacco, indigo and other cash crops.They could get them all through triangular trade. British goods were traded for slaves on the African coast, who were shipped to America and traded for the raw materials. -
Nathanial's Rebellion
Nathanial Bacon was a colonist of the Virginia Colony, famous as the instigator of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which collapsed when Bacon himself died from dysentery. The effects and significance of Bacon's Rebellion in history is that the government in Virginia became frightened by the threat of Civil War (the English Civil War was still fresh in everyone's memory). Bacon's Rebellion was the first rebellion in the American Colonies. -
Salem Witch Trials
The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. ... By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials. -
Caribbean Colonies and Sugar
Sugarcane was the most prosperous crop in the Caribbean. After 1700, Barbados, alone, produced 8,000 tons of sugar a year. Using sugar mills, sugarcane was pressed to get out all of the juice.The juice was boiled and placed into forms. In these forms, the liquid turned into sugar. The by-product was drained and used to make molasses and rum. These products exported in return for other goods, such as slaves. The best sugar land was located on the coast, where barrels could easily be shipped. -
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American Enlightenment.
The American Enlightenment was a period of intellectual ferment in the thirteen American colonies in the period 1714–1818, which led to the American Revolution, and the creation of the American Republic. The American Enlightenment was influenced by the 18th-century European Enlightenment and its own native American philosophy. It applied scientific reasoning to politics, science, and religion. It promoted religious tolerance. -
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The Great Awakening
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North America, during the late 17th and early 18th century. Its participants thought they were illuminating human intellect and culture after the "dark" Middle Ages. Characteristics of the Enlightenment include the rise of concepts such as reason, liberty and the scientific method. The First Awakening occurred from 1730-1740. -
Free Black Communities
In the nineteenth century, the U.S contained free black communities that by most measures were the most influential in the United States. Free African Americans relied on each other to confront the persistent power of slavery and white supremacy in the region. many free blacks became leaders in the national fight against those same threats. Founded in 1738, Fort Mose, located just north of St. Augustine, is the United States' first free black settlement. -
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Urbanization Due to Industrial Revolution
The Revolution changed production, wealth, labor and population distribution. Although many rural areas remained farming communities during this time, the lives of people in cities changed drastically. The new industrial labor opportunities caused a population shift from the countryside to the cities.During the early 19th century, there was a large population growth caused by the improvements of Agriculture. historians believe this population increase was due to a decline in the death rate. -
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The Revival of Greek Architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture. -
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American Industrial Revolution Life
Life for the poor and working classes was to be filled with challenges. Wages for those who labored in factories were low and working conditions could be dangerous. Unskilled workers had little job security. Children were part of the labor force and often worked long hours and were used for such highly hazardous tasks. Also, urban areas were unable to keep pace with arriving workers from the countryside, resulting in overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions in which disease was rampant. -
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Seven Years' War
The Seven Years’ War (called the French and Indian War in the colonies) lasted from 1756 to 1763, forming a chapter in the imperial struggle between Britain and France called the Second Hundred Years’ War. In the early 1750s, France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley repeatedly brought it into conflict with the claims of the British colonies, especially Virginia. -
Problems With the British
The colonists were unhappy with the British government because it wanted to collect additional taxes to pay for the French and Indian War; although the initial Stamp Act requiring the tax was repealed, the colonists continued to resist limits to self-government and imperial taxation. -
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Britain's economy after French and Indian War
The British victory in the French and Indian War had a great impact on the British Empire. Firstly, it meant a great expansion of British territorial claims in the New World. But the cost of the war had greatly enlarged Britain's debt. Moreover, the war generated substantial resentment towards the colonists among English leaders, who were not satisfied with the financial and military help they had received from the colonists during the war. British reforms started in shortly after end of war. -
The Issue of Virtual Representation
The idea that every member of Parliament represented all British subjects including Americans. The colonists did not accept it because they did not elect members of Parliament.Parliament claimed that their members had the well being of the colonists in mind. The Colonies rejected this premise. -
The Boston Tea Party
This famed act of American defiance served as a protest against taxation. Seeking to boost the East India Company, British Parliament adjusted import duties with the passage of the Tea Act in 1773. Merchants in Boston refused to concede to Patriot pressure. On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This pushed the two sides closer to war. -
Militias in the Revolutionary War.
