1600s

By facebooker_3933253726766894

  • Cuttyhunk Colony

    Bartholomew Gosnold attempts to colonize New England for Great Britain with establishment of the Cuttyhunk Colony.
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    Santa Fe

    Don Pedro de Peralta properly settles the beginnings of the second oldest city in America around 1610.

  • Jamestown

    Jamestown, the first American settlement, is established by the London Company in southeast Virginia.
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    Smallpox Ravages The Native Population

    Smallpox epidemic wipes out 90% of the Native Americans in the Massachusetts Bay area.

  • House of Burgesses/First African Slaves Brought to America

    The House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in America, meets for the first time in Virginia, and the first African Slaves are brought to America later the same year

  • The Mayflower

    The Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts is established by Pilgrims from England that sailed over on the Mayflower

  • The "First Thanksgiving"

    The first Thanksgiving celebration is held in the autumn for three days between the Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe, who had helped them settle and plant the colony's land.

  • Massachusetts Bay Colony

    The first vessels of Winthrop's eleven ship fleet, eventually totaling seven hundred aboard, leaves England for the Puritan colony already established in Salem, establishing the foundation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

  • Boston

    Settlement of Boston begins when John Winthrop and one hundred and seventy-five of his colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony choose the Trimountain to harbor area to establish a town.

  • Maryland

    Maryland is founded as a Catholic colony promoting religious tolerance. Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of England's Charles I.

  • Providence Rhode Island

    Providence, Rhode Island is founded as a colony by Roger Williams two years after his banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Its charter would be granted eight years later as a democratic colony believing in the separation of church and state.

  • Pequot War

    Pequot War begins between Pequot tribe and their alliance against the Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies. War ended on September 21, 1638 with the Treaty of Hartford. Only two hundred Pequot tribe members remained.

  • Harvard College is Founded

    Harvard College is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first college to be established in North America.

  • The First Laws in Massachusetts

    The Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes its first set of laws in the Body of Liberties.

  • More Laws Established as the Colonies Explore Their Own Form of Government

    Witchcraft is made a capital crime in English law. The Massachusetts colony becomes the first colony to legalize slavery.

  • Navigation Acts

    English Parliament passes the first in a series of Navigation Acts, banning use of anything but English ships in commerce with its colonies.

  • New Sweden

    Colony of New Sweden in today's Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey is defeated by Dutch and incorporated into the Colony of New Netherlands.

  • New York

    Three hundred British troops seize New Netherlands from the Dutch in a peaceful takeover. The Duke of York, brother to Charles II, is granted the Dutch province and city of New Amsterdam, renaming them New York.

  • The Dutch Briefly Recapture New York

    Dutch forces recapture the colony of New York (New Amsterdam) from the British, but would only be able to hold power in the area for one year.
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    King Phillips War

    Conflict between the Native inhabitants of New England and the Colonists (and their Native allies). Also known as "The First Indian War"

  • Pueblo Rebellion

    Pueblo Rebellion of indigenous Pueblo people against Spanish colony of Santa Fe kills four hundred and forces remaining two thousand from their land. It would take twelve years before the Spanish attempted to recolonize.
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    The Colony of Pennsylvania

    William Penn formed the religiously tolerant (specifically for Quakers) colony of Pennsylvania. He wanted peace with the Native population.

  • LaSalle

    France claims the lower Mississippi River valley, Louisiana when Robert Cavelier Sieur de LaSalle explores the region.

  • King William's War

    King William's War, also known as the Second Indian War, begins, the first in a series of colonial wars between New France and the British colonies. It would last for nine years.

  • Two Treatises of Government

    John Locke wrote rejecting the divine right of Kings, and instead supported "natural rights" to things like land, and argued for a more limited constitutional government and the protection of individual rights.

  • Boston Revolts Against Adros

    Boston revolt against dominion of New England governor Sir William Andros ends in his removal.
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    The Salem Witch Hunt

    The Salem witch hunts, spurred by preaching, results in the arrest of one hundred and fifty people and the death of nineteen (including the direct ancestor of the student creating this timeline, Mary Easty). These trials were held in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties.

  • Jamestown to Williamsburg

    Jamestown is abandoned after the statehouse is burned in 1698 with the colonial government moving to Middle Plantation, renamed soon after as Williamsburg in 1699.