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1492
Christopher Columbus “Founds” New World
Columbus was sponsored by the Spanish King and Queen in 1492, to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but never did. Instead, stumbled upon the Americas and landed in the Bahamas. -
1492
Columbian Exchange Begins
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Period: 1492 to
European Exploration Era
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1500
Spanish Encomienda System Begins
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1500
Spanish Casta System Begins
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Period: 1500 to
Triangular Trade
Triangular trade or triangle trade is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. Triangular trade thus provides a method for rectifying trade imbalances between the above regions. -
Period: 1500 to
Middle Passage
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1520
Small Pox Begins Spreading to Native Americans
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1521
Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortez Conquers the Aztec Empire
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1534
England Splits from the Catholic Church
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London Company Gains Charter for Set Up English Colony
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Jamestown, Virginia Colony Founded
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
French found Quebec on the St. Lawrence River and Engage in the Fur Trade
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Tobacco introduced to Virginia Colony by John Rolfe
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First African Slaves Arrive in Jamestown, Virginia Colony
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Virginia House of Burgesses
The first general assembly elected in the colonies. -
Plymouth, Massachusetts Colony Founded
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Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first set of written rules providing a self-government established by the English settlers who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower. -
New Hampshire Founded
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Dutch New Amsterdam Becomes Capital of New Netherland
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“City Upon a Hill” John Winthrop
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The Great Migration to Massachusetts Bay Colony
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Maryland Founded
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Thomas Hooker Founds Connecticut
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Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. -
Roger Williams Founds Rhode Island
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Harvard College Founded in Massachusetts
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Delaware Founded
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Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
The Fundamental Orders was the first constitution to be adopted by the American colonies in 1639. It established the structure and boundaries of the newly formed government and ensured the rights of free men to elect their public officials; principles that were later embraced within the U.S. Constitution. -
Maryland Toleration Act
This act was meant to ensure freedom of religion for Christian settlers of diverse persuasions in the colony. -
North Carolina Founded
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Iroquois Confederacy Formed
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historical indigenous confederacy in northeast North America. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, later as the Iroquois Confederacy and to the English as the Five Nations. -
Navigation Acts and Mercantilism
The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade. British economic policy was based on mercantilism, which aimed to use the American colonies to bolster British state power and finances. -
South Carolina Founded
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New York Funded
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New Jersey Founded
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King Phillips War
It was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England colonists and their indigenous allies. -
Bacon’s Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was triggered when a grab for Native American lands was denied. Jamestown had once been the bustling capital of the Colony of Virginia. Now it was a smoldering ruin, and Nathaniel Bacon was on the run. It was the first rebellion in the colonies. -
Pueblo Revolt
1680 uprising of most of the indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish colonizers in present day New Mexico. -
Quaker William Penn Founds Pennsylvania
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Period: to
Enlightenment Era
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John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government Published
In his major work Two Treatises of Government Locke rejects the idea of the divine right of kings, supports the idea of natural rights (especially of property), and argues for a limited constitutional government which would protect individual rights. -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights was an act signed into law in 1689 by William III and Mary II, who became co-rulers in England after the overthrow of King James II. The bill outlined specific constitutional and civil rights and ultimately gave Parliament power over the monarchy. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. -
Period: to
Salutary Neglect Policy
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The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals in the North American British colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries. It led to a shared awareness of being American because it was the first major, "national" event that all the colonies experienced. -
Georgia Founded as a Debtors Colony
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Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, with 25 colonists and 35 to 50 Africans killed. -
French and Indian War Begins
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Period: to
The Industrial Revolution
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French and Indian War Ends
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Proclamation Line of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III on October 7, 1763, following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the Seven Years' War. It forbade all settlement west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains, which was delineated as an Indian Reserve -
