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Founding of Jamestown
In 1607, the Virginia Company, sponsored by the British crown, dispatched a group with no ability to support itself to the Virginia territory of the New World. The men fared poorly and half died, until the Native Indians tought them how to survive in the new unexplored territory, in exchange for valuable goods. Thereafter, Tobacco was found to be a valuable cash crop in the region, which triggered dramatic settlements of land to take place. This expansion precipitated a war with the Indians. -
Headright System
Taxes on imported tobacco bolstered the royal treasury. Tobacco fetched a high price in England and spurred the migration of thousands of settlers. As a result of this the royal government made way for the Headright system in 1618, which brought an influx of immigrants to the new world. This system granted 100 acres to every freeman already living in the colonies and an additional 50 acres to people who payed for other's passage (who would pay of their debt by becoming Indentured Servants). -
The Pilgrim Settlement
The Pilgrims were protestants who had left the Church of England, they wanted a fresh start from the Anglican faith. They sailed to America in 1620 aboard the Mayflower and settled in Massachusets and founded Plymouth, MA. To ensure political stability, they established representative self-governemnt, broad political rights, property ownership, and religious freedom (freedoms that many settlers came to seek and that became affluent in America, eventually influencing the Bill of Rights). -
Navigation Acts
English laws passed in 1651, requiring that certain goods be shipped through English ports on English ships manned primarily by English sailors. During the colonial period England practiced these types of mercantilist policies as a way to grow their national economy, maintain order and control over the colonies, and stimulate manufacturing and foreign trade. These policies bolstered the British economy, and on the other side they hurt the colonies' growing economies. -
John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government"
In 1690, during the period of The Enlightenement, John Locke published "Two Treatises of Government". It advanced the revolutionary theory that political authority was not given by God to monarchs, like the British crown insisted. Instead, it derived from social compacts that people make to preserve their natural rights to life, liberty, and property. In Locke's view the people should have the power to change governments and their policies, a very dangerous idea to Europe's powerful monarchs. -
Atlantic Slave Trade
Beginning in the year 1700, the Atlantic Slave Trade was a system of trade between North America, Great Britain, the West Indies, and Africa. Guns, iron, rum, and cloth was traded with African traders in exchange for slaves, which were only about one-tenth of the value the crops those enslaved workers produced in America. A system of chattel slavery was developed in tobacco plantations in the colonies, especially after the collapse of the tobacco boom in the 1660's where cheap labor was needed. -
Colonial Policy of 1714 - Salutary Neglect
British colonial policy, beggining in 1714, allowed for the rise of American self-governement as royal bureuacrats, pleased by growing trade and import duties, relaxed their supervision of internal colonial affairs. This caused the rise of colonial assemblies in America, which were run by wealthy colonial men, broadly responsive to popular pressure, and increasingly resistant to British control. This rise of "Salutary Neglect" unintentionally layed the foundations for American Independence. -
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
In the 1720's, a religious revival in the colonies caused interests in the church to boom again. This "Great Awakening" was led by a generation of ministers who appealed to emotion. They focused on teaching the principles of a godly life. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards, a big minister of the time, published "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", which aimed to change people's sinful way of life and bring repentance to them by scaring people with a vivid description of Hell and God's judgement. -
Albany Congress
After many disputes between different Indians, the British, and the French over the control of of the Ohio valley, the British Board of Trade called a meeting at Albany in June 1754. There a prominent Mohawk challenged Britian to defend its interests more vigorously, while Benjamin Franklin proposed a "Plan of Union among the colonies to counter French expansion. Franklin's plan never received much consideration, and eventually the push towards war won and the Seven Year's War had begun. -
Treaty of Paris of 1763
In 1759, a British Armada took control of Quebec, the heart of France's American Empire. With the capturing of other French colonies and their rich sugar islands, the French signed the Treaty of Paris in 1763, ending the Seven Year's War. The treaty confirmed Britain's triumph and it granted Britain sovereignty over half of of North America, including all French land from the Appalachian Mountains to the east of the Mississippi River. -
Royal Proclamation of 1763
