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Settled Jamestown
Jamestown is important because it was England's first successful settlement in the new world. After a few failed attempts, the people of Jamestown were finally self-sufficient and with the help of Tobacco were able to make profit. To help increase migration, England offered people hundreds of free acres if they left for the New World. Soon, hundreds of desperate families had left to make a new life. -
Settled Plymouth
Unlike Jamestown, the people that settled Plymouth were not there to help serve Great Britain. The settlers saw the Anglican Church as corrupt and decided to get away from it. The Puritans simply wanted to make it better so they were only persecuted for their religion. But the Separatists wanted to get away from it completely, that was illegal and because of that they were prosecuted. The Separatists did get help from the Natives and that's why we have Thanksgiving. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a major turning point for the American people. While the lines get blurry when talking about which side was at fault, perception trumps reality, and five Americans were killed. This ignited a lot of rage from the colonies and did cause the British to pull back on some unpopular acts, but still kept their seemingly awful taxes which led to events like the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
In an attempt to protest Great Britain's tax on tea, and taxes without representation in general, John Adams and several other radical revolutionists dressed up as stereotypical Native Americans in the middle of December and threw hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tea into the Boston harbor. This act enraged Great Britain, and they decided to make the taxes and laws even stricter. Like closing down Boston Harbor which was connected to thousands of jobs all across the colonies. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a set of Acts that the colonists thought were so bad they started preparing for war over. The Intolerable acts started off by closing the Boston harbor which influenced thousands of jobs. It also got rid of the colonies' elective government and replaced it with British politicians. The quartering act which allowed British soldiers to go into colonist homes without permission and the Administration of Justice Act. -
Battle of Lexington/Concord
The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the first armed conflict of the Revolutionary War. It started with the infamous shot heard around the world. No one knows who took the first shot but the American forces were forced all the way back to Concord where they used the town to their advantage. Using guerrilla tactics, the colonial forces were able to force the British to retreat and managed to kill many of them. -
Thomas Paine: Common Sense/American Crisis
Thomas Paine came at the perfect time to ignite the fires of revolution with Common Sense. This was written for the common man and was a list of reasons why America should be independent. Likewise, Paine came at the perfect time with American Crisis. Morale was at its lowest for soldiers, so Paine wrote American Crisis for them to boost morale. George Washington loved it so much he would have copies read to all the soldiers. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, formally titled the Unanimous Declaration of the 13 United States, was more a list of all the wrongdoings that the colonies thought Great Britain had done to them. It goes through all its grievances, then at the bottom every founding father has put their signature down. This was a turning point for the colonies because now they were fighting as one nation instead of thirteen. -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battle of Saratoga was a major turning point in the Revolutionary War. In an attempt to flank the enemy, the British got stuck in a swamp which left their allies open to defeat. The Battle of Saratoga forced the British to surrender an entire army, and also convinced the French, with encouragement from Benjamin Franklin, to ally with the Americans and balanced the sides in the Revolutionary War. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation are important to note because they were the United States first attempt at a functioning government, even though they sucked. The Articles were built on the ideologies of Independence and freedom for states, but the central government had next to no power. It took Shay's Rebellion to show that the Articles had now means of protecting the nation from threats, both internal and external. -
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last official military campaign of the Revolutionary War. The British were flanked by the Americans on land and the French Navy on the coast. The British had to surrender an entire army again. It's important to note that the Americans and French did not think that would be the end of the war, but the British were considering peace negotiations at that point. In the Treaty of Paris, the British recognized American independence. -
Invention of the Steam Engine
The steam engine had gone through many forms over the years. The original design was used back in 1712 by miners to move water. The later version that influenced the Industrial Revolution was created by Richard Arkwright and was instrumental in both the transportation and market revolution. The steam engine was used on both land and sea and made it much more efficient to trade long distances. It managed to open up the United States more. -
Founding of the Constitution
After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the leading figures of the time only had one more chance to come up with a working government. At the Constitutional Convention, the constitution was drafted and presented. It was rejected until the bill of rights was added, which detailed all the things the government could and couldn't do. -
