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1492
1492 Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue
Columbus sailed with three ships: The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. He received his funds from the King and Queen of Spain. When he first arrived in the New World, he believed he had landed in Asia and commenced to calling the natives, Indian. This will cause the Spanish to start to come over to the New World, but they started to complain about difficulty of living there. All of this would soon lead to the Columbian Exchange and Conquistadores. -
Period: 1492 to
Semester 1 Exam
The events that led to the formation of the modern day United States of America. -
1517
The Protestant Reformation
This event started with Martin Luther, a German monk, nailing his 95 Theses questioning the practices of the Catholic church. He also said the Bible could be interpreted locally. This movement will increase greatly due to the formation and rise of nation-states. For example, the Treaty of Westphalia was signed, which stated that each German nation-state could choose which religion to follow, Protestant or Catholic. These events would affect American settlements. -
Queen Elizabeth I
This Queen ruled England as a Protestant nation with King Philip and the Catholic Spain their rival. She defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, causing England to become the dominate power of the seas. She employed Sea Dogs, pirates, to steal from Spain Ships goods such as gold and silver. -
Jamestown
This town was founded by the Virginia Company to find riches, a shortcut to Asia, and to expand and found settlements. 105 men were sent on this expedition, but it turned out disastrous. They could not form a healthy alliance with the Powhatans. They had terrible pollution of water, which is called brackish-salt and swamp. John Smith helped to lead the colony through the Starving Time, which nearly wiped out entire colony. -
King Philip's War
This rebellion was led by King Philip, a native American who did not like the whites intruding on his home, so he attacked the English. There was a bloody battle called the Great Swamp Fight in 1675. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt against the natives in retaliation for the attack. Because Governor Berkeley said no to the revolt, a civil war broke out between both sides. Finally, Bacon and his men were taken over. Sadly, due to the fact that Bacon had indentured servants with him, landowners switched to slave labor due to fear. -
England's Glorious Revolution
Due to the fear of the Catholics, the people of England overthrew and removed James II as King. After which they demanded more rights for the common folk and citizens. They demanded that the monarchy should be under the law like the rest of the nation. William and Mary would co-rule, but will have no heirs. Anne would be the last of the Stuart-ruling-line. Due to this revolution, the Catholics suffered in England and could not hold office in the colony of Maryland. -
Salem Witch Trials
This event, which led to the deaths of twenty people falsely accused of being witches, had underlying causes. The people of Salem feared Indian attack, and had jealousy of prosperous people by the poor. -
The Growth of Cities
After the turn of the century, the major cities, such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston, experienced tremendous growth. These cities had deep harbors to allow large ships to docks. They were the trade and cultural centers. They also became safer due to the small pox vaccine. -
The French and Indian War
This war was caused by the struggle for control of the Ohio Valley. It spread to several continents. At the end of the war England became dominant in North America, but it left them deep in debt. George Washington was a Major, then Colonel, in the Virginia Militia, and was sent to Fort Necessity to stop the French from building more forts. He was part of the Braddock's March when he was 23 years old. -
The Sugar Act and More
The British needed to raise revenue for their country, so they instilled many taxes on the Americans. It started with the Sugar Act, which put a tax on rum and molasses. Then there was the Currency Act where colonists could not print their own money. Later on, the Stamp Act was enacted, which put tax on legal and commercial documents and led to the formation of the Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of Liberty. There was the Declaration Act, the Revenue Acts, and lastly, the Townshend Act. -
Boston Massacre
This began when some colonists started to attack British officers who fired in self-defense. Only five colonists were killed. Crispus Attucks was the first to die in the American Revolution. The Committees of Correspondence used this event as propaganda to encourage the resistance to British rule. -
Shays's Rebellion
When the war ended, many soldiers went home and faced tremendous economic hardship. They wanted relief from the state legislature, but the state refused. Due to the refusal, Daniel Shays shut down the courts to stop foreclosures. The rebellion tried to overthrow the state government, but failed. This ordeal scared the elite of the nation, who then called for a stronger central government to stop similar events from happening. -
The Failure of the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was a document that was the original code of law for the United States. It gave all the power to the states and almost no power to the central government. Due to these ideas, the nation fell into debt and had no way to tax due to the fact. It's credit was in shambles as well. -
The Constitutional Convention
To fix the issues caused by the Articles of Confederation, delegates from all states, except Rhode Island, came together to form the Constitutional Convention and to write the constitution still in effect today. The Great Compromise was instituted that would create a congress with a House of Representatives based on population and a Senate where each state would have 2 representatives. The Electoral College was formed to ensure the best citizen became president, who would have a 4 year term. -
The First Elections
George Washington was unanimously voted the first president of the United States, and John Adams became the vice-president. The first Presidential Cabinet contained Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of Treasury, Henry Knox as Secretary of War, and Edmund Randolph as Attorney General. -
Election of 1796