Period: to
Revolutionary Era
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Period: to
Republican Motherhood
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Sugar Act
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. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. -
Quartering Act
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Townshend Acts
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 the following: New taxes on imports of paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. -
Tea Act
In an effort to save the troubled enterprise, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773. The act granted the company the right to ship its tea directly to the colonies without first landing it in England, and to commission agents who would have the sole right to sell tea in the colonies. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. 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. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable 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. -
First Continental Congress
On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament's Coercive Acts. -
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense Published
Paine's brilliant arguments were straightforward. He argued for two main points: (1) independence from England and (2) the creation of a democratic republic. This document was very important because it helped sway people into supporting those individuals who favored declaring independence from Great Britain. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord signaled the start of the American Revolutionary war on April 19, 1775. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress assumed the normal functions of a government, appointing ambassadors, issuing paper currency, raising the Continental Army through conscription, and appointing generals to lead the army. The powers of the Congress were still very limited, however. -
Continental Army Lead by General George Washington
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Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is an important part of American democracy because first it contains the ideals or goals of our nation. Second it contains the complaints of the colonists against the British king. Third, it contains the arguments the colonists used to explain why they wanted to be free of British rule -
Benjamin Franklin Becomes French Ambassador
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o Adam Smith Publishes “The Wealth of Nations”
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Winter at Valley Forge
The particularly severe winter of 1777-1778 proved to be a great trial for the American army, and of the 11,000 soldiers stationed at Valley Forge, hundreds died from disease. However, the suffering troops were held together by loyalty to the Patriot cause and to General Washington, who stayed with his men -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battle of Saratoga occurred in September and October, 1777, during the second year of the American Revolution. It included two crucial battles, fought eighteen days apart, and was a decisive victory for the Continental Army and a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War. -
o Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were created by the Second Continental Congress. The purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to plan the structure of the new government and to create a confederation-some kind of government. -
Battle of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, aka the Battle of Yorktown ending in October 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops and French Army troops. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolution in the North American region, as the surrender by Cornwallis, and the capture of both him and his army, prompted the British government to negotiate an end to the conflict. -
Treaty of Paris of 1783
The Treaty of Paris was signed by U.S. and British Representatives on September 3, 1783, ending the War of the American Revolution. Based on a1782 preliminary treaty, the agreement recognized U.S. independence and granted the U.S. significant western territory -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was a series of violent attacks on courthouses and other government properties in Massachusetts that began in 1786 and led to a full-blown military confrontation in 1787. -
The Great Compromise
The Great Compromise was an agreement made among the delegates to the Constitutional Convention that the American government would have two houses in Congress: the Senate where each state has two Senators, and the House of Representatives where each state has a number of Representatives based on population. -
Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers were written and published to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution, which was drafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. -
Constitutional Convention/ Philadelphia Convention
The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The point of the event was decide how America was going to be governed. Although the Convention had been officially called to revise the existing Articles of Confederation, many delegates had much bigger plans. -
U.S. Constitution
The Constitution of the United States established America's national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. It was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. -
The 3/5ths Compromise
Three-fifths compromise, compromise agreement between delegates from the Northern and the Southern states at the United States Constitutional Convention (1787) that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. -
Bill of Rights added to the U.S. Constitution
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French Revolution Begins
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Washington Elected 1st President
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Washington Creates Presidential Cabinet
Washington held his first full cabinet meeting on November 26, 1791, with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. One prominent individual who did not attend cabinet meetings was Vice President John Adams. -
Washington D.C. Becomes New US Capital
On July 16, 1790, the young American Congress declares that a swampy, humid, muddy and mosquito-infested site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation's permanent capital. -
Period: to
The Second Great Awakening
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Alexander Hamilton Gets Congress to Approve National Bank
The country had borrowed or promised a lot of money during the Revolutionary War.
