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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. -
105 English men arrived in Jamestown to settle into the new land in 1607. Jamestown is a city in Virginia, it was named after the English king at that time and became the first ever English colony in North America. The settlers were coming to America to get rich. John Smith and John Rolphe took over the colony and told the settlers that if they don't work they don't live. -
John Smith, an explorer in the 1600s, had named the city Plymouth after a port in England. Plymouth was officially a colony around 1620, it became the first puritan colony. The pilgrims came to Plymouth for religious freedom or a better life. In this colony was, these pilgrims are the ones that we base Thanksgiving off of. The name of the boat that they came to America is the famous Mayflower. -
The first settlement in New England was founded by the pilgrims around 1620, in these colonies were Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. -
This colony is one of the first in America, it was settled around 1630 by 1,000 English puritans under John Winthrop, one of the governors at that time. It is located near Boston, Massachusetts; and was the largest colony in New England. Most of the settlers in this colony were Puritans, which was a religious group that separated from the English Christians to practice there own religion in this new colony. These Puritans are eventually going to create the famous Salem Witch Trials. -
These colonies were British colonies that were here around the 16th and the 17th centuries. The southern colonies are Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia (which was a colony created for criminals). These colonies were mostly about agriculture and slavery. -
William Penn paid 1200 pounds for the middle colonies from some Native Americans. All of the middle colonies were Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. These colonies were known for there trade. -
The middle passage was a slave route from Africa to the West Indies. This slave route was used from 1518 to the 19th century, it took the slave ships 21 to 90 days to get to the West Indies; in these ships were slaves packed chalk full so they couldn’t move on the ship. These slaves were different from other countries slaves was that the were taken in from some place else and not your own people. The English got the slaves by purchasing them from other Africans, trading stuff like rum. -
This is a religious awakening that involved the English colonies in the 1730s and 40s. Jonathan Edwards was a minister that was considered one of the fathers of the great awakening. The reason these ministers did this was because they thought that the colonies were forgetting about God through there long voyage to America. This actually branched a lot of other religions. -
The war began in 1754 and ended in 1763 with the treaty of Paris, it gave Great Britain a lot of land in North America which eventually led to the Revolutionary War. The war took place in North America. The reason there was a war was because the English wanted to expand into the French colonies and that created conflict. -
It was an act set by the British Parliament in 1765 that made the American colonies pay tax on their stamps; this helped forward the Revolutionary War. They did the Stamp Act to help fund for their Seven Years’ War, the tax was represented by a stamp on paper. So if you wanted to buy paper from the British, you would have to pay a tax. -
Five deaths were because of the Boston massacre, and three injuries. There was a riot in 1770 on King Street, Boston; it began with American colonists mouthing off the British soldiers, eventually turning into the colonists throwing stuff like rocks and snowballs. Which made the British soldiers ending up shooting at them. This picture was painted by Paul Revere and sent to all the other colonies, which looked pretty bad. -
The leader of this rebellion was Samuel Adams and 60 other colonists called the “Sons of Liberty;” they dumped tea into the harbor that cost about $18,000. It was a political protest that happened in 1773 in Boston; the reason they dumped the tea was because of “taxation without representation,” which means they taxed the colonies without telling them why. -
A battle in Lexington where eight American Militiamen (farmers and store owners) died while there was only one British man killed.No one knows who fired the first shot. In 1775 the battle was fought, this marked the beginning of the revolutionary war by persuading many Americans to fight for their independence. -
The American army was led by George Washington, who had little experience in war and battles, but led America through to its victory. The war started in 1775 and ended in 1783. It was actually very surprising the America beat the British since they were actually the bigger army. -
The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence were Thomas Jefferson (the main writer of the Declaration), Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. It was signed in 1776 by many other men including John Hancock, who was the first to write his name and made it the largest. They were declaring independence to the British. -
A document written after the Revolutionary War which made the American Government. Written by a committee of one representative from every colony, with John Dickinson as their chief writer. This was the first constitution of the U.S, which gave the states way too much power over the government. -
The American army was growing stronger and was growing more capable of fighting the British due to their time at Valley Forge. The army camped there for six months in the winter of 1777, a big turning point of the war because the American soldiers grew to trust General Washington. Most of the men didn't have shoes or one outfit. -
Took place in 1778 in Pennsylvania to figure out how the country should be governed; the convention was made to revise the Article of Confederation. George Washington was elected president during the convention by James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, and a lot of other leaders of that period. This Convention was made to fix the Articles of Confederation and turn it into the Constitution that we have today. -
In 1781, the American army, led by General Washington, won over the British. It then takes two more years for the Americans to gain full independence. This was the battle that ended the war that lasted about 6 years. We were able to pull off the victory was because of the French. -
James Madison was the key writer of the Bill of Rights, inspired by Thomas Jefferson; it was made a legal document in 1791. It was actually written in 1689. In the Bill of Rights we have all our rights and Amendments. This is arguably the most important part of the Constitution.
