Timeline

APUSH exam timeline

By EllieJarrard
  • 1492

    Christopher Columbus (Italian, in the service of the Spanish monarchy) sails to the New World, beginning era of European colonization of the Americas

  • 1497

    Vasco da Gama (Portugal) sails to India

  • 1517

    Martin Luther challenges Roman Catholic beliefs and practices; initiates Protestant Reformation

  • 1521

    Spanish forces, led by Hernan Cortes, defeat the Mexica people, led by Montezuma

  • 1528

    John Calvin breaks with the Catholic church

  • 1532

    Spanish forces, led by Francisco Pizarro, defeat the Inca people

  • 1542

    Bartolome de Las Casas writes "A Short Account of The Destruction of the Indies"

  • 1549

    the repartimiento reforms begin to replace the enconmienda system

  • founding of the "lost" English colony of Roanoke

  • English defeat of the Spanish Armada

  • English defeats the Spanish Armada

  • Juanillo's Revolt in Florida

  • Acoma Pueblo Massacre in New Mexico

  • Jamestown colony founded

  • Henry Hudson explores area that will become New York

  • Period: to

    "Starving time" in Virginia

  • House of Burgesses established

  • founding of Plymouth Colony

  • Mayflower compact signed

  • Attack on Jamestown by local Algonquin Indians

  • New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch

  • Founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony

  • Period: to

    "Great Migration" of Puritans from England to Massachusetts

  • founding of Maryland colony

  • founding of Rhode Island colony

  • Anne Hutchinson banned from Massachusetts

  • The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted

  • Act of Religious Toleration passed in Maryland

  • The Half way covenant

  • Founding of Carolina Colony

  • King Philip's war

  • Bacon's rebellion

  • New Hampshire colony separated from Massachusetts

  • Pueblo Revolt (Pope's rebellion)

  • founding of the Pennsylvania colony

  • creation of the dominion of New England

  • the Glorious Revolution

  • colonists bring down the Dominion of New England

  • Salem Witch trials

  • founding of the North Carolina Colony

  • Molasses Act

  • Zenger Trial

  • Stono Rebellion

  • Jonathan Edward's sermon, "sinners in the hands of an angry God"

  • arrests and executions in the supposed "negro plot" in New York city

  • Beginning of French and Indian war

  • Proclamation Act

  • Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian war

  • Sugar Act

  • March of the Paxton Boys

  • First Committee of Correspondence established in Boston

  • Stamp Act Congress

  • Stamp Act

  • Declaratory Act

  • Townshend Revenue Acts

  • Boston Massacre

  • Gaspee Affair

  • Tea Act

  • Boston Tea Party

  • Coercive (intolerable) Acts

  • First Continental Congress

  • Fighting at Lexington and Concord

  • Second Continental Congress

  • Publication of "common sense" by Thomas Paine

  • Declaration of Independence

  • Articles of Confederation written

  • Battle of Saratoga

  • France enters the war on the side of the American Revolutionaries

  • Articles of Confederation ratified by the states

  • Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution

  • First Land Ordinance

  • Treaty of Fort Stanwix

  • Second Land Ordinance

  • Annapolis meeting to revise Articles of Confederation

  • Shay's Rebellion

  • Northwest Ordinance

  • Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

  • Ratification of the Constitution

  • First Federal Elections

  • Publication of "The Federalist"

  • Beginning of the French Revolution

  • Inauguration of George Washington

  • Judiciary Act

  • Publication of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano"

  • The Bank of The United States Approved

  • Ratification of The Bill of Rights

  • Alexander Hamilton issues "Report on Manufacturers"

