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1492
Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange is the exchange of diseases, ideas, food. crops, and populations between the New World and the Old World following the voyage to the Americas by Columbus in 1492. It is important because it led to increased trade and food production across the globe. However, it also had a negative impact with disease and slavery. This exchange impacted and helped Europeans the most. -
Jamestown Settlement
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact was an agreement that bound the signers to obey the government and legal system established in Plymouth Colony. The Mayflower Compact remained in effect until Plymouth Colony became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. -
Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts, were acts of Parliament intended to promote the self-sufficiency of the British Empire by restricting colonial trade to England and decreasing dependence on foreign imported goods. The intention of these acts was to promote the self-sufficiency of Great Britain and to decrease dependency on foreign imports. -
Bacons Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia was the first popular uprising in the American colonies. It was long viewed as an early revolt against English tyranny, which culminated in the war for independence one hundred years later. Bacon's Rebellion, grew out of tensions between Native Americans and English settlers as well as tensions between wealthy English landowners and the poor settlers who continually pushed west into Native territory. -
Second Treatise of Government: John Locke
Locke's views in the Second Treatise extolled the importance of natural liberty or natural rights and how the consent of the governed was critical for legitimate rule, positions which later became hallmarks of the American revolutionary ideology. -
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials and executions came about as the result of a combination of church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children, all of which unfolded in a vacuum of political authority. During the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Twenty of those people were executed, most by hanging -
Stono Rebellion
It was large slave uprising, near the Stono River, 20 miles southwest of Charleston, South Carolina. Slaves gathered, raided a firearms shop, and headed south, killing more than 20 white people as they went. This was The largest and most significant slave rebellion in the British North American colonies, the Stono Rebellion revealed tensions that continued in slave states throughout the next century. -
Albany Congress
The congress conference in U.S. colonial history at Albany, New York, that advocated a union of the British colonies in North America for their security and defense against the French, foreshadowing their later unification. The main purpose of this was to develop a treaty with Native Americans and plan the defense of the colonies against France -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was signed by U.S. and British Representatives on September 3, 1783, ending the War of the American Revolution. The agreement recognized U.S. independence and granted the U.S. significant western territory. -
Boston Massacre
March 5, 1770, British soldiers shot into a crowd of rowdy colonists in front of the Custom House on King Street, killing five and wounding six. The Boston Massacre marked the moment when political tensions between British soldiers and American colonists turned deadly. -
Intolerable Acts
The Coercive Acts of 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. The four acts were the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
the famous 'shot heard 'round the world', marked the start of the American War of Independence. Politically disastrous for the British, it persuaded many Americans to take up arms and support the cause of independence. In this first battle of the American Revolution, Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence. American victory. -
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by Congress on July 5, 1775, to be sent to the King as a last attempt to prevent formal war from being declared. The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens. The Congress met according to adjournment. -
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Common Sense made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it. Paine relentlessly insisted that British rule was responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by colonial independence. -
Battle of Trenton
The Battle of Trenton took place on December 26, 1776, and was George Washington's attempt to restore the morale of the army and help gain new recruits. Despite the large number of Hessians that escaped Trenton, Washington still won a crucial strategic and material victory. In only one hour of fighting, the Continental Army captured nearly nine hundred Hessian officers and soldiers as well as a large supply of muskets, bayonets, swords, and cannons. -
Battle of Saratoga
Burgoyne and his troops, defeated, began a march to the town of Saratoga where they entrenched themselves once again in hopes of escaping. Within a fortnight, however, Gates's army had surrounded them and forced them to surrender. The Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the Revolutionary War. The American defeat of the superior British army lifted patriot morale, furthered the hope for independence, and helped to secure the foreign support needed to win the war. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles created a sovereign, national government, and, as such, limited the rights of the states to conduct their own diplomacy and foreign policy. The Articles established a weak central government and placed most powers in the hands of the states. Under the Articles, the US economy faltered, since the central government lacked the power to enforce tax laws or regulate commerce. It was very important even though it did fail, it was the first government ever made in U.S. -
