DATE

EVENTS

1492

Columbus arrives

   -begins Columbian Exchange

   -Spain sends conquistadors & Armada

   -Spain sets up encomiendas (missions like in CA & others)

1587

   -Sir Walter Raleigh    Roanoke Island

   -disappeared by 1590 “Lost Colony”

1588

   -England defeats Spanish Armada

   -England becomes superpower  begins colonization soon after

1607

Jamestown

   -Joint Stock Company    investor-backed

   -backer company    Virginia Company

-Captain John Smith    leader

   -martial law instituted for survival

1609-1610 desperate times

   -Powhatan Confederacy aides Jamestown

-tobacco   cash crop, saves colony from extinction

-Chesapeake becomes name of surrounding area

-indentured servants – popular and useful

-1618 headright sys.  50 acres given to a plantation owner who sponsored ppl over to America

1619

House of Burgesses    first government in colonies

-white property-owning males could vote

-slavery begins in the English colonies

1620

Separatists leave England accidentally

arrive in Massachusetts in “Mayflower”

   -settlement called “Plymouth”

-Mayflower Compact   government established, power not from God but from governed

-received aid from local Indians to further the settlement

1629

Mass. Bay Colony    Congregationalists    John Winthrop    “City on a hill”

-Puritan and Calvinist ideas

   ex. of religious intolerance

      -Roger Williams banished

          -created Rhode Island   free religion

      -Anne Hutchinson

1629-42  Great Puritan Migration

1649-1660    little immigration because England was mainly Puritan

1635

Connecticut gets charter for being a colony

-Maryland    Lord Baltimore    haven for Christians & Catholics

1649 Act of Toleration protects Christians

1685

New York = colony

-Pennsylvania    William Penn    Quaker

-Carolina (proprietary)   split into NC (Virginia-like colony) and SC (settled by people from Barbados)

-proprietary colonies usually became royal colonies (king-controlled)

Salutary Neglect  1650-1750  Britain was hands-off on American colonies; gave America autonomy

1670’s

Bacon’s Rebellion

   -settlers v. Indian  = issue

   -led to creation of Black Codes

1692

Salem Witch Trials

   -many executions

   -unrest in religion, politics and gender led to the witch hysteria

1730’s

to

1740’s

Great Awakening

   -Jonathan Edwards    Congregationalist   “sinners in hands of angry God”   fire & brimstone

       -message was about Hell and predestination

   -George Whitefield    Methodist    Christianity   emotionalism and spirituality

       -seen in southern evangelism

Enlightenment  =  rationalism

                                emotionalism & spirituality

   -Ben Franklin  ex of enlightenment man

1754

Albany Plan    by Ben Franklin

   -inter-colonial  government plans

   -for defense

   -not accepted

1754 - 1763

7 Years War  “French-Indian War”

   -Britain wins – leads to anti-British sentiment

1763

Proclamation of 1763

   -forbids colonial settlement past Appalachian Mountains

   -angered colonists

-end of salutary neglect

-turning point of British-Colonial relations

1764

Sugar Act – to stop smuggling

Currency Act – colonists can’t make paper money

1765

Stamp Act

   -tax for revenue

   -broad tax covered legal documents too

   -affected almost everyone, especially literate and lawyers

   -taxed goods made in the colonies

“No taxation without representation”

British response    virtual representation

1766

Stamp Act repealed

Declaratory Act passed    Parliament can tax and legislate in all cases anywhere in the colonies

1767

Townshend Act

   -taxed goods imported from Britain

   -paid for government officials’ salaries

   -more vice-admiralty courts created

   -suspended NY legislation

   -“writ of assistance” – British can search anywhere; soldiers sent to Boston to keep peace March 5, 1770

Colonists protest

1769 Townshend Duties repealed

Mar 5, 1770

Boston Massacre

Dec 16, 1773

Boston Tea Party    tea tax protest

early 1774

Coercive Acts (“Intolerable Acts”)

   -closed Boston port; except for essentials

   -colonists had to house soldiers

late 1774

First Continental Congress  =  all but Georgia

goals  -determine grievances

           -address actions to grievances such as boycotts

           -Parameters which were considered Parliamentary interference

April 1775

Battles of Lexington (first battle) and Concord (American colonists held off British “shot heard ‘round the world”)

1775

2nd Continental Congress

   -established continental army

   -printing $

   -established government offices for policies

   -George Washington  leader of army

July 5, 1775

Olive Branch Petition

   -America wants reconciliation with Britain

   -last attempt to avoid armed conflict

   -King George III ignored it

January 1776

Common Sense  Thomas Paine

   -“Why should an island rule a continent?”

