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Period: Jan 1, 1492 to
Exploration and Colonization
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Oct 12, 1492
Columbus Lands in America
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer. Under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed at Tordesillas on June 7th, 1494 divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain. The Treaty of Tordesillas was intended to resolve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus and his crew. -
Jan 1, 1513
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. -
Oct 31, 1517
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century dispute within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. It was sparked by the 1517 posting of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. The efforts of the "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals, leadership and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led to the creation of new national Protestant churches. -
Jan 1, 1520
Spain conquested Yucatán
Spanish conquest of Yucatán: Spanish conquest of the Maya civilization began. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region. -
Aug 13, 1521
Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The campaign began in February 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma was convinced that Cortés was a god, as the Spanish brought horses and guns, which the Aztecs had never -
Jan 1, 1524
Giovanni da Verrazzano
Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the Atlantic coast of North America under French employ. He is renowned as the first European since the Norse expeditions to North America around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland, including New York Bay and Narragansett Bay in 1524. The bridge over the opening of New York Harbor and a vessel of the Italian navy, a destroyer of the Navigatori class, are among his numerous eponymous honors. -
Jan 1, 1542
Discovery of the Mississippi River
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America. A vast undertaking, de Soto's North American expedition ranged throughout the southeastern United States searching for gold, silver and a passage to China. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River in Arkansas or Louisiana. -
Jan 1, 1565
St. Augustine
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer from the region of Asturias, Spain, remembered for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys and for founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. This was the first successful Spanish foothold in La Florida and the most significant city in the region for nearly three hundred years. -
Jan 1, 1570
Iroquois Confederacy
The Iroquois, also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are a league of several nations and tribes of indigenous people of North America. After the Iroquoian-speaking peoples of present-day central and upstate New York coalesced as distinct tribes, by the 16th century or earlier, they came together in an association known today as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power". -
Founding of the Roanoke Colony
The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish a permanent English settlement in America. As all the colonists disappeared from it though, it was nicknamed the "Lost Colony". -
Roanoke Deserted
The Roanoke Colony was found deserted in 1590. The final group of colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England. Their disappearance gave rise to the nickname "The Lost Colony." -
Vigina Colony Founded
Viginia was the first colony founded. -
Founding of Jamestown
A settlement of 104 Englishmen in the Virginia Colony after several failed attempts at Roanoke. The men who settled there endured threats from Native Americans, new diseases, and all around poor living conditions. The settlement of Jamestown was not intended to be a permanent colonial village because the men who came from Europe were interested in investing in new land. Due to the focus on making a profit, the settlers we re unequipped to handle the foreign terrain. -
New Netherland
The Dutch laid claim to the territories of New Netherland. New Netherland was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod while the settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. -
Introduction of the Headright System
The headright system was introduced as a means for solving the problem with the shortage of labor for tobacco cultivation. This system stated that every new arrival paying their way could get 50 acres of land. This encouraged wealthier people to move to the colonies, and it allowed the established planters to receive labor and land immediately.Although in theory, the system provide jobs for many people, the majority of indentured servants either didn't escape poverty once their term was over. -
Slavery in Virginia
Slavery was introduced to the Colony of Virginia. This was the start of slavery in America. Tobacco was the cash crop in Virginia so slaves were needed and used to work the feilds there. -
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first organized group of elected officials within North America. The House of Burgesses was established by the Virginia Company in an effort to encourage craftsmen to settle in America. They adopted English Common Law and used English Parliament as a model for government. -
Signing of the Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was signed abord the Mayflower on November 11th, 1620. This was the first document to establish government in America. -
Plymouth and the Mayflower Compact
The people who came over on the Mayflower were mainly Separatists who had separated from the King's Church, the Church of England. In England, those who did not belong to the King's Church were often put in jail. Before even stepping off the boat, the Separatists created the Mayflower Compact, which guaranteed that all citizens within Plymouth would be able to practice Christianity freely according to their own determination and not the will of the English Church. -
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was founded in 1625. New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement on the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as capital city of New Netherland. It was renamed New York in 1665 in honor of the Duke of York when English forces seized control of Manhattan along with the rest of the Dutch colony. -
New York Colony Founded
New York was the second colony founded by Peter Minuit and Peter Stuyvesant. -