The definition of a militia is an army made up of regular citizens called to respond during an emergency. In the Revolutionary War, we had the implementation of the Minutemen. The first units formed in Massachusetts in 1774, and minutemen took part in the opening battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. -
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. -
Declaration of Independence
When conflict between the colonists and British soldiers began in April 1775, the Americans were fighting only for their rights as subjects. By the summer, the movement for independence had grown, and delegates of the Continental Congress were faced with a vote. In June of 1776, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin wrote a statement . The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence. -
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Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States. Progress was slowed by fears of central authority and land claims by states before was it was ratified on March 1, 1781. Under these articles, the states were sovereign and independent, with Congress serving on appeal of disputes. However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce, issues that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 for the creation of new federal laws. -
The Constitution of Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Constitution was written last of the first constitutions. It was organized into a structure of chapters, sections, and articles. It served as a model for the Constitution of the United States of America, drafted seven years later, which used a similar structure. It also influenced later revisions of many other state constitutions. The Massachusetts Constitution has four parts: preamble,declaration of rights, description of framework of government, and articles of amendment. -
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The Treaty of Paris.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. The Continental Congress named a five-member commission to negotiate a treaty–John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. Laurens, was captured by a British warship and held until the end of the war, and Jefferson did not leave the United States in time. Thus, they were conducted by Adams, Franklin, and Jay. -
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Shay's Rebellion
Shays’ Rebellion is the name given to a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Although farmers took up arms in states from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays. -
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Constitutional Convention
The Convention WAS intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, but the intention from the outset of many of its proponents was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention. The result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States. -
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance, adopted July 13, 1787, by the Second Continental Congress, chartered a government for the Northwest Territory, provided a method for admitting new states to the Union from the territory, and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory. Following the principles outlined by Thomas Jefferson in the Ordinance of 1784, the authors of the Northwest Ordinance spelled out a plan that was subsequently used as the country expanded to the Pacific. -
The Steamboat
With James Watt’s groundbreaking invention of an efficient steam engine came a handful of follow up inventions that drastically changed the American life. The first of these was the steamboat. Steamboats use a steam engine to actively propel the boat instead of passively relying on the wind or current to carry the boat. -
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Election of 1788
The United States presidential election of 1788–89 was the first quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Saturday, January 10, 1789. It was conducted under the new United States Constitution, which had been ratified earlier in 1788. In the election, George Washington was unanimously elected for the first of his two terms as president, and John Adams became the first vice president. -
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The 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. -
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Charles Grandison Finney
Charles Grandison Finney was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism.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. -
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Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791. The tax was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the federal government. It became law in 1791, and was to generate revenue for the war debt. The tax applied to all spirits, but whiskey was the most popular beverage in the 18th century, so it became known as a "whiskey tax". Farmers of the South were distilling their surplus rye, barley, wheat, corn, or grain into whiskey. These farmers resisted the tax. -
First Bank of the United States.
