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Period: Jul 11, 1492 to
Unit 1: Discovery, Contact and Conflict
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Oct 15, 1492
Columbus Reaches The New World
Chris is a little lost...Stops in "Hispanolia" to ask for directions. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
Signed by Spain and Portugal, this Treaty formalized "who gets what" for the New World - well, only if you are Spanish or Portuguese...the French, English and Dutch had other things in mind. -
Jun 24, 1497
John Cabot reaches NFLD
Looking for the norhwest passage, Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto lands in NFLD carrying the British flag of his financier King Henry II. -
Jul 11, 1503
Amerigo Vespuci
Great looking place _ I think I will name it after me, sez the Portugese explorer. Not how it happened...check out the story in the NYTimes link - here: Why is America called America? -
Nov 8, 1519
Cortes - The Conquistadors Arrive.
Cortes meets Montezuma II in a peaceful meeting. Unfortunatley this peace does not last long. The waves of conquistadors (conquerors) beginning a period known as the "Black Legend" -
Aug 13, 1521
Conquest of the Aztecs
Doesn't take the Spanish long to undo years of work, on this day Cuahtenioc, ruler of Tenochtilan is captured, thus ending the Aztec Empire -
Aug 28, 1565
Oldest European Settlement in America
St. Augustine - estalbished by the Spanish in present day Florida. So named as it was the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo when the Spanish arrived. If you are ever in Florida for March Break - check out the Golf Hall of Fame after you finish your day at the beach, shopping in the outlet mall... -
Roanoke Colony - present day North Carolina
On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I granted Sir Walter Raleigh (one of her favourites in the courst) a charter for the colonization of the area of North America. This charter specified that Raleigh needed to establish a colony in North America. Unfortunately, the colony didn't last (neither did her favour) as the final group of colonists disappeared three years after the last shipment of supplies from England. Their disappearance gave rise to the nickname "The Lost Colony." -
Jamestown is founded
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14th, 1607 and considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610.
Infamous for John Smith, Pocahontas, tobacco and slavery. -
That other Nov 11 day...Mayflower Compact is signed
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, also known as the "Puritans", fleeing from religious persecution by King James of Great Britain. They traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620 along with adventurers, tradesmen, and servants. The Compact was signed aboard ship - the Mayflower - on November 11, 1620. -
New Amsterdam is founded
To legally safeguard the settlers' investments, possessions and farms on Manhattan island, Minuit negotiated the "purchase" of Manhattan from a Manahatta band of Lenape for 60 guilders worth of trade goods - that is reported to have been about $24 dollars. -
Massechusets Bay Colony Charter Issued
A flotilla of ships (sometimes known as the Winthrop Fleet) sailed from England beginning in April 1630. The fleet, which began arriving at Salem in June, carried more than 700 colonists, Governor John Winthrop, and the colonial charter. Winthrop is reputed to have delivered his famous "City upon a Hill" sermon either before or during the voyage. -
Maryland is founded
To try to gain settlers, Maryland used what is known as the headright system, which originated in Jamestown. Settlers were given 50 acres of land for each person they brought into the colony, whether as settler, indentured servant or slave.
On March 25, 1634, Lord Baltimore sent the first colonists into this area. Although most of the settlers were Protestants, Maryland soon became one of the few regions in the English Empire where Catholics held the highest positions of political authority. -
Connecticut is founded
John Winthrop, then of Massachusetts, received permission to create a new colony at Old Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River in 1635. This was the first of three distinct colonies that later would be combined to make up Connecticut.