After the Seven Year's War, the Briitsh Ministry, having leaned of how it expensive it was to control the trans-Appalachian west, issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which declared it off-limts to colonial settlement and proclaimed it as Indian territory. British troops remained in the colonies to protect against Indian aggression and to enforce colonial acceptance of the proclamation and post-war British laws and taxes on the colonies. This eventually wore down the colonists. -
Sugar Act
The Seven Year's War had devastated the British economy and as a result the colonies needed to be made more profitable. The first measure taken was The Sugar Act of 1764, which decreased the already-existing tax on French molasses to stop the smuggling of it and collect a profit. This tax proved unsuccessful as Americans kept smuggling the molasses. This tax ended the period of Salutary Neglect in the colonies, as they were now binded to parliamentary law and taxes, and British interests. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act of 1765 required a tax stamp on all printed items, from college diplomas to playing cards. It was ingenously designed to bore more heavily on the rich, as it charged up to 10 pounds for a lawyer's license. This tax, along with the Quartering Act proved to be a financial burden, both for wealthy and normal colonists, provoking colonial resistance and protests. It brought forward one of Benjamin Franklin's ideas that "If you chuse to tax us" give us representation in Parliament. -
Boston Massacre
Between 1200 and 2000 British troops had been stationed in Boston for a year and a half, aswell as in other places. But in Boston, however, the troops made up 10 percent of the local population, and their presence wore down the locals. On the night of March 5, 1770, a group of nine British redcoats fired into a crowd of colonial protesters, killing 5 civilians. Patriots labeled this as a massacre and there was outrage all throughout the colonies. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
On the night of April 18, 1775, 700 soldiers were sent out to Concord MA to capture colonial leaders, such as John Hancock, and seize a secret stockpile of weapons. When they reached Lexington they were confronted by a militia. The first shot was fired and the American Revolution had begun. At first at handful of lives were taken, but as the redcoats marched back to Boston, after finding no weapons at Concord, they faced 1500 scattered militia men. By the end the British suffered 250 casualties. -
Treaty of Paris of 1783
In September of 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed. In it Great Britain formally recognized American Independence and relinquished its claims to lands south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River. The main contributions to this American victory was Benjamin Franklin securing a Franco-American Alliance in the war, American and French forces trapping the British Army in the Battle of Yorktown, and militiamen swarming and forcing the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne's troops in Saratoga. -
The Constitutional Convention
In May of 1787, delegates arrived in Philadelphia to create a new government body. There were two plans: The New Jersey Plan, which wanted equal representation in Congress and advocated for small states. The Virginia plan wanted Representation based on on pupulation and advocated for large states. Connecticut delegates proposed a compromise that was passed, in which the nation's legislature would have two chambers, one based on state population and the other based on equal representation. -
Washington becomes President
In 1789, George Washington was selected as the 1st President of the US. He established many governmental precedents and helped shape the power of the federal government. He established the court system of the US, creating an independent federal court system with the Supreme Court and lower level courts, he established the presidential cabinet, implemented Hamilton's financial program into the federal government, and established the precedent of only a two-term presidency, among other things. -
The United States Constitution
In June 21, 1788, the Constitution was ratified and it became the Supreme law of the US. It gave the federal governement the power to tax, raise an army and a navy, and regulate foreign and interstate commerce, with the authority to make all laws "necessary and proper". The Constituion created a strong central government with three branches, a judicial, an executive, and a legislative branch. Together these three branches were created in order to check and balance each other out. -
Bank of the United States
Part of Hamilton's financial plan was to create a National Bank, which would be jointly owned by private stockholders and the national government. Hamilton argued that the bank would provide stability to the American economy by making loans to merchants, handling government funds, and issuing bills of credit. These benefits persuaded Congress and President George Washingto to sign the charter for the bank, ultimately passing most of Hamilton's financial plan and turning it into legislation. -
Bill of Rights