Establishment of the Bank of the United States was part of a three-part expansion of federal fiscal and monetary power, along with a federal mint and excise taxes, championed by Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton believed a national bank was necessary to stabilize and improve the nation's credit, and to improve handling of the financial business of the United States government under the newly enacted Constitution. -
Bill of Rights
After the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Founding Fathers turned to the composition of the states’ and then the federal Constitution. Although a Bill of Rights to protect the citizens was not initially deemed important, the Constitution’s supporters realized it was crucial to achieving ratification. Thanks largely to the efforts of James Madison, the Bill of Rights officially became part of the Constitution in December 1791. -
U.S Capital
In a private meeting also attended by James Madison, Hamilton and Jefferson factored the placement of the District of Columbia into a larger agreement over money. Jefferson pledged southern states' support for the Assumption Bill (which would allow the federal government to assume debts run up by the states during the Revolutionary War), and Hamilton agreed to support a southern location for the nation's capital. -
The Cotton Gin
In 1794, U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. By the mid-19th century, cotton had become America’s leading export. Also, his invention offered Southern planters a justification to maintain and expand slavery even as a growing number of Americans supported its abolition. For his work, he is credited as a pioneer of American manufacturing. -
Jay's Treaty
On November 19, 1794 representatives of the United States and Great Britain signed Jay’s Treaty, which sought to settle outstanding issues between the two countries that had been left unresolved since American independence. The treaty proved unpopular with the American public but did accomplish the goal of maintaining peace between the two nations and preserving U.S. neutrality. -
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Kentucky Resolutions
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799, in which the legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. The resolutions argued that the states had the right and the duty to declare unconstitutional acts of Congress that were not authorized by the Constitution.They argued for states' rights and strict construction of the Constitution. -
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Popular Sovereignty & Westward Expansion
First promoted in the 1840s in response to debates over western expansion, popular sovereignty argued that in a democracy, residents of a territory, and not the federal government, should be allowed to decide on slavery within their borders. -
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Industrialization Versus Agriculture
The northern soil and climate favored smaller farmsteads rather than large plantations. Industry flourished, fueled by more abundant natural resources than in the South, and many large cities were established The fertile soil and warm climate of the South made it ideal for large-scale farms and crops like tobacco and cotton. Because agriculture was so profitable few Southerners saw a need for industrial development. -
Hamilton vs Burr
In a duel held in Weehawken, New Jersey, Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shoots his long-time political antagonist Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, a leading Federalist and the chief architect of America’s political economy, died the following day. -
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The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a 2,170-mile 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 western half of the trail spanned most of the future states of Idaho and Oregon. -
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War of 1812
In the War of 1812, the United States took on the greatest naval power in the world, Great Britain, in a conflict that would have an impact on the young country’s future. Causes of the war included British attempts to restrict U.S. trade, and the Royal Navy’s impressment of seamen The United States suffered many defeats. Nonetheless, American troops were able to repulse British invasions boosting national confidence and fostering a new spirit of patriotism. -
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The 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. -
McCulloch vs Maryland
The state of Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. Though the law, by its language, was generally applicable to all banks not chartered in Maryland, the Second Bank of the United States was the only out-of-state bank then existing in Maryland, and the law was recognized in the court's opinion as having specifically targeted the Bank of the United States. -
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Temperance Movement
The temperance movement began in the early 19th century (around the 1820s). Before this, although there were pieces published against drunkenness and excess, total abstinence from alcohol was very rarely advocated or practiced. -
The Missouri Crisis
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free.In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. -
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Clara Barton
Clara Barton was an American nurse, suffragist and humanitarian who is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, she independently organized relief for the wounded, often bringing her own supplies to front lines. As the war ended, she helped locate thousands of missing soldiers, including identifying the dead at Andersonville prison in Georgia. -
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Adams-Onis Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819,also known as the Transcontinental Treaty,the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty, was 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. -
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Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy 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. At the same time, the doctrine noted that the U.S. not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in internal concerns. The Doctrine was issued on December 2, 1823. Reinterpreted in 1898. -
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Election of 1824
The 1824 Presidential Election. In the United States presidential election of 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, after the election was decided by the House of Representatives. In this election, the Democratic-Republican Party splintered as four separate candidates sought the presidency. -
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Presidency of John Q Adams
John Quincy Adams served as secretary of state in President James Monroe's administration from 1817 to 1825. During this time, he negotiated the Adams-Onis Treaty, acquiring Florida for the United States.John Quincy Adams went on to win the presidency in a highly contentious election in 1824, and served only one term. Outspoken in his opposition to slavery and in support of freedom of speech, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives in 1830; he would serve until his death in 1848. -
Election of 1828
The United States presidential election of 1828 was the 11th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, October 31, to Tuesday, December 2, 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. -
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Jackson Administration
After narrowly losing to John Quincy Adams in the contentious 1824 presidential election, Jackson returned four years later to win, defeating Adams and becoming the nation’s seventh president. As America’s political party system developed, Jackson became the leader of the new Democratic Party. A supporter of states’ rights and slavery’s extension into the new western territories, he opposed the Whig Party and Congress on polarizing issues such as the Bank of the United States. -
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Era of the Common Man.
