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Sugar Act
The Sugar Act passed into the British Colonies of America was the first in a long line of acts that taxed the colonies to try and recoup the losses from the seven years war. As heavier and heavier taxes kept being placed on the colonies without any representation, the colonies began to rebel and protest against them. This act, and the others like it, placed the groundwork for the American idea of freedom, independence, and representation which has stuck with us even today. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five American colonists in Boston which some consider to be the first deaths of the revolutionary war. The massacre was used in lots of pro patriot propaganda to push for freedom and united many colonists against Britain. The court trial for the case determined six soldiers to be acquitted, but two found guilty of manslaughter, showing a British favor in the courts. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party resulted in around a million dollars worth of tea ruined. This enraged the British, who then enacted the intolerable acts, parts of which shut down the Boston harbor, replaced the Massachusetts council with loyalists, and forced colonists to house and provide for soldiers. These all further led to the ideals of freedom and liberty within the patriots. -
Intolerable Acts
As mentioned earlier in the Boston Tea Party, the intolerable acts were a series of acts that had enraged the colonists and further separated them from the British government. As the acts encouraged ideals we even see in the bill of rights, like the third amendment, it begins to give Americans their own unique identity. However, the intolerable acts also made it much more difficult for rebels by being forced to house soldiers and stunting their economic and political power. -
Battle at Bunker Hill
Though ultimately a defeat for the American forces, the battle at bunker hill saw twice as many British troops dead as American. This showed that our forces would be able to hold their own in the war and helped the morale of the army as well as likely helped garner support from other nations. -
Declaration of Independence
The declaration of independence was undoubtedly a momentous occasion. Immediately pushing the former colonies into conflict with Britain, the declaration gave us an obvious need for militia, governance, and funding, but also let the ideals of freedom, liberty, democracy, take root. However, Britain had lost a big chunk of their territory and every nation watched to see if it was possible for them to truly achieve independence. -
Valley Forge
Though the time at Valley Forge saw many deaths and abandons, it gave the American army time to reorganize themselves in supply systems, fighting tactics, and even military hygiene. Morale boosts helped convince many soldiers to stay for the army rather than abandon, which was especially impressive due to the harsh conditions and high death rate. These reorganizations and morale boosts helped shape up the army into a much more formidable force which played a part in pushing us through the war. -
Articles of Confederation
When the articles of confederation went into effect, it created a very weak federal government in favor of stronger and more sovereign state governments. This later proved to be rather unstable through things like the whiskey and shays rebellion. This created the need to supersede the document and encouraged people to have a more federal based government. This can be seen as the start of a push toward more unified states and the idea of the United States as one entity. -
Treaty of Paris
The treaty of Paris was a massive step for America as a country as well as the entire world. It proved that the American values were fully capable of building a nation and was able to inspire people all over the world for freedom. It also forced Britain to recognize us as a nation, and by extent, encouraged other nations to recognize us as well. It also indebted us to France for helping us in our revolution and stunted some growth of Britain. -
Taking of Court of Common Pleas
This marked the beginning of Shay’s Rebellion, which aimed to destroy courthouses and banks in protest of the debt many farmers had found themselves facing. This rebellion showed both that the articles of confederation were too weak to govern the new nation and that a new document had to be created. It also showed that Americans would not be tolerant of an upper class of people forcing too much pressure onto them and the value of independent farms. -
The Great Compromise
The Great Compromise showed America's willingness to cooperate with multiple parties and that they were intent on giving absolute representation to its people. However, probably more importantly, it saw the creation of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which are two houses that we still use to this day. -
United States Constitution
The US Constitution replaced the articles of confederation and is incredibly important since it strengthened the federal government by giving them powers over the states and is the document that we still use today for our government. It also set a future standard for many other constitutions around the world. -
First Textile Mill in America
The first of many textile mills in America, Samuel Slater left Britain for America to set up a mill. This set up the country for the industrial revolution and especially since the cotton gin was to be invented four years later, making the mills far more profitable. Mills like this one also encouraged the need for infrastructure and wage workers. -
Whiskey Tax
This tax raised money to help lessen the federal deficit by putting a tax on each gallon of whiskey or an expensive pass on all whiskey, but a rebellion against the taxes was incited, especially since the tax affected smaller whiskey businesses much more than larger ones. The rebellion was the first test to see if the new federal government would be capable of controlling its people. The government succeeded and put down the rebellions, showing their strength. -
Proclamation of Neutrality
