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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. -
The Middle Passage starts in 1518 all the way to the mid 29th-century. This passage was the forced shipment of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic ocean, to the developing New World. It was one leg in the triangular trade, which shipped goods from Europe to Africa, and slaves to the Americas and West Indies. The stock produced by these African slaves would be brought back to Europe. Slaver captains would trade 150-600 slaves around New Guinea(Slave Coast). -
Jamestown was the first permanent settlement in North America, in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was established on May 14th, 1607. This settlement helped England gain a hold in an area that had been dominated by the Spanish since Christopher Columbus’ voyages. -
The first English emigrants towards the start of the English colonies were Puritans, or later on, Pilgrims. These people arrived in Plymouth in 1620, which would later become Massachusetts from the Massachusetts Bay Company. This company brought many more liberal, Puritan settlers to this area, and this is how Massachusetts prospered.
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On September of 1620, while King James I was in power, approximately 100 English Separitist Churchgoers, later to be known as Pilgrims, went to the New World on the Mayflower. They landed on Cape Cod, which is now known as Massachusetts. Fall of 1621, the pilgrims shared a harvest feast with the Pokanokets. -
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was one of the original colonies, established in 1630. It was started by 1,000 Puritans, led by Gov. John Winthrop and deputy Gov. Thomas Dudley. Similar to a grant to the Virginia Company in 1609, the Massachusetts Bay Company got a charter from the king to trade and colonize in New England between the Charles and Merrimack rivers. -
The Southern Colonies were territories that stretched from Virginia to Florida and then stretched west to the Pacific Ocean. It was much less cosmopolitan than other countries. In the north, people were struggling to find work, and in the south planters were in big estates that brought up corn, beef and pork, lumber, and later on, rice. -
In 1664, King Charles gave up the land between New England and Virginia to his brother, James which was already mostly taken up by dutch traders, and land owners. Pretty soon, Englishmen absorbed New Netherlands and it was renamed New York. Because all the Dutch, Scandinavian, and others stayed there, it became the most diverse colony in the New world. In 1680, the king granted 45,000 square miles of land west of the Delaware River to William Penn. This area later became Pennsylvania.
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The Great Awakening is a religious revival in the British American colonies between 1720-1740s. During this time, under the leadership of Johnathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others, religion was revitalized in the region. This change was primarily on the Dutch Reformed. They frequently sought to inspire their followers to fear a sinful life. -
Also known as the 7 Years War, the French and Indian War marked another chapter of struggle between Britain and France. France’s expansion into the Ohio River led to a Declaration of War in 1756. With financing from future Prime Minister William Pitt, the british turned the table and won several victories at Louisbourg. In 1763, a peace conference returned with the British receiving Canada and Florida, from France and Spain. This opened the Mississippi to westward expansion. -
Stamp Act was the first British Parliamentary attempt to raise revenue by taxing all colonial legal papers, and dice. A result of Pontiac’s War(1763-64) added to numerous defense burdens. The British chancellor of the Exchequer hoped to meet half these costs with the Sugar Act(1764) and the Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty(1765) opposed the act and rioted. 1765 Stamp Act Congress was the first congress held in the colonies, and created the right to petition against laws. -
an incident with over 340 chests of tea belonging to the British ‘East India Company’, which was thrown into the Boston Harbor by Americans disguised as Mohawk Indians. Americans were protesting a tax on tea and the monopoly of the company. The tea company then became its own shipping company and sold through its own agents, This pulled conservative colonial merchants into an alliance with radicals. -
This war won political independence for 13 of Britain's American colonies, which would later form the United States of America. When Britain imposed taxes on the colonies, it fueled resentment for the mother country. Because they thought they lacked representation, they developed the Continental Army, full of minutemen. This later led to Lexington and Concord. -
Thomas Gage ordered his troops to seize the colonists’ military stores at Concord. The british force of 700 men were met with 77 minutemen on Lexington Green. It was unclear who fired the first shot. As resistance went away, the british troops moved to Concord, and as they were marching, they got shot at by Americans hidden away. This then established guerilla warfare. This confirmed the alienation between the colonists and the Mother country. -
