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Jamestown
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Established by the Virginia Company of London.Jamestown settlers went around looking for gold in the New World, and none of them farmed, and soon they ran out of supplies and many began to die. However, along with the help of Indians, and John Smith, they were able to survive. -
House of Burgesses
The first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony of Virginia in 1619. Over time, the name came to represent the entire official legislative body of the colony of Virginia. After the American Revolution, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. -
Founding of Massachussets Bay
The owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company founded the colony. The population was strongly Puritan, and its governance was dominated by a small group of leaders who were strongly influenced by Puritan religious leaders. Bay Colony was founded under the principle of religious freedom. Non-conformists for the purpose of enjoying greater religious liberty founded it. -
Pequot War
was an armed conflict in 1634-1638 between an alliance of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies, with Native American allies against the Pequot tribe. Friction arose about unfair trading, selling alcohol, and destruction of crops. In 1636 when the Pequot killed a colonist, the governor called a militia and attacked the tribe. -
King Philip’s War (Metacom)
A series of battles in New Hampshire between the colonists and the Wompanowogs, led by the chief know as King Philip. The war was started when the Massachusetts governments tried to assert court jurisdiction over the local Indians. The colonists won with the help of the Mohawks, and this victory opened up additional Indian lands for expansion. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Nathaniel Bacon and other western Virginia settlers were angry with Virginia Governor Berkley for trying to appease the Deog Indians after the Doegs attacked the western settlements. The frontiersmen formed an army, with Bacon as its leader, which defeated the Indians and then marched on Jamestown and burned the city. The rebellion ended suddenly when Bacon died of an illness -
Salem Witch Trails
Series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court of trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts. These women were brought before the local magistrates on the complaint of witchcraft and interrogated for several days, then sent to jail -
French and Indian War
Part of the Seven Years' War in Europe. Britain and France fought for control of the Ohio Valley and Canada. The Algonquians, who feared British, allied with the French. The Mohawks also fought for the French, while the rest of the Iroquois Nation allied with the British. Britain eventually won, and gained control of all of the remaining French possessions in Canada, as well as India. -
Stamp Act
Required that all legal or official documents used in the colonies, such as wills, deeds and contracts, had to be written on special, stamped British paper. -
Quartering Act
Quartering Act was to address the practical concerns of such a troop deployment. Each colonial assembly was directed to provide for the basic needs of soldiers stationed within its borders. -
Boston Massacre
The Massacre was the 1770, pre-Revolutionary incident growing out of the anger against the British troops sent Boston to maintain order and to enforce the Townshend Acts. Finally on March 5, 1770, fired into a rioting crowd. -
Tea Act
Tea Act eliminated imports tariffs on tea entering England and allowed the British East India Company to sell directly to consumers rather than through merchants. This act effectively created a monopoly for East India Company, which had been in financial difficulties. -
Boston Tea Party
Boston was boycotting the tea in protest of the Tea Act and would not let the ships bring the tea ashore. Finally, on the night -
Lexington and Concord
These battles initiated the Revolutionary War between the American colonists and the British. Shots were fired in Lexington, starting the war. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence announced that the thirteen American colonies, who were at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. -
Shay's Rebellion
Captain Daniel Shays, a farmer, led other farmers in an uprising against high state taxes, imprisonment for debt, and lack of paper money. In January 1787, the state militia of Massachusetts stopped Shay’s Rebellion. -
Constitutional Convention
Delegates from the states met in Philadelphia to talk about the problems with the government. Met in 1787. -
Judiciary Act 1789:
On September 24, 1789, the U.S. congress established a federal judiciary court. The existence of a separate federal judiciary had been controversial during the debates over the ratification of the Constitution. Anti-Federalists had denounced the judicial power as a potential instrument of national tyranny. Indeed, of the ten amendments that eventually became the Bill of Rights -
Second Great Awakening
Began with the arguments of how religion should or should not be taught in a classroom. Some of the best-known preachers are: Peter Cartwrite and Charles Grandison Finney -
Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion was a 1791 tax protest in the United States led by Alexander Hamilton, that was an attempt to pay off the national debt. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress in the aftermath of the French Revolution. -
Revolution of 1800
The Revolution of 1800 was so named by the winner of the 1800 election, Thomas Jefferson. He called this election a revolution because his party, the Republicans, peacefully and orderly received the power with nothing but acceptance by the federalists. This was how the founding fathers designed the government to be. -
Marbury v. Madison
William Marbury had been commissioned justice of the peace in the District of Columbia by President John Adams in the “midnight appointments” at the very end of his administration. When the new administration did not deliver the commission, Marbury sued James Madison. The decision was the first by the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional and void an act passed by Congress that the Court considered in violation of the Constitution. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase is considered the greatest real estate deal in history. The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France at a price of $15 million, or approximately four cents an acre. The ratification of the Louisiana Purchase treaty by the Senate on October 20, 1803, doubled the size of the United States and opened up the continent to its westward expansion -
Embargo Act 1807
Law passed by Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807. This law stopped all trade between America and any other country. The goal was to get Britain and France, who were fighting each other at the time, to stop restricting American trade. The Act backfired, and the American people suffered. The Act was ended in 1809. -
War of 1812
