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Period: 1568 to
Eighty Years’ War
The struggle of independence of the Netherlands from Spain, which resulted in the division of the Netherlands into northern and southern provinces and the foundation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands (the Dutch Republic). -
Saint Croix Island (French) (Maine)
Saint Croix Island, Maine
Saint Croix Island International Historic Site -
Jamestown (Virginia)
To establish a colony in North America, 104 English men and boys landed. They chose Jamestown, Virginia, on May 13 as the site of their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The colony became North America's first permanent English settlement. -
Popham Colony (Maine)
The first organized attempt by the English to create a colony on the coasts of what is now known as New England was the Popham Colony. It was planted in the summer of 1607 near the mouth of the Kennebec River and lasted little over a year until being abandoned in the fall of 1608. -
Santa Fe, New Mexico founded by Spanish
Santa Fe, New Mexico's State Capitol. It was titled Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis (Spanish: "Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi") and constructed around a central square in 1610 by Governor Don Pedro de Peralta. -
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Anglo-Powhatan Wars
In the early seventeenth century, the Anglo–Powhatan Conflicts were three wars fought between Europeans of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy. The first conflict began in 1610 and concluded in 1614 with a peace treaty. From 1622 through 1626, the second conflict raged. -
Henricus, Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale
Sir Thomas Dale created the "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town, or Henrico—in 1611 as an alternative to the marshy and treacherous territory around the initial English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. -
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Kalmar War
The battle between Denmark and Sweden over control of the northern Norwegian coast and hinterland, which ended with Sweden accepting Denmark-authority Norway's over the region. -
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New Netherland
The first Dutch colony in North America was New Netherland. It spanned sections of what are now the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Delaware, and ran from Albany, New York, to Delaware, in the south. -
John Rolfe plants the first tabacco crop in Virginia
He was the first in North America to commercially produce Nicotiana tabacum tobacco plants in 1611, and the export of this sweeter tobacco, which began in 1612, helped the Virginia Colony generate a profit. -
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Thirty Years’ War
The first Dutch colony in North America was New Netherland. It spanned sections of what are now the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Delaware, and ran from Albany, New York, to Delaware, in the south. -
Slavery begins in Virginia
Twenty Africans from present-day Angola came in Virginia on the ship The White Lion in 1619, the first time Africans were transported to colonial Virginia. Enslaved individuals were often compelled to work on enormous plantations as the slave trade increased, and their free labor made plantation owners wealthy. -
Dutch slave ship visits Jamestown
Twenty Africans were sold to Virginia colonists by a Dutch slave ship. Slavery in the South was established. -
The House of Burgesses is established
The House of Burgesses was a representative assembly in colonial Virginia that arose from the General Assembly of Virginia, the first elective governing body in a British foreign dominion. On July 30, 1619, Governor George Yeardley convened the General Assembly at Jamestown. -
Plymouth & Pilgrims
The Pilgrims were English pioneers who arrived in North America aboard the Mayflower and founded the Plymouth Colony in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the Mayflower's ultimate destination of Plymouth, Devon. The Pilgrims' narrative has become a significant motif in American history and society. -
Indian massacre (Virginia)
The Indian Massacre of 1622 was a Powhatan Confederacy raid on Virginia Colony towns headed by Opchanacanough (l. 1554-1646) and his brother Opitchapam (d. c. 1630), which resulted in the deaths of 347 colonists. -
Powhatan attack on Jamestown
For the following ten years, the colonists cited the 1622 massacre as justification for acquiring Powhatan land. The "Massacre of 1622," a native American invasion that killed 347 English settlers and nearly wiped out Jamestown, was the inspiration for the settlers' actions. -
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Powhatan War
The Powhatan War (1622–44) was a long-running conflict between the Powhatan Indian confederacy and early English settlers in Virginia's tidewater region and southern Maryland. The Indian power was destroyed as a result of the struggle. -
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New Hampshire (Province)
New Hampshire was founded by Europeans in the 1620s, and for many years, the province consisted of a limited handful of villages around the seacoast, Piscataqua River, and Great Bay. -
New Castle, New Hampshire
It is New Hampshire's smallest and easternmost town, as well as the only one entirely on islands. The New Castle Common, a 31-acre (13 ha) leisure area on the Atlantic Ocean, is home to the Fort Constitution Historic Site, Fort Stark Historic Site, and the Fort Constitution Historic Site. -
Salem, Massachusetts
The town of Salem, Massachusetts' seat of Essex County, is situated near the mouth of the Naumkeag River on the state's northeast coast. It is well known for the witchcraft panic that swept the region in the last years of the seventeenth century. Roger Conant and a group of Cape Ann settlers founded Salem in 1626. -
Maryland is Created
In 1632, King Charles I of England awarded George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, a charter that gave him exclusive ownership of a territory east of the Potomac River in exchange for a part of the land's profits. -
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Connecticut (Settlement to Colony)
The Connecticut Colony, or Colony of Connecticut, was an English colony in New England that became the state of Connecticut. It was initially known as the Connecticut River Colony, or simply the River Colony. -
Pequot War
The Pequot War was a violent battle in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies, as well as their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes, that took place between 1636 and 1638. -
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Beaver Wars (Iroquois Wars / French and Iroquois Wars)
The French and Iroquois Wars (also known as the Iroquois Wars or the Beaver Wars) were a series of wars in eastern North America in the late 17th century in which the Iroquois tried to extend their territory and gain control of the fur trade between the French and the Iroquois. -
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Bishops’ Wars
The Bishops' Wars (1639, 1640) were two brief conflicts waged between Charles I and the Scots in British history. The conflicts erupted as a result of Charles' attempt to impose Anglican observances in the Scottish Church, as well as the Scots' intention to destroy episcopacy. -
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English Civil Wars
