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First Continental Congress
It was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States -
Battles at Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge. British troops had moved from Boston toward Lexington and Concord to seize the colonists' military supplies and arrest revolutionaries. -
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American Revolutionary war
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence, was fought primarily between the Kingdom of Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies in America, resulting in the overthrow of British rule in the colonies and the establishment of the United States of America. -
Second Continental Congress
Was a meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies in America which united in the American Revolutionary War -
Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. It was an official act taken by all 13 American colonies in declaring independence from British rule. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was to plan the structure of the new government and to create a confederation-some kind of government. It was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution. It was created in 1777 but not ratified until 1781 -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
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Shay's Rebellion
Shays' Rebellion was a yearlong uprising in Massachusetts, 1786, by the poorer members of society, a bunch of farmers who fought in the Revolutionary War, who did not agree with the new terms imposed on them by the state government. -
Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States established America's national government and fundamental laws and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. It was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It was ratified on June 21, 1788, and effective March 4, 1789 -
Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. -
Alien and Sedition Act
These laws included new powers to deport foreigners as well as making it harder for new immigrants to vote. -
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803. -
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War of 1812
The conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent. -
Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner"
The lyrics come from the Defence of Fort M'Henry, a poem written on September 14, 1814, by the then 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was United States federal legislation that admitted Maine to the United States as a free state, simultaneously with Missouri as a slave state—thus maintaining the balance of power between North and South in the United States Senate. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy that opposed European colonialism in the Americas. It began in 1823; however, the term "Monroe Doctrine" itself was not coined until 1850. -
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Trail of Tears
The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died. It commemorates the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal. -
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Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. Rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, at least 51 being white. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterward. Started Aug 21, 1831, and ended Aug 23, 1831 -
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Mexican-American War
The main cause of the war was the westward expansion of the United States. All through the 19th century Americans believed it was their right to expand westward. At the time they believed they could conquer the people already living on the land and take it for the United States. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
It is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War". -
Dred Scott Decision
They decided that slaves couldn't become free in a free state and still considered property to their owner and the Supreme Court ruled that no black could claim U.S. citizenship or petition. -
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Civil War
The war between the United States and the Confederate States began on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina. The immediate cause was the Constitutional principle: the U.S. government refused to recognize the southern states' right to secede from the Union. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to the slaves in the Confederate States if the States did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. In addition, under this proclamation, freedom would only come to the slaves if the Union won the war. -
President Abraham Lincoln's assassination
Abraham Lincoln's assassination dramatically changed the Reconstruction era. President Abraham Lincoln, America's Civil War leader, was assassinated just five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, ending the four-year War Between the States. The assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States government. -
Transcontinental Railroad
Transcontinental Railroad helped America by connecting West with East. The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 in Utah. The Transcontinental Railroad made it easier for people to travel a long distance in a short period of time and helped to transport mail faster and cheaper. -
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Spanish–American War
The Spanish–American War was an armed conflict between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence.