This election was a battle between Federalist John Adams and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson. Adams won the election and Jefferson became the vice-president. Under the Administration, Adams faced the French seizing 300 American ships, potential war with France, beefing up of the navy, the Alien and Sedition Acts (used to silence the D.R), the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, and the Quasi-war still going on with France (which led to events causing him to lose support from his party). -
The Second Great Awakening
This event started with the Revival in Kentucky in 1799, which included outdoor religious retreats. The Baptist and Methodist denominations reigned supreme. Religion in slave quarters were as follows: masters-obedience and slaves-freedom. African Americans attended white churches but had to sit in the back, but, also, had their own church congregations led by a slave preacher who could travel from one plantation to another on Sundays. -
Election of 1800
The race for presidency was between Federalist Adams, Federalist Pinckney, Democratic-Republican Jefferson, and Democratic-Republican Burr. The vote was tied because the Federalists ceased supporting Adams and equally supported Jefferson and Burr. The vote went to Congress and Jefferson won the tiebreaker. -
Lewis and Clark
In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were sent by the government to explore the land then President Thomas Jefferson bought from France called the Louisiana Purchase. While on the journey, they met with a 16 year old Shoshone girl named Sacagawea in North Dakota, who was the wife of a fur trader and was the sister of the Chief. They reached the Pacific in 1805 and finally returned to St. Louis a year later. -
War of 1812
Due to the rising tensions between the Natives, the Americans, and the English, war broke out in 1812. After a disappointing start with military embarrassments, the United States finally had victories at the Thames in Canada and Lake Erie, which was won under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. The British burned down the Executive Mansion, but failed to capture Ft. McHenry in Baltimore. The "Star-Spangled Banner" was written during this time. Finally, in 1814, the Treaty of Ghent ended the war. -
The Cotton Gin
The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney. This invention dramatically increased cotton production in the South and textile production in the North. Due to the boom in cotton, growers had to move to new regions, such as Alabama and Mississippi and parts of Georgia and Louisiana. Slave owners brought their slaves with them and broke up families. Over one million slaves were forced to migrate due to the industry. For slaves, family, community, faith, and hope became priority. -
Missouri Compromise 1820
With the admission of Missouri as a state, the balance between slave states in the South and Free states in the North would be tilt in the Senate. So the Missouri Compromise was instituted which made Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state. -
Revolts
Demark Vesey was a freed former slave who bought his freedom and moved to Charleston, South Carolina. There he was accused of planning a revolt in 1822 which would include slaves and freedman and them escaping to the Caribbean for refuge. He was convicted and sentenced to death. After Vesey came Nat Turner in 1831. He led a revolt of freedman and slaves in Southampton County, Virginia. They killed about 60 whites, but 120 slaves were killed in retaliation. This would spread fear in the South. -
Commerce, Technology, and Transportation
Canals were vital to the transportation of goods, so when the Erie Canal was opened it drastically reduced the cost of shipping. Shortly after, Robert Fulton used a steamboat called the Clermont, and soon after steamboats became the main form of transportation because they increased the speed of shipping and allowed boats to go both ways. A road made of crushed rock was made from Maryland to Illinois. This allowed for even better transporting and created a national market. -
Manifest Destiny
This term was created by a newspaper editor named John L. O'Sullivan. It gave the idea of a God-blessed mission to spread across the North American Continent and to spread the Protestant faith to all. This idea would lead to the forming of the present day continental United States. -
Slavery in the 1840s and 1850s
Due to cotton becoming king in the South, slavery was very important to the survival of the southern economy. Southerners tried to defend the idea by using the treatment of workers in the industrial wage-labor system in the North. They said slavery was the result of black inferiority and that blacks benefitted from slavery. Slaves started receiving better care because they were a valuable investment, and they received better food and living conditions on plantations. -
Mexican-American War
Due to a dispute over border between Mexico and Texas, Pres. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor(Old Rough and Ready) to the Rio Grande. This provoked an attack by the Mexican forces starting the war. General Taylor controlled a large portion of New Mexico, and General Winfield Scott was sent to capture Mexico City from Veracruz. Mexico City surrendered in September of 1847. -
California Gold Rush
After James Marshall discovers gold at Sutter's Fort in 1848, a massive influx of miners rushed to California, mostly over land, to seek their fortune. Ironically, the individuals selling to the miners became wealthy more than the miners themselves. The camps were lawless. The large increase in population led to the enhancement of the whaling industry on the Pacific Coast. San Francisco became a major western port when California became a state in 1850. -
Strength for Women
The Women's Rights Movement began at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, where they began by reading the Declaration of Independence. Sarah Grimke, a writer, stressed equality for men and women. Other female abolitionists, such as Lucretia Mott and Elibeth Cady Stanton, fought for education, property rights, and the right to obtain divorce. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This act enacted in 1854 allowed popular sovereignty, in which a territory can decide whether it wants to allow slavery or not, and dissolved the Missouri Compromise. A new political party, the Republican Party, sprouted from this decision. The party replaced the Whigs and opposed popular sovereignty and slavery. They vowed to stop the spread of slavery in the territories and represented anyone who was against slavery. Due to these ideals, there were no Southern members. -
Harper's Ferry
