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Period: 1436 to May 20, 1506
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who "discovered" the Americas. He told his men to enslave, murder, rape and torture thousands and perhaps millions of Natives. -
1492
Christopher Columbus Arrives in the Americas
1492 Columbus arrives to the Americas hoping to find a water route from Europe to Asia but found America instead. Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain sent him. -
Jamestown
First colony in North America by the English -
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Navigation Acts of 1651
Everything that the Americans shipped out had to be shipped by the English. -
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The Enlightenment
Era where reason, knowledge, and happiness were considered the goals of rational humanity. Used science and reason to explain things rather than religion. The American and French Revolution were a product of this. -
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Mercantilism
Mercantilism is when a country colonizes other places to benefit it. England had colonies in the U.S. and goods were made there and shipped to England and sold there to help England's economy. -
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Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was a founding father of the United States and drafted the Declaration of Independence. He started many civics projects and was a figure in the American Enlightenment. -
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French and Indian War
English were fighting the French and Native Americans for more land. The English won. -
Proclamation of 1763
Couldn't settle past west of the Appalachian mountains because of the French and Indian War -
Stamp Act
Act passed by the English taxing America for everything they got from England. One of the main causes for the revolution -
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Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was a soldier who was later the 7th American president.H He believed in advancing the rights of the common man. Passed the Indian Removal Act to force the Natives to be like the Americans or to move west. -
Boston Massacre
English soldiers fired on American colonists. -
Boston Tea Party
American patriots spilled a bunch of tea off a English ship as a revolt saying they didn't want taxes. -
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American Revolution
America versus the English, fighting for their independence from Britain. America won. -
Declaration on Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement that announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. -
United States Constitution Signed
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government. Its first three articles entrench the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. -
George Washington Elected
George Washington was an American statesman and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and later presided over the 1787 convention that drafted the United States Constitution. -
Thomas Jefferson's Election
Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was president during the Louisiana Purchase. -
Louisiana Purchase
Land bought by President Thomas Jefferson from the French that doubled the size of America. -
Westward Expansion
A period where America expanded west(gasp). During this time they bought the Louisiana Purchase and doubled the size of the United States. -
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Lewis and Clark Explore
Lewis and Clark explored the land bought during the Louisiana Purchase. They got to know the Natives who lived there and they were also trying to find a direct water route to the west coast. -
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Lewis and Clark Expedition
Expedition that Jefferson told Lewis and Clark to have to explore the new land and to learn about the people who lived there and about the new frontier. -
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Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and abolished slavery. He was the president during the Civil War and he suspended habeas corpus. -
Election of 1828
Andrew Jackson won the election and became president of the United States. -
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Fredrick Douglass
Fredrick Douglass was a former slave, abolitionist and reformer. He gave speeches and was an author and believed in the equality of all people. -
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Era of Reform
The Era of Reform was a period of women's activism where women were fighting for their rights. People like Sojourner Truth and Fredrick Douglass supported this movement. -
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Jacksonian Democracy
A political philosophy that empowered the common man. Started with Andrew Jackson. Became the most popular political view for a generation. -
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Abolitionist Movement
The Abolitionist Movement was a social and political push for the immediate emancipation of all slaves and the end of racial discrimination and segregation. -
Indian Removal Act
Passed by Andrew Jackson, meant to either make the Natives become "civilized" or be forced to move west. -
Manifest Destiny
The belief that it was American's God given right to move and conquer west. Many strongly believed in this, thus so much land was being fought for. This belief is what drove Westward Expansion during this time. -
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Mexican American War
War against the United States and Mexico over the land of Texas, New Mexico, California and other states to the west. The U.S. won. -
Compromise of 1850
Line that established anything beneath it was a slave state and above a free state. Also came with the Fugitive Slave act saying that people in the north had to capture slaves and return them to their owners. -
Dred Scott Decision
Decision that ruled Scott and his family as slaves even after being in a free state. -
Dred Scott
Black slave who was taken to Wisconsin, a free state and was still a slave. He filed a court case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court, but was ruled to still be a slave, despite being in a free state. -
Election of 1860
Abraham Lincoln beat opponents John C. Breckenridge, Stephan A. Douglas, and John Bell. -
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Civil War
War against the North and the South for the rights to own states and for state rights as well. The North won and slaves were set free.