Era of the Common Man. Andrew Jackson's term as president (1829-1837) began a new era in American politics. ... In reality Jackson was anything but common. The period from Jackson's inauguration as president up to the Civil War is known as the Jacksonian Era or the Era of the Rise of the Common Man. -
Slave Codes
Slaves codes were state laws established to determine the status of slaves and the rights of their owners. Slave codes placed harsh restrictions on slaves' already limited freedoms, often in order to preempt rebellion or escape, and gave slave owners absolute power over their slaves. -
Abolitionist Movement
The anti-abolitionist riots of 1834 occurred in New York City over a series of four nights, beginning on July 7, 1834. Their deeper origins lay in abolitionism among the Protestants who had controlled the booming city since the American Revolutionary War, and fear and resentment of blacks among the growing underclass of Irish immigrants and their kin. -
"Come and Take It."
As a symbol of defiance, the Texans had fashioned a flag containing the phrase "come and take it" along with a black star and an image of the cannon that they had received four years earlier from Mexican officials. This was the same message that was sent to the Mexican government when they told the Texians to return the cannon; lack of compliance with the initial demands led to the failed attempt by the Mexican military to forcefully take back the cannon. -
Election of 1836
United States presidential election of 1836, American presidential election held in 1836, in which Democrat Martin Van Buren defeated several Whig Party candidates led by William Henry Harrison. -
The Telegraph
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing his name) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines. -
The Election of 1840
The United States presidential election of 1840 saw President Martin Van Buren fight for re-election against an economic depression and a Whig Party unified for the first time behind war hero William Henry Harrison. Rallying under the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” the Whigs easily defeated Van Buren. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War . President James K. Polk sought the appropriation of $2 million as part of a bill to negotiate the terms of a treaty. Fearing the addition of a pro-slave territory, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot proposed his amendment to the bill. The measure enflamed the growing controversy over slavery, and principle helped bring about the formation of the Republican Party in 1854. -
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The Mexican-American War.
The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836. Initially, the United States declined to incorporate it into the union, largely because northern political interests were against the addition of a new slave state.The Mexican-American War marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. -
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The California Gold Rush
The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the Gold Rush, arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000. -
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The Free-Soil Party
A single-issue party, its main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. ... The Compromise of 1850 reduced tensions regarding slavery, but some remained in the party. -
Emergence of Fire-Eaters
As early as 1850, there was a southern minority of pro-slavery extremists who did much to weaken the fragile unity of the nation. Led by such men as Edmund Ruffin, Robert Rhett, Louis T. Wigfall, and William Lowndes Yancey, this group was dubbed "Fire-Eaters" by northerners. -
Election of 1852
The United States presidential election of 1852 was the seventeenth quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1852. It bore important similarities to the election of 1844. Once again, the incumbent president was a Whig who had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of his war-hero predecessor. -
The Founding of the Republican Party
Ideological beginnings. The Republican Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery "Conscience Whigs" and Free Soil Democrats opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, submitted to Congress by Stephen Douglas in January 1854. -
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The Confederate States of America.
