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12,000 BCE
The North American Indian cultures flourish
Native Americans came into the Western Hemisphere from Asia via the Bering Strait. The population was estimated to have been about 1.8 million or even large as 10 million. -
986
Leif Ericsson lands in Newfoundland.
The Norse seaman sailed around and explored the southern part of what he subbed Greenland, he may have been the first European to reach North America. -
1492
Christopher Columbus lands in the Bahamas
He was financed by Spain and made the first of four voyages to the New World and arrived at the Bahamas. -
1510
Juan Ponce de Leon arrived at Florida.
The Spanish explorer set sail from Puerto Rico in search of the Fountain of Youth and landed on the coast of Florida in 1513 -
1562
Saint Augustine, Florida is settled.
This European colony was founded by Pedro Menendez de Avilés, a Spanish admiral in 1565 and became the first permanent European colony in North America -
First colony
The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. -
Period: to
Colonial America
European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. -
The Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. New World grains such as corn kept the colonists from starving while, in Virginia, tobacco provided a valuable cash crop. -
printing press
Cambridge, Massachusetts is where the first Colonial printing press is located. -
The first German community
The first German community was established in Pennsylvania -
The American population had risen to a quarter of a million
By 1690 the American population had risen to a quarter of a million. From then on, it doubled every 25 years until, in 1775, it numbered more than 2.5 million. -
The thirteen English colonies are settled
The thirteen English colonies of Great Britain had been established along the Atlantic Coast. -
French and Indian War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
The Seven Years’ War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain and Spain. -
The begin of the American Revolution
Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April kicked off the armed conflict. -
Sparks of Independence
In June, the Battle of Bunker Hill ended in British victory but lent encouragement to the revolutionary cause. -
Period: to
American Independence
The period is known due to the American Revolution also called the United States War of Independence by the 13 colonies of Great Britain -
The official Declaration of Independence
On June 1776, a growing majority of the colonist had come to favor independence from Britain and the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of independence drafted by a five-man committee. -
Turning point of the American Revolution with the victory on Saratoga
After Burgoyne surrendered his remaining forces of the Second Battle of Saratoga, France took the chance to enter the war openly on the American side but didn't declare war yet. -
France joined the American Revolution
France joined on the side of the colonist and turned an essentially civil war into an international conflict when formally declared war on Great Britain in June. -
Britain attempted to withdraw from Philadelphia to New York
Washington's army attacked them near Monmouth, New Jersey. The battle ended in a draw, as Americans held their ground but Britain's commander Henry Clinton got his army and supplies safely to New York. -
The British forces began an offensive in South California.
They crushed the Gates' American troops at Camden in mid-August. -
American setback started: Georgia was occupied by Britain
In the south, the British fought their way and successfully occupied Georgia by early 1779 -
Americans effectively won their independence
After French assistance helped the Continental Army force, the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia with Nathaniel Greene's army forced Cornwallis to withdraw but the conflicts continued until 1783 -
British removed their troops from Charleston and Savannah
Even though the Americans won the Battle of Yorktown, the British forces remained stationed and neither side took decisive action over the better part until 1782 when they removed their troops. -
The Treaty of Paris
British and American negotiators in Paris signed preliminary peace terms in Paris and on September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the independence in the Treaty of Paris. -
Period: to
The 19th century expansion
At the end of the war, the South was a region devastated by war, burdened by debt and demoralized by racial warfare. As time passed, it became obvious that the problems of the South were not being solved by radical reconstruction, harsh laws and continuing rancor against former Confederates. -
The Treaty of Amiens
Treaty of Amiens, (March 27, 1802), an agreement signed at Amiens, Fr., by Britain, France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands), achieving a peace in Europe for 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars. -
US declares war on Britain
war was declared as a result of numerous disputes between the 2 countries. The British continuously engaged in impressment and forced US citizens to serve in the Royal Navy. The British also attacked the USS Chesapeake and this nearly caused a war 2 year earlier. -
The Treaty of Ghent was signed
was signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the US and Canada. -
The Battle of New Orleans
7,500 British soldiers marched against 4,500 U.S. troops led by General Andrew Jackson. Jackson defeated the British just 30 minutes, halting their plans to attack New Orleans and establishing himself as a national military hero. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, had been signed two weeks before the battle but the news had not yet crossed the Atlantic. -
Jackson invades FL
Back when Britain controlled Florida, the British often incited Seminoles against American settlers who were migrating south into Seminole territory. These old conflicts, combined with the safe-haven Seminoles provided black slaves, caused the U.S. army to attack the tribe in the First Seminole War (1817-1818) -
The Bank War began
The Bank War refers to the political struggle that developed over the issue of rechartering the 2nd Bank of the US during the Andrew Jackson administration. In the presidential campaigns of 1832, the BUS served as the central issue in mobilizing the opposing Jacksonian Democrats and National Repub. -
TX declares independence from Mexico
Mar 1 delegates from the seventeen Mexican municipalities of TX and the settlement of Pecan Pt met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to consider independence from Mexico. George C. Childress presented a resolution calling for independence, and the chairman of the convention appointed Childress to head a committee of 5 to draft a declaration of independence. -
The Great Sickness reached Hawaii
Around 150,000 Hawaiians – nearly half of the population – are dying from the Great Sickness – an unknown disease brought by Europeans. -
TX admitted into Union
he citizens of the independent Republic of Texas elected Sam Houston president but also endorsed the entrance of Texas into the Union. The likelihood of Texas joining the Union as a slave state delayed any formal action by the U.S. -
US declares war on Mexico
In November, Polk sent the diplomat Slidell to Mexico to seek boundary adjustments in return for the US govt's settlement of the claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico & also to make an offer to purchase CA & NM. After the mission failed, the U.S. army under Gen. Taylor advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the river that the state of TX claimed as its southern boundary.
Mexico, claiming that the boundary was the Nueces R to the northeast of the Rio Grande. -
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo settles war
it is the oldest treaty still in force between the United States and Mexico. As a result of the treaty, the United States acquired more than 500,000 square miles of valuable territory and emerged as a world power in the late nineteenth century. -
Bleeding Kansas
KS territory was the site of much violence over whether the territory would be free or slave. The KS-NE Act allowed the territory of Kansas to decide for itself whether it would be free or slave, a situation known as popular sovereignty. -
Lincoln is elected president
As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. -
America purchased Alaska from Russia.
Alaska Purchase, (1867), acquisition by the United States from Russia of 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 square km) of land at the northwestern tip of the North American continent, comprising the current U.S. state of Alaska. -
Congress passed a general Amnesty Act
Congress passed a general Amnesty Act, restoring full political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers -
Battle of Wounded Knee
in SW SD, was the site of two conflicts between North American Indians & representatives of the U.S. govt. Massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux. In 1973, members of the US Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest conditions on the reservation. -
The Big Depression begins
The Depression of 1893 can be seen as a watershed event in American history. It was accompanied by violent strikes, the climax of the Populist and free silver political crusades, the creation of a new political balance, the continuing transformation of the country's economy, major changes in national policy, and far-reaching social and intellectual developments. Business contraction shaped the decade that ushered out the nineteenth century. -
Spanish-American War
Cubans began to fight for their independence from Spain in 1895. Newspaper publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer worked up war fever among the public with reports of Spanish atrocities against Cuban rebels. -
End of the Spanish-American War
The United States was exercising control or influence over islands in the Caribbean Sea, the mid-Pacific and close to the Asian mainland