The proclamation of neutrality declared the United States as neutral between the British and French conflict and threatened legal proceedings against any American who assisted either side. This choice was to prevent the US from getting into a war that it wouldn’t be able to handle. It also set the precedent for a more isolationist America, but also went against the American loyalty to the French for aiding the rebels during the revolution. -
Cotton Gin Invented
The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney was tremendous for America’s economy and helped push it further into the industrial revolution. The cotton gin allowed for cotton to be produced about fifty times faster than by hand, making cotton far more profitable than before and allowing slavery to make a massive boom, since cotton was produced using slaves. In all the cotton gin pushed forth Americas economy, north/south political divide due to slavery, as well as the country's industry. -
John Adams Elected
The John Adams election, like Washington’s, set many standards for elections. It showed that a good platform to get to the presidency was from the vice presidency. It also saw John Adams attempt to secure his place for a second term by putting in policies to discourage people from voting against him. However, this backfired and in the next election he lost to Jefferson, in what would become the revolution of 1800. -
The Revolution of 1800
The “revolution” was actually an election where the presidency was peacefully transferred from one political party to another, particularly from federalist to anti federalist. This showed that violence and uprisings were unnecessary for change, at least in America. It also set another standard for the future to not resist the loss of power and showed that the US would truly be a democratic state. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was a deal between the French leader Napoleon and Jefferson. Napoleon gave Jefferson 828,000 sq mi of land for $15 million. This meant Jefferson was getting every acre of land for about four cents, which was a deal that he couldn’t refuse. However, buying it went against Jefferson’s anti federalist philosophy, which restricted presidential power. In the end he bought it, which laid the foundation for westward expansion and US imperialism. -
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
Off the coast of Virginia, US ship Chesapeake was pursued, attacked, and boarded by the British ship Leopard. After boarding the ship four crew members were taken from the ship and tried for desertion, one of whom was hanged. Events like this, referred to as pressing, were large contributors to the war of 1812 between the US and the British. This war further solidified the US as a nation and that we needed to be respected and not underestimated. -
Steam Locomotive Built
The steam locomotive allowed for incredible transportation speeds for both products and people. As more places begin to be connected by railroad, more trade and manufacturing becomes possible, boosting both the American economy and industry. It also helped encourage expansion and the spread of people through our nation. -
Erie Canal Construction Starts
The Erie canal stretches from Albany to Buffalo and when created started large-scale commercial shopping and helped encourage the industrial revolution in America, like many other canals did. It also encouraged migration to the lesser populated areas to the west, further pushing westward expansion and helping the economic output of the region. The Erie canal represents the growth and expansion of our nation and it’s infrastructure of the time. -
Spoils System
President Andrew Jackson introduced the spoils system after his election in 1828, which would provide government jobs based on a person's political association rather than their actual capabilities. This encouraged people to join political parties with the promise of good jobs being handed to them, but also made the government somewhat inefficient due to inexperienced and unqualified people being hired. -
Tariff of Abominations
Attempting to remove competition and encourage the growth of industry, the tariff of abominations raised the taxes on many imported manufactured goods from Britain. However, this hurt southerners greatly who relied on many of the products from Britain. This had divided the northern and southern states even further and even saw South Carolina nullify the tariff and threaten to secede, foreshadowing the later civil war. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian removal act allowed the president to move native American tribes west of the Mississippi river, allowing the land to instead be settled by white Americans. This resulted in The Trail of Tears in which around 60,000 native Americans were displaced and began to show the conflict between the settlers pushing westward and the natives they were taking their land from. -
The Compromise Tariff
The compromise tariff was created in response to the southern outrage of the tariff of abominations. Due to the nullification crisis caused by South Carolina nullifying the tariff, the federal government felt like it was losing its power to govern the states. This resulted in the Compromise Tariff which said that the import taxes would gradually decrease over the next decade. This satisfied the southern states and became one of many close calls leading up to the civil war. -
Texas Wins Independence
Texas independence from Mexico was caused mostly due to the American immigrants not wanting to give up their slave labor, which was outlawed in Mexico. After winning their independence Texas chose to become apart of the US, which caused border disputes between the US and Mexico, which later resulted in the Mexican-American war. -
Brooks Farm Founded
The Brooks Farm was a utopian commune experiment whose goal was to create a simpler life and to become educated while working the farm. This is one example of many utopias created at the time which pushed America into testing what society should look like. Many of these communities pioneered many at the time radical ideas about things like equal right and representation. -
Taylor’s Army Moves Past The Nueces River