John Brown, and extreme abolitionist, attempted to start a slave insurrection in Virginia. The U.S Army quickly thwarted the attempt. Northerners praised Brown as a martyr and realized that violence was the only way to eliminate slavery; whereas, the Southerners used it to prove that abolitionists were violent. -
Election of 1860
This election included Republican Abraham Lincoln (who was not on Southern ballot), Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas (Popular Sovereignty), S. Democrat John Breckinridge (states rights and pro-slavery), and John Bell from the Constitutional Union. Lincoln wins the election, and, due to Lincoln's victory, South Carolina secedes in December of 1860. In 1861, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana leave. These states form the Confederate States of America. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Even though Abraham Lincoln had no intention of ending slavery where it already existed because his main goal was to keep the Union together, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. This freed slaves in the Confederacy, not in the territories. After the signing, blacks joined the Union Army by the thousands and led to the formation of the Massachusetts 54th, an all black regiment. -
Gettysburg
In July of 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg became the turning point in the war. Lee went up to Gettysburg intending to capture it, then move and surround Washington, D.C., but ended up retreating. One of the Southern officers, Picket, led to the deaths of many Southern officers because they charged across a wheat field. This crippled the Southern forces greatly. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
General William Tecumseh Sherman wanted to cripple the Confederate forces and destroy the South's last supply lines. He captured Atlanta, severing the Confederacy's supply lines. He marched through Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, burning everything in his path. In doing this, he split the Confederacy in thirds. He did not destroy Savanna, Georgia because he thought it was beautiful, so he presented it to Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present in December of 1864. -
Freedman's Bureau
In the wake of blacks being freed, someone or something had to help them get on their feet, so Abraham Lincoln formed the Freedman's Bureau. In the Bureau, the commissioner was chosen by the president. The Bureau provided medical assistance, education, temporary shelter, provisions, and clothing. Also, they gave assistance in understanding contracts and helped blacks by land. -
The Beginning of Reservations
After General Sherman stated that the Natives were no longer sovereign and had to adopt farming techniques, the Comanche, who relied on buffalo, signed the Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty, which stated that they would stay on a reservation with occasional hunting, but due to difference in interpretation, fighting broke out between them and the army. The Navajo and their enemy, the Apache, were put in the same reservation, and after much fighting between them, they were separated. -
Transcontinental Railroad
Started by the Pacific Railway Act, the Transcontinental Railroad was the first railway connection from one coast to the other. One piece was started on the west coast and the other on the east coast. Both sides were finally connected in Promontory Point, Utah. Due to the railroad finally being complete, travel became cheaper and faster, clocks and time became synchronized, and there was an increase in international trade. -
Redemption Period of Reconstruction
As African Americans gained more rights, they started to become more prominent in higher levels of society. Hiram Revels was the first black senator in 1870 and Blanch K. Bruce was the second in 1874. In total, twenty-two blacks served in Congress during Reconstruction. As the Freedman's Bureau provided education, there were both black and white teachers. Later, sharecropping would start, which was a legal and new version of slavery because blacks could never get out of debt. -
Election of 1876
In this election, Rutherford B. Hayes was given the presidency by the Democrats, and in exchange, he agreed to end reconstruction and pull the federal troops from the South. Soon, African Americans would fizzle out of the Senate, and Jim Crow laws would be passed separating whites from blacks in the South. In the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, the Supreme Court ruled that whites and blacks are separate but equal. -
The Second Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution started with Alexander G. Bell, and his invention of the telephone, which revolutionized communication. Thomas Edison, the most productive American inventor, created the stock printer (ticker), phonograph, and electric light bulb. George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla (who worked for Edison) perfected alternating current to transmit electricity more efficiently. Henry Ford made automobiles affordable with the assembly line. The Wright brothers made the airplane. -
Politics
The Democrats and the Republicans started to be interested in the middle class. 1880, James A. Garfield became the 20th president, but was shot and killed early in his presidency. Chester A. Arthur then became the 21st president. In 1884, after much mudslinging Grover Cleveland becomes 22nd president over James Blaine. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, becomes the 23rd president over Grover Cleveland. In 1892, Cleveland wins again and becomes the 24th president. -
Cowboys and Conflicts
The West harbored some of the best and worst, especially when it came to cowboys. Wyatt Earp and his brothers had a dispute with some cowboys in Tombstone, Arizona at the O.K. Corral. Jesse and Frank James robbed trains in Missouri in 1886, Billy the Kid killed people for fun in Lincoln County, New Mexico and was finally killed by Sheriff Pat Garret. William Cody created the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which showed Indian battles and dances, fake stagecoach robberies, and a sharp shooter. -
Immigration
In the 1890s, immigration increased with the Jewish and Catholic because of poverty and religious persecution. The Italians escaped from poverty and violence as well, but brought the mafia with them. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 kept the Chinese from immigrating through California until post WWII. Ellis Island became the main immigration port for the east, Angel Island was the major port for the west. Immigrants moved into their own ethnic neighborhoods, following their cultural practices.
