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Period: 1451 to 1506
Christopher Columbus
The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon the Americas. -
Period: 1492 to 1504
Columbus' four voyages
Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas, each voyage being sponsored by the Crown of Castile. These voyages marked the beginning of the European exploration and colonization of the American continents, and are thus of enormous significance in Western history. -
Period: 1519 to 1521
Cortes conquers the Aztecs
Hernando Cortes, was a landmark victory for the European settlers. Following the Spanish arrival in Mexico, a huge battle erupted between the army of Cortes and the Aztec people under the rule of Montezuma. -
Period: 1565 to
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson made his first voyage west from England in 1607, when he was hired to find a shorter route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic Ocean. After twice being turned back by ice, Hudson embarked on a third voyage–this time on behalf of the Dutch East India Company–in 1609. -
Period: 1565 to
Henry Hudson
made his first voyage west from England in 1607, when he was hired to find a shorter route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic Ocean. After twice being turned back by ice, Hudson embarked on a third voyage–this time on behalf of the Dutch East India Company–in 1609. -
Period: to
Roanoke Island colnoy
White took the letters to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island, some 50 miles away, but a later search of the island found none of the settlers. The Roanoke Island colony, the first English settlement in the New World, was founded by English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in August 1585. -
Period: to
John Winthrop
the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a prominent figure among the Puritan founders of New England. Winthrop was one of the best educated of the Puritan colonists, had great leadership skills and wisdom, and was known for being very religious -
Period: to
William Bradford
Bradford was an influential and important Pilgrim figure. He was an important signer of the Mayflower Compact and helped organize the first Thanksgiving. He led an active political life, serving as governor as well as in other political offices for the remainder of his life upon settling Plymouth Colony. -
Period: to
Anne Hutchinson
the defendant in the most famous of the trials intended to squelch religious dissent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had been founded so that the Puritans might perfectly practice their own faith. -
Period: to
Roger Williams
a religious dissenter and the founder of Rhode Island (1636). During his fifty years in New England, Williams was a staunch advocate of religious toleration and separation of church and state. -
Jamestown, Virginia founded
The Virginia Company of England made a daring proposition: sail to the new, mysterious land, which they called Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and begin a settlement -
First Africans arrive in Virginia
Virginia's First Africans. Virginia's first Africans arrived at Point Comfort, on the James River , late in August 1619. There, "20. and odd Negroes" from the English ship White Lion were sold in exchange for food and some were transported to Jamestown, where they were sold again, likely into slavery -
Virginia House of Burgesses formed
The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first democratically-elected legislative body in British North America. This group of representatives met from 1619 until 1776. The House of Burgesses is important because the ideas and leaders from this House helped bring about the American Revolutionary War. -
Pilgrims found Plymouth, MA
Plymouth Colony. Plymouth Colony First colonial settlement in New England. The settlers were a group of about 100 Puritan Separatist Pilgrims, who sailed on the Mayflower and settled on what is now Cape Cod bay, Massachusetts. They named the first town after their port of departure. -
Puritan migration to Massachusetts
The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English Puritans to Massachusetts and the West Indies, especially Barbados. They came in family groups rather than as isolated individuals and were motivated chiefly by a quest for freedom to practice their Puritan religion. -
Calverts found Maryland
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, also called Sir George Calvert, English statesman who projected the founding of the North American province of Maryland, in an effort to find a sanctuary for practicing Roman Catholics. -
Period: to
Pequot Indian War, Maryland
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. -
Anne Hutchinson convicted of heresy
Hutchinson refused to recant and accepted her exile. Then Anne Hutchinson essentially convicted herself. She declared that her knowledge of the truth came as direct revelation from God, a heresy in Puritan Massachusetts. -
Fundamental Order of Connecticut
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was an early colonial constitution that established a rule of law that governed the towns of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford, beginning in 1639. -
Period: to
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists over, principally, the manner of England's governance. -
Period: to
William Penn
founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the British North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The democratic principles that he set forth served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. -