American general Zachary Taylor moved his forces past the Nueces River into disputed territory in order to provoke a fight, which succeeded starting off the Mexican-American war, claiming an act of Mexican aggression. This war allowed America an easy victory over a developing Mexico, where they signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This further encouraged America's imperialistic behavior and westward expansion mindset. -
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo saw the end of the Mexican-American war and Mexico giving most of its territory to the US, which later became the states of California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. These states helped make the US a transcontinental nation and pushed forth America’s imperialistic and expansive nature, allowing for things in the future like the transcontinental railroad. -
James Marshall Discovers Gold in California
After California became a territory of the US, James Marshall was building a sawmill by the American River, when he discovered gold flowing in it. Word eventually spread, causing the California gold rush. This helped encourage lots of migration westward, particularly to California. -
The Compromise of 1850
California wanted to become a state, but there was conflict as to whether it should be a free state or a slave state. In order to keep the balance in power between slave and free states, Henry Clay proposed the compromise of 1850 which would make California a free state and end the slave trade in DC, but would enact the slave fugitive act. This shows the rising tensions between abolitionists and slaveholders, which would eventually result in the civil war. -
The Pottawatomie Massacre
The Pottawatomie Massacre was the killing of five pro slavery settlers in Kansas by abolitionist John Brown This was caused by rising tensions in Kansas over whether it would be a free or slave state, resulting in “Bleeding Kansas” where lots of violent confrontations took place. Though Kansas did eventually end up joining as a free state, the violence of bleeding Kansas showed the extreme tensions. -
The Election of 1860
The election of 1860 saw Abraham Lincoln, who was an abolitionist, become president. This enraged the south, even though he said that he wouldn’t abolish slavery. This election pushed the US into the civil war, when soon after the election South Carolina seceded, which led to a domino effect of nearly all southern states having seceded into the Confederates. -
Fort Sumter
After South Carolina seceded, Fort Sumter, a fort in South Carolina, was being occupied by Union soldiers. The confederates demanded that the union retract their soldiers, but they refused, causing the confederates to open fire, officially starting the civil war, the bloodiest war in American history. -
Formation of The Women's Christian Temperance Union
The WCTU was created with the objective of spreading the temperance movement and the dangers of alcohol through things like literary works and lobbying. This union and those like it made an impact most of all by eventually getting the 18th amendment ratified, but also by being able to give more marginalized groups, like women, a voice in politics. -
Haymarket Square Riot
Attempting to protest police brutality, the protest in Haymarket Square quickly became a full riot after a bomb exploded, killing multiple officers and protestors. This was the catalyst for significant change early on in the labor movement in the US, which lead to distrust in the movement, immigrants, and radicals, who had become associated with the protest and its messages. -
Ellis Island Opens
The opening of Ellis Island as an immigration station helped the flow of immigration and for new people to integrate themselves into America. This represents the more overall immigration into America, which in the provided cheap labor for manufacturing and opportunity for the immigrants. The immigrants also provided people to help contribute to westward expansion as the cities became more and more crowded. -
Anthracite Coal Strike
A protest against working hours and pay at the anthracite coalfields resulted in President Theodore Roosevelt sending out a group to negotiate the end of the strike, which ended successfully with agreed terms. This was important because the labor movement had gained enough attention to require action from the president, pioneered and set an example of peaceful negotiation, and expanded the executive rights of the president. -
Meat Inspection Act
This act made it illegal to sell mislabeled meat and required sanitary conditions for the processing and slaughter of the meat. This showed a shift to a more regulatory government and sanitary urban lifestyle. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
Like the meat inspection act, this act created a more regulatory and involved government as well as contributed to the health of all citizens through the inspection and guarantee of the quality of food and drugs. This act also leads to the foundation of the FDA, which is still in operation today and is an important part of what keeps consumers safe. -
Model T Car Released
The model T car was the first car that was able to be mass-produced, allowing for more cheaper and available transportation for everybody. This allowed the car culture of America to blossom as it allowed people to live further away from stores and jobs, leading to both suburban development and urban decay. Cars also became a primary mode of transportation around the US, leading to necessary laws and road regulations that help protect people. -
Sixteenth Amendment
The sixteenth amendment allowed the federal government to lay and collect taxes on income, without apportionment among the several States. This largely expanded the federal government's power, as well as generally financed a bigger and stronger government, which would be increasingly important as it continued to take a more active role in the country's domestic affairs. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