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France gave the U.S. 530,000,000 acres of land in North America in 1803 for $15 million. The U.S. bought the land because it connected them to the Mississippi River and it gave them a lot of land. President Thomas Jefferson was the president of that time, which is the most famous thing of his presidency. -
It was an expedition that lasted from 1804 to 1806 with the leaders Lewis and Clark, President Thomas Jefferson had them explore the Louisiana Purchase and everything west of the Mississippi. This expedition was a starting point of the U.S. today. This was the most famous exploration in U.S. history. -
This war ended with a peace treaty between the British King and America. It lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought in North America and the oceans surrounding it. This is our second war against the British, who didn't want to treat us like an equal. In the war the capital was burnt down by the British. -
The Compromise was made because the government wanted an equal number of free states and slave states; it was made in 1820 and had Missouri as a slave state and Maine a free one; but in 1854 they replaced the Compromise with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Compromise was thought of by Henry Clay. They mad this Compromise because they didn't know which states were going to be slave states or free. The line was called the scar of America. -
John Quincy Adams was President over Andrew Jackson in 1824 by getting more votes from the House of Representatives, even when Jackson had more popular and electoral votes. This is a watershed moment in American history. Nobody reached the number of votes, so the congress had to pick the president. This was a very controversial issue because congress didn't pick Andrew Jackson, who had the most votes from the states. -
This act was made into a law by Andrew Jackson in 1830, trading the Indian’s land for land west of the Mississippi so they wouldn’t be in states’ borders; a few tribes went to the new land peacefully, but others, not so peacefully. One of these tribes was the Cherokee Nation, the leader of this tribe, Chief John Ross, resisted the Act even though his people were being woefully violated. The Native Americans were moved from the southeast of America to today's Oklahoma. -
This is a person who is against slavery and wishes to take it out of America. In 1833, there was an Anti-Slavery Society; the leader of this Society was William Lloyd Garrison, who was a loyal abolitionist until the end of the Civil War. The Abolitionists sacrificed time and money to defeat slavery. Frederick Douglas was apart of the group and he was a very smart black man that used to be a slave. -
It was a battle between Texas and Mexico in 1836; the Alamo was a port in San Antonio, Texas. The Mexicans won the battle, killing all the Texans in the port. The battle had a lot of famous Americans in it like Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. Soon Texas will be apart of the U.S. -
This is a process in which old ways of doing things are improved with machinery and science; this changed peoples’ way of thinking and living and transformed society for the better. It began with Britain and spread all across the world; the revolution started 1760 all the way to 1840. The U.S. is basically moving from "farm to factory." -
This was a belief that it was America’s destiny to settle the west. John O’Sullivan made the term “manifest destiny” in 1845 that made the mindset of Americans. -
This was a fight between Mexico and America, they fought from 1846 to 48; Mexico wanted Rio Grande and the U.S. wanted the Nueces River. It ended with a treaty and the U.S. got Texas, New Mexico, and California; the Mexican government was actually paid $15 million dollars for these states. -
Because of the gold rush the population of California grew with over 700 Americans coming in to make their fortune. It started with someone finding gold in Sutter's Mill in 1848 and grew all the way up to 1852; more than 3,000 people came to California. They wanted there mountains because they believed that's where are the gold was. -
This was a set of laws that were passed in 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery and expansion; the fugitive slave act was amended and the slave trade was gone. Edwin Charles Rozwenc created the Compromise. -
Harriet Tubman was a black woman who escaped slavery and wanted freedom for everybody else. She was the famous conductor of the underground railroad and took 70 slaves to the north and to freedom. Harriet is one of the most famous black woman in America. There were multiple paths to the north so the slaves could all go to freedom. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of the book. The book was saying how the idea of slavery is horrendous and cruel, and goes against what people usually thought about black people not having emotions; she was then a leader of the anti-slavery movement. This was the second most book read during that period beside the bible. -
Started in 1854, and it was a small civil war between Kansas and Missouri, people were fighting because Missouri was for slavery and Kansas was against it and Missouri wanted Kansas to be a slave state. 55 people were killed between 1855 and 59. -
This decision was pro-slavery related; the north wasn’t too happy about it, especially the Abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln was very disappointed in the decision, who was a heightening figure in the Republican party. -
There were seven debates in all between Democratic Senator Stephan A. Douglas and Republican Challenger Abraham Lincoln in 1858 in the Illinois Senatorial Campaign, involving slavery and territorial states. Douglas won because of the Democrats having 46 seats and Republicans only having 41; but Lincoln will go on to win the Presidential Election against Douglas. -
There was a Confederate victory at the battle of Fort Sumter. There were 33 hours of Confederate cannons hitting Fort Sumter, in the end the Union surrendered in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor; the first battle of the Civil War ended in the South winning. In 1860, South Carolina separated from the Union. -
The war ended in 1865, when the Confederate General surrendered to the Union General at Appomattox Court House. The Civil War started in 1860 when the southern states started to leave the Union because of their disagreements with slavery. -
There were 11 states that made up the Confederate States: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Confederate States of America was formed in 1861. -
Abraham Lincoln did the Proclamation in 1863, as America was in their third year of war. The proclamation told everybody that all slaves in the rebel states were to be set free. Lincoln wrote the speech himself -
The Union general George Meade won over the Confederacy. It was fought in 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; the battle had the largest number of casualties in the war and is known as the turning point for the Union. -
Abraham Lincoln wrote the speech. It happened in 1863. It was given in the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The speech was about human equality and the Declaration of Independence and talked about the sacrifices of war and freedom, and why we became the U.S. in the first place. -
General Grant and Lee were present during the surrender, along with Lt. Colonel Marshall and half a dozen of Grant’s staff officers were present; with a dozen other Union officers, including Captain Robert Todd Lincoln. In 1865, the Confederates surrendered to the Union in the McLean House in the village in Appomattox Court House, ending the nation’s largest war.