The English Civil War, which lasted from 1642 to 1651, saw King Charles I (1600–1649) battle Parliament for control of the English government. The struggle between the monarchy's sovereignty and Parliament's powers led to the outbreak of the war. As the war escalated, Charles was assassinated and a republic was established. -
New England Confederation
In the seventeenth century, the New England Confederation was a military alliance formed by the New England colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven, and Massachusetts Bay. In 1643, the alliance was founded to give united military support against Native American, French, and Dutch invasions. -
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Kieft's War (Pavonia Massacre)
The Massacre was caused by Willem Kieft, who lead a raid into Pavonia that caused over 100 hundred Lenape people. They were unarmed and of all ages, and both genders. -
Maryland Toleration Act
The legislature of the Province of Maryland approved "An Act Concerning Religion," popularly known as the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649, long before the First Amendment was written. The ordinance was intended to preserve religious freedom for the colony's Christian settlers of various faiths. -
King Charles's execution
The beheading of Charles I took place outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall on Tuesday, January 30, 1649. Charles ascended the scaffold and delivered his final statement, professing his innocence of the charges leveled against him by parliament and claiming to be a "martyr of the people." -
English Parliment makes the Navigation Act
The Navigation Acts (1651, 1660) were acts of Parliament aimed at increasing the British Empire's self-sufficiency by confining colonial commerce to England and reducing reliance on imported products from other countries.... under penalty of forfeiture of ships and merchandise." -
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Anglo Dutch Wars
The Anglo–Dutch Wars (Dutch: Engels–Nederlandse Oorlogen) were a series of wars mostly fought between the Dutch Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain (later Great Britain). The first three were fought in the second half of the 17th century over commerce and overseas colonies, while the fourth took place a century later. -
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First Northern War
The First Northern War (1655–60) was the penultimate episode of the Polish-Swedish succession dispute. Although the Swedes were forced out of Poland, they attacked Denmark again. The conflict concluded with the Polish kings reneging on their claim to the Swedish throne and the Swedes taking Skane from Denmark. -
Province of New York
On the northeast coast of North America, the Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and subsequently a royal colony. As one of the Thirteen Colonies in the middle, New York gained freedom and joined the others in forming the United States. -
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War of Devolution
The Devolutionary War (1667–68) was a struggle between France and Spain over the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium and Luxembourg). -
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John Lederer Explores the Appalachian / Blue Ridge Mountains
John Lederer was a German physician and Appalachian Mountain explorer in the 17th century. He and his companions were the first Europeans to reach the summit of the Blue Ridge Mountains (1669), as well as the first to sight the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. -
Charles Town (Charleston, South Carolina)
The Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site is located on a marshy spot along the Ashley River, where a party of English immigrants arrived in 1670 and founded the Carolina colony's birthplace. Visitors may learn about Charleston's early colonial history at Charles Towne Landing. -
Hudson's Bay Company Founded
The Hudson's Bay Firm (HBC), founded on May 2, 1670, is the world's oldest established joint-stock retailing company. For the most of its existence, HBC was a fur trading company, with a past that is intertwined with the colonization of British North America and the creation of Canada. -
Batts-Fallam Expedition
Their trip produced the first strong British and Virginian claims to the Ohio and Mississippi River basins, subsequently dubbed the Batts and Fallam Expedition when their names were misspelled in stories of the mission. During the 1680s, Batte worked as a county court justice. -
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Louis Joliet & Jacques Marquette explore the Illinois Country
Marquette and his companion Louis Joliet (sometimes spelt "Jolliet"), a French-Canadian fur trader and explorer, were chosen to head an expedition of five men and two canoes to identify the course and mouth of the Mississippi River, which the indigenous had named Messipi, "the Great Water," on May 17, 1673. -
The murder of John Sassamon
ohn Sassamon (c. 1620–1675), sometimes known as Wussausmon, was a Massachusetts native who resided in New England during the early colonial period. Sassamon was attacked and killed in January 1675. Three Wampanoag men were convicted and killed for his murder by a jury made up of colonists and Indian elders. -
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King Philip's War
From 1675 to 1676, King Philip's War, also known as the First Indian War, the Great Narragansett War, or Metacom's Rebellion, raged in southern New England. It was the Native Americans' final attempt to resist acknowledging English sovereignty and prevent English colonization of their ancestral homeland. -
Arkansas Post
The Arkansas Post, located 25 miles from the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, was a huge fort. It was planned to keep pressure off Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last major Rebel city on the Mississippi River, and to ensure Confederate control of the White and Arkansas rivers. -
The Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, often known as "The Revolution of 1688" and "The Bloodless Revolution," occurred in England between 1688 and 1689. The Catholic monarch James II was deposed, and his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch spouse, William of Orange, took his place. -
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War of the Grand Alliance
The Grand Alliance War (1689–97) was fought between France and the United Kingdom. Louis XIV of France's third major war, in which an alliance led by Britain, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the Austrian Habsburgs thwarted his expansionist objectives. The rivalry between the Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties was the core reason that drove the conflict. -
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King William's War
The American phase of the War of the Grand Alliance, in which England and her American colonies and Indian allies faced forth against France and its Indian allies (1689–97). -
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French and Indian Wars
The French and Indian War was a North American engagement of the Seven Years' War, a broader imperial warfare between Great Britain and France. In 1754, British colonial soldiers headed by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington attempted to drive the French out of Britain, but were outmanned and defeated.