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Period: Jan 1, 1492 to
Exploration and Colonization
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Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus discovers New World
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, paid by Spanish monarchs, to find a water route to the Indies. Hoever, instead he discovered a new world that would someday evolve into the Americas, completely by accident. -
May 27, 1493
Columbian Exchange
Exchange of commerce between the old world and new world. The old world gained gold,silver,food produce, and syphilis. While the New world was intoduced to wheat, sugar, rice, coffee, cattle, disease, and slave labor. -
May 21, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
This treaty divided the new world between Spain and Portugal. The larger portion went to Spain who was the dominate exploring anf colonizing power in the 1500s. -
May 27, 1513
Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean
Vasco Nunez Balboa travelled to Panama and claimed all lands touched by that sea for the King of Spain. -
May 27, 1513
Juan Ponce de Leon
Ponce de leon explored Florida in 1513 and 1521 seeking gold. -
May 21, 1519
Cortes defeats the Aztecs
Hernan Cortes, through firepower, interpreters, and disease defeated the Aztecs of Mexico. The Aztec ruler Moctezuma also thought Cortes was some sort of God and welcomed him with open arms which Cortes used to his advantage in uptaining Aztec gold. -
May 27, 1519
Ferdinand magellan
Magellan started from spain in 1519. He was slain by the Phillipines during his circumnavigation of the globe. However his last ship with his body returned to Spain in 1522 completing his journey. -
May 23, 1530
Protestant Reformation
King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s starting the Protestant Reformation. The feud between Catholics and Protestants lasted for decades until protestant Elizabeth gained the English throne in 1558. -
May 21, 1532
Pizarro defeats the Incas
Francisco Pizarro defeated the Incas of Peru in 1532. He added a huge hoard of booty to Spanish coffers. -
May 27, 1539
Hernando Soto
Hernando under took a gold expedition from 1539 to 1542. He discovered the Mississippi River in his travels. -
May 27, 1540
Francisco Coronado
Coronado travelled through Arizona, New Mexico, and Kansas searching for the Golden Cities. he didnt find gold but actually discovered the Grand Canyon and herds of Buffalo -
May 27, 1565
St. Augustine
The Spanish established a fortress at St. Augustine, Florida to protect sea-lanes to the Caribbean. This Fort is the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the United States. -
May 27, 1580
Francis Drake
The England sought to promote Protestantism and Plunder by seizing Spanidh treasure ships. Prominant among these piratical "sea dogs" was Francis Drake who returned to England in 1580 with a lot of Spanish booty. -
Raleigh founds Roanoke colony
Sir Walter Raleigh established a colony on North Carolina's Roanoke Island. After several unsuccessful starts the Roanoke Colony mysteriously vanished. -
England defeats Spanish Armada
English sea dogs defeated the Spanish Armanda in 1588 with swifter, more maneuverable ships that were more skillfuly manned. The defeat of the Spanish Armanda marked the end of Spanish dominance. -
England in 1600
By 1600, England's population exploded which resulted in a mobile population consisting of farmers labeled as the "surplus population". This population growth was a factor in colonization in the New World. -
Jamestown
The Virginia Company of London recieved a charter from King James I of England for a settlement in the New World. Three ships arrived near Chesapeake Bay in 1607. However the colonists suffered greatly from hunger and disease and lack of motivation and skills. -
John Smith
Captain John Smith's policy of "He who shall not work shall not eat" help whip the colonists of Jamestown into shape. Smith's relationships with the indians also resulted in a intermediary between the indians and the settlers in the form of Pocahontas. -
New Mexico
Led by Don Juan de Onate, the spaniards founded New Mexico and established it's capital at Santa Fe the following year. -
Rise of tobacco
John Rolfe became the father of the tobacco industry in 1612. Tobacco greatly increased Jamestown and Virgina's prosperity, however it also introduced "King Nicotine" which ruined the soil and left the colonists depending on a single crop. -
First Anglo-Powhatan war
Lord De La Warr's troops of Jamestown raided indian villages, burned houses, stole supplies, and torched cornfields. A peace treaty ended the conflict in 1614 sealed by the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe. -
House of Burgesses
The London Company authorized the settlers to form an assembly known as the House of Burgesses. This was the first parliment formed in the Colonies. -
Seeds of Slave system
A Dutch warship in 1619 sold some 20 Africans to jamestown. This tiny transaction planted the seeds of the North American slave system. -
Pilgrims find Plymouth Bay
A group of Separatists, in their ship the Mayflower, chose to settle at Plymouth Bay. -
Mayflower Compact
Before Landing the Pilgrims drafted the Mayflower compact. this document was a simple agreement to form a crude government and to submit to the will of the majority. -
King James I revokes Charter