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a big religious revival in the early 19th century America. It sparked a rise in church membership and personal faith, especially among women. This movement, marked by emotional camp meetings and evangelical preaching, aimed to create a 'heaven on Earth'. This was also happening around a time of hardship for Americans under the leadership of John Adams, who is considered to be one of the worst presidents in US history. -
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion is important to note because it was the first time that the new US constitution was tested. The new central government had levied taxes on whiskey, this caused many farmers to form an insurrection. The American government under the constitution was able to successfully put down the rebellion. It's also important to note that George Washington led the campaign to stop the insurrection, which makes him the only president to go into battle. -
Cotton Gin
Before the Cotton Gin was invented, cotton was one of the least profitable crops to farm. It took back breaking manual labor and barely any produce was made. After the Cotton Gin was invented though, farming cotton became much more efficient, so much in fact, cotton became the number one American export in the 1800's. An unintended side effect of this was that there was a massive boost in slavery which was diminishing at the time. -
Jefferson's Election/Revolution of 1800
The Revolution of 1800 was the first real election, instead of a candidate just being chosen. This was also the first time that a leader handed over power to an opponent willingly in government. Jefferson's Election was a turning point for the country, and focused more on agrarian society instead of Hamilton's industrial plans. -
Invention of Interchangeable Parts
Eli Whitney was one of the most influential inventors in history. Before Whitney came up with the idea of Interchangeable Parts, everything was hand made. If a musket got damaged, the new part or parts had to be custom made. With interchangeable parts, everything was universally the same size. This also gave rise to textile manufacturing, and eventually the Industrial Revolution. -
Louisiana Purchase
During the Napoleonic Wars, President Thomas Jefferson was offered a massive chunk of land that made up the Louisiana Territory for an extremely cheap price. Jefferson struggled with the constitutional right to purchase this land. He barely slept or ate until he finally decided to buy the land. Once the territory was owned by the US, Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition to explore their new land. -
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Thomas Jefferson wasn't just a president, he was first and foremost a scientist, so when he purchased the Louisiana he hired Lewis and Clark to lead an expedition to explore the new land. They were also tasked with bringing back new flora and fauna that they found, and to try and find a route to the west coast by water. Of course there was no such route, with the mountains and all, but with the help of Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark made a round trip all the way back to the US. -
Jefferson's Embargo Act
The Embargo Act was a general ban on all foreign trade that was enacted by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson proposed the Embargo Act in response to the impressment of American sailors. With no foreign trade, the lives of the common citizen became very hard. But with no external production allowed, America was forced to develop internal production. The Embargo Act did more for the industrialization of America than even Hamilton could have for seen. -
End of International Slave Trade
On the first day of the first month in 1808, a federal law was passed that banned all slaves being brought from Africa to the United States. This law did not ban slavery or slave trade within the US just outside of it, but it was a major win for the small abolitionist movement at the time. With this, the idea of triangular trade that made slave trading so efficient from Africa also started to die down, or get used for better means. -
Battle of New Orleans
The battle of New Orleans wasn't supposed to happen. At the end of the War of 1812, the US and Great Britain had agreed to peacefully end the conflict but before word got out to everyone else, the British were going to take control of New Orleans. To stop this, Andrew Jackson rallied local fighters to help defend the city. They built a trench and a wall to act as a choke point. Jackson and his small army destroyed the British even though the war was already over. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was proposed by James Monroe and started America's practice of isolationism which was carried over from Washington's beliefs. The Monroe Doctrine had four main points: the United States would not interfere in European, the United States recognized and would not interfere with existing colonies in the Americas, the Western Hemisphere was closed to future colonization, and if a European power tried to interfere with any nation in the west it would be considered an act of war. -
The American System
The American System was introduced by politician Henry Clay. Clay was trusted by both the Whigs and the Democrats so he could get away with something so federalist. The American System was a series of three items: federal aid for internal improvements, a protective tariff for industry, and a national bank. These are very similar of Hamilton's financial plan. -
Election of 1824 (Corrupt Bargain)
