Top Ten Events That Shaped American History

By Reuel
  • Pilgrims ariving at Plymouth

    This is a very important event in American history because the Plymouth colonists, unlike the Jamestown colonists, were poor seperatists who were escaping the English crown for a new opportunity in The New World.
  • French & Indian War

    The war ended with Britain gaining almost all of the current United Sates. The war lead to the British heavily taxing the American colonists.
  • Boston Tea Party

    This was one of the biggest and riskiest protests that the Sons of Liberty pulled off. It gave American colonists a fighting spirit and influenced them to stand up to the British.
  • Signing of the Declaration of Independence

    This is possibly the most pivotal event in American history. It delared the 13 colonies as a independent nation. It was a highly dangerous thing the founding fathers were doing because it was basically putting a bounty on their heads.
  • Ratification of the United States Constitution

    The constititution set rules and freedoms for the people and politicians follow which we still follow today.
  • Industrial Revolution

    The Industrial Revolution lasted from about 1760 to 1840. It hit America hard and turned the country into a economic powerhouse which came as a huge shock to Europe and the rest of the world. Products such as cotton and inventions such as the steamboat helped boost the Untied States to economic prosperity.
  • Manifest Destiny

    Manifest Destiny lasted from 1815 to 1860. It opened up the West to the rapidly advancing and it was the first time that people of European origin were settling these lands. The United States was beginning to take shape.
  • The Civil War

    The American Civil War was a huge blow to the United States as a whole. Even though Lincoln was able to bring the States together again, there was huge debt, psycological recovery, extreme life loss, and there was a lot of strife after the war between the North and the South. But it did abloish slavery and there were many inventions during the Civil War like the Gatling gun, the Merrimack, and advancement in medicine.
  • World War II

    The Second World War which started with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 (Even though the United States did not join the war until 1941) and ended on September 2, 1945 with the surrendering of the Empire of Japan. The War changed modern history on so many different levels it's hard to keep track of it. The Jet and the nuclear bomb were invented which not only changed America, but also the world. It saw the rise of the Soviet Union and the United States as superpowers.
  • September 11 attacks

    A very serious and emotional subject for all country loving Americans, 9/11 saw the Invasion of Iraq by the US in order to overthrow Sadam Hussein, the beginning of the War on Terror, the War in Afghanistan, and the beginning of the largest manhunt in history.