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Edict of Nantes
The law granting religious and civil liberties to the French Protestants, promulgated by Henry IV in 1598 and revoked by Louis XIV in 1685 -
Champlain Colonizes Quebec for France
In 1608, Samuel de Champlain led 32 colonists to settle Quebec in order to establish it as a fur-trading center. Only nine colonists survived the first bitter winter in Quebec, but more settlers arrived the following summer. -
Louis XIV becomes king of France
King Louis XIV of France ruled from this day in 1643 to his death at the age of 76 in September 1715, a grand total of 72 years and 110 days, the longest ever in European history. He ranks as one of the most remarkable monarchs in history -
Navigation Law
It was the first navigation law to control colonial commerce. It was aimed at rival Dutch shippers trying to elbow their way into the American carrying trade. -
La Salle explores Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico
French explorer La Salle and 30 Indians began an expedition and they traveled south down the Mississippi until they reached the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France. They went from the Great Lakes in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south.After claiming it, La Salle named this area Louisiana, after King Louis of France. -
King William's War
This was a war between the English and French in North America. It was the first of the Intercolonial Wars, in which England and France fought for domination in North America. It took its name from William III of England and was the American phase of the War of the Grand Alliance in Europe. The war began with a three-pronged attack by the French and their Indian allies on English colonial settlements. Many indians were massacred. -
College of William and Mary founded
King William III and Queen Mary II of England signed the charter for a “perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good Arts and Sciences” to be founded in the Virginia Colony. -
Board of Trade assumes governance of colonies
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions. This department was merged with the Ministry of Technology in 1970 to form the Department of Trade and Industry (since 2009, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), headed by a Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. -
Yale College founded
Yale was previously called the Collegiate School. It was founded in 1701 in Saybrook, Connecticut. -
Queen Anne's War
In 1702 a war broke out between England and France which would later be known as Queen Anne’s War, the War of Spanish Succession, and the French and Indian War. While the war was fought primarily in Europe, in North America it became a struggle between the European powers for control of the continent. While it was a war between European powers, many Indian nations were drawn into the war over the next decade as allies to the Europeans. -
French founded New Orleans
New Orleans was officially founded by Jean Baptiste La Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who in 1718 established New Orleans as the capitol of Louisiana and a fortress to control the wealth of the North American interior. However, La Moyne Bienville was not the first to inhabit New Orleans or understand the area's value,the Chitimachas were. -
Smallpox inoculation introduced
The Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721 is known for the passionate controversy over inoculation that erupted in the city, most visibly between Reverend Cotton Mather and Boston physician William Douglass. After inoculating his own son, Mather advocated strongly for inoculation as the Boston epidemic -
1st edition of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack
In this book, which includes more than 700 pithy proverbs, Franklin lays out the rules everyone should live by and offers advice on such subjects as money, friendship, marriage, ethics, and human nature. -
The First Great Awakening
The revival began with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards came from Puritan, Calvinist roots, but emphasized the importance and power of immediate, personal religious experience. His sermons were powerful and attracted a large following.Edwards countenanced the "noise" of the Great Awakening, but his approach to revivalism became more moderate and critical in the years immediately following. -
Zenger-free press trial
Created a pathway for the First Amendment, which includes freedom of speech. -
George Whitefield spreads Great Awakening
Whitefield was an English Anglican preacher who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain and in the colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally. He traveled through all of the American colonies and drew great crowds and media coverage,so he was one of the most widely recognized public figures in colonial America. -
War of Jenkins' Ear
This war arose from longstanding Anglo-Spanish antagonism fostered by illicit British trading activities in the Spanish Caribbean and the determined, often brutal, attempts by Spain's colonial coast guard vessels to suppress such ventures. Popular feeling, incited by opponents of the Walpole ministry in London and a vigorous merchant lobby opposed to diplomatic efforts, further intensified pressures conducive to war. -
King George's War
A war (1744–1748) which consisted of England and its colonies against France, constituting the North American phase of the War of the Austrian Succession. -
Princeton College founded
Chartered in 1746 as the College of New Jersey (the name by which it was known for 150 years), Princeton University was British North America's fourth college. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was a seven-year war between England and the American colonies, against the French and some of the Indians in North America. When the war ended, France was no longer in control of Canada. The Indians that had been threatening the American colonists were defeated. This war had become a world war. Great Britain spent a great deal of money fighting the war and colonists fully participated in this war. This had a profound effect on the future of the colonies. -