The election of 1824, or the corrupt bargain was really the first time there was an election crisis in American history. There were four candidates and none of them managed to win more than 50% of the popular vote, which was needed to win back then. So it was up to the House to decide the new president. Henry Clay, the head of the House, talked with one of the candidates and ended up becoming Secretary of State while the candidate, John Quincy Adams won. -
Election of 1828
Following the election of 1824, also known as the corrupt bargain, where John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay allegedly conspired to win the presidency, Andrew Jackson was back in the running. But because of Adams' Tariff of Abominations which almost every state but the industrialized ones hate, Jackson won by a landslide. This election was also the first to really feature political parties seeing as Jackson created the Democratic party to help win the election. -
The Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by Andrew Jackson. It authorized the president to give lands to Native Americans west of the Mississippi in the Louisiana Territory in exchange for lands within state borders. If the Native Americans refused to migrate west, like the Cherokee tribe did, then they would be forced to leave their homes and move west. Thousands of Native Americans were forced to move west and this came to be known as the infamous Trail of Tears. -
The Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was used as a rallying cry by the United States government to go to war with Mexico. Texas wanted to be independent from Mexico, while Mexico fought to keep them a territory, and the United States tried to stay out of it. This all came to a head at the Alamo where several Texans along with a former Tennessee senator were put to siege and all died. Seeing as most people in Texas were former Americans, this led to the Mexican American War. -
Miracle Plow
During the event called Manifest Destiny where America saw it as their God given right to migrate and expand our west. Conditions were much different on the Great Plains though. The ground was much harder to plow and very little farming was able to be done. That was until the Miracle Plow was invented by John Deere. This new steel plow allowed the rich soil of the Great Plains to be farmed and encouraged more settlement in the west. -
Telegraph
The telegraph was an incredibly influential invention that ended up helping the Union win the Civil War. The telegraph was developed by Samuel Morse, the creator of Morse code. The telegraph used wires and pins to make sounds that could correlate to letters of the alphabet. The special thing about the telegraph was that it could be used at long distances. Telegraph lines were set up a long every railroad and the extra communication severely impacted the outcome of the Civil War. -
Acquiring California
The United States acquisition of California came about because of a war that was manufactured by the US president. After Texas had become a state, there were border disputes. The president sent troops into the disputed territory. This caused a massacre that pushed the US to declare war on Mexico. The US absolutely destroyed Mexico, and pushed them back all the way to their capital. The concessions that Mexico had to give included California which was rich with resources. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention, was obviously held at Seneca Falls, New York, which was the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton, along with Lucretia Mott hosted the Convention and launched what would be the first women's suffrage movement in the United States. Movements like these were already on the rise, but without this particular one, it is unknown how much longer it would have been until women were allowed to vote. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was Henry Clay's last attempt to keep the Union together. Before 1850, the country used the Missouri Compromise to decide if a country was free of slave. Because of California, this needed to be amended. The new compromise made California a free state and outlawed slave trade in the capital. It also introduced the idea of popular sovereignty. But it also included the fugitive slave act which meant that anyway run away slaves had to be returned to the south. -
South Carolina Secedes
After Lincoln was elected President, many southern states became afraid that their right to slavery would disappear even though it was part of the Constitution. South Carolina was the first state to secede, this was then followed by many others. The seceded states became known as the Confederacy. Something similar to this has already happened before though. During Jackson's presidency, South Carolina used Nullification to ignore federal laws. -
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act came in conjunction with the Pacific Railway Act to encourage people to settle farther west. They were given free plots of land that were 100 square acres and were required to permanently live on that land for at least five years while also improving their new property. Improving would include building a house and some way to make money on that land which was usually farming of some sort. -
Pacific Railway Act
After the Homestead Act, Lincoln wanted to connect the nation with one trans-continental railroad. In a show of genius, Lincoln creates a competition between two countries on different coasts. Both companies would build a railroad from both sides and meet each other in the middle, they would be given money and land based on the amount of miles of rail they built. This a long with a strict timeline gave both companies incentive to finish the railroad as fast as possible. -
Morrill Land Grant Act