  • War between Great Britain and France

  • Washington's neutrality proclamation

  • Whiskey Rebellion

  • Jay's Treaty

  • Pinckney's Treaty

  • Washington's Farewell Address

  • Election of John Adams

  • XYZ Affair

  • "Quasi-war" with France

  • Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

  • Alien and Sedition Acts

  • Election of Thomas Jefferson

  • Election of Thomas Jefferson

  • Marbury v. Madison

  • Louisiana Purchase

  • Reelection of Jefferson

  • Chesapeake-Leopard Affair

  • Embargo Act

  • Election of James Madison

  • Fletcher v. Peck

  • Battle of Tippecanoe

  • reelection of Madison

  • Beginning of War of 1812

  • the burning of Washington D.C., by British forces

  • Hartford Convention

  • Treaty of Ghent

  • Battle of New Orleans

  • Chartering of the Second Bank of the United States

  • Election of James Monroe

  • Construction of Erie Canal begins

  • Panic of 1819

  • McCulloch v. Maryland

  • Dartmouth college v. Woodward

  • Missouri compromise

  • Reelection of Monroe

  • Cohens v. Virginia

  • Opening of the Lowell factories

  • Stephen Austin establishes first American settlement in Texas

  • Election of John Quincy Adams

  • Gibbons v. Ogden

  • Opening of the Erie Canal

  • Public school Movement begins in Boston

  • Election of Andrew Jackson

  • Passage of the "Tariff of Abominations"

  • Publication of "David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World"

  • Founding of Mormonism

  • Opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

  • Passage of the Indian Removal Act

  • William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of the "Liberator"

  • Beginning of Nullification Crisis

  • Worcester v. Georgia

  • Reelection of Jackson

  • Jackson vetoes renewal of Second Bank of the United States

  • founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society

  • First strike by the "Lowell Girls"

  • Whig Party organized

  • Publication of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America

  • congress passes the "gag rule"

  • Jackson issues Specie Circular

  • Texas Independence

  • Battle of Alamo

  • Elijah Lovejoy murdered by proslavery mob

  • "Trail of Tears"

  • formation of the Liberty Party

  • Election of William Henry Harrison

  • John Tyler assumes presidency upon Harrison's death

  • Brook Farm founded

  • Dorothea Dix organizes movement for asylum reform

  • Election of James Polk

  • Samuel Morse invents the telegraph

  • beginning of Irish "potato famine"

  • Texas annexation and statehood

  • Resolution of dispute with Great Britain over Oregon territory

  • creation of the Independent Treasury

  • beginning of Mexican war

  • Beginning of the Mexican-American war

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican war

  • Gold found in California

  • Seneca Falls Convention

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American war

  • Compromise of 1850

  • Herman Melville writes "Moby Dick"

  • Publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  • Ostend Manifesto

  • Beginning of "Bleeding Kansas"

  • the beating of Senator Charles Sumner

  • Dred Scott v Sanford decision

  • John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry arsenal

  • Election of Abraham Lincoln

  • South Carolina succeeds from the United States

  • Six more states, all from the deep south, secede

  • First Confiscation Act

  • Inauguration of Lincoln

  • Fighting at Fort Sumter; Civil war begins

  • four more states, from the upper south, secede

  • Homestead Acts

  • Second Constitution Act

  • Morrill Land Grant Act

  • Dakota War

  • Robert E. Lee becomes commander of Confederate army; achieves significant battlefield victories

  • Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg

  • New York city Draft Riots

  • the Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect

  • Sherman's march on the sea

  • Grant besieges Richmond

  • Reelection of Lincoln

  • Freedmen's Bureau established

  • Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson assumes presidency

  • 13th amendment ratified

  • Richmond falls; Confederacy surrenders

  • southern states begin to pass Black Codes

  • Ex Parte Milligan

  • Civil Rights Act passes

  • Ku Klux Klan formed

  • Medicine Lodge Treaty establishes the reservation system

  • Reconstruction Acts passed; beginning of the Congressional Reconstruction

  • Tenure of Office Act

  • Johnson impeached

  • 14th amendment ratified

  • founding of the Knights of Labor

  • 15th amendment ratified

  • Panic of 1873

  • Alexander Graham Bell develops the telephone

  • Civil Rights Act

  • Disputed election between Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat) and Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)

  • The battle of the Little Big Horn/Custer's Last stand

  • compromise ends Reconstruction; Hayes becomes president

  • Great railroad strike