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Jan 1, 1215
Magna Carta/Great Charter
England was united into 1 kingdom ruled by a king and his council, and the istitution of kingship was already established as having limited powers. In Jan 1215 a deputation of barons placed a list of their demands before the king; dressed in full armor they would have left the kings in no doubt as to their moot. King John asked for and was granted 3 months to consider these weighted matters. But he said "Meir demands are in vain., foolish, and utterly unreasonable." -
Jamestown colony (established)
Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River, 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. While disease, famine, and continuing attacks took a tremendous toll on the population. There were times when the Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements. -
Mercentilism
16th-18th centuries.
The economic doctorine in which government control of foreign trade is a paramount importanace for ensuring the prosperity and military security for the states. It demands a positive balence of trade. Dominated Western European economic policy and discourge. -
House of Burgess
Although many diffenernces seperated Spain and France from England, perhaps the factor that contributed most to distinct pathes of colonization was the form of their government. After his arrival in Jamestown in 1619, Governor George Yeardley immediately gave notice that Virginia colony would eastablish a legislative assembly. -
Mayflower Compact
The document was drawn up in response to "mutinous speeches" that had come about because the Pilgrims had intended to settle in Northern Virginia. Since there was no government in place, some felt they had no legal oblegation to remain within the colony and supply their labor. They wanted the right to self-government. -
Plymoth colony (established)
The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom, or simply to find a better life. Pilgrims finally landed at the site of present-day Plymouth, Mass. The colonists encountered the Indian Samoset, who surprised them by speaking English, learned from English traders on the coast of Maine. -
Mercentilism
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Fundamental Orders or Connecticut
The Fundamental orders were adopted by the Conn colony council. The orders described the government set up by the Conn river towns, setting its structure and powers. It has features of a written constition, and is considered by some as the first written constitution in Western trodition giving Conn the nickname: The Constitution State. -
Culpepers Rebellion
Lead by John Culpeper and George Burant, the rebels imprisoned the deputy governor (and customs collector) and other officials. Culpepers Rebellion was a popular uprising in the Albemarie section of Carolina to protest British Navigation Acts, which denied the colonists free markets. They chose Culpeper as governor, he ran for 2 years. He was removed by the colonies proprietors and tried for treason but not punished. -
Glorious Revolution
Dont know the eccasct date. Also know as the bloodless revolution. Debate in England on how to transfer power, whether to recall James on strict conditions or under a regency, whether to depose him outright or whether to threaten his flight as on abdication. The royal power to suspened and dispense the law was abolished, and the crown was forbiddon to levy taxtation or maintain a standing army, in parlament consent. -
English Bill of rights
Enacted by the English parliament and signed into law by King William III in 1689. One of the fundamental documents of English consititutional law. Marks a fundamental milstone in the progression of English society from a nation of subjects under a plenary authority. Repeated abuse of power by King James II during his reign from 1685-1689. -
Salem Witch trails
Reverend Paris' daughter Elizabeth (age 9), and his neice Abigail (age 11) started having "fits". The doctor blamed the suppernatural. Another girl named Ann Putnam (age 11) expeerianced similar episodes. Feb 29th under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne the girls blamed 3 women for afflcting them: Tituba, the Parris Caribean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless begger; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverish woman. -
First Great Awakening
A Christion revitalization movement. It reolted from a powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal revelation of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ. Made Christianity intensely personal to tthe avarage person by fostering a deep sence of spiritual conviction and redemption, and by encouraging introspection. -
Albany Plan of Union
Benjamin Franklin drafted the Albany Plan of Union when the French and Indian war broke out. It seeks to create a Grand Council of deligates from each colony to levy taxes and provide for the commmon defense. Franklins idea got rejected by the Colonial Assembly since the Grand Council curtailed their own powers. -
French and Indian war
The final Colonial War (1689-1763) was the French and Indian War. The conflict was played out in Europe, India, and North America. The English and the French battled for colonial domination in North America, the Caribbean, and in India. The English did ultimately come to dominate the colonial outposts, but at a cost so high that the resulting debt nearly destroyed the English government. -
Pontiac's Rebellion
After the French-Indian War, an Ottawa Indian chief named Pontiac went to other Indian chiefs along the Ohio River Valley to start a rebellion. Because the British fur trappers and traders were on the land where the French and Indians lived. The British had moved the French off the land and the Indians didn't receive any more presents from the French. Indians took over the British forts and burned the colonists' settlements in the country. -
Proclamatin line of 1763
The Proclamation closed off the the frontier to colonial expansion. The king and his countcil presentented the Proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. The proclamation also established or defined four new colonies; Quebee, East Flordia, West Flordia, and Grenada. -
Sugar/Revenue Act of 1764
Parliament passed a modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act(1733), which was about to expire. The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon, while Grenville took measures that the duty be strictly enforced. The act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. -
Stamp Act
The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paperthey used. Ship paper, legal documents, licenses, newspaper, other publications, and even playing cards. The actual cost was small. -
Virginia Resolve
Virginia response to the British Parlament's stamp act of 1765. It was created by the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia. One of the first acts of open revolution to a British law, May 29 Henry made the famous speech that helped the passing of the Virginia resolve. -
Townshed Act
