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Constitution Ratified
New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.
Lacked of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce.
After three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed. -
Washington's Farewell Address
He wrote the letter near the end of his second term of presidency before retiring to his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia.
reflects on the emerging issues of the American political landscape in 1796, expresses his support for the government eight years after the adoption of the Constitution.
It was published about ten weeks before the presidential electors cast their votes in the 1796 presidential election. -
Madison vs. Marbury
The U.S. Supreme Court first declared an act of Congress unconstitutional.
The court’s opinion is considered one of the foundations of U.S. constitutional law.
Established the doctrine of judicial review. -
Louisiana Purchase
A land deal between the United States and France.
U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.
On April 11, Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand told Livingston that France was willing to sell all of Louisiana. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and his party would be exploring the newly bought land of the Louisiana Purchase.
They were accompanied by some recruited soldiers, Clark's African-American slave York, and Lewis's Newfoundland dog Seaman.
The captains recruited more men, increasing the ranks of the "Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery" to more than 40. -
War of 1812
Conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies.
Historians in Britain often see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars.
In the United States and Canada, it is seen as a war in its own right. -
Treaty of Ghent
Peace treaty that ended the War of 1812.
The treaty restored relations between the two nations restoring the borders of the two countries to the lines before the war started in June 1812.
It took a month for news of the peace treaty to reach the United States, during which American forces under Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
A treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S.
Defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain.
The treaty established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean. -
Monroe Doctrine
A United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas.
It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."
The doctrine noted that the U.S. would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. -
Indian Removal Act
The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands.
The Act was signed by Jackson and it was enforced under his administration and that of Martin Van Buren.
The act enjoyed strong support from the people of the South, but there was a large amount of resistance from the Indian tribes. -
Webster-Ashburnton Treaty
A treaty that resolved several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies
Established the border between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, originally defined in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Reaffirmed the location of the border in the westward frontier up to the Rocky Mountains defined in the Treaty of 1818 -
Texas Annexation
Annexation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of America.
Was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.
The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico on March 2, 1836 and became there own country. -
Mexican-American War
An armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States.
It followed in the wake of the 1845 American annexation of the independent Republic of Texas.
In 1845, newly elected U.S. President James K. Polk sent troops to the disputed area and a diplomatic mission to Mexico. After Mexican forces attacked American forces, Polk cited this in his request that Congress declare war. -
California Gold Rush
Began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California.
The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.
The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic.
With the defeat of its army and the fall of its capital, Mexico entered into negotiations to end the war.
The treaty called for the U.S. to pay US$15 million to Mexico and to pay off the claims of American citizens against Mexico up to US$5 million. -
Gadsden Purchase
A 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty.
The purchase was the last substantial territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States.
The U.S. sought the land as a better route for the construction of the southern transcontinental railway line, and the financially-strapped government of Santa Anna agreed to the sale -
Secession of South Carolina
Was the first state to secede from the Union in December 1860.
One of the founding member states of the Confederacy.
The state also provided uniforms, textiles, food, and war material, as well as trained soldiers and leaders from The Citadel and other military schools. -
Civil War Begins
Seven Southern slave states declared their secession from the country and formed the Confederate States of America.
The Union and Confederacy quickly raised volunteer and conscription armies that fought mostly in the South over the course of four years.
Intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, more than the number of U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined. -
Trent Affairs
A diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and the United Kingdom.
The U.S. Navy illegally captured two Confederate diplomats from a British ship; the UK protested vigorously.
The United States ended the incident by releasing the diplomats. -
Civil War Ends
On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
More than 16 months before President Andrew Johnson would declare a formal end to the conflict in August 1866.
Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signs the surrender terms offered by Union negotiators ending the Civil War. -
Purchase of Alaska
Russia wanted to sell its Alaskan territory, due to the difficulty of living there.
Reactions to the purchase in the United States were mostly positive.
Others praised the move for weakening both the UK and Russia as rivals to American commercial expansion in the Pacific region. -
Burlingham-Seward treaty
A landmark treaty between the United States and Qing China.
Established formal friendly relations between the two nations.
The first fully equal treaty China had signed with a western power since the Second Opium War. -
World War II
During the first two years of World War II, the United States had maintained formal neutrality.
They entered the war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
During the war, over 16 million Americans served in the United States Armed Forces, with 405,399 killed in action and 671,278 wounded. -
Cold War
A state of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II.
The term "cold" is used since there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they each supported major regional wars known as proxy wars.
The Cold War split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union and the United States as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences. -
Vietnam War
A conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
President Harry S. Truman provided progressively increasing amounts of financial and military assistance to French forces fighting in Vietnam.
Their involvement increased from just assisting French troops to providing direct military assistance to the associated states.