June 1776

Thomas Jefferson commissioned to write Declaration of Independence

July 4, 1776

Declaration of Independence signed

1778

Franco-American Alliance

   -negotiated by Ben Franklin

   -brings French into war on the colonists side

-because of battle of Saratoga

1783

Treaty of Paris

   -gave US land and independence

1777

Articles of Confederation

   -1st central government

   -lacked ability to tax, declare war, form a military

summer

1787

Constitutional Convention

   -NJ plan    modifications

   -Virginia plan    checks & balances

-Great Compromise    bicameral

   -House of Representatives    according to population

   -Senate    2 per state

-3/5ths Compromise

1789

Constitution is effective

1791

Bill of Rights added

1789

Election of Washington

   -cabinet Jefferson (Secretary of State), Hamilton (Treasury)

events

   -National Bank created

   -Hamilton’s financial plan to reduce debt

   -Neutrality Proclamation

   -Pinckney’s treaty 1796

   -no third term

1797

Farewell Address – neutrality championed

1797

John Adams

   -XZY affair

   -Alien & Sedition Acts

   -VA & KY resolutions   nullification

   -midnight appointments    Adams placed more judges in judicial positions with Federalists

    leads to Marbury v. Madison

1801

Jefferson elected

-Marbury v. Madison    established Judicial Review

1803

Louisiana Purchase

   -Lewis & Clark

1804

Jefferson re-elected

   -British impressment

   -Embargo Act 1807 &Non Intercourse Act 1809 both hurt American economy

1809-1817

James Madison

   -Macon’s Bill #2   doesn’t work

   -attacks from Britain and France

   -declared war on Britain in 1812    short war; Treaty of Ghent

        -Battle of New Orleans    Jackson wins

        -Hartford Convention    end of Federalist Party

        -American system    tariff, roads, re-chartered National Bank (protective)

             lobbied by Henry Clay

1817

James Monroe

1825

Era of Good Feelings    1st political party in America

   -McCulloch v. Maryland   states can’t tax National Bank

   -Panic of 1819    people couldn’t pay loans

re-elected

   -Adams-Onis Treaty 1819    Florida acquired from Spain

   -Monroe Doctrine

-Missouri Compromise by Henry Clay

     -Missouri    slave state

     -Maine    free state

     -36o30’; slavery is below that

1824

Corrupt bargain Henry Clay became Sec. of State & JQA President

-Dem. Party formed with Andrew Jackson supporters

1825

JQA elected

1829

Jackson presidency begins

   “Era of Common Man”    universal white male suffrage

1830

-Indian Removal Act   Trail of Tears

-Tariff of 1832  nullification issues

-vetoed 2nd Bank of US charter

-Specie circular

-panic of 1837

-Nat Turners’ Rebellion    fails

 leads to Black Codes

-Whig party emerges

    -anti-democratic party

1837

Martin van Buren becomes President

   -panic of 1837

1841

William Henry Harrison dies one month in office

1841

John Tyler becomes President

“President without a Party”

2nd Great Awakening   1790’s – 1840’s

   -Temperance

   -slavery, abolition

   -reforms of society

late 1844-early 1845

Texas annexed

1845

Polk elected

1846

Oregon Treaty established northern border with Canada

   -America acquires OR, WA, parts of ID, WY, MT

1846

Mexican-American War

   -the Wilmot Proviso defeated quickly

1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

   -ends Mexican-American War

   -Mexican cession  $15 million for C(alifornia) A(rizona) N(evada) C(olorado) U(tah) N(ew Mexico)

1849

Zachary Taylor elected    last Whig elected

1850

Taylor dies; Fillmore takes over

1850

Compromise of 1850 written by Stephen Douglas & Henry Clay

   -CA is a state

   -stronger fugitive slave law

   -UT & WM territory created; popular sovereignty will decide slave or free eventually

