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Columbus led three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia where the riches of gold, pearls, and spice awaited him.
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Hernan Cortés invaded Mexico in 1519 and conquered the Aztec Empire, claiming that land for Spain.
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The Virginia Company of England set sail for the new, mysterious land. They established Jamestown which became the first successful English colony in North America.
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Plymouth Colony, America's first permanent Puritan settlement, was established by English Separatist Puritans in December of 1620. The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom and to find a better life.
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The Mayflower Compact was a document signed on the English ship Mayflower on November 21, 1620, prior to its landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was the first framework of government written and enacted in the territory that is now the United States.
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The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade.
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Following its capture, New Amsterdam's name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission.
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Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley.
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The Salem Witchcraft Trials were a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted “witches” to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
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The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in the British colonies, with 25 colonists and 35 to 50 Africans killed.
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Franklin's plan called for the formation of a permanent federation of colonies, as a means to reform colonial-imperial relations, and to more effectively address shared colonial interests.
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The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War or Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France. France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there.
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The Proclamation of 1763 prohibited American colonists from settling west of Appalachian Mountains.
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The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on all American colonists, requiring them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed.
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The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. The colonists disputed the legality of this Act because it seemed to violate the Bill of Rights of 1689.
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The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonies in 1767. They placed new taxes and took away some freedoms from the colonists including new taxes on imports of paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea.
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The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a patriot mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed.
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The Boston Tea Party was a political protest. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company, into the harbor
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The Congress issued a Declaration of Rights, affirming its loyalty to the British Crown but disputing the British Parliament's right to tax it.
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"The shot heard round the world" is a phrase that refers to the opening shot of the Battle of Concord in 1775, which began the American Revolutionary War.
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