Hamilton proposed a national bank. Congress approved the idea in 1791. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion, (1794), in American history, uprising that afforded the new U.S. government its first opportunity to establish federal authority by military means within state boundaries, as officials moved into western Pennsylvania to quell an uprising of settlers rebelling against the liquor tax. -
Cotton Gin and Interchangeable Parts Invented by Eli Whitney
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Washington's Farewell Address
In his farewell Presidential address, George Washington advised American citizens to view themselves as a cohesive unit and avoid political parties and issued a special warning to be wary of attachments and entanglements with other nations. -
John Adams Elected 2nd President
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First Two Party System Created
The first two-party system consisted of the Federalist Party, which supported the ratification of the Constitution, and the Democratic-Republican Party or the Anti-Administration party (Anti-Federalists), which opposed the powerful central government that the Constitution established when it took effect in 1789. -
XYZ Affair
The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident between French and United States diplomats that resulted in a limited, undeclared war known as the Quasi-War. U.S. and French negotiators restored peace with the Convention of 1800, also known as the Treaty of Mortefontaine. -
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799 in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a series of four laws passed by the U.S. Congress in 1798 amid widespread fear that war with France was imminent. The four laws–which remain controversial to this day–restricted the activities of foreign residents in the country and limited freedom of speech and of the press. -
Election of 1800 and the Start of the Jeffersonian Era
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Cult of Domesticity Begins
The period of 1820 to 1860 saw the rise in America of an ideology of feminine behavior and an ideal of womanliness that has come to be known as the “Cult of True Womanhood” or “Cult of Domesticity.” The features of this code, which provided social regulations for middle-class families with newly acquired wealth and leisure. -
The Market Revolution Begins
The Market Revolution (1793–1909) in the United States was a drastic change in the manual-labor system originating in the South (and soon moving to the North) and later spreading to the entire world. Traditional commerce was made obsolete by improvements in transportation, communication, and industry. -
Thomas Jefferson Elected 3rd President
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Steam Locomotive Invented in Great Britain
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Marbury v Madison
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws, statutes, and some government actions that they find to violate the Constitution of the United States. -
Louisiana Purchase
The purchase doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers of the federal Constitution -
James Madison elected 4th President
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War Hawks in Congress Support War Against British
The War Hawks were members of Congress who put pressure on President James Madison to declare war against Britain in 1812. The War Hawks tended to be younger congressmen from Southern and Western states. Their desire for war was prompted by expansionist tendencies. -
War of 1812 Begins
On June 18, 1812, President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain, marking the beginning of the War of 1812. -
British Impressment of US Sailors
Impressment, or “press gang” as it was more commonly known, was recruitment by force. It was a practice that directly affected the U.S. and was even one of the causes of the War of 1812. The British navy consistently suffered manpower shortages due to the low pay and a lack of qualified seamen. -
Treaty of Ghent
On December 24, 1814, The Treaty of Ghent was signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada. -
Francis Scott Key Writes the Star Spangled Banner
On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America's national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort M'Henry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPKp29Luryc -
Federalist Party Collapses
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Period: to
Era of Good Feelings
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Tariff of 1816
The Tariff of 1816, also known as the Dallas Tariff, is notable as the first tariff passed by Congress with an explicit function of protecting U.S. manufactured items from overseas competition. ... A tariff on manufactured goods, including war industry products, was deemed essential in the interests of national defense -
James Monroe elected 5th President
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Adam- Onis Treaty/ Spain Ceded Florida to U.S.
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Universal Male Suffrage Begins to Rise
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Compromise of 1820
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. ... In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine is the best known U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Buried in a routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warns European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs -
Henry Clay’s “American System”
This "System" consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture. -
Erie Canal Built
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John Quincy Adams elected 6th President
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Lowell, Massachusetts Textile Mill Employs Women
Incorporated as the Town of Lowell in 1826, by 1840, the textile mills employed almost 8,000 workers — mostly women between the ages of 15 and 35. The "City of Spindles", as Lowell came to be known, quickly became the center of the Industrial Revolution in America. -
Andrew Jackson elected 7th President
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Second Two Party System Created
The Second Party System is a name for the political party system in the United States during the 1800s. ... One was the Democratic Party, led by Andrew Jackson. The other was the Whig Party, started by Henry Clay. The Whig party was made up of members of the National Republican Party and other people who opposed Jackson. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Abolition Movement Begins
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Trail of Tears Begins
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William Lloyd Garrison Publishes Abolitionist Newspaper “The Liberator"
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Andrew Jackson vetos National Bank
President Andrew Jackson announces that the government will no longer use the Second Bank of the United States, the country's national bank, on September 10, 1833. He then used his executive power to remove all federal funds from the bank, in the final salvo of what is referred to as the “Bank War." -
Nullification Crisis
Nullification crisis, in U.S. history, confrontation between the state of South Carolina and the federal government in 1832–33 over the former's attempt to declare null and void within the state the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. -
Texas Revolution and Independence from Mexico
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Horace Mann Advocates for Public Schools
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Increased Irish and German Immigration to the North
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Federal Support Given to Samuel Morse to Construct Telegraph Lines
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Dorothea Dix Advocates for Mentally Ill and Prison Reform
Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) was an author, teacher and reformer. Her efforts on behalf of the mentally ill and prisoners helped create dozens of new institutions across the United States and in Europe and changed people's perceptions of these populations. -
James K. Polk Elected US President (Democrat)
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Frederick Douglass writes autobiography “Narrative of the Life of an American Slave"
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Irish Potato Famine Begins
The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) spread rapidly throughout Ireland. The infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. -
Texas Annexation by the United States
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Mexican American War Begins
On May 13, 1846, the United States Congress declared war on Mexico after a request from President James K. Polk. -
o Oregon Territory Divided Between British and U.S.
