Economy

Columbus reached America

Aug 3, 1492

Columbus found America by sailing West looking for trade with Asia for spices and other things they couldn't get in Europe.

Columbian Exchange

Aug 5, 1492

After realizing all the New World had to offer, the Spanish started to trade consistently with the natives and it started the trade patterns in the Atlantic.

3 G's

Jan 1, 1500

The takeover of the New World by the Europeans started at about this point, and the Eurropeans were motivated by the 3 G's: God, Glory, and Gold. Mostly the economic benefit of gold in the time period.

Maize

Mar 17, 1500

At about this time, maize was starting to become big in the time period because of the ability to grow it and export it to Europe, so this exponentially grew the population of Europe afterwards.

Spanish conquered Aztecs

Aug 13, 1521

The Spanish were trying to conquer the land to use for their own economic benefit and they had to defeat the natives to get comtrol of Latin America.

Gold

Jan 1, 1550

All European countries started to colonize for the economic benefit of gold that the New World had to offer them.

African Slave Trade

Jan 1, 1600

The African Slave Trade really picked up around 1600 since there was growing tensions between indentured servants and their employers and also enslaving natives was not a good option for the Europeans.

Joint Stock Company

Jan 1, 1602

The Dutch used the colonies for economic benefit through the joint-stock company which helped the Dutch more since they were the most intelligent when it came to business decisions.

Southern Colonies

Jan 1, 1653

It was in 1653 that North Carolina was made a Southern Colony, and their purpose was to grow tobacco as it was for the rest of the Southern Colonies when they were made.

British Colonies

Apr 22, 1653

All the colonies in America were using farming for their economy and survival. This helped grow the population of the colonies and the exports grew the population of Europe as well.

F&I War

Apr 22, 1754

This war occurred because the French attacked the Ohio River Valley, but the British kept pursuing because of mercantilist ideals and their goal of conquering the New World.

Blank Check

Apr 22, 1757

This caused all of the war debt for Britain because Pitt said that they needed to win the war so he spent all the money they could to win.

Taxes

Apr 22, 1763

The colonies in America were taxed by the British because of the war debt they had encountered, this was what started tension and eventually caused the American Revolution.

Articles of Confederation

Mar 1, 1781

This was the system of government the US developed to use when the war ended with Britain and they got their independence. This called for low taxes among other things, which a lot of Americans supported.

Constitution

Apr 22, 1789

The US went back to regular taxing because with low taxes, the country had no money to spend for things the country needed to survive.

Eli Whitney

Jan 1, 1793

He was the inventor of the cotton gin and interchangeable parts. This caused cotton processing to be easier and for various products to be easily fixable.

Textile Mills

Jan 2, 1793

This is the beginning of a huge market for textiles as a lot of people needed them for various tasks.

Jacksonian Democrats

Apr 22, 1800

These were the politicians that supported Andrew Jackson and his policies. They thought that market manipulation would lead to a rise in aristocrats.

Market Revolution

Apr 22, 1815

This started the technology revolution a snew inventions were being sold on the market and stocks were increasing dramatically.

Mechanical Reaper

Jan 1, 1831

This was the invention that made plowing easier for farmers, it increased crop production and also made a market for technologically advanced farm equipment.

Slavery

Sep 1, 1861

The South depended on the slaves to grow food for the soldiers to eat and this is when the slaves started to break free because all of the farmers were off at war so they could escape.

South

Jan 1, 1862

The Civil War came at a severe disadvantage for the South because of the type of economy they had. They didn't have much manufacturing so they didn't have the arsenal of weapons, so they relied heavily on trade.

North

Jan 2, 1862

The North had a lot of maufacturing as that was their main source of income for their economy. So they had a lot more weapons than the South and didn't have to rely as heavily on trade as they did.

South

Jan 3, 1862

The South had a lot of trading with Europe going on because of the war supplies they needed to keep pace with the North in the war. This trading stopped however when Europe realized that the South was using slaves to get cotton.

End of Slavery

Jul 1, 1865

The end of slavery caused a lot of panic with the Southerners as they didn't have anyone to tend to their crops, so they turned to sharecropping, but that actualy came at a cost to the farmers as they had to pay the workers.

Transcontiental Railroad

May 10, 1869

This was the day that the railroad's construction was completed and the economic impact the railroad had was monstrous as there was a new way to transport goods faster.

Standard Oil

Apr 22, 1870

This was the monopoly that eventually formed around oil, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller.

Panic of 1873

Sep 18, 1873

This was when the economy took a crash because of international economic problems, it was eventually fixed in 1875.

Edgar Thomson Works

Jan 1, 1875

This was the largest steel plant ever constructed. It was built by Andrew Carnegie and he eventually used this and his other steel plants to make a steel monopoly.

Gospel of Wealth

Jan 1, 1889

This was a book written by Andrew Carnegie describing that God made certain people rich, but that they should use their money to help people that need it the most.

Open Door Policy

Jan 1, 1899

This allowed all countries that wanted to to be able to trade with China as Europe restriceted trade before that.

Panama Canal Construction

May 4, 1904

This was the beginning of the construction of the Panama Canal, which was designed to make trading from the Atlantic to the Pacific a lot faster as this was easily accessible and not dangeorus.

Federal Reserve Act

Dec 23, 1913

This created a national bank in the US, that way the government could control more of the economy.

Federal Trade Commission Act

Sep 26, 1914

This was designed by Woodrow Wilson to prohibit any unfair trade between two parties.

Wall Street Crash

Oct 29, 1929

This was the beginning of the Great Derpession as people started trying to sell stock as their prices plummeted. It was mass chaos.

Federal Highway Act

Jun 26, 1956

This was what built all of the interstates we have in America today as this provided the funding for the most massive transportation project in US History.

Sputnik 1

Oct 4, 1957

This started the massive spending on space technology as this started the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the US. The Sputnik was a satellite launched by the Soviets.

NASA established

Jul 29, 1958

This was the association established by the US to fight in the Space Race with the Soviet Union. It eventually succeeded in the Space Race.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Oct 16, 1962

The Soviets placed missiles in Cuba and treatened to use them against the United States as the Cold War rapidly escalated all at once.

Moon Landing

Jul 20, 1969

The US fianlly succeeded in the Space Race when the Apollo 13 mission reached and landed on the moon and blew the Soviets away.

Economy Recovery Tax Act

Aug 13, 1981

This was a major tax reform act that cut taxes and regulations. This was developed by Ronald Reagan.

Stock Market Crash

Oct 19, 1987

This was called Black Monday as Dow Jones lost 22% of its value in one day.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Mar 24, 1989

This was when the oil tanker went aground in Alaska and caused a lot of oil to be released into the ocean, causing major environmental problems.

NAFTA

Dec 8, 1993

This lead to being able to trade freely amongst all North American countries no matter what.

Bush Tax Cuts

Jun 7, 2001

President Bush lowered income taxes and created a tax refund policy.