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Period: 750 to 1076
Kingdom of Ghana
A wealthy kingdom for numerous reasons, while one is being the Trans-Saharan Trade. -
Period: 1230 to
Kingdom of Mali
Their great wealth came from gold and salt mines. They controlled important trade routes across the Sahara Desert to Europe and the Middle East. -
Period: 1390 to
Kingdom of Kongo
Became a major source of slaves for Portuguese traders and other European powers. -
Period: 1464 to
Kingdom of Songhai
They made a variety of artwork for show and religious, social, and economic use, and they built an incredible capital of Gao. -
Period: 1492 to 1502
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
Columbus made a total of 4 voyages to the Americas setting the stage for European exploration and colonization leading to the Columbian Exchange. -
Aug 3, 1492
First voyage of Christopher Columbus
Columbus sets sail from Spain to find all-water route to Asia. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
Agreed by the Spanish and the Portuguese on the newly claimed land in the New World. -
Aug 23, 1527
Cortes conquered the Aztecs
After three months of fighting, Cortes defeated the Aztec Empire. In 1521, smallpox decimated the population. -
Period: to
English settlement of Roanoke
The Roanoke Colonies attempted to establish settle in North America to harass Spanish shipping, mining for gold and sliver, discovering a passage to the Pacific Ocean and Christianize the Indians -
Establishment of Jamestown
The first permanent British settlement in the North America -
Pilgrims land in Plymouth
The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom, or find a better life. -
Maryland granted to Lord Baltimore
Cecil's father, George Calvert, had received a royal charter for the land from King Charles l. -
Navigation Acts
English laws that regulated English ships, shipping trade, and commerce between other countries and with its own colonies. -
Period: to
King Philips War
Cause of a the trial and execution of three of Metacom's men by the colonists. -
Bacon's Rebellion
The first rebellion in the American colonies. A protest against raids on the frontier. -
Queen Anne's War
Second in a series of wars fought between Great Britain and France in North America for control of the continent. -
The Great Awakening
A movement that altered religious beliefs, practices and relationships in the American colonies. -
Period: to
7 Years' War
Known as the French and Indian War, when fighting between French and the colonists merged into a European conflict which involved Austria, France, and Russia against Prussia and Britain. -
Sugar Act
First tax on the colonists, used on sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric,and printed calico to raise British Parliament revenue. -
Stamp Act
The new tax required American colonists to pay taxes on every piece of printed paper used. -
Tea Act
Granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. -
Intolerable Acts
The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of colonial goods. -
Declaration of Independence
The 13 colonies would cut their political connections with Great Britain. -
The Battle of Saratoga
A decisive victory for the Continental Army and a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War. -
Ratification of the Articles of Confederation
The Articles created a weak government and a loose confederation of sovereign states. -
The Battle of Yorktown
The British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Shay's Rebellion
A series of violent attacks on courthouses and other government properties in Massachusetts and led to a full-blown military confrontation in 1787. -
The Northwest Ordinance
A method for admitting new states to the Union from the territory, and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory. -
The U.S. Constitution (Ratified)
The Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States of America when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Rebellion with farmers and distillers in Pennsylvania to protest the whiskey tax enacted by the government. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. -
Louisiana Purchase
A deal between the U.S. and France, in which the U.S. received 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. -
Embargo Act
It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports. -
Period: to
War of 1812
A conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent. -
The Battle of Horseshoe Bend
A U.S. victory in Alabama over Native Americans opposed to white expansion into their territories and which largely brought an end to the Creek War. -
Missouri Compromise
The admission of Maine to the United States as a free state along with Missouri as a slave state, maintaining the balance of power between North and South. -
Mexican Independence
The revolutionary tract called for the end of Spanish rule in Mexico, redistribution of land, and racial equality. -
Texas Declares Independence
Many American settlers and Tejanos, or Mexicans who lived in Texas, wanted to break away from Mexico. They did not like laws made by Santa Anna, Mexico's president. -
Period: to
Mexican-American War
Helped to fulfill America's "manifest destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent. -
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
It ended the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States. The war had begun almost two years earlier, in May 1846, over a territorial dispute involving Texas. -
The Compromise of 1850
Necessary because the North and the South were badly split on the issue of the lands that had been taken from Mexico in the recent war. -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
The Dred Scott Decision
The decision argued that as a slave, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in a federal court. -
The Secession of South Carolina
The state seceded because a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, had been elected president. -
Period: to
The Civil War
Differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay. -
The Battle of Bull Run
Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia, in the first major land battle of the American Civil War. -
The Battle of Shiloh
Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, but Union forces ultimately hung on and won. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
Declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." It freed 3.1 million out of nation's 4 million slaves. -
The Battle of Gettysburg
A Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. -
Lincoln's Assassination
Lincoln was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play "Our American Cousin" 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..