Massachusetts Bay Colony
An English settlement on the east coast of North America, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston and led by John Winthrop. The colony was founded by the Massachusetts Bay Company, was strongly Puritan, and was governed by a dominant group of men. -
Manor of Rensselaerswyck
The Manor of Rensselaerswyck was founded in 1630. The estate was originally deeded by the Dutch West India Company in 1630 to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant and one of the company's original directors. Rensselaerswyck lay on both sides of the Hudson River near present-day Albany and included parts of the present New York counties of Albany, Columbia, Greene, and Rensselaer. -
Founding of Maryland
Expansion occurred in 1634 when Charles I gave G. Calvert land on the Chesapeake as personal property. Calvert named the land Maryland and decided to use the colony as a safe place for Roman Catholics. Other than religion Jamestown and Maryland were identical – they both relied on the tobacco crop and had plantations spread out down the river and therefore didn’t need towns to exchange goods. -
Roger Williams
Theologian Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America, the First Baptist Church of Providence. -
Founding Of Rhode Island
In 1631, Roger Williams went to Boston as a respected Puritan minister, who believed that the individual's conscience was beyond the control of any civil or church authority. Upon his arrival he was instantly met with disapproval and in 1636 he was banished from Boston. He then established Rhode Island which was known for its religious toleration and peace with the Native Americans. -
Harvard
Harvard College was founded as a means of teaching people for religious reasons. -
Connecticut Founded
he Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in North America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan gentlemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English had gained control of the colony permanently by the late 1630s. The colony was later the scene of a bloody and raging war between the English and Indians, known as the Pequot War. -
Pequot War
An armed conflict between the Native Americans and the colonists from Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth, and Saybrook. The war began due to the conflict between the settlers and Indians over the fur trade. Hundreds were killed and hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery in the West Indies. The end of the war eliminated the Pequot Indian tribe eliminated as a threat to the settlers. -
New Hampshire Founded
New Hampshire was the seventh colony founded by John Mason. -
New Sweden
New Sweden was established in 1638 by Sweden. New Sweden was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River on the Mid-Atlantic coast of North America from 1638 to 1655. Fort Christina, now in Wilmington, Delaware, was the first settlement. New Sweden included parts of the present-day American states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Along with Swedes and Finns, a number of the settlers were Dutch. -
Delaware Founded
Delaware was the eigth colony founded by Peter Minuit. Delaware Colony in the North American Middle Colonies was a region of the Province of Pennsylvania although never legally a separate colony. From 1682 to 1776 it was part of the Penn proprietorship and was known as the lower counties. In 1701 it gained a separate Assembly from the three upper counties but had the same Governor as the rest of Pennsylvania. -
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on January 14, 1639. The orders describe the government set up by the Connecticut River towns, setting its structure and powers. -
Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony
The Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony was signed in 1639 in the New Haven Colony. The people who signed it were called free planters. -
French and Iroquois Wars
The Beaver Wars, also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars, commonly refers to a series of conflicts fought in the mid-17th century in eastern North America. Encouraged and armed by their Dutch and English trading partners, the Iroquois sought to expand their territory and monopolize the fur trade and the trade between European markets and the tribes of the western Great Lakes region. The conflict pitted the nations of the Iroquois Confederation, led by the dominant Mohawk, -
Maryland Toleration Act
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 by the assembly of the Maryland colony, it was the second law requiring religious tolerance in the British North American colonies and created the first legal limitations on hate speech in the world. -
Act of Toleration
This law mandated the toleration of Protestant Christians with in the Maryland colony. It was the second law requiring religious toleration to be passed in colonies and it created the first legal limitations on hate speech in the world. The act allowed freedom of worship for all Trinitarian Christians in Maryland, but sentenced death to anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus. -
North Carolina Founded
North Carolina was the ninth colony founded by the Lords Propietors. -
Peach Tree War
The Peach Tree War, also known as the Peach War, was a large scale attack by the Susquehannock Nation and allied Native Americans on several New Netherland settlements along the North River, centered on New Amsterdam and Pavonia on September 15, 1655. -
King Charles II
The Commonwealth of England came to an end with the restoration of King Charles II of England.The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. -
South Carolina Founded
South Carolina was the tenth colony founded by the Lords Proprietors. -
Charter of Carolina
King Charles II owed an enormous debt to his friends who helped restore the monarchy, so he rewarded eight of them with a grant of land that included what is now North and South Carolina. In the colony, the Lords Proprietors possessed broad feudal powers to profit from the colony and bore the considerable responsibility of managing and protecting it in the interests of England. -
New Jersey Founded
New Jersey was the eleventh colony founded by Lord Berkeley and George Carteret. -
Second Anglo-Dutch War
Second Anglo-Dutch War: The war began with the English conquest of New Amsterdam in 1664. The Second Anglo-Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo-Dutch Wars fought between the English (later British) and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes.
