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Period: Mar 9, 1454 to Feb 22, 1512
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the term "America" is derived. -
May 10, 1497
begins his voyage
On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. -
1507
America named after him
Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him. -
Roanoke Colony
There are many theories about what became of Roanoke, none of which are particularly pleasant. Historians have posited that the colonists were killed by Native Americans or hostile Spaniards, or that they died off due to disease or famine, or were victims of a deadly storm. -
Jamestown
In 1676, Jamestown was deliberately burned during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was quickly rebuilt. In 1699, the colonial capital was moved to what is today Williamsburg, Virginia; Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement and remains today only as an archaeological site, Jamestown Rediscovery. -
Mayflower compact
The Mayflower Compact was important because it was the first document to establish self-government in the New World. It remained active until 1691 when Plymouth Colony became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony. -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights is an act that the Parliament of England passed on October 16, 1689. The Bill creates a separation of powers, limits the powers of the king and queen, enhances the democratic election, and bolsters freedom of speech. -
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Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith. Several ideas dominated Enlightenment thought, including rationalism, empiricism, progressivism, and cosmopolitanism -
The Stamp Act
The British Parliament passed the "Stamp Act" to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years' War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. -
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The Townshend Acts
n colonial U.S. history, series of four acts passed by the British Parliament in an attempt to assert what is considered to be its historic right to exert authority over the colonies through suspension of a recalcitrant representative assembly and through strict provisions. -
The Boston Massacre
Late in the afternoon of March 5, 1770, British sentries guarding the Boston Customs House shot into a crowd of civilians, killing three men and injuring eight, two of them mortally. -
The Boston Tea Party
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 Coercive Acts
were punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. 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 Government. -
Lexington and Concord
British and American soldiers exchanged fire in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. -
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British attacks on coastal towns
In order to “punish the people of the four New England Governments, for their many rebellious and pyratical Acts,” Graves decided to “burn and lay waste the Towns and destroy the Shipping” of nearly all the major seaports in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.