A deadly fire in a factory caused over a hundred tragic deaths of workers due to the owners locking the fire escape and not providing the proper safety accommodations for the workers. Though it was a tragic event, it brought light to the dangerous condition of factory life and heavily encouraged laws and regulations to keep safety measures in place, and marks a significant point for the labor movement. -
Election of 1912
Woodrow Wilson managed to gain the presidency by taking advantage of the Republican split. Woodrow became a very progressive president over his time in office, ratified the nineteenth amendment, created the new freedom reform package, and even created the League of Nations after World War One. These things are all due to the platform that the election of 1912 provided for him. -
Roosevelt Gives Speech Referencing Square Deal
Roosevelt's announcement of his square deal philosophy shows the US' changing relationship between the government and its people. As seen before, it gives the government more power, which it needs in order to protect its citizens in a changing world. The square deal itself has three ideas it bases itself on, the first being the protection of the consumer, the second being control of large corporations, and the third being the conservation of natural resources. -
Federal Reserve Act
Introduced the Central Bank, which was meant to establish economic stability by giving banks a source of emergency reserves to prevent panics and keep banks in business. This of course empowered the federal government, but more importantly, it kept the banks open, working, and reliable. This also showed the government new interest in acts that would recover the economy and support it's workers. -
Clayton Antitrust Act
This act prohibited businesses from anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions, interlocking directorates, and price discrimination. It also declared strikes, boycotts, and labor unions to be legal under federal law. With this weakening of large businesses and strengthening of worker power and rights, it managed to create a foothold for the people of America to further their rights through protest, even for things unrelated to worker rights. -
Keating-Owen Act
This act attempted to tackle the problem of child labor in the US by restricting the working hours for children and prohibiting the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor. This shows the government's more active role in protecting worker and child rights. -
Nineteenth Amendment
The nineteenth amendment had finally allowed for women's right to vote which had been fought for decades, which allowed women to advocate for more civil rights with their vote, giving them a foothold in their fight for equality. This was also a big step for other civil rights movements, due to a significant portion of women also being advocates for other movements like labor or racial equality. -
Zimmerman Telegram
The Zimmerman Telegram was a secret telegram from Germany to Mexico which proposed a military alliance, if the US entered the war against Germany and would've allowed Mexico to regain lost territories from their war with the US. This telegram managed to be intercepted by the British, who informed the US. This, plus Germany's extensive use of unrestricted submarine warfare, was seen as the tipping point for the US' entrance into World War One on the side of the Allies. -
Houston Riot
The Houston Riot was a mutiny and riot of the all-black twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment of the US. The cause of the riot was the arrest and police brutality against an elderly woman as well as a black soldier who went to investigate the situation. The result was the hanging of nineteen soldiers and life sentences for sixty-three. This showed a pre-civil rights era fight for civil rights, especially under ideas similar to the of black power, fifty years later. -
War Industries Board Established
The War Industries Board was established in order to help control the US economy during wartime, particularly by fixing prices, standardizing products, and setting resource priorities for different companies. This gave the government massive control over businesses and the US as a whole, with a tight grip on its economy. This was particularly useful in the resource-tight World War Two, where it helped pull the US out of the Great Depression, even despite being extensively authoritarian in nature -
Sacco And Vanzetti Trial Takes Place
This trial declared Italian immigrants and self-proclaimed anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, to be guilty of first-degree murder and were sentenced to death. The validity of the verdict is still debated to this day, but it is almost certain that anti-immigrant and anti-anarchist ideals swayed the outcome of the trial. This trial, like the Palmer Raids, also vividly shows the US' reaction to radical ideals and immigrants. -
Espionage Act
The Espionage Act made it illegal to obtain information relating to national defense with the possible intent to harm the US or benefit a foreign power. The act was primarily meant to prevent espionage and treason against the US but was a clear violation of our freedom of speech, like the Sedition Act of 1918, which when paired with the Espionage Act shows both the control the government exerted as well as their desperation to prevent information from getting into the wrong hands. -
Election of 1932
This election was primarily against the candidate's Franklin Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, who was the previous president. Due to his lack of action and the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover was greatly disliked by most people in the US, making it an easy victory for Franklin Roosevelt. In order to keep the citizens support, FDR made it a point to do as much as he could as soon as possible, starting the trend of a president's first hundred days. He also began to implement his New Deals. -
Emergency Banking Relief Act
One of FDR's main goals with the New Deal was to provide relief for the economy, which as the name implies is what this act targeted. It allowed banks to become more secure and backed by the government in an attempt to stabilize the banking system, which had suffered from poor financial investments and many mass withdrawals. -
Twenty First Amendment
