-
Period: 1451 to 1506
Christopher Columbus
An Italian explorer sailing for Spain who believed that Asia (India) could be reached by sailing west from Europe. His first voyage was in 1492, wherein he discovered North America (Caribbean islands) and named it the West Indies. He will make four voyages to the new world without fully realizing what he had discovered. -
1518
middle passage
The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic ocean to the new word. It was one leg of the triangular trade route that took goods such as knives, guns and ammunition, cotton cloth, tools and brass dishes. From about 1518 to the mid 21-to-90-day voyage aboard grossly overcrowded sailing ships manned by crews mostly from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and france.
Colonies -
jamestown
Established on may 14, 1607 the colony gave England its first foothold in the European competition for the new world. A contingent of approximately 105 colonists departed England in the late december 1606in the three ships-the susan constant, the godspeed, and the discovery-under the command of christopher Newport. -
plymouth
In late December, the mayflower anchored at Plymouth rock where the pilgrims formed the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. Among the group traveling on the mayflower in 1620 were close to 40 members of a radical puritan faction known as the English separatist church. -
new England colonies
The first English emigrants to what would become the New England colonies were a small group of Puritan separatists, later called the Pilgrims, who arrived in Plymouth in 1620 to found Plymouth colony. Ten years later, a wealthy syndicate known as the Massachusetts Bay Company sent a much larger and more liberal group of Puritans to establish another Massachusetts settlement. With help of local natives, the colonists soon got the hang of farming, fishing and hunting, and Massachusetts pros -
Massachusetts Bay colony
One of the original English settlements in present day Massachusetts, settled in 1630 by a group of about 1,000 puritan refugees from England under Gov. John Winthrop and deputy Gov. Thomas Dudley. In 1629 the Massachusetts Bay company had obtained from King Charles I a charter empowering the company to trade and colonize in New England between the Charles and Merrimack rivers. -
bleeding Kansas
A small civil war in the United States, fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Bleeding Kansas” became a fact with the Sack of Lawrence (May 21, 1856), in which a proslavery mob swarmed into the town of Lawrence and wrecked and burned the hotel and newspaper office in an effort to wipe out the “hotbed of abolitionism -
middle colony
In 1664, king Charles the second gave the territory between New England and Virginia, much of which was already occupied by Dutch traders and landowners called patroons, to his brother James, the duke of New York. In 1680, the king granted 45,000 square miles of land west of the Delaware River to William Penn, a quaker who owned large swaths of land in Ireland. Penn’s North America holding become the colony of ‘’Penn’s Woods ,’’or pennsylvania -
southern colony
By contrast, the Carolina colony, a territory that stretched south from Virginia to Florida and west to the pacific Ocean, was much less cosmopolitan. In its Northern half, hardscrabble farmers eked out a living. In its southern half, planters presided over vast estates that produced corn, lumber, beef, pork, and starting in the 1690s-rice. -
stamp act
The British chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir George Grenville, hoped to meet at least half of these costs by the combined revenues of the Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act, a common revenue device in England. Completely unexpected was the avalanche of protest from the colonists, who effectively nullified the Stamp Act by outright refusal to use the stamps as well as by riots, stamp burning, and intimidation of colonial stamp distributors. -
Boston massacre
(March 5, 1770), skirmish between British troops and a crowd in Boston Massachusetts. Widely publicized, it contributed to the unpopularity of the British regime in much of colonial North America in the years before the American Revolutions. -
Boston tea party
December 16, 1773 incident in which 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company were thrown from ships into Boston Harbor by American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians. -
american revolution war
13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. The War followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect. Meanwhile, the Netherlands which provided both official recognition -
decoration of independence
Document that was approved by the continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British Colonies from Great Britain. They had resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States. Accordingly, the day on which final separation was officially voted was July 2, although the 4th, the day on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, -
Decoration of Independent
Document that was approved by the continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British Colonies from Great Britain. They had resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States. Accordingly, the day on which final separation was officially voted was July 2, although the 4th, the day on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, -
valley forge
The Continental Army under General George Washington from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778, a period that marked the triumph of morale and military discipline over severe hardship. Following the American failures at the nearby battles of Brandy wine and German town, Washington led 11,000 regulars to take up winter quarters at Valley Forge. -
article of confederation
bridge between the initial government by the Continental Congress of the Revolutionary period and the federal government provided under the U.S. constitution of 1787. Because the experience of overbearing British central authority was vivid in colonial minds, the drafters of the Articles deliberately established a Confederation of sovereign states. -
