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1492
Columbus' Four Voyages
Christopher Columbus had sailed to the americas in the voyages and had started the Spanish colonization of the newly found americas.
This is significant because this is what started the major colonization in the new world for many countries. -
1519
Cortes conquers the Aztecs
Cortes started a war and conquered the Aztecs in the Spanish colonization of the americas. -
Roanoke Island colony
The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was the first attempt at founding a permanent English settlement in North America. It was established in 1585 on Roanoke Island in what is today's Dare County, North Carolina. The colony disappeared after its leader went to Europe for supplies for 2 years. -
Jamestown Virginia
Jamestown is a historic site in east Virginia. Historic Jamestown is home to the ruins of the first permanent English settlement in North America. It includes the remains of 18th-century Ambler Mansion. Artifacts from the region’s settlers are on display in the Archaearium archaeology museum. -
First Africans land in Virginia
Africans first appeared in Virginia in 1619, brought by English privateers from a Spanish slave ship they had intercepted. Some laws regarding slavery of Africans were passed in the seventeenth century and codified into Virginia's first slave code in 1705. -
Virginia House of Burgesses formed
From 1642 to 1776, it was the elected representative element of the General Assembly, the legislature of Virginia, which governed together with a royally-appointed colonial governor and Council of State. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699, when it was initially moved to the College of William & Mary, near Williamsburg and later to the Colonial Capital building in Williamsburg. -
Pilgrims found Plymouth, MA
Plymouth Colony. Plymouth Colony First colonial settlement in New England. The settlers were a group of about 100 Puritan Separatist Pilgrims, who sailed on the Mayflower and settled on what is now Cape Cod bay, Massachusetts. -
Puritan migration to Massachusetts
The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects in the two decades, after which it declined sharply for a time. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English Puritans to Massachusetts and the West Indies, especially Barbados. -
Calverts found Maryland
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, applied to Charles I for a royal charter for what was to become the Province of Maryland. After Calvert died in April 1632, the charter for "Maryland Colony" (in Latin Terra Mariae) was granted to his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on June 20, 1632. -
Pequot Indian War, Maryland
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. The war concluded with the defeat of the Pequots. about 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. Hundreds of prisoners were sold into slavery to the West Indies; other survivors were dispersed as captives to the victorious tribes. -
Anne Hutchinson convicted of heresy
Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual adviser and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened to destroy the Puritans' religious community in New England. She was tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters. -
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on January 14, 1639. The fundamental orders describe the government set up by the Connecticut River towns, setting its structure and powers. They wanted the government to have access to the open ocean for trading. -
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists over, principally, the manner of England's governance. -
First Navigation Act
The Navigation Acts were acts of Parliament intended to promote the self-sufficiency of the British Empire by restricting colonial trade to England and decreasing dependence on foreign imported goods. The Act, aimed primarily at the Dutch, required all trade between England and the colonies to be carried in English or colonial vessels, resulting in the Anglo-Dutch War in 1652. The Act continued the policies set forth in the act and enumerated certain articles-sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, etc. -
English conquer New Netherlands → NY
New Netherland was a colony of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of North America. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod, while the more limited settled areas are now part of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. It was settled slowly at first because of policy mismanagement by the WIC and conflicts with American Indians. -
King Philip’s (Metacomet) War, MA
King Philip's War was an armed conflict between Indian inhabitants of the New England region of North America versus New England colonists and their Indian allies. The war is named for Metacomet, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Mayflower Pilgrims.The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay in April 1678. -
Bacon’s Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley. The colony's policy was related to the political challenges of its western frontier, along with other challenges including leaving Bacon out of his inner circle, refusing to allow Bacon to be a part of the fur trade, and American Indian attacks, helped to motivate a popular uprising against Berkeley, who had failed to address the demands of the colonists regarding their safety. -
Pennsylvania settled
William Penn received a royal charter from King Charles II of England to settle there. The area was home to the Lenape, Susquehannock, Iroquois, Erie, Shawnee, Arandiqiouia, and other American Indian tribes, most of which died from disease or left. Pennsylvania was colonized by Swedish and Dutch settlers, before the English took control of the colony in 1667. In 1681, William Penn established a colony based on religious tolerance. -
English Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights, also known as the English Bill of Rights, is an Act of the Parliament of England that sets out certain basic civil rights and clarifies who would inherit the Crown. It received the Royal Assent and is a restatement of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament. The Bill lays down limits on the powers of the monarch and sets out the rights of Parliament, including the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, and freedom of speech. -
Massachusetts becomes a royal colony
Plymouth (1620, annexed by Massachusetts in 1691), Massachusetts Bay (1630), Connecticut (1635), and Rhode Island (1636) were all established according to religious charters; Massachusetts Bay became a royal colony under its second charter in 1691, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. -
Salem witch hunts
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, nineteen of whom were found guilty and executed by hanging. One other man was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of the United States. -
Queen Anne’s War
Queen Anne's War was the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession, as known in the British colonies, and the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England in North America for control of the continent. The War of the Spanish Succession was primarily fought in Europe. In addition to the two main combatants, the war also involved numerous American Indian tribes allied with each nation, and Spain, which was allied with France. -
England, Wales, and Scotland unite into the UK
The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act passed by the Parliament of England, and the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries. By the two Acts, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were, in the words of the Treaty, "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". -
George I’s reign
George I (George Louis; German: Georg Ludwig; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698 until his death. -
George II’s reign
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until his death in 1760. -
Georgia founded
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern United States. It began as a British colony in 1733, the last and furthest south of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named after King George II of Great Britain, the Province of Georgia covered the area from South Carolina down to Spanish Florida and New France along Louisiana, also bordering to the west towards the Mississippi River. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. -
First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its Thirteen Colonies between the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a transdenominational movement within the Protestant churches. -
John Peter Zenger trial
John Peter Zenger was a German American printer and journalist in New York City. Zenger printed The New York Weekly Journal. He was accused of libel in 1734 by William Cosby, the governor of New York, but the jury acquitted him, becoming a symbol for freedom of the press. Zenger began printing voiced opinions critical of the governor, William Cosby. In 1734 he was arrested again. After a grand jury refused to indict him, the Attorney General Richard Bradley charged him with libel in August 1735. -
Stono Rebellion, NC
The Stono Rebellion (sometimes called Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion) was a slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, with 25 white people and 35 to 50 black people killed. -
King George’s War
King George’s War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the 1744–1748 War of the Austrian Succession. It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. The War of Jenkins’ Ear officially began when a Spanish commander chopped off the ear of English merchant captain Robert Jenkins and told him to take that to his king, George II. War broke out in 1739 between Spain and Britain, but was confined to the Caribbean Sea and the British Province of Georgia. -
Albany Congress
The Albany Congress was a meeting of representatives sent by the legislatures of seven of the thirteen British colonies in British America. Representatives met daily at the Stadt Huys in Albany, New York, from June 18 to July 11, 1754, to discuss better relations with the American Indian tribes and common defensive measures against the French threat from Canada in the opening stage of the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France.