James I grew hostile to Virginia and did not trust the House of burgesses. So in 1624 he revoked the Charter of the Virginia Company making Virginia a royal colony under his control. -
Puritans find Massachusetts Bay colony
A group of non-Separatist Puritans wished to reform the Church of England from within. Thousands of refugees left England, many settling in Massachusetts. Prominant among the puritans was John Winthrop Who became the bay colony's first governor. -
Maryland Founded
Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore in 1634. He Founded Maryland for profit and as a place of refuge for his fellow Catholics. Maryland prospered due to the numerous Tobacco plantations. -
Connecticut and New Haven colonies founded
Hartford was founded in 1635 by Dutch and English settlers. the next year a group of Boston Puritans led by Thomas Hooker swarmed to the Hartford area. -
Roger Williams
Roger Williams challenged and critisized puritan beliefs until he was banished. -
Rhode Island
Banished by the Puritans in Massachusetts, Roger Williams fled to Rhode Island. Here he established the first baptist vhurch and granted complete freedom of religion even for Jews and Catholics. -
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson challenged Puritan orthodoxy and claimed to recieve her beliefs through a direct revelation from God. The Puritans banished her from fear of the corruption her beliefs could have caused. -
Fundamental Orders
The settlers of the Connecticut River colony drafted the Fundamental Orders which established a regime democratically comtrolled by the "substantial" citizens. -
New England Confederation
Four colonies banded together to provide defense against foes like the indians, the French, and the Dutch. Although weak the confederation was the first milestone in Colonial unity. -
Second Anglo-Powhatan War
In this conflict in 1644, the indians once again tried to wipe out the Virginians. However they were defeated and the peace treaty banished the chesapeake indians from their home lands. -
Act of Toleration
Maryland's religious policy guaranteed toleration to all Christians but decreed the death penalty for those who denied the divinity of Jesus like Jews and Atheists. -
Barbados Slave code
The West indies economic foundation came from the sugar industry which required slave labor. To control the large population of slaves the English formed the Barbados Slave code of 1661 which denied rightd to slaves and left them to the control and mercy of their masters. -
East and West New Jersey founded
Small Quaker settlements flourished in New Jersey. Both East and West New Jersey was acquired by the Quakers however in 1702 the crown combined the two Jerseys into a royal colony. -
Carolina Founded
Carolina, named after Charles II was officially created in1670. Carolina was orginally formed to supply food and supplies to the prosperous West Indies. -
King Philip's War
Metacom, called King Philip by the English, was an indian that forged an alliance of tribes and led a number of assaults on English settlements throughout New England. The war ended in 1676 and slowed the westward movement of Englidh settlement for a couple decades. -
Bacon's Rebellion
By the 1670s, a mass of homeless, poor freeman was drifting through the Chesapeake region. A thousand of these frustrated single young men broke out of control in virginia under Nathaniel Bacon in 1676. Bacon and his followers attacked Indians and Jamestown, plundering and pilfering homes -
New Hampshire
New Hampshire was absorbed by Massachusetts in 1641. Disgusted by Massachusetts' greed the King separated New Hampshire and made it a royal colony in 1679. -
Expansion of Slavery
by the 1680s, there were fewer penniless farmers in England which resulted in a lack of indentured servants not to mention Bacon's Rebellion which unnerved many planters. As a result slavery expanded in the 1680s. -
Pope's Rebellion
The Roman Catholic Church tried to suppress native religion and as a result provoked an Indian uprising in New Mexico. The Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic church in the area and killed hundreds of Spanidh priests and settlers. -
William Penn finds Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania was founded by the Quakers under William Penn who promissed better relations between whites and indians. -
Salem Witch Trials
After a group of adolescent Girls in Salem, Massachusetts accussed an older women of witchcraft a "witch hunt" took place. This lead to the deaths of about 20 people. -
Noth Carolina Seperates
From Virginia drifted groups of poverty stricken outcasts ssttled in North Carolina. The newcomers were seen as poor, irreligious, and hospitable to pirates. As a result from tension North Carolina offocially seperated from Carolina in 1712. -
New York City slave revolt
In New York city, 1712, a slave revolt erupted causing the deaths of a dozen whites and the execution of twenty-one blacks. -
Indians by 1720
by 1720 nearly all the coastal indian tribes in the southern colonies vanished. However in the Appalachian mountains the Cherokees, Creeks, and Iroquois remained. -
Goergia Founded
Georgia was originally formed as a buffer colony to protect the more valuable Carolinas from the Spanish in Florida. Georgia was founded by a group of philanthropists who were determined to provide a refuge for those imprisoned by debt.