The first English settlers came in 1633 and settled at Windsor, and then at Wethersfield the following year. However, the main body of settlers came in one large group in 1636 - Puritans from Massachusetts, led by Thomas Hooker. -
Roger Williams founds Rhode Island
Roger Williams was a theologian forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeking religious and political tolerance, he and others founded "Providence Plantations" as a free proprietary colony. "Providence" referred to the divine providence and "plantations" referred to an English term for a colony. -
Havard University
Oldest University in America - Harvard is founded in Cambridge, MA. Initially called "New College" or "the college at New Towne", the institution was renamed Harvard College on March 13, 1639. Pronounced "HahVad* by Bostonians. This painting was done by Paul Revere - ya, that Paul Revere (he was a painter and goldsmith too!) -
First American Revolution - Pequot War Begins
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the English colonists of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Saybrook colonies and their Native American allies (the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes). Hundreds were killed; hundreds of prisoners sold into slavery to the West Indies. -
Toleration Act is passed in Maryland
The Maryland Toleration Act, also known as the Act Concerning Religion, was a law mandating religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. Passed on April 21, 1649 it created the first legal limitations on hate speech in the world. (The colony which became Rhode Island passed a series of laws, the first in 1636, which prohibited religious persecution. -
Carolina is founded
Following the 1660 restoration of the monarchy, Charles II of England rewarded, on March 24, 1663, eight men for their faithful support of his efforts to regain the throne of England. He granted the eight, called Lords Proprietors or simply Proprietors, the land called Carolina. -
King Philips' War
King Philip's War, sometimes called the First Indian War, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–78. -
I smell Bacon
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by young Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley, as he had failed to address the demands of the colonists regarding their safety. It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part. -
Dominion of New England
The Dominion of New England in America (1686–1689) was an administrative union of English colonies in the New England region of North America. The dominion was a failure, because the colonies deeply resented being stripped of their traditional rights. The very large area it encompassed, was too large for a single governor to manage. Its governor, Sir Edmund Andros, was highly unpopular and was deposed 3 years later. Guess American's were doing things their way long before 1776! -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693.
The episode is one of the most notorious cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations and lapses in due process. -
Ben Flies a Kite
The kite experiment was a scientific experiment proposed and later conducted by Benjamin Franklin with assistance from his son William Franklin. The experiment's purpose was to uncover then unknown facts about the nature of lightning and electricity. -
Seven Years War
Conclusion of the Seven Years War - known as the French/Indian War in America, between the European powerhouses, sees the transfer of land to Britian - such as Canada, Florida which will provide portection for the 13 colonies to grow. -
Sugar Act is Passed
The Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764. The earlier Molasses Act of 1733, which had imposed a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses, had never been effectively collected due to colonial evasion. By reducing the rate by half and increasing measures to enforce the tax, the British hoped that the tax would actually be collected. -
Currency Act is Passed
The Currency Act is the name of several Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain that regulated paper money issued by the colonies of British America. The Acts sought to protect British merchants and creditors from being paid in depreciated colonial currency. The policy created tension between the colonies and Great Britain, and was cited as a grievance by colonists early in the American Revolution. -
Stamp Act is Passed by British Parliament
Britain passes the Stamp Act, to raise taxes in the colonies for the defence of the new territories. Thirteen British colonies along the Atlantic seacoast are united in opposition to paying the tax. -
Quartering Act is passed
Passed inorder local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations. It also required citizens to provide food for any British soldiers in the area. They were originally intended as a response to issues that arose during the French and Indian War and soon became a source of tension between the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies and the government in London, England. These tensions would later fuel the fire that led to the Revolutionary War. -
Boston Tea Party
"Destruction of the Tea" - port of Boston is closed and the military moves in! After officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to "No taxation without representation". -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress, which announced that the 13 American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America.
George Washington is appointed army commander.
Really it should be 2nd - when the voted on it. Check out the debate here. -
Articles of Confederation are agreed to
The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. The new Constitution provided for a much stronger national government with a chief executive (the president), courts, and taxing powers. -
Surrender at Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender at Yorktown, the latter taking place on October 19, 1781, was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis. The culmination of the Yorktown campaign, the siege proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War. -
The Peace of Paris
The Peace of Paris (1783) was the set of treaties which ended the American Revolutionary War. On 3 September 1783, representatives of King George III of Great Britain signed a treaty in Paris with representatives of the United States of America—commonly known as the Treaty of Paris (1783). The British lost their Thirteen Colonies and the defeat marked the end of the First British Empire. The United States gained more than it expected, thanks to the award of western territory. Loyalist migration. -
Congress adopts a Constitution
The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in eleven States. It went into effect on March 4, 1789. Since the Constitution was adopted, it has been amended twenty-seven times. GW is appointed as the frist President on Feb 4, 1789 by Congress, with runner-up John Adams as VP.