The twenty-first amendment was aimed at removing the eighteenth amendment, which had made alcohol illegal. Though after the amendment was removed, some states kept a ban on alcohol. This helped steer the US back onto a path of legality and respect for authority, and further extended to encourage future generations' affinity towards conformity. -
Sinking of Lusitania
During World War One, before the US entered, Germany had begun to use unrestricted submarine warfare. They would target any and all ships, including civilian ones, in order to prevent any spies or information from crossing into the British Isles. This eventually led to the Germans sinking the liner of Lusitania, which contained many US citizens who ended up dying. This was a major cause for the US' entry into World War One on the side of the Allies. -
Agricultural Adjustment Act
The goal of this New Deal act was to give relief to farmers by increasing agricultural prices. Their main way of doing this was by reducing the supplies by buying livestock for slaughter and paying farmers to not plant their entire field. This was generally seen as a failure of its ineffective control of production, decreasing its agricultural export, and impeding specializations, but still showed the active role the government was taking in the economy. -
United States V. Butler
This court case went over the constitutionality of the Agricultural Adjustment Act due to the fact it was regulating and controlling agriculture, which was a power that only the states held as well as the fact that it held discriminatory processing tax. -
National Industrial Recovery Act
This act was intended to establish minimum wages and maximum hours, reduce unemployment, guarantee the right of labor to bargain collectively, and eliminate unfair trade practices. However, this act was struck down by the Supreme Court, due to the fact it involved giving FDR the presidential power to stimulate everything according to his own decisions and views. This was a clear violation and overextension of his executive power, which the supreme court would not let slide. -
Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937
After the Supreme Court struck down many of FDR's New Deal acts for being unconstitutional, he attempted to pass the JPR Bill, which would allow him to expand the court size and add enough justices to pass whatever act he would need. -
Eighteenth Amendment
The eighteenth amendment was prohibition and prevented the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol. However, this rarely prevented any consumption of alcohol and instead created a culture of crime within the US. Overnight, illegal bars popped up, which fueled organized crime within the cities. It also led to the breaking down of tradition in cities and led to the growth of more underground concepts of sexuality and identity. -
Treaty of Versailles
The treaty, which had officially ended World War One, was extremely unfair towards Germany, requiring that they take the blame for the war, limited their army to 100k men, lost military control over the Rhineland, and paid reparations to other countries for war damages. This caused awful conditions in Germany and set up the conditions for the second World War. It did also establish the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations. -
League Of Nations Formed
The formation of the League of Nations due to the Treaty of Versailles was intended to prevent wars among its members by instead resolving conflicts diplomatically. However, major issues arrived when the US, Germany, Italy, and Japan became absent from the league. It was also difficult for the league to make decisions due to its required unanimity. These failures ultimately contributed to the inability to prevent World War Two, but also still created the groundwork for the United Nations. -
Immigration Act of 1924
This act, which personified the US' discrimination toward immigrants, set a max quota on the number of immigrants who would be let into the country from Europe and completely prohibited immigration from Asia. This made it easier to discriminate against the immigrant minorities but also worked well economically, preventing the workforce from growing faster than the job pool could. -
First Palmer Raid
The first Palmer Raid marked the beginning of the US' long history of the suppression of radical beliefs, particularly communist and socialist ones. The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in order to detain a deport suspected radicals, communists, and anarchists. However, these raids usually falsely convicted people who did not belong to the target ideologies or organizations, without any trial. This could also be seen as a predecessor to the red scare McCarthyism of the 1950s. -
Sedition Act
This act put restrictions on the US freedom of speech by making it illegal to communicate any disloyal or criticizing ideas about the US. This was one of the very things that the freedom of speech was created to prevent and is a clear violation of our rights, but the main purpose was simply to keep American loyalty and remove any sympathizers of foreign powers who may conspire or act against the government. This paired with the Espionage Act was the US' solution. -
Wall Street Stock Market Crash
The crash of the stock market, caused by massive economic speculation, was what launched the US into The Great Depression, seeing unemployment rise to highs of 24% and wages drop by over 40%. It was an economic disaster, which president Hoover had done very little to deal with due to his beliefs of noninterference, labeling him as a do-nothing president. The pain of the depression was somewhat alleviated by the president FDR and his New Deal policies but fully recovered with World War Two. -
Banking Act of 1935
This act, which was one of the first parts of FDR's New Deal, allowed the Board of Governors to set required reserve amounts and interest rates for deposits. Being one of the first actions taken to prevent the depression, regardless of whether it was particularly successful, it showed people that he was interested in solving the economy's issues. It also showed the start of his New Deal policies, which slowly helped the economy come back to life.