The Declaration of Independence was the official document that led them to the last steps to completely separate from Great Britain. Just one year before, during the American Revolution, colonists only wanted government under British authority, but as the war continued, they wanted freedom. -
a “skirmish between the British troops and Boston, became remembered as the Boston Massacre. After provocation by colonists, the troops launched an attack with firearms and bombs which killed 5 people, including Crispus Attucks. The event was widely publicized by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams as a battle of American Liberty. This contributed to the unpopularity for the British, years before the American Revolution. -
This was a period of morale and triumph within the American Revolution. After moving to the Valley Forge quarters, the Continental Army had to withstand bitter winter that decimated a lot of their troops. The drills they went through during that time though, turned them into well-disciplined and efficient troops. -
This was the first constitution that was used as a bridge between the initial government by the Continental Congress of the Revolutionary period and the government under the Constitution of 1787. The articles were written between 1776 and 1777. It was ratified on March 1, 1781. -
Campaign that trapped a major british army on a peninsula in Yorktown, which forced them to surrender. It ended military operations in the American Revolution. -
Also called the Abolition Movement, abolitionism was a movement to end slave trade and emancipate slaves in Europe and America. At first, it had little backing because of rationalists, but by 1838 many countries emancipated slaves. -
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Constitutional Convention was to decide how America would be governed, It was originally to revise the existing Articles of Confederation. But Delegates had bigger plans. -
The Industrial Revolution was a time when factories were being built all over America, and machines were being built to be put in place of human held tools. It was also later used with steam engines, coal, and other types of power. -
The Bill of Rights were the first 10 amendments to Constitution of the United States. The first congress submitted 12 original amendments, only 10 of which were ratified. -
The Underground Railroad was a secret system in place to help get slaves out of slaveholding states in the United States. Northerners defied the ‘Fugitive Slave Acts’ and helped slaves out of the south before the Civil War. It is said to have helped between 40k-100k slaves. -
Louisiana Purchase was the land purchase from France that doubled America’s size, for $15 million. It went from the Mississippi River to Spain. When Spain put it in French control once again, Napoleon sold the entire purchase to Thomas Jefferson to stay in alliance with America. -
This was the first overland expedition to the U.S. coast and back. Initiated by Thomas Jefferson, the expedition was to find an overland route to the Pacific. -
With oppressive British troops blocking off french ports, as well as stopping ships to impress seamen and refusing to stop, America declared war on June 18th, 1812. On Dec. 24, 1812, the Treaty of Ghent was passed after British burned down the White House and restored trading routes. -
This was an Act passed by the U.S. Congress admitting Missouri to the Union which made it the 24th U.S. state. When they wanted statehood for no restriction with slaves, congressmen unsuccessfully tried to make amendments to restrict slaveholding. -
By 1824, King Caucus’s system of power was failing, and only a quarter of congress was taking part in it. Crawford, Adams, Jackson, and Clay were the nominees for the election, Adams and jackson being the most popular of the candidates. Clay opted out for Vice President instead. Adams wons and Jackson close behind, and because it was so close the House of Representatives decided among the top three candidates. Adams won -
Battle of the Alamo was Texas trying to gain independence from Mexico. In Dec. 1835, Texan volunteers occupied the Alamo until the fort was besieged by Mexican troops. Texan’s held out until they were met with force, 13 days after they were overpowered. Later that year, they won the territory, and “remember the Alamo” became a battle cry -
Manifest Destiny is a concept of expanding the U.S. to the Pacific Ocean. The phrase was coined in 1845 by John O’ Sullivan. The term was used to justify annexation of Oregon, California, and New Mexico. -
The Gold Rush was a rapid influx of people coming to the west, and to California when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. More than 300k people came for the rush. By August 1848, 4k “forty-niners” were at the California Goldfields. -
This is a story of a slave deemed “Uncle Tom” who, while on transport boat to be sold in New Orleans, saves a little girl named Eva. Grateful, Eva’s father buys Tom. Tom and the girl become friends, but as the little girls’ health declines and she dies, she asks her father to free all of his slaves. Before he does so, he is killed and, soon after, Tom is brutally killed. -
This was the first major legislative departure that officially respected Native Americans’ rights. The Act made the president able to provide land to them.