The Second Anglo-Dutch War was fought between England and the United Provinces from 4 March 1665 until 31 July 1667. England tried to end the Dutch domination of world trade. -
Appalachian Mountains
John Lederer of Virginia began to explore the Appalachian Mountains in 1669. John Lederer was a 17th-century German physician and an explorer of the Appalachian Mountains. He and the members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. -
Blue Laws
The Blue Laws were enacted in Connecticut in 1672. -
Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette
Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began to explore the Illinois Country. -
Jolliet and Marquette's expedition ends
Jolliet and Marquette's expedition of Illinios Country ended. -
King Philip's War
Following the deaths of the original colonists who had made treaties with the Native Americans, the colonists in Plymouth treated the Natives poorly. They captured one of the Native American leaders at gunpoint and began taking more Native American land. In retailiation, the Wampanoag leader Metacom began a destructive war known as “King Philip’s War”. It lasted around a year, and consisted of numerous fairly successful attacks by the Natives on towns surrounding Plymouth. -
Bacon's Rebellion
A group of yeoman farmers living on the frontier claimed that Governor Berkeley of the Virginia Colony was not protecting them adequately from Indian attacks. Against the Governor's orders, they began attacking nearby Native American villages. Daniel Bacon emerged as the leader of these frontiersmen and burnt down Jamestown. -
Founding of Pennsylvania
On February 28, 1681, Charles II granted a charter to William Penn to repay a debt he owed to William's dad (one of the largest land grants to an individual in history). Penn made his new colony a safe haven for Quakers who believed in pacifism, social equality, integrity, and simplicity. -
Glorious Revolution
The English people didn’t want James II to be their king because he was catholic and had recently had a child (setting up a Catholic heir), so they executed a peaceful revolution and handed the throne over to William of Orange and Mary Stuart. This gave significantly more power to parliament and resulted in the disintegration of the Dominion of New England. -
Plymouth Settlement De-Established
In 1691, the Plymouth Settlement, founded with the Mayflower Compact, was de-established. -
Salem Witch Trials
In 1692 several girls began accusing various women in the town of Salem of cursing them -- most famously the slave Tituba. In the following year over twenty people were executed. The frenzy ended when people of higher class were accused causing some well respected ministers to question the guilt of many who were accused. By 1693, all who were accused were pardoned and released from jail. -
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an era in western philosophy in which reason was emphasized above faith. It advocated breaking away from tradition to support more rational ideas; many Enlightenment scholars did not subscribe to traditional religious beliefs and did not support traditional monarchical governments. The Enlightenment incited the First Great Awakening, a reactionary movement in the opposite direction. -
Death of William III
William III died and was succeeded by Anne, Queen of Great Britain. -
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War: The war began shortly after she became queen. -
New York Slave Revolt
The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 was an uprising in New York City of 23 enslaved Africans who killed nine whites and injured another six. More than three times that number of blacks, 70, were arrested and jailed. Of these, 27 were put on trial, and 21 convicted and executed. -
George II
George I of Great Britain died and was succeeded by George II of Great Britain. -
Georgia Colony Founded
In 1732, Georgia was the 13th colony founded as a refuge for debtors by James Oglethopre. -
First Great Awakening
First Great Awakening: The First Great Awakening took place in 1732. It was a time of religious revivals.
