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Jan 1, 1215
The Magna Carta
King John is forced by English nobles to sign the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was a "great charter" that limited the right of the monarchy to levy taxes, protected the right to own property, and guaranteed trial by jury. The Magna Carta placed restrictions on English ruler's power. -
Oct 12, 1492
Columbus First Voyage
Columbus sailed to the West Indies, then he had three other voyages afterwards. He died thinking where he landed had been Asia. -
Jan 1, 1497
John Cabot
John Cabot left England and explores the New foundland. He wanted to find the northwest passsage, a sea route from the Atlantic to Pacific that passed through or around North America. -
Jan 1, 1500
Spanish explorers reach Florida
Spanish explorers reach Florida, -
Jan 1, 1510
Vasco Nunez Balboa sees Pacific
Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first to set eyes on the Pacific Ocean. -
Jan 1, 1510
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan set out to find Atlantic-Pacific passage.He circumnavigated the world, except for Europe. He had also found a strait that today is known as the Strait of Magellan. -
Jan 1, 1513
Juan Ponce de Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon was the first Spaniard to set foot in the U.S. He sailed from Puerto Rico to investigate reports and lands in Florida. -
Jan 1, 1519
Hernando Cortes
Hernando Cortes sails from Cuba to Mexico and then conquers the Aztecs. -
Jan 1, 1524
Giovanni da Verrazano
Giovanni da Verrazano explored the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to the Newfoudland. He also discovered the mouth over the Hudson River, and New York Bay. -
Jan 1, 1524
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Ccartier made three trips to North America to find the northwest passgae. He then discovers the St.lawrence River and as far as present day Montreal. -
Jan 1, 1531
Franciso Pizarro
Franciso Pizarro lands in Peru searching for the Incas who had much gold, or so was said. -
Jan 1, 1539
Hernando De Soto
De Soto traveled as far north as the Carolinas, and as far west as Oklahoma. Dieing in Louisiana in 1542, he had found the Mississippi River. -
Jan 1, 1540
Franciso Coronado
Franciso Coronado wanted to find the "golden city", but then explores New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Kansas. -
Jan 1, 1565
St. Augustine
Spanish build the fort St. Augustine. This occured because the Spanish feared France might take over the area. The fort was in northern Florida. Later on the Spanish borderlands were made, meaning lands along the frontier. The borderlands main function was to protect Mexico from other European powers. -
Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island is the first colony established by the English in North America on the coast of North Carolina. It was abandoned one year later. -
Second English Colony
The second English colony established is a mystery. -
Juan de Onate in New Mexico
Juan de Onate led an expedition to Mexico. He wanted to find gold, convert Native Americans in to Christianity, and establish a permanent colony. He established Santa Fe in 1598, which became the first permanent settlement in Spain. -
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment thinkers were people who believed that all problems could be solved by human reason. In 1690, John Locke argued that people have natural rights, or rights that every human has at birth. He also believed in a divine right. A divine right is the belief that monarchs get their authority to rule directly from God. A French, the Baron de Montesquieu, helped form U.S goverement by the thought of separation of powers. It was the division of powers into separate branches. -
Samuel de Champlain explores land around St.Lawrence
Samuel de Champlain makes the first eleven voyage to explore the map lands along the St.Lawerence River. -
Nova Scotia
Champlain establishes the settlement Noa Scotia. -
Virginia Company of London granted a charter, and Virginia is established
The Virginia Company of London got a charter, a document issued by the goverment granting specific rights, from King James the I. It gave the Virginia Company authority over the North America coastline. One hundred men came to Virginia in Chesapeake Bay and built the first permanent settlement by England in North America called Jamestown. -
Separatists in Holland
Several groups of Separatists settle in Holland, separating from the Church of England. -
Champlain establishes Quebec
Samuel de Champlain establishes the settlement Quebec along the St.Lawrence River. -
John Smith
John Smith becomes the leader of Virginia with a hard working policy and leads Virginia well. -
Champlian Lake
Champlain explores a lake on the border of present day Vermont, and New York. The Lake is now Champlain Lake. -
Henry Hudson reaches New York
Henry Hudson reaches New York and explores up what is now the Hudson River. -
Henry Hudson sails to Artic
Henry Hhudson sails the Artic and finds what is now the Hudson Bay. -
Dutch establish New Netherlands
The Dutch trade with the Native Americans in Hudson River Valley. The trade became so profitable that the Dutch India Company established New Netherlands. -
House of Burgesses
Virginias House of Burgesses, represenative goverment, meets for the first time. -
Separatists in Virginia, then 100 men leaving on the Mayflower signing the Mayflower Compact
The Separatists leave Holland, then settling in Virginia. These people are known as the piligrims, people who take a religious journey. One hundred piligrim men leave Virginia boarding the Mayflower, then the Mayflower is blown off course. These men land in Massachusetts calling their home Plymouth after a port city in England. Fourty-one men sign the Mayflower Compact of "just and equal laws." -
First Thanksgiving
The first Thanksgiving is held to set aside a day for the Piligrims to give thanks, especially to Cheif Squanto, who showed them skills to survive, and gave and planted them seeds. -
Fort Orange
Many settlers arrive in New Netherlands.Fort Orange then becomes Albany. -
New Amsterdam
Settlers arrive in the Hudson River Valley. Colonists then name it New Amsterdam. Later on, New Amsterdam became New York City. -
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Puratins leave England and form the Massachusetts Bay colony. Then, the Puratins recieve a charter, making settlements in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Tthe Puratins are led by John Winthrop who established Boston, Massachusetts. -
Maryland becomes a colony