America was angry with England and after England decided to board an American ship, they tried to hurt England by making an embargo but it hurt Americans more than it hurt the British. Thomas Jefferson decided to go to war, there were battles in Lake Erie, and the Burning of Washington, and as the British tried to take Baltimore harbor but the American troops held them off, this inspired a lawyer detained on a British ship to write the Star-Spangled Banner. -
Election of 1816
The years following* the end of the War of 1812 have been called the “era of good feelings” because of their apparent lack of partisan political strife. In the Election of 1816, James Monroe decisively defeated the last of the Federalist candidates. Monroe was overwhelmingly reelected in the Election of 1820 with no opposition whatsoever. -
Election of 1824
It is known as the Corrupt Bargain because John Q. Adams seemed to have made an unsavory bargain deal with Henry Clay. Clay finished fourth in the electoral vote and so was not eligible to win. He was able to get the states that he had carried to vote for Adams even though Jackson would seem to be the more logical choice for their interests. In return Adams appointed him as Secretary of State, a position that at that time was viewed as a stepping-stone to the Presidency -
Election of 1828
The United States presidential election of 1828 featured a rematch between John Quincy Adams, now incumbent President, and Andrew Jackson. No other major candidates appeared in the race, allowing Jackson to consolidate a power base and easily win an electoral victory over Adams. The Democratic Party drew support from the existing supporters of Jackson and their coalition with the supporters of Crawford (the "Old Republicans") and Vice President Calhoun. -
Indian Removal Act 1830
President Andrew Jackson signed The Indian Removal Act into law on May 28, 1830. The act authorized him to negotiate with the Indians in the Southern United States for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their homelands -
Nullification Crisis 1832
The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by South Carolina's 1832 Ordinance of Nullification. This ordinance declared by the power of the State that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the sovereign boundaries of South Carolina. -
Texas Independence
The United States and Mexico disagreed on the border between Texas and Mexico. In 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico agreed to the annexation of Texas and the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico. Mexico also gave a large area of land, the Mexican Cession, to the United States -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalg
Ended Mexican-American War; Mexico gave up all claims to land from Texas to California for $15 million. Most important it gave the United States the Rio Grande boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California, and a large area comprising New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. -
Mexican-American War
Conflict after US annexation of Texas; Mexico still considered Texas its own; Victor: US; granted all land from Texas to California (minus the Gadsden Purchase) in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo -
Dawes Act
Attempt to "Americanize" the Indians giving each tribe 160 acres; after 25 years this property would become theirs (if they were good little whites) and they would become an American citizen -
Wounded Knee Massacre:
A massacre in 1890 that started when Sioux left the reservation in protest because of the death of Sitting Bull. The US army killed 150 sioux at wounded knee; last major incident in the great plains -
Spanish-American War:
In 1898, a conflict between the United States and Spain, in which the U.S. supported the Cubans' fight for independence. The Cubans did not allow to be ruled by the USA, and therefore, the USA were forced to grant them their independence, but with the Platt amendment, that allowed them to intervene in Cuba whenever they wanted. -
Founding of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on February 12, 1909. After a race riot in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, "The Call" went out to Northerners to find a way to create social equality. -
First Red Scare:
America's fear of becoming overpowered by communism. This event fueled existing prejudice against immigrants, particularly Jews and people from eastern and southern Europe. -
Red Summer:
1919 Anti-communist crusades due to fear of radicalism spurred by Bolshevik rebellion -
Harlem Renaissance
1920 Racial pride grew in northern black communities. -
Election of 1932
The election took place in the midst of the Great Depression that had ruined the promises of incumbent President and Republican candidate Herbert Hoover to bring about a new era of prosperity. Prohibition was a favorite Democratic target, as few Republicans tried to defend it. -
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They involved presidential executive orders or laws passed by Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. -
Attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. These two events represent the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date. -
Truman Doctrine
The president asked Congress in March 1947 for $400 million in economic and military aid to assist the “free people” of Greece and Turkey against “totalitarian” regimes. -
Fall of China to Communism (1949)
By the end of 1949, all of mainland China had fallen to the Communist forces. Chiang Kai-Shek, his new government in Formosa (Taiwan). In 1950, Republicans were alarmed by the “loss of China” because two communist dictators signed a Sino-Soviet pact, which gave many people thinking there was a communist conspiracy worldwide -
Creation of NATO 1949
The following twelve nations agreed to set up a mutual defense and collective security pact, affirming that an attack against one of them is an attack against all. After the end of the Cold War, the purpose of NATO changed from purely defensive to also offensive which was rrecently seen in the military intervention of Libya -
Korean War (1950-1953)
Korea was divided after World War 2, half communist half American Occupied. MacArthur was the general in Korea and Truman was president, Truman fired him after he told him to be less offensive in his attacks and when he went against orders he was fired. This was very unpopular and Truman almost got impeached. Eisenhower became president In 1953 a peace treaty was signed at Panmunjom that ended the Korean War, returning Korea to a divided status essentially the same as the same as before the war. -
Intolerable Acts
The intolerable Acts were seen by American colonists as a blueprint for a British plan to deny the Americans representative government. They were the motivation for the convening of the First Continental Congress.
-Quebec Act
-Boston Port Act
-Coercive Act -
Plymouth Colony and Mayflower Compact
The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony served as the capital of the colony.Founded by a group of Separatists and Anglicans, who together later came to be known as the Pilgrims, The Mayflower Compact is often cited as the first example of self-government in the Americas. -
Election of 1952
During this time, Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating rapidly. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional investigations into the issue of Communist spies within the U.S. government.