The Lincoln institution could not just focus on the Civil War during his time, they had to improve all forms of the US. The Morrill Land Grant Act was passed to give states free thirty thousand acres of land. The catch was that the land could only be used to build universities and colleges. Many of the modern day colleges like Purdue and Ohio State only got there start from the Land Grant Act. -
Battle of Antietam
The battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American history. Neither the Union nor the Confederates really won, but Lincoln was able to spin the battle in a way that looked enough like a victory to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. Antietam was the battle that managed to stave off the confederate army and stop them from pushing into northern territory. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was not as simple as it seems to be. Lincoln waited to address it until after the Union won a major victory, which was Antietam. The Proclamation did not abolish slavery in the few slave states that remained in the Union, nor did it abolish slavery for states that peacefully surrendered. Lincoln knew no confederates would do that, so the Proclamation stated that any slave states conquered by the Union would have all their slaves freed. -
Battle of Vicksburg
The Battle of Vicksburg was one of the most important battles of the Civil War. On the Union side it was led by Ulysses S. Grant who was the only general that Lincoln could trust to win. Vicksburg was the last territory on the Mississippi river that was still held by the Confederates, so when Grant took it the Anaconda Plan was complete and the Confederate states were essentially cut in half, with the right side being completely surrounded. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The battle of Gettysburg was a major turning point in the Civil War. It happened at the same time as Vicksburg and it ended the confederate general Lee's winning streak. Lee tried to push the war up into northern territory to scare the Union into surrendering. He was defeated in the bloodiest battle in American history. He lost so many troops that his army never fully recovered and he never really one another major battle again. -
Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow Laws were passed in order to segregate and control freed people in the south. They were adapted from the previous Slave Code Laws. They separated public spaces and used a loophole of the 14th amendment by stating that the newly separated spaces were still equal. They were not, African Americans got everything second rate, and the laws set the ground work for nearly a century of segregation in the United States. -
Assassination of Lincoln
After the Civil War had ended, President Lincoln was attending a play when he was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. Booth with several other conspirators had originally wanted to kidnap Lincoln, but they were so against the idea of Emancipation that they saw it as grounds to murder. It is important to note what Booth said right after taking the shot, Sic Semper Tyrannis, which gives us an idea of what was going through his head. -
Johnson's Impeachment
President Andrew Johnson was the first president of the United States to be impeached. This happened when the radical Republicans took control of the Congress in a super majority. They started voting in people to work for the government that supported them, they also made it illegal for the president to fire certain people without the permission of Congress. Johnson did it anyway. They used that crime to impeach him, but not oust him from the White house. -
Ratifying of the Fourteenth Amendment
The fourteenth amendment was the final push by the radical republican controlled Congress to secure the civil rights of newly freed African Americans. The fourteenth Amendment made it so that any person born on United States soil was a citizen. It also introduced the idea of naturalization which made it possible for immigrants to become citizens. This amendment was one of the most important in American history. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
In 1875, as one of the last of the reconstruction statutes, a civil rights law was passed. This law guarantees African Americans equal treatment in public. Segregation was made illegal all over the country, but without union military supervision in the south it was almost impossible to enforce. Even with the law, African Americans were persecuted and treated unfairly in every way. Still, this law laid the ground work for later civil rights movements in the country. -
Election of 1876
The election of 1876 was filled with fraud all the way through. When election day had come and the votes were counted, the north was shocked to find that one hundred percent of the southern popular vote was in favor of the Democratic candidate. The north saw the obvious fraud and demanded a recount. This time three southern states had completely switched parties. Both sides had committed election fraud now. To elect the candidates a committee was made. The people had no say in their president. -
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
The National American Woman Suffrage Association, or NAWSA, was organized to advocate in favor of allowing women to vote in America. NAWSA was created through a merger between two other organizations by the name of the National Woman Suffrage Association and American Woman Suffrage Association. The key leaders of both parties were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
The Plessy V. Ferguson was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions, second only to Dred Scott. Plessy V. Ferguson invoked the infamous separate but equal rule. This law held up the Jim Crow Laws and left a massive loophole for segregation and racism all over the country. This Supreme Court decided it was legal to separate public spaces between white and colored people as long as each space was "equal" but it was never really equal.