King Charles I granted a charter for a new colony to George Calvert, a Catholic, who then founded the colony Maryland, which lay across from Chesapeake Bay. In his colony Catholics could live safely. When he died, his son, Lord Baltimore, made the Act of Toleration in 1649. It welcomed all Christians and gave male Christians the right to vote and hold in office. -
Roger Williams founds Providence
Roger Williams is forced to leave Massachusetts Bay colony and then founded Providence, Rhode Island. -
Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker settles in Connecticut and founded Hartford, Connecticut. -
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts because she questioned some Puratin teachings and then established a settlement on an island that is now part of Rhode Island. -
John Wheelright
John Wheelright moved to New Hampshire and founded the town Exeter. -
Colleges beginning with Harvard
Harvard was the first college in the English colonies. In 1639, colonists in Virginia founded the College of William and Mary, the first college in the south. -
Baptism
Maryland passed a law that Baptism did not lead to liberty. It meant that people could be enslaved for life. -
The Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were made by the English Parliament to support mercantilism. By these laws shipments from Europe to English colonies had to go through England first, any imports to England had to come on ships built and owned by British subjects, and colonies could sell key products such as tobacco and sugar, only to England. This helped create jobs for English workers. -
Carolina established
King Charles II granted a charter to establish a colony south of Virgina. The area was called Carolina. There were also two parts; the southern and the north. -
Slave Birth
The Virginia Court held that any child born to a slave was a slave too. -
Slaves Revolt
The first serious slave revolt took place in Gloucester, Virginia. The uprising had failed, but other revolts took place in Connecticut and Virginia. Slave codes were made to restrict the rights and activities of slaves. -
New Netherlands becomes New York
King Charles the II granted all the rights to Dutch lands in North America to his brother James. James had to conquer the territory. The Dutch surrendered, and New Netherlands was renamed after James, the Duke of York, to New York. New Amsterdam became its capital, New York City. -
New Jersey
New Jersey was established. It was first a proprietary colony, which was ruled by an indvidual or family. Then, it became a royal colony, which was ruled by an English King. -
Jacques Marquette
Jacques Mmarquette founded two missions along the Great Lakes and Michigan. -
Father Marquette and Louis Joliet
Father Marquette and Louis Joliet canoe along the shores of Lake Michigan, and Green Bay Wisconsin. They reach the Mississippi River and in the Mississippi junction, the Arkansas River. -
Bacon's Rebelion
Nathaniel Bacon, the leader of the frontier settlers, organized a force of one thousand westerners. They began killing and attacking the Native Americans and burned Jamestown to the ground. It forced the govenor to run away. This is known as Bacon's Rebelion. -
New Hampshire
After fighting with Massachusetts, New Hampshire becomes a separate colony from a charter. -
The Quaker William Penn establishes Pennsylvania
William Penn, a Quaker, recieved a land almsot as large as England which is now mainly Pennsylvania. -
Rene Robert Cavelier (LaSalle)
La Salle reached the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi Valley. He founded Louisiana after King Louis XIV. -
The Holy Expierment
William Penn arrives in his colony, wrote a Frame of Goverement for Pennsylvania, and had a "holy expierment." The "holy expierment" was that people from different religious backrounds could live peacefully together in his colony. -
The Bill of Rights
King William and Queen Mary sign the English Bill of Rights. It is a written list of freedoms that a goverment promises to protect. -
Spanish Missions
Spanish missionairies were made, such as San Francisco, San Diego, and San Antonio. A mission is a religious settlement. A number of other U.S. missions were made as well. -
The Tidewater Region
In the Tidewater Region, there were many platations, or large farms. The plantations led to economy domination. Crops were planted such as sugar, rice, and cotton. The Tidewater Region was mostly a white community and was full of the wealthy. -
Triangular Trade
Slave traders had developed a regular routine, and it was known as the triangular trade. It was a three-way trade between colonies, the islands of the Caribbean, and Africa. -
The Backcountry
Immigrants were settling in the Backcountry, a frontier region extending from Pennsylvania to Georgia. The people were not usually English, but German, Scotch-Irish, and Pennsylvania Dutch. In the backcountry were mostly poor and unwealthy people. Few families had a servant or enslaved person. Everyone basically worked in the plantaions. Most people lived in one-room shacks. -
General Assembly
Penn is forced to agree that only the General Assembly could make laws. The king could overturn laws, -
Delaware
Delaware becomes a separate colony. -
The Great Awakening
An emotion-packed movement went through the colonies. It was the time of religious revival none as the Great Awakening. Christians saw it as a decline in religion. -
Georgia established and James Oglethrope
Geogia was founded because the English feared that Spain would expand its colony northward to Florida, and a colony south of the Carolina's would keep the Spanish bottled up in Florida. James Oglethrope wanted a colony to protect English debtors, or people who owed money. -
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin publishes his most popular work "Poor Richard's Almanack." He becomes a loved writer from the age of 17. He started the newspaper "Pennsylvania Gazette." He discovered things about electricity, founded a library, fire department, and invented the bifocal eyeglasses and a stove. -
Freedom of the Press
A notable court case, the Zenger trial, helped establish an important right. This right was freedom of the press, the right of journalists to publish the truth without restriction or penalty. -
The Mason Dixon Line
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were hired to settle boundaries between Maryland and Pennsylvania. The boundary is called the Mason Dixon Line. -
California missions
Junipero Serra establishes mission becoming San Diego. Serra then later on establishes other missions in California which are now San Francisco and Los Angeles. -
End to Slavery
Slavery ends after much chaos of trade, revolts, etc.