Period: to
Nathaniel Bacon
The effects and significance of Bacon's Rebellion in history is that the government in Virginia became frightened by the threat of Civil War (the English Civil War was still fresh in everyone's memory). Bacon's Rebellion was the first rebellion in the American Colonies. -
First Navigation Act
The Navigation Acts were efforts to put the theory of mercantilism into actual practice. Beginning in 1650, Parliament acted to combat the threat of the rapidly growing Dutch carrying trade. -
English conquer New Netherlands
Holland did not lose New Netherland through force. Nieuw Amsterdam was New York from 1664 to 1673, but in that year it became Dutch once more, this time under the name Nieuw Oranje, `New Orange.' That was in honor of the Dutch Prince of Orange, who a few years later was destined to become King William of England. -
Period: to
King Philip's War
King Philip's war was fought between the English colonists of New England and a group of Native American tribes. The main leader of the Native Americans was Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoag peoples. His English nickname was "King Philip." -
Bacon's Rebellion
The effects and significance of Bacon's Rebellion in history is that the government in Virginia became frightened by the threat of Civil War. Bacon's Rebellion was the first rebellion in the American Colonies. -
Quakers
The Religious Society of Friends, also referred to as the Quaker Movement, was founded in England in the 17th century by George Fox. He and other early Quakers, or Friends, were persecuted for their beliefs, which included the idea that the presence of God exists in every person. -
Pennsylvania settled
Charles II of England granted the Province of Pennsylvania to William Penn to settle a debt of £16,000 that the king owed to Penn's father. Penn founded a proprietary colony that provided a place of religious freedom for Quakers. -
Period: to
English Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights
The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared the rights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II was deposed. -
Massachusetts becomes a royal colony
Plymouth (1620, annexed by Massachusetts in 1691), Massachusetts Bay (1630), Connecticut (1635), and Rhode Island (1636) were all established according to religious charters; Massachusetts Bay became a royal colony under its second charter in 1691, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. -
Salem witch hunts
he Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft—the Devil's magic—and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. -
Period: to
Puritans
The Puritans were English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices, maintaining that the Church of England was only partially reformed. Puritanism played a significant role in English history, especially during The Protectorate. -
Period: to
Queen Anne's War
Haverhill, Massachusetts was attacked and razed by the French and Indians. Queen Anne's War was ended by the Treaty of Utrecht, which brought the War of Spanish Succession to a close in Europe. By the treaty France ceded the Hudson Bay territory, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia to Great Britain. -
England, Wales, and Scotland unite into the UK
The creation of Great Britain. 1707 The Acts of Union uniting England and Scotland under one Parliament and Crown came into effect. There had been one monarch of both kingdoms since 1603. ... Scotland was allowed to have its own established (presbyterian) church and England its established (episcopal) church. -
Period: to
George I's Reign
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698 until his death -
Period: to
George II's reign
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death in 1760. George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain: he was born and brought up in northern Germany -
Georgia founded
It had been more than five decades since the British had established a new colony. James Edward Oglethorpe, a philanthropist and an English general, along with twenty-one other men, created a charter to settle a new colony which they named Georgia in honor of King George II. -
Period: to
First Great Awakening
The Great Awakening, the most important event in American religion during the eighteenth century, was a series of emotional religious revivals that spread across the American colonies in the late 1730s and 1740s. -
John Peter Zenger trial
It organizes opposition and can help revolutionary ideas spread. The trial of John Peter Zenger, a New York printer, was an important step toward this most precious freedom for American colonists. John Peter Zenger was a German immigrant who printed a publication called The New York Weekly Journal. -
Stono Rebellion, NC
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 white people and 35 to 50 black people killed. -
Period: to
King George's War
American phase of the War of the Austrian Succession, third and inconclusive struggle between France and Great Britain for mastery of the North American continent. The war was characterized by bloody border raids by both sides with the aid of their Indian allies. -
Albany Congress
On July 10, 1754, representatives from seven of the British North American colonies adopted the plan. Although never carried out, the Albany Plan was the first important proposal to conceive of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government.