Battle of Yorktown
Supported by the French army and navy, Washington's forces defeated Lord Charles Cornwallis' veteran army dug in at Yorktown, Virginia. Victory at Yorktown led directly to the peace negotiations that ended the war in 1783 and gave America its independence. -
Shay's Rebellion
A violent insurrection in the Massachusetts countryside during 1786 and 1787, Shays' Rebellion was brought about by a monetary debt crisis at the end of the American Revolutionary War. Although Massachusetts was the focal point of the crisis, other states experienced similar economic hardships. -
Constitutional Convention
A convention of delegates from all the states except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Known as the Constitutional Convention, at this meeting it was decided that the best solution to the young country's problems was to set aside the Articles of Confederation and write a new constitution. -
George Washington's Inauguration
With this inauguration, the executive branch of the United States government officially began operations under the new frame of government established by the 1787 Constitution. Washington expressed a self-effacing caveat regarding his own deficiencies, a humble indication of his submission to the call of public duty when summoned by my Country, and a rationalistic determination that "the foundations of our national policy must be laid in the pure and immutable principles. -
Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin
In 1794, U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. By the mid-19th century, cotton had become America's leading export. -
Whisley Rebellion
In 1794, farmers from Western Pennsylvania rose up in protest of what they saw as unfair taxation and provided the new nation, and George Washington, with a looming crisis. In 1791, Congress approved a new, federal tax on spirits and the stills that produced them. The Whiskey Rebellion was an important event for the new government because they proved their power to enforce the law by defusing the rebellion without a single loss of life. -
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were primarily protests against the limitations on civil liberties contained in the Alien and Sedition Acts rather than expressions of full-blown constitutional theory. Drafted in secret by future Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the resolutions condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional and claimed that because these acts overstepped federal authority under the Constitution, they were null and void. -
Marbury v. Madison
In Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803, the Supreme Court, for the first time, struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. This decision created the doctrine of judicial review and set up the Supreme Court of the United States as chief interpreter of the Constitution. -
Louisiana Purchase
In this transaction with France, signed on April 30, 1803, the United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. For roughly 4 cents an acre, the United States doubled its size, expanding the nation westward. Jefferson rationalized his decision for the treaty to be sent to Congress without an amendment to John Breckinridge. -
Embargo Act
President Thomas Jefferson placed an embargo to limit American trade. Embargo Act, Legislation by the U.S. Congress in December 1807 that closed U.S. ports to all exports and restricted imports from Britain. The act was Pres. Thomas Jefferson's response to British and French interference with neutral U.S. merchant ships during the Napoleonic Wars. -
The Battle of New Orleans
American troops defeated a poorly executed British assault on New Orleans in slightly more than 30 minutes, despite the British having a large advantage in training, experience, and fielded troops. The Americans suffered roughly 250 casualties, while the British suffered roughly 2,000. The battle thwarted a British effort to gain control of a critical American port and elevated Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson to national fame. -
Missouri Compromise
This legislation admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time, so as not to upset the balance between slave and free states in the nation. It also outlawed slavery above the 36º 30' latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory. Territories north of this line were to be free states, while those south of the line could choose to permit slavery. -
Monroe Doctrine
The European powers, according to Monroe, were obligated to respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States' sphere of interest. President James Monroe's 1823 annual message to Congress contained the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was important because it contributed to American influence in the Western Hemisphere and demonstrated American resolve to be free from European intervention. -
Tariff of Abominations
The tariff of 1828 raised taxes on imported manufactures so as to reduce foreign competition with American manufacturing. Southerners, arguing that the tariff enhanced the interests of the Northern manufacturing industry at their expense, referred to it as the Tariff of Abominations. -
Indian Removal Act
It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. -
Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion
Turner and his followers started at his master's house and killed the entire family. They marched throughout Southampton County in Virginia, killing at least 55 people until white authorities crushed the revolt. Turner avoided capture for nearly two months before he was caught. -