In response to Anti-federalist's fear of an overpowering federal government, they ratified the Bill of Rights into the Constitution. The first ten amendments were ratified in 1791, and they safeguarded fundamental personal rights. These rights included the freedom of speech and religion, and mandated legal procedures, such as trial by jury. The amendments also addressed the issue of federalism: the proper balance between the authority of the national and state governments. -
Cotton Gin Invented
In 1793, the Cotton Gin, which removed seeds from the Cotton fiber, was invented by Eli Whitney. This invention made cotton profitable in the South and contributed to the cotton complex, which tied the Cotton south and the manufacturing north together. Soon, Eli Whitney, also came up with the remarkable innovation of interchangeable parts. Together with these inventions and a burst of other major inventions, such as the Steam Engine, the American Industrial Revolution had begun. -
Virginia and Kentuck Resolutions
As a result of John Adam passing the Naturalization, Allien and Sedition Acts, a crisis was sparked. Republicans charged that the Sedition Act violated the First Amendment. On deciding to not appeal to US Supreme Court because of uncertainty, James Madison and T. Jefferson looked towards state legislatures to review the acts. In 1798, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions declared the acts to be "unauthoritive, void, and of no force", an action that was later claimed solely for the SCOTUS. -
The "Revolution of 1800"
In the election of 1800, Jefferson won and brought an end to the Federalist era, which set up a sound financial system, encouraged industry, strengthened the national government, and avoided war with Britain and France. It set out to be called the "Revolution of 1800", as the bloodless transfer of power showed that popularly elected governements could be changed in an orderly way, even in times of partisan conflict. This election showed the world that democracy was functional and sustainable. -
Marbury v. Madison
After Madison finds a letter granting John Marburry a federal judgeship, Jefferson orders him not to deliver it. As a result, Marburry sues to the Supreme Court in order to get his position. The Supreme Court sides with Madison and refuses to grant Marburry the position, based on the fact that they find a part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 to be unconstitutional, and therefore void. In this Marbury v. Madison case the SCOTUS establishes and claims the principle of judicial review. -
Louisiana Purchase
In 1801, Napoleon forced Spain into giving Louisiana back to France. This challenged Jeffersion's vision of westward expansion, so he sent James Monroe to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans. Napoleon, however, wasn't interested unless they took the whole Louisiana territory for 15 million dollars. Jefferson struggled with the constitutionality of this action, but he put the country first, and in doing so he doubled the size of the country and secured New Orleans and the Mississippi River. -
Declaration of War in 1812
In June 1812, the US declared war against Britain. The causes for this war were that the Bitish Navy was taking American sailors from American ships and forcing them into service on Briitsh ships, which was called impressment. The British Army was also supporting Native American resistance against the US in the Ohio River Valley, providing weapons and training Native Americnas. Americans also demanded respect from the rest of the world, proving that America had an inferiority complex -
Treaty of Ghent
With the US being politically divided in the war and under attack from both the north and the south, things were not looking good. Fortunately, by 1815 Britain wanted peace. The Treaty of Ghent, maintained the pre-war borders of the United States. Thanks to the treaty and the Battle of New Orleans, a sense of nationalism sweeped the nation, the nation began to build a transportation system and increase foreign trade, and the Midwest opened up for expansion, after eliminating Native resistance. -
Missouri Compromise
When Missouri applied for admission into the Union as a slave state in 1819, northerners in Congress blocked it's admission. Southerners, therefore, blocked the admission of Maine as a free state, to prevent a free state majority in Congress. After 2 years of controversy, Henry Clay developed the Missouri Comprise. The Compromise allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, and declared that in all lands North of latitude 36°30' slavery was prohibited. -
Tarrif of Abominations
In 1828, John Q Adams and Henry Clay enacted the Tariff of 1828, which made foreign goods more expensive. It was enacted to make people buy more US goods, therefore profiting Northern industrial states. However, it came at the expense of the Southern's economy because European countries retaliated by buying less Southern cotton. Adams' policies, which aligned with Clay's American System promoted the rule of monied "aristocracy", which eventually led to Jackson's Presidency with "popular rule". -
South Carolina's Nullification Ordinance
