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Period: 1450 to
Time Span
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1492
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was trying to find a more efficient route to China, instead, he found North and South America. He reported back to Spain after meeting Natives, trading, and creating what is now called the Columbian exchange. -
1493
Columbian Exchange
Christopher Columbus began a major trade between the old world and the new. New foods and tobacco came from the New World in exchange for livestock, some new foods, and diseases from the Old World. -
Tobacco (theme)
In 1612, a man named John Rolfe made an important discovery. The Native Americans grew tobacco, but Europeans disliked it and thought it was too strong. Rolfe planted milder tobacco seeds from the West Indies in the Virginian soil. This tobacco became much more liked and popular. He then sent shipments of the crop back to europe where it flourished and became very profitable. -
French and Indian War Begins
The French and Indian war occurred because France had all the territory inland of the US and Britain wanted to expand past the Appalachian Mountains to the Ohio River Valley. Britain then won the war and got all the land they wanted. -
Treaty of Paris + Proclamation 1763
The document that ended the French and Indian war was a peace treaty entitled the Treaty of Paris. However, another Document was released by the British to ensure that the American colonists did not go west of the Appalachian Mountains. This angered many of the colonists because they did not get to live on the land they fought so hard for. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The first battle of the revolutionary War is won by the American colonists and boosts there confidence to keep fighting, in turn it also inflicted a significant number of casualties. -
Enlightenment (theme)
Writers like Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, and John Locke wrote to show there thinking and inspired a period of enlightenment that started with th Publishing of Paine's book. -
Sewing Machine Invented (theme)
Thomas Saint invented the sewing machine used for leather and canvas material, however, he did not successfully market or advertise his invention. -
Cotton Gin (theme)
Eli Whitney invented the simple machine that sped up the processing of cotton. The Cotton Gin used a spiked cylinder to remove seeds from cotton fibers. The invention increased the number of inslaved Africans and the amount of practiced slavery in the United States. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. This purchase was made under Thomas Jefferson's presidency and many argue whether or not it went against the constitution. -
Dalton Model(theme)
John Dalton created a model to help proves the theory of the existence of atoms. Dalton's theory is still important to day in chemical thought even though it is over two centuries old. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay proposed the compromise so that everyone would be pleased. The South benefited from the Fugitive Slave Law and the addition of New Mexico and Utah to the United States. The North was to benefit from the ending of the slave trade in Washington DC. However this compromise pleased no one and the fugitive slave law particularly caused some of this friction because the North refused to follow through on it. -
Lincoln's Election
In 1860, President Abraham Lincoln was elected and later inaugurated. This upset many Southerners because Lincoln was an abolitionist, they believed that this gave more power to the North. This gave them more cause for war -
Railroad Begins
Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law and the Union Pacific railway started building west from the Mississippi River while the Central Pacific Railroad began building east of Sacramento. -
The KKK
Originally founded as a social club for former Confederate southern soldiers, the Klan evolved into a terrorist organization. It would be responsible for thousands of deaths and would help in the weakening of the political power of Southern blacks and Republicans. The group was made up of white supremacists, white people who believed they superior to all other races.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kkk/ -
Statue of Liberty (theme)
The statue of Liberty was a gifrt from France to the United States and was fully constructed in September of 1875. It is a symbol of hope for new immigrants that pass it when coming into America. -
Ellis Island
Ellis Island was the place where immigrants were tagged with information from the ship’s registry and passed through long lines for medical and legal inspections to determine if they were fit for entry into the United States. It was a very important place because that was where you knew if you could be accepted into this country. It closed in 1954. -
Model T Ford (theme)
Henry Ford creates the Model T in order to make a car anyone can afford. The car was the first of its kind to have been built on an assembly line. This opened up more job opportunities and expanded the economy of the US. -
Use of Gas (theme)
in August, the French deployed tear-gas grenades that were first developed in 1912 for police use. Later in October, German forces fired 3,000 shells that held dianisidine chlorosulfate, a lung irritant, at the British army at Neuve-Chapelle. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/a-brief-history-of-chemical-war -
Zimmerman Telegram
The US intercepted a telegram from Germany to Mexico that said the Germans would support a Mexican attack on America if Mexico would be on Germany's side.
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann -
Yalta Conference
The Allied powers met and agreed to collaborate in shaping postwar Europe. They decided to divide Germany into four occupation zones, each controlled by a different Allied country. They also declared their support for self-government and free elections in Eastern Europe.
https://student.teachtci.com/shared/sections/8413?program_id=109 -
VE Day
Victory in Europe day was first celebrated on May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered and Adolf Hitler commited suicide after six years of fighting in the war.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-ve-day -
The 1st Atomic Bomb (theme)
Early in 1939, the world's scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom, in 1942 scientist Enrico Fermi proved the chain reaction was possible, and in 1945 Robert Oppenheimer was ready to test the first atomic bomb and the world entered the nuclear stage.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp -
Agent Orange
The Agent Orange chemical was used as a form of chemical warfare used during Operation Ranch Hand. Agent Orange' was the name of a chemical herbicide which United States' forces sprayed enormously from 1962 to 1971 in order to kill vegetation and greenery in the Vietnamese jungle as well as to enable them to infiltrate Viet Cong hideouts that were hidden in the luxurious terrain.
http://www.american-historama.org/1945-1989-cold-war-era/agent-orange.htm -
Reconstruction (THEME)