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was the start of an economic downturn in the United States that lasted for several years and led to high unemployment. Multiple factors led to this event. Prior to this financial crisis, unregulated banks gave too many loans and printed excessive amounts of their own money. -
Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including the present-day states California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. The treaty helped precipitate civil war in both Mexico and the United States. In Mexico it left many citizens unsure of their country's future as an independent state -
Seneca Falls Convention
Seneca Falls was the first women's rights convention and was organized by a group of five women. They discussed their lives and challenges over tea, then decided that they should do something. Although the convention became best known for its demand for women's right to vote, the Declaration of Sentiments covered a wide agenda, asserting that women should have equality in every area of life: politics, the family, education, jobs, religion, and morals. -
Compromise of 1850
The acts called for the admission of California as a free state, provided for a territorial government for Utah and New Mexico, established a boundary between Texas and the United States, called for the abolition of slave trade in Washington, DC. While the Compromise had several components, its primary goal was to balance the interests of the slaveholding South and the free North and to prevent the secession of Southern states that could lead to the dissolution of the Union. -
Kansas and Nebraska Act
The Kansas Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated popular sovereignty allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed whithin a new states border. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced a bill that divided the land immediately west of Missouri into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. He argued in favor of popular sovereignty, or the idea that the settlers of the new territories should decide if slavery would be legal there. -
Dred Scott v. Stanford Case
Missouri's Dred Scott Case, 1846-1857. In its 1857 decision that stunned the nation, the United States Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts -
Election of 1860
The national outcome of the 1860 election gave Lincoln a victory in both the popular vote and the electoral vote. Abraham Lincoln was elected to be president of the United States in 1860 and 1864, just before and during the American Civil War. The election of 1860 shaped the future of the United States by heralding the end of slavery and marked by a time of unprecedented violence in the nation. -
First Battle of Bull Run
Federal forces under General Irwin McDowell attempted to flank Confederate positions by crossing Bull Run but were turned back. The end result of the battle was a Confederate victory and Federal forces retreated to the defenses of Washington, DC. Bull Run was the first full-scale battle of the Civil War. The fierce fight there forced both the North and South to face the sobering reality that the war would be long and bloody. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to live on and improve their plot by cultivating the land. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free. It was the culminating act of many arguments and papers by abolitionists. It was an endearing proclamation by President Lincoln to free slaves. -
Battle of Vicksburg
Vicksburg's strategic location on the Mississippi River made it a critical win for both the Union and the Confederacy. The Confederate surrender there ensured Union control of the Mississippi River and cleaved the South in two. Vicksburg eventually gave control of the Mississippi River—a critical supply line—to the Union, and was part of the Union's successful Anaconda Plan to cut off all trade to the Confederacy. -
Gettysburg Address
The stated purpose of Lincoln's speech was to dedicate a plot of land that would become Soldier's National Cemetery. The Gettysburg Address gave meaning to the sacrifice of over fifty thousand men who laid down their lives in the Battle of Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address declared that the United States had to stand as a country where all men are created equal and should be treated as equals. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment is the amendment to the U.S. Constitution that officially made slavery illegal. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. -
Surrender at Appomattox
Appomattox is most famous for the events of April 1865, when Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant to effectively end the American Civil War. Trapped by the Federals near Appomattox Court House, Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant, precipitating the capitulation of other Confederate forces and leading to the end of the bloodiest conflict in American history. -
National Labor Union
The National Labor Union was the first attempt in the United States to organize a national federation of labor when labor groups met in Baltimore beginning on August 20, 1866. This is an economic perspective on the change to an 8-hour work day. A coalition of skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, and reformers, the National Labor Union was created to pressure Congress to enact labor reforms -
Reconstruction Act of 1867
In March 1867, Congress overrode President Johnson's veto and the First Reconstruction Act became law. The act implemented “Reconstruction” as a longer period of post-war transition that empowered African American men as an electorate and excluded former government officials who had aided the Confederacy.