In 1832, the Nullification Ordinance was issued by South Carolina, which declared that both the tarrifs of 1828 and 1832 were null and void. They also declared that they would secede the Union if the federal government used force to make them comply to the tarrifs. Andrew Jackson declared the Ordiance unconstitutional and at his request Congress granted him the ability to compel South Carolina to follow the law using military force, upholding the Constitutional principle of national authority. -
American Temperance Society
In 1832, Evangelical Protestants founded the American Temperance Society, which set out to curb consumption of alcohol through voluntary abstinence. Through revivalist methods, such as prayer and using women as spiritual guides their campaigns succeeded. In 1851, the Maine legislature outlawed the sale of alcohol, followed later by national prohibition in 1919. This came about during the Temperance movement, most likely influenced by the 2nd Great Awakening, which aimed to perfect society. -
Panic of 1837
In 1837, the Panic of 1837 began as the Bank of England tried to boost the faltering British economy by sharply curtailing the flow of money and credit to the United States. It also began as cotton prices fell and a lack of specie was sent to Britain. Merchants, planters, and canal corporations were suddenly deprived of British funds. Additionally, the lack of credit caused a depression, making the Panic of 1837 the second major economic crisis of the US. -
Texas Annexation
When Mexico adopted a new constitution, enacting higher taxes and placing governement troops in Texas, American emigrants living there retaliated by forming a government and declaring independence. Mexico responded by sending troops to stop the rebellion, but American rebels and adventurers succeeded in winning independence, forming the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Democrats annexed Texas into the Union, making southern expansion and its roots in slavery the central topic of American politics. -
"The North Star" is released
In 1847, Frederick Douglas, a leading abolitionist, published "The North Star", a powerful newspaper concerning the topics of equal rights and abolition. In it, he disproves the theory that African Americans lack the mental capacity for an education and the right to vote. His newspaper played a significant role in uniting Northern abolitionists, raising awareness on the injustices of slavery, influencing public and political opinion against slavery, and propelling the abolition movement. -
Seneca Falls Convention
In 1848, the first women's rights convention was organized in the United States in Seneca Falls, New York. There they produced the Declaration of Sentiments, which pushed for the idea of equality through the right to vote. In congruence with the Declaration of Independence, they declared "All men and women are created equal". This event, along with the creation of of NAWSA brought about the Women's Suffrage movement, strengthening the call for women's social mobility and equal rights. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
After winning the US-Mexico War, a war that was provoked by President Polk to acquire Mexico's Northern provinces, Polk signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. In this treaty the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million in return for more than one-third of its territory. The US acquired the soon-to-be states of CA, AZ, NV, CO, NM, and UT. However, despite the huge gains of land, Congress entered into fierce debates over how to handle the new land, especially in regards to slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
In 1949, California applied to enter the union as a free state. This was met with much conflict, as there was no law resolving the status of slavery in territories acquired in the US Mexico War. To resolve this, Henry Clay proposed and successfully passed the Compromie of 1850, which allowed California to enter as a free state, abolished the slave trade in DC, enacted a nationwide fugitive slave act, and proclaimed that applying for statehood would now be governed by Popular Sovereignty. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
In 1854 the Kansas Nebraska Act was passed, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and left the new territories to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. As a result, residents of Missouri crossed into the territory of Kansas to cast illegal votes. When a proslavery legislature won in Lecompton KS, a majority of Kansas residents, who favored free soil, refused the results. This caused both sides to turn to violence causing the territory to be labeled as Bleeding Kansas. -
Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott, a slave, alledged that if he was in a free state, why was he still a slave. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled against him and proclaimed that he was still a slave, essentially meaning that there were no free states. They also proclaimed that "Negroes" were not citizens of the USA and that the federal government does not have the right to exclude slavery from any territory. Additionally, they declared that the Missouri Compromise and the Northwest Ordinance was unconstitutional. -
Abraham Lincoln is elected President