battle of yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown on October 19, 1781, was more than just a military win. The outcome in Yorktown, Virginia marked the conclusion of the last major battle of the American Revolution and the start of a new nation's independence. Washington’s fame grew to international proportions having wrested such an impossible victory, according to the Washington Library “interrupting his much desired Mount Vernon retirement with greater calls to public service. -
constitutional conventions
in U.S. history, a convention that drew up the constitution of the United States. Stimulated by severe economic troubles, which produced radical political movements such as Shays’s Rebellion, and urged on by a demand for a stronger central government, the convention met in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia (May 25–September 17, 1787), ostensibly to amend the Articles of Confederation. -
Industrial Revolution
The start of the American Industrial Revolution is often attributed to SAMUEL SLATER who opened the first industrial mill in the United States in 1790 with a design that borrowed heavily from a British model. Slater's pirated technology greatly increased the speed with which cotton thread could be spun into yarn. While he introduced a vital new technology to the United States, the economic takeoff of the Industrial Revolution required several other elements before it would transform American. -
bill of rights
In the United States the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitutions which were adopted as a single unit on December 15, 1791, and which constitute a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and of limitations on federal and state governments. Under the First Amendment Congress can make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise or abridging freedom of speech or press or the right to assemble and petition for redress of grievances. -
war of 1812
The tensions that caused the War of 1812 arose from the French revolution (1792–99) and Napoleonic Wars of 1799–1815. American shipping initially prospered from trade with the French and Spanish empires, although the British countered the U.S. claim that free ships make free goods with the belated enforcement of the so-called Rule of 1756 to trade not permitted in peacetime would not be allowed in wartime. -
Louisiana purchase
Western half of the Mississippi River basin, purchased in 1803 from France by the United States at less than three cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km) was the greatest land bargain in U.S. history. 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 powers of the federal Constitution. -
Lewis and Clark expedition
On January 18, 1803, U.S. Pres.Thomas Jefferson sent a secret message to Congress asking for $2,500 to send an officer and a dozen soldiers to explore the Missouri River make diplomatic contact with Indians, expand the American fur trade, and locate the Northwest Passage, the much-sought-after Hypothetical northwestern water route to the Pacific Ocean. -
Missouri compromise
In U.S. history, a measure worked out between the North and the South and passed by the U.S. Congress that allowed for the admission of Missouri as the 24th state (1821). It marked the beginning of the prolonged sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War. -
election of 1824
American presidential election held in 1824, in which John Quincy was elected by the House of Representatives after Andrew Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes but failed to receive a majority. Beginning in 1796, caucuses of the political parties’ congressional delegations met informally to nominate their presidential and vice presidential candidates, leaving the general public with no direct input. -
Indian removal Act
May 28, 1830), first major legislative departure from the U.S. policy of officially respecting the legal and political rights of the American Indians. The act authorized the president to grant Indian tribes unsettled western prairie land in exchange for their desirable territories within state borders (especially in the Southeast), from which the tribes would be removed. A number of northern tribes were peacefully resettled in western lands considered undesirable for the white man. -
abolitionist
In western Europe and the Americas the movement chiefly responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery. Between the 16th and 19th centuries an estimated total of 12 million enslaved Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas. The brutality of slavery, made increasingly visible by the scale of its practice, sparked a reaction that insisted on its abolition altogether. -
battle of alamo
The battle of Alamo during the Texas war for independence from Mexico lasted thirteen days from February 23, 1836. In December of 1835, a group of Texan volunteer soldiers had occupied the Alamo, a former Franciscan mission located near the present-day city of San Antonio. On february 23, a mexican force numbering in the thousands and led by general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna begin a siege of the fort. -
Lincoln dongles debate
Series of seven debates between the democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and republican challenger Abraham Lincon during the 1858 illinois senatorial campaign largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. The slavery extension questions had seemingly been settled by the missouri compromise nearly 40 years earlier. The Mexican war, however, had added new territory, and the issue flared up again in the 1840s. -
Mexican American War
War between the United States and Mexico (April 1846–February 1848) stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (U.S. claim). The war—in which U.S. forces were consistently victorious—resulted in the United States’ acquisition of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean. -
Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman
In the United States a system existed in the Northern states before the Civil War by which escaped slaves from the South were secretly helped by sympathetic Northerners, in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Acts to reach places of safety in the North or in Canada. Estimates of the number of black people who reached freedom vary greatly, from 40,000 to 100,000. Although only a small minority of Northerners participated in the Underground Railroad, its existence did much to arouse Northern sympathy -
California Gold Rush
Rapid influx of fortune seekers in California that began after gold was found at Sutter's mill in early 1848 and reached its peak in 1852 according to estimates more than 300,000 people came to the territory during the gold rush. -
compromise of 1850
In U.S. history, a series of measures proposed by the “great compromiser,” Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky, and passed by the U.S. Congress in an effort to settle several outstanding slavery issues and to avert the threat of dissolution of the Union. The problem was complicated by the unresolved question of slavery’s extension into other areas ceded by Mexico the preceding year see Mexican-American War. -
uncles toms cabin
Uncle Tom’s Cabin tells the story of Uncle Tom, an enslaved person, depicted as saintly and dignified, noble and steadfast in his beliefs. While being transported by boat to auction in New Orleans Tom saves the life of Little Eva, an angelic and forgiving young girl, whose grateful father then purchases Tom. Eva and Tom soon become great friends. -
dred scott decision
Legal case in which the U.S. Supreme court on March 6, 1857, ruled 7-2 that a slave Dred Scott who had resided in a free state and territory where slavery was prohabited was not theirby entitled to his freedom that African Americans were not and could never be citizen of the United States and that the Missouri compromise 1820 witch had declared free all territories west of missouri and north of latitud 36 f 30 was unconstitutional. -
fort Sumter
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the union. Five days later, 68 federal troops stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, withdrew to Fort Sumter, an island in Charleston Harbor. The north considered the fort to be the property of the United States Government. -
confederate states of America
In the American Civil War, the government of 11 southern states that seceded from the union in 1860-61, carrying on all the affairs of separate government and conducting a major War until defeated in the spring of 1865. Convince that their way of life, based on slavery, was irretrievable threatens by the election of pres. Abraham Lincoln, November 1860 the seven states of the Deep South {Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, south Carolina and Texas. -
confederate states of America
In the American Civil War, the government of 11 southern states that seceded from the union in 1860-61, carrying on all the affairs of separate government and conducting a major War until defeated in the spring of 1865. Convince that their way of life, based on slavery, was irretrievable threatend by the election of pres. Abraham Lincon, november 1860 the seven states of the Deep South {Alabama, Florida, Georgia, louisiana, mississippi, south Carolina and texas. -
Civil War
Called Was between the States, four-year war (1861–65) between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. in chronological order, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina in 1860–61 and the ensuing outbreak of armed hostilities were the culmination of decades of growing sectional friction slavery. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Edict issued by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that freed the slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. Before the start of the American Civil War, many people and leaders of the North had been primarily concerned merely with stopping the extension of slavery into western territories that would eventually achieve statehood within the Union. -
battle of Gettysburg
July 1–3, 1863, major engagement in the American Civil War, fought 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was a crushing Southern defeat. It is generally regarded as the turning point of the war and has probably been more intensively studied and analyzed than any other battle in U.S. history. In preparation for his invasion, Lee reorganized his army into three corps under Gen. A.P. Hill, Gen. James Longstreet, and Gen.Richard. Ewell. The cavalry was led by Gen. Jeb Stuart -
Gettysburg Address
World-famous speech delivered by U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln at the dedication (November 19, 1863) of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of one of the decisive battles of the American Civil War (July 1–3, 1863). The main address at the dedication ceremony was a two-hour speech delivered by Edwards Everett, the best-known orator of the time. Steeped in the tradition of ancient Greek oratory, Everett’s speech was some 13,000 words long, but he delivered it without notes. -
Appomattox
One of the final battles of the American Civil War. After a weeklong flight westward from Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee briefly engaged Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant before surrendering to the Union at Appomattox Court House. This signaled the beginning of the end of the protracted Civil War. -
Manifest Destiny
In U.S. history, the supposed inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the boundaries of the United States westward to the Pacific and beyond. Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the Oregon Country, Texas, New Mexico, and California. The purchase of Alaska after the Civil War briefly revived the concept of Manifest Destiny, but it most evidently became a renewed force in U.S. foreign policy in the 1890s, when the country went to war with Spain.