British government taxed products bought by Americans. Including lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea. The British government was trying to consulidate fisal and political power over American colonies. -
Boston Massacre
A mob of American colonists, called the Patriots, gathered at the Customs House in Boston. They were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops. They were sent to Boston to enforce the taxtation. -
Gaspee Incident
First overt action on the Revolutionary war. On June 9th, 1772 near what is known as Gaspee Piont in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island while chasing the packet boat Hannah. In act of defiance the ship was attacked, boarded, stripped of all value and toarched by Abraham Whipple. -
Committees of Correspondence
They were shadow governments organized by the Patriots leaders of the 13 colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. They coornated responses to Britian and shared their plans. By 1773 thay had emerged as shadow governments, superseding the colonial legislature and royal officials. -
Tea Act
Passed by the Parliment the tea act would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The tea act was designed to prop up the east India compony which was stripped dirctly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The townshed duties were still in place. -
Boston Tea Party
People began pouring into Boston by the hundreds to attend a mass meeting. The consignee of the tea was on the Dartmoth was willing to return the cargo, but Governor Hurchinson refused a permit and ordered Warships in the harbor to prevent the ships from sailing. His effort was couragoues but futile. Samual Adams said, "This meeting can do no more to save the country!" -
Sons of Liberty
After officails in Boston refuced to return 3 shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group called the 'Sons of Liberty' boarded the ship and destroyed the tea by throwing it into the Boston Harbor. This event was called the Tea Act. Samual and John Adams lead the Sons of Liberty. -
Intolerable Acts
After the French and Indian war the British govenment decited to reap greater benefits from the colonies. The colonies were pressed with greater taxes without any representation in Britain. This eventually lead to the Boston tea party. In retaliation the British passed several punative acts aimed at bringing the colonies back into submission of the king. -
First Continental Congress
A convention of delegates from twelve British North American colonies that at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts, by the British Parliament. The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies, the exception being the Province of Georgia. -
Edenton Tea Party
Penelope Barker, wife of Thomas Barker- Treasurer of the Province of North Carolina, organized a tea party. She convinced 47 out of 51 woman to stop drinking tea and buying English clothes. They signed a petition, which shocked the British colonists. Their action was a political first for woman. -
Second Continental Congress
The delegates of the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss their next steps. The members met at the State House in Philadelphia. There were several new delegates including: John Hancock from Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania. -
Mecklenburg Resolve
Or the "Meckenburg declaration" was adopted by the committee. It was most likley a simple list of resolves. There is no known original copie of these resolves or of any declaration. -
Halifax Resolve
The Halifax Resolve is the name later givin to a resolution adopted by the 4th Provician Congress of the Provice of NC. It was on April 12, 1776 during the American Revolution. The resolution helped pave the way for the United States Declaration of Independence. -
Declatation of Independence
Jefferson drafted the statement between June 11 and 28, submitted drafts to Adams and Franklin who made some changes, and then presented the draft to the Congress following the July 2nd adoption of the independence section of the Lee Resolution. The congressional revision process took all of July 3rd and most of July 4th. Finally, in the afternoon of July 4th, the Declaration was adopted. -
Articles of Confederation
Created during the Revolutionary War, the Articles reflect the wariness by the states of a strong central government. Afraid that their individual needs would be ignored by a national government with too much power, and the abuses that often result from such power, the Articles purposely established a "constitution" that vested the largest share of power to the individual states. -
Treaty of Paris 1783
George III issued his Proclamation of Cessation of Hostilities, culminating in the Peace Treaty of 1783. The agreement formally ended the United States War for Independence. Representing the United States were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, all of whom signed the treaty. -
Land Ordinance of 1785
The Land Ordinance was adopted by the United States Congress. The immediate goal was to raise money through the sale of land in the largly unmaped territory west of the original states. Over 3/4 of the area of the continental US ultimately came under the rectangular survey. The rectangular survey also provided units within economic, political, and socail development took place. -
Shays Rebellion
Only three years after the American Revolution ended, thousands of Massachusetts citizens took up arms against their new state government. The farmers in western Massachusetts organized their resistance in ways similar to the American Revolutionary struggle. They called special meetings of the people to protest conditions and agree on a coordinated protest. -
Federalist/Anti-Federalist Papers
Federalist papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several NY states newspapers to pursuade NY voters to ratify the proposed constitution. Federalist papers consisted of 85 essays. The Anti-Federalist papers were written in opposition to the ratification of the1787 US constitution. The authors mostly worked under a pen name. About 85 have been collected. -
Land Ordinance of 1787
Also known as the 'freedom ordinance' was an at of the congress of the Confederation of the US. The prrimary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the US out of the region South of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. -
Constititional Convention
On September 17, 1787, forty-two of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their final meeting. Only one item of business occupied the agenda that day, to sign the Constitution of the United States of America. After being signed, Congress sent printed copies of the Constitution to the state legislatures for ratification. -
Whiskey Rebellion
President Washington issued a Proclamation, calling out the militia and ordering the disaffected westerners to return to their homes. His order mobilized an army of about 13000 under the command of Gerenal Harry Lee. Washington himself in a show of Presendentail authority, set out at the head of the troops to suppress the uprising.