During the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America consisted of the governments of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860-61, carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until defeated in the spring of 1865. The seven states of the Deep South seceded from the Union during the following months. When the war began with the firing on Fort Sumter they were joined by four states of the upper South. -
The Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April. -
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Neutral States
The neutral states were slave states that did not declare a secession from the Union and did not join the Confederacy. Four slave states never declared a secession: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. Also included as a border state during the war is West Virginia, which was formed from 50 counties of Virginia and became a new state in the Union in 1863 -
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The Trent Affair
The Trent Affair was a diplomatic crisis that took place between the United States and Great Britain.The crisis erupted after the captain of the USS San Jacinto ordered the arrest of two Confederate envoys sailing to Europe aboard a British mail ship, the Trent. The British were outraged and claimed the seizure of a neutral ship by the U.S. Navy was a violation of law. In the end, President Abraham Lincoln’s administration released the envoys and averted an armed conflict with Britain. -
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Ulysses S.Grant
Ulysses Grant (1822-1885) commanded the victorious Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and served as the 18th U.S. president from 1869 to 1877. An Ohio native, Grant graduated from West Point and fought in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). During the Civil War, Grant, an aggressive and determined leader, was given command of all the U.S. armies. After the war he became a national hero, and the Republicans nominated him for president in 1868. -
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Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee served as a military officer in the U.S. Army, and the legendary general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. In 1861, Lee assumed command of the Army, which he would lead for the rest of the war.In the spring of 1863, Lee invaded the North, only to be defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg. With Confederate defeat a near certainty, Lee fought, battling Union General Ulysses S. Grant in a series of clashes in Virginia before surrendering April 1865. -
Emancipation Proclamation
On September 22, soon after the Union victory at Antietam, he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” While the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. -
Lincoln's 10 percent plan
Lincoln's blueprint for Reconstruction included the Ten-Percent Plan, which specified that a southern state could be readmitted into the Union once 10 percent of its voters (from the voter rolls for the election of 1860) swore an oath of allegiance to the Union. -
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The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. On July 1, the Confederates clashed with the Union’s Army at Gettysburg. The next day the Confederates attacked the Federals on both left and right. On July 3, Lee ordered an attack on the enemy’s center at Cemetery Ridge. The assault managed to pierce the Union lines but failed, at the cost of thousands of rebel casualties, and Lee was forced to withdraw his battered army toward Virginia on July 4. -
The Wade-Davis Bill
A bill proposed for the Reconstruction of the South written by two Radical Republicans. In contrast to President Abraham Lincoln's more lenient Ten Percent Plan, the bill made re-admittance to the Union for former Confederate states contingent on a majority in each Southern state to take the Ironclad oath to the effect they had never in the past supported the Confederacy. The bill passed both houses of Congress on July 2, 1864, but was pocket vetoed by Lincoln and never took effect. -
White Resistance After Reconstruction
After the Civil War, Radical Republicans in Congress believed former slaves would need support from the federal government to protect their new rights. Many white Southerners disagreed, often taking violent action to intimidate African Americans. -
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws existed mainly in the South and originated from the Black Codes that were enforced from 1865 to 1866 and from prewar segregation on railroad cars in northern cities. ... They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for Americans of African descent. -
Appearance of Carpetbaggers
During and immediately after the Civil War, many northerners headed to the southern states, driven by hopes of economic gain, a desire to work on behalf of the newly emancipated slaves or a combination of both. These “carpetbaggers”–whom many in the South viewed as opportunists looking to exploit and profit from the region’s misfortunes–supported the Republican Party, and would play a central role in shaping new southern governments during Reconstruction. -
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Native Americans and the Western Frontier
As the frontier moved westward, trappers and hunters moved ahead of settlers, searching out new supplies of beaver and other skins for shipment to Europe. The hunters were the first Europeans in much of the Old West and they formed the first working relationships with the Native Americans in the West.The 250,000 Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains were confined onto reservations through renegotiation of treaties and 30 years of war. -
40 Acres and a Mule.
The promise was the first systematic attempt to provide a form of reparations to newly freed slaves, and it was astonishingly radical for its time, proto-socialist in its implications. In fact, such a policy would be radical in any country today: the federal government's massive confiscation of private property — some 400,000 acres — formerly owned by Confederate land owners, and its methodical redistribution to former black slaves. -
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The Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879, and even longer in some countries (France and Britain). In Britain, for example, it started two decades of stagnation known as the "Long Depression" that weakened the country's economic leadership.The Panic was known as the "Great Depression" until the events of the early 1930s set a new standard. -
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Millennialism
Millennialism is a belief advanced by some Christian denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state (the "World to Come" of the New Heavens and New Earth). This belief derives primarily from Revelation 20:1–6. Millennialism is a specific form of millenarianism. -
Nativist Political Party
Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants. However, this is currently more commonly described as an anti-immigrant position.In the 1920s a wide national consensus sharply restricted the overall inflow of immigrants, especially those from southern and eastern Europe. The second Ku Klux Klan, which flourished in the U.S. in the 1920s, used strong nativist rhetoric, but the Catholics led a counterattack. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The American women's rights movement began with a meeting of reformers in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Out of that first convention came a historic document, the 'Declaration of Sentiments,' which demanded equal social status and legal rights for women, including the right to vote.