Originally claimed by several countries (see Oregon Country), the region was divided between the UK and the US in 1846. When established, the territory encompassed an area that included the current states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as parts of Wyoming and Montana. -
Seneca Falls Convention
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Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States. Held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Mexican American War Ends
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. ... By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including parts of present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, to the United States. -
Mexican Cession
Area Mexico ceded to the United States in 1848, minus Texan claims. The Mexican Cession consisted of present-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, the western half of New Mexico, the western quarter of Colorado, and the southwest corner of Wyoming. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to “improve” the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land. -
Transcontinental Railroad Completed
One hundred and fifty years ago on May 10, 1869, university founder Leland Stanford drove the last spike that marked the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. -
Industrialization Begins to Boom
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Nativism Spreads
Thus nativism has become a general term for opposition to immigration based on fears that immigrants will "distort or spoil" existing cultural values. In situations where immigrants greatly outnumber the original inhabitants, nativist movements seek to prevent cultural change. -
Standard Oil Company Founded by John D. Rockefeller
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The “New South” wants Industrialization
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Jim Crow Laws Begin in South
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Social Darwinism Theory Gains Popularity
Social Darwinism, the theory that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin perceived in plants and animals in nature. -
Boss Tweed rise at Tammany Hall
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Telephone Invented by Alexander Graham Bell
On March 7, 1876, Bell was granted his telephone patent. A few days later, he made the first-ever telephone call to Watson, allegedly uttering the now-famous phrase, “Mr. Watson, come here. -
Reconstruction Ends
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Period: to
Gilded Age
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Light Bulb Invented by Thomas Edison
Still life of the first electric light bulb, invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879 and patented on January 27, 1880. The electric light wasn't Thomas Edison's first invention, nor was he the first to create an alternative to gaslight. -
3rd Wave of Immigration: “New Immigrants
The period between about 1881 and 1920 brought more than 23 million new immigrants from all parts of the world, but mostly from Europe, to the United States. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. -
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883. -
Haymarket Massacre
The Haymarket massacre was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed one and injured several workers -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act (sometimes called the Dawes Severalty Act or General Allotment Act), passed in 1887 under President Grover Cleveland, allowed the federal government to break up tribal lands. -
Interstate Commerce Act
The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 is a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. -
Andrew Carnegie’s Book “Gospel of Wealth”
After retiring in 1901 at the age of 66 as the world's richest man, Andrew Carnegie wanted to become a philanthropist, a person who gives money to good causes. He believed in the "Gospel of Wealth," which meant that wealthy people were morally obligated to give their money back to others in society. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts. ... President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill into law on July 2, 1890. -
Carnegie Steel Company Founded by Andrew Carnegie
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Homestead Steel Labor Strike
The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead steel strike or Homestead massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was a pivotal event in U.S. labor history. -
Pullman Labor Strike
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States that lasted from May 11 to July 20, 1894, and a turning point for US labor law. -
Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Case
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for blacks.