In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected the next president of the US. Lincoln was moderate on slavery and believed that slavery was not in his power, even though he was personally against slavery. However, the South was worried about what a Lincoln presidency might mean for slavery, their economic system, and their way of life. As a result of this, in December 1860, South Carolina secedes the Union. Shortly after the whole South secedes, forming the Confederacy. -
Attack on Fort Sumter - Start of The Civil War
In 1861, Lincoln dispatched an unarmed ship to ressuply Fort Sumter in South Carolina. This was done after Lincoln asserted that his intentions were to "hold, occupy, and posses" federal property in the seceded states. However, the Confederate government decided to attack and seize the fort. As a result of this, on April 15 Lincoln called 75,000 state militiamen into federal service to put down an insurrection "too powerful to be suppressed...". This was officially the start of the US Civil war. -
Pacific Railway Act of 1862
In 1862, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act. This act called for a transcontinental railroad, as Lincoln wanted to tie the nation economically. He also wanted to get an advantage of the US being a bi-coastal nation. Once done, the transcontinental railroad expanded the US marketplace, allowed goods to move from the eastern US all the way to California, and populated the vast territory of the west. Lincoln was both fighting a war and engaging in the economic growth of the country. -
The Homestead Act
In 1862, Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. This act was passed in order to give land's in the west a purpose and to encourage migration to the west, since cities in the Northeast were overpopulated and exploding in crime, disease, and poverty. In this act the federal government gave away 160 acres of free land to anyone who would move to it, who would “invest” in the land, and who would grow agriculture in it for 5 years. Consequently, this act led to the displacement of many Native Americans. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln in 1863, and it legally abolished slavery in all states that remained out of the Union on January 1, 1863. It stated that rebel states could preserve slavery by renouncing secession. The proclamation was politically astute, as it allowed slavery to continue in Union-controlled border states. The Proclamation transformed the war, to a war now being fought between slavery and freedom. -
Battle of Vicksburg
In the summer of 1863, the army of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant arrived at Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, trapping a Confederate army. On July 4th, the Confederate army finally surrendered, after Grant decided to besiege the city. This was a major victory because it completed the 2nd phase of the Anaconda Plan, which was to take charge of the Mississippi River and cut the Confederate states in half. This victory also led to Gen. Grant being appointed as the General-in-Chief of the Union armies. -
End of the Civil War
On April 9th, 1865, General Lee, General-in-Charge of the Confederate forces, surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The Union had officially won the Civil War. This was done after General Grant finally gained control of Petersburg Virginia, forced Lee to abandon Richmond, and cut off Lee's escape route to North Carolina. Lincoln had received the news just before his death, as on April 14, a pro-Confederate actor named John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president. -
Freedmen's Bureau
In 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was created by Radical Republicans in congress to help newly freed blacks transition to a life of freedom. The Freedmen's Bureau started African American schools, negotiated labor contracts, secured loans, helped find and purchased land, and provided legal aid to freedmen. It was the first federal agency in history that provided direct payments to assist those in poverty and to foster social welfare. -
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 stripped the southern states of their political power. They also divided the South into five military districts, each under the command of a US general. They stated that for a state to join the Union, each state had to ratify the 14th Amendment and grant the vote to freedmen and deny it to leading ex-Confederates. Lastly, they also stated that the military commander of each district was to ensure that the new constitutions guaranteed black suffrage. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 and passed by the Radical Republican supermajority in congress, made all native-born or naturalized persons US citizens. It proclaimed that no state could abridge “the privileges or immunities of citizens in the United States” or deny anyone the right to life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, or the right to equal protection. Lastly, it proclaimed that national citizenship took priority over citizenship in a state. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, forbade states to deny citizens the right to vote on grounds of race, color, or “previous condition of servitude”. This amendment was way ahead of its time, but like almost all Americans, congressional Republicans had extraordinary faith in the power of the vote.