Colonial America Timeline

  • Roanoke

    Roanoke
    Roanoke- the Roanoke Colony founded in 1585, mysteriously disappeared between its founding and the return of the expedition’s leaders in 1590. www.Brittanca.com
  • Salutary Neglect

    Salutary Neglect
    Policy of the British government from the early to mid-18th century regarding its North American colonies under which trade regulations for the colonies were laxly enforced and imperial supervision of internal colonial affairs was loose as long as the colonies remained loyal to the British government and contributed to the economic profitability of Britain. https://www.britannica.com/topic/salutary-neglect
  • Jamestown

    Jamestown
    On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/jamestown
  • Connecticut colony

    Connecticut colony
    One of the 13 Colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. The colony started in 1636 and developed the first written constitution in America, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/connecticut-colony-early-history-and-settlement/
  • The House of Burgesses

    The House of Burgesses
    (1619-1776 CE) was the first English representative government in North America, established in July 1619 CE, for the purpose of passing laws and maintaining order in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia and the other settlements that had grown up around it.
    https://www.worldhistory.org/House_of_Burgesses
  • Great Migration

    Great Migration
    Between about 1620 and 1640, as many as 20,000 men, women and children left England for New England.

    www.lenoxhistory.org
  • The Mayflower Compact

    The Mayflower Compact
    The Mayflower Compact was a set of rules for self-governance established by the English settlers who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower.
    First governing document of Plymouth Colony.
    https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/mayflower-compact
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony

    Massachusetts Bay Colony
    Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-1691 CE) was the largest English settlement in New England and the most influential both in the colonization of the region and later developments in what would become the United States of America. https://www.worldhistory.org/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony/
  • Maryland

    Maryland
    Maryland was founded in April 1632 when King Charles I agreed to grant a charter to George Calvert, the 1st Lord Baltimore, in order to establish a colony in the New World where Catholics could live without the threat of religious persecution from Protestants. Calvert died and the charter was given to his son, Cecilius Calvert, who is commonly referred to as Cecil.
    https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/maryland-colony-facts/
  • Rhode Island

    Rhode Island
    Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams in 1636, who had been banished from the Massachusetts colony for his advocacy of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/rhode-island
  • Maryland Toleration Act

    Maryland Toleration Act
    The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 ensured religious freedoms to Christian settlers of different denominations who settled in Maryland. Lawmakers hoped that it made Maryland a more desirable location for immigration and was the first law to protect religious freedom in the Thirteen Colonies. However, the act was short-lived and nullified from 1654 to 1661 and then again from 1692 until 1783. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/maryland-toleration-act-september-21-1649
  • Carolinas

    Carolinas
    n the 1650s, the first permanent English settlers in North Carolina actually came from the southern part of the Virginia Colony and settled in the Albemarle area in the northern part of present-day North Carolina. Thirteen years later, Charles II granted a charter to eight Englishmen who would serve as Lords Proprietors of the Carolina Grant.
    https://www.smplanet.com/teaching/colonialamerica/colonies/carolinas
  • New York colony

    New York colony
    NEW YORK COLONY began as the Dutch trading outpost of New Netherland in 1614. On 4 May 1626, officials of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland founded New Amsterdam, which subsequently became New York City. The English captured the colony in 1664, though a complete ousting of Dutch rule did not occur until 10 November 1674.
    https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/new-york-colony
  • Bacon's rebellion

    Bacon's rebellion
    The most serious challenge to royal authority before the American Revolution. Historians often connect this event to the decline of indentured servitude and the corresponding rise of slavery within the British American colonies. https://historicjamestowne.org/history/bacons-rebellion/
  • Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania
    Pennsylvania Colony was founded in 1681 when King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for the establishment of a new colony between Maryland and New York, in a region that was initially part of New Sweden and then New Netherland.
    https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/pennsylvania-colony-facts/
  • Salem Witch trials

    Salem Witch  trials
    The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/salem-witch-trials
  • Great Awakening and Enlightenment

    Great Awakening and Enlightenment
    Two major cultural movements further strengthened Anglo-American colonists’ connection to Great Britain: the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment. Both movements began in Europe, but they advocated very different ideas: the Great Awakening promoted a fervent, emotional religiosity, while the Enlightenment encouraged the pursuit of reason in all things.
    https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/osushistory/chapter/great-awakening-and-enlightenment/
  • Albany Plan

    Albany Plan
    The Albany Plan of Union was a proposal written by Benjamin Franklin and introduced during the Albany Congress, which was held in Albany, New York in 1754. Prior to the Albany Congress, Franklin wrote down his ideas for a union of the colonies, which he called “Short Hints.” https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/albany-plan-of-union/
  • French-Indian War

    French-Indian War
    The French and Indian War is one of the most significant, yet widely forgotten, events in American history. It was a conflict that pitted two of history’s greatest empires, Great Britain and France, against each other for control of the North American continent. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/french-and-indian-war-1754-1763-causes-and-outbreak
  • Proclamation of 1763

    Proclamation of 1763
    Issued by the British crown at the end of the French and Indian War, set territorial limits on where European colonists could settle in America. Designed to appease Native Americans, who had occupied the land for millennia, it created a boundary—known as the "proclamation line"—beyond which Europeans could not encroach onto Indigenous lands. https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/1763-proclamation-of