Washington battles French on frontier Albany Congress
British officials believed that a North American war with France was imminent and urged colonial leaders to prepare for the common defense. A meeting was held in Albany in the spring of 1754 and was attended by native leaders, colonial officials and representatives from seven of the British colonies. -
Braddock's defeat
At the outset of the French and Indian War, a 1,450‐man advance column of Gen. Edward Braddock's army of British and American soldiers had, by July 1755, marched for three weeks without incident, to within seven miles of Fort Duquesne. The advance party, apparently lulled into overlooking routine precautions, failed to detect an approaching force of 783 French, Canadians, and Indians. -
Pitt emerges as leader of British government
William Pitt was a British Whig statesman who led Britain during the French and Indian War. He again led the country between 1766 and 1768. Pitt came into power in the summer of 1757, and his comprehensive mind soon grasped the situation. His touch was the touch of the master; he soon changed the succession of defeats to a succession of victories, and to him above all men was due the fact that England and not France became the possessor of North America. -
Battle of Quebec
Decisive battle of the French and Indian War. In September the British secretly landed 4,000 men near Quebec and forced a confrontation with French troops on the Plains of Abraham. The defending French were routed in the battle, in which both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally wounded. -
South Carolina anti-slave trade measures is vetoed
Britain vetoes South Carolina anti-slave trade measures (Political) -
Peace of Paris Pontiac's uprising Proclamation of 1763
Pontiac urged listeners rise up against the British. Pontiac’s Rebellion was actually a war executed by elements belonging to a loose confederation of various Native American tribes of the Great Lakes Region, the Ohio and Illinois countries back in 1763. The war was named after Pontiac, the most prominent leader among the natives. -
French and Indian War ends
The Seven Years' War was a major military conflict that lasted from 1756 until the conclusion of the treaties of Paris (signed on 10 February 1763) and Hubertusburg (signed on 15 February 1763). It involved all of the major European powers of the period. Because of its global nature, it has been described as the "first World War".[1] It resulted in some 900,000 to 1,400,000 deaths and significant changes in the balance of power and territories of several of the participants. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act (4 Geo. III c. 15), also known as the American Revenue Act or the American Duties Act, was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. These incidents increased the colonists' concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution. -
Paxton Boys march on Philadelphia
The Scot-Irish cherished no love for the British government that had uprooted them and still lorded over them. They led the armed march of the Paxton Boys on Philadelphia in 1764, protesting the Quaker oligarchy's lenient policy toward the Indians, and a few years later spearheaded the Regulator movement in North Carolina, a small but nasty insurrection against eastern domination of the colony's affairs. -
Quartering Act, Stamp Act, Stamp Act Congress
Parliament passed the Stamp Act 1765 to raise money from the colonies. New York had previously passed its own stamp act from 1756 to 1760 to raise money for the French and Indian war. The enabling legislation took the form of the Quartering Act which required colonial legislatures to provide quarters and supplies for the troops. Acted upon the Stamp Act recently passed by the governing Parliament of Great Britain overseas. -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was a declaration by the British Parliament in 1766 which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament's authority to make laws binding on the American colonies. -
Rutgers College founded
Rutgers was the eighth college in colonial America, receiving a royal charter from George III in response to a petition of leaders in the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1825 the name was changed to Rutgers College in honor of Col. Henry Rutgers, a benefactor. It became a university in 1924. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. Historians vary slightly in which acts they include under the heading "Townshend Acts", but five laws are frequently mentioned: the Revenue Act of 1767, the Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Acts. -
Regulator protests
Protests occuring in order to have fair regulation. The “Regulators” took their name from the idea that they were trying to “regulate” the government. Here, regulate means to make regular or correct — so, the subscribers intended to correct the grievances and abuses of power suffered by colonists. -
British Troops Occupy Boston
On September 30, 1768, a British fleet anchored in Boston Harbor "as for a regular siege," the purpose of which was to protect Royal officials in the execution of their duties. The next day, October 1st, soldiers drawn chiefly from the 14th and 29th Infantry Regiments, and numbering about 700 men, landed at Boston without opposition. Six weeks later the 64th and 65th Regiments, of about 500 men each, began to arrive from Irleand & debarked. -
Dartmouth College founded
Dartmouth was founded by Eleazar Wheelock, a Puritan minister from Columbia, Connecticut, who had previously sought to establish a school to train Native Americans as missionaries. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. A squad of British soldiers, come to support a sentry who was being pressed by a heckling, snowballing crowd, let loose a volley of shots. Three persons were killed immediately and two died later of their wounds; among the victims was Crispus Attucks, a man of black or Indian parentage.