   -abolished slave trade in DC

1852

Uncle Tom’s Cabin published

1852

Franklin Pierce elected

1854

Kansas Nebraska Act

   -repealed Missouri compromise

   -championed popular sovereignty

   -ends Whig party essentially

   -Republican party emerges

   -leads to increased sectionalism

1855

Bleeding Kansas

1855

Bleeding Sumner

Dred Scott decision

1858

Lincoln-Douglass debates

   -Freeport Doctrine

1859

John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry

Dec 1860

SC seceded; 7 more join to form CSA with Jefferson Davis as President

Apr 12, 1861

Fort Sumter; Civil War begins

Jan 1, 1863

Emancipation Proclamation

early 1865

Freedman’s Bureau established

April 1865

war ends

   -Lincoln assassinated

1865

Reconstruction begins

options  -10% Plan

               -Wade-Davis Bill   Lincoln vetoed it

               -Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan  kind of a combo of 10% + W-D Bill

               -Black Codes instituted in South

14th Amendment

1867

Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

1869

15th Amendment

1872

scandals    Credit Mobilier& Whiskey Ring

1873

financial panic

1877

Compromise of 1877

   -Hayes = President

   -military reconstruction ends in South

1890

McKinley tariff

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

1894

Wilson-Gorman tariff

1898-1900

Spanish-American War    Americans drive Spanish out of Cuba &Phillipines

Treaty of Paris ends war

1901

Platt Amendment

1904

Panama Canal

-Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

   -Big Stick Policy

   -America not involved in Europe

   -involved in western hemisphere

1912

Wilson elected

Aug 1914

Neutrality declared

1915

Lusitania sunk

early 1917

Zimmerman telegram

1917

declared war on Germany

1917

Espionage Act

1918

Sedition Act

FBI created with J. Edgar Hoover in charge

Jan 1918

14 Points    League of Nations made it not pass in Congress because Wilson was unwilling to compromise

1921

Harding

   -scandals

1923

Coolidge

   -business

   -cars

October 1929

Stock Market Crash

Great Depression begins

1932

FDR

   -100 Days

   -New Deal implemented

1933

Banking Act of 1933

 FDIC

-AAA (Agricultural)

-PWA (Public Works)

-SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)

1934

2nd New Deal

   -WPA

   -Social Security

-Good Neighbor Policy

1935

Neutrality Act

1936

Neutrality Act

1937

Neutrality Act

1940

Selective Training & Service Act of 1940

1941

Lend-Lease Act

late 1941

Atlantic Charter Conference with Churchill

Dec 7, 1941

Pearl Harbor attacked

June 6, 1944

D-Day

Feb 1945

Yalta Conference

Potsdam    determine A-bomb

1945

FDR dies   Truman becomes President

August 1945

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

1947

Truman Doctrine    financial support of anti-Communist nations for containment of Communism

Marshall Plan

1949

NATO    leads to CIA in America

1950

McCarthyism

   -Joseph McCarthy = names of Communists in American government

1950-1953

Korean War; Civil Rights Movement begins

Dwight Eisenhower = President

1954

Army-McCarthy trial ends scare

1954

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

1956

Suez Crisis

1957

Sputnik launched leads to NASA being established

1960

U-2 incident

1961

JFK becomes President

-Bay of Pigs

1961

Vietnam Conflict begins

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis

1963

JFK assassinated; LBJ becomes President

1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Gulf of Tonkin

1965

“Great Society” legislation

1969

Nixon is President

1969-1979

Detente

1969

moon landing

1971

America off gold standard

1972-1974

Watergate scandal

1974

Nixon resigns

1974

Gerald Ford is President; pardons Nixon

1977

Jimmy Carter elected President

1979

3-Mile Island nuclear failure

1981

Ronald Reagan elected President

1981

First Space shuttle launched

1983

Strategic Defense Initiative = “Star Wars”

1986

Iran-Contra Scandal

1989

George H. W. Bush elected President

1990-1991

Persian Gulf War

1991

Operation Desert Storm

1993

William “Bill” Clinton elected President

1994

NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement established

2000

George W. Bush elected President, wins amid controversy

Sept 11, 2001

Terrorist attacks

2001

Patriot Act