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Jamestown
The English came to America for religious freedom and created Jamestown, the first American colony. They were looking for a new beginning but were faced with many issues along the way such as disease, droughts, and minimal food. -
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was established by the Virginia Colony and was the first assembly of elected representatives in North America in the English Colony. -
Plymouth Colony and Mayflower Compact
Plymouth Colony was founded by the English to flee religious prosecution. The Mayflower Compact was a way to set up a government within the colony. -
Massachusetts Bay
John Winthrop founded this English colony. He envisioned it as a “city on a hill” and its roots were based on the Puritan influence. -
Pequot War
The Pequot War was between the Pequot Tribe against the alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Saybrook colonies, and the Native Americans. Hundreds were killed and sold into slavery, which decreased the influence of the Pequot Tribe. -
King Philip’s War (Metacom)
King Philip, leader of the Wampanoags, could no longer stand the colonist taking over their land and resources so it led to a breakdown between the two groups. King Phillip led his people to the New England colony where colonists homes were threatened. King Philip's death ended the war but relations between natives and colonist were still broken. -
Bacon’s Rebellion
Bacon’s Rebellion was an uprising consisting of indentured servants, poor whites, and poor blacks that didn’t agree with the way they were being governed. The rebellion caused a separation in social classes as it caused a new level of the social class to be added to the colonies: the slaves. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials were a list of trials and hearings in the Massachusetts Colony of those who were suspected of witchcraft. -
French and Indian War
The Americans fought with the help of British soldiers they against the French and Native Americans. The cause was a border dispute with the Appalachian Mountains. -
Quartering Act
American colonist had to house British soldiers. It was a part of the Intolerable Acts for the American Revolution. -
Stamp Act
Everything of print had to have the British stamp on it in order for them to make money. This was also part of the Intolerable Acts. -
Tea Act
The British taxed the colonist tea and drove up the prices. This pushed people over the edge and led to the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Massacre
This was an event that stirred up the revolution in which rioting Boston citizens were shot to death by British soldiers. -
Boston Tea Party
The colonists rebelled against the British who was limiting who they bought and sold tea to. The British was also taxing them without the proper representation. -
Intolerable Acts
A series of laws passed as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, and these acts outraged the colonies. -
Lexington and Concord
This was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Nobody knows who fired the first shots. -
Declaration of Independence
This was the document that declared the American colonies independent from Great Britain. It was written by Thomas Jefferson. -
Shay's Rebellion
A rebellion consisting of poor farmers during the existence of the articles of confederation, which were too weak. -
Constitutional Convention
The convention held in Philidelphia created the constitution and proposed the following
The New Jersey Plan proposed equal representation with the same number of delegates from each state. This favored smaller states.
Virginia Plan proposed representation in Congress to be based on state’s population. This favored larger states.
The 3/5 Compromise gave slaves the right to vote but only count for a fraction of a person. -
Judiciary Act
It organized the Supreme Court, originally with five justices and a chief justice, along with several federal district and circuit courts. It also created the attorney general's office. This Act created the judiciary branch of the U.S. government. -
Second Great Awakening
Expanded the church and people began pushing for big movements such as woman's rights. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Farmers who sold their grain in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax, which they strongly resented. The tax was a part of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's program to pay off the national debt. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts authorized to imprision or deport immigrants. Political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799, in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. The resolutions argued that the states had the right and the duty to declare unconstitutional any acts of Congress that were not authorized by the Constitution. -
Revolution of 1800
The election of Thomas Jefferson, the first non-federalist president -
Marbury v. Madison
The United States Supreme Court case created the exercise of judicial review in the United States. The Midnight Judges Act represented an effort to keep a certain party in the supreme court so they would rule the majority. -
Louisiana Purchase
Purchase made under the presidency of Jefferson from Napolean in France for 15 million dollars. It doubled the size of America -
Embargo Act 1807
An embargo by the United States Congress because of France and Great Britian. The embargo was imposed because it violated U.S. neutrality. -
War of 1812
The U.S. declared war on Britain. Americans wanted to stop impressment. They also wanted Britain to stop arming the Indians. -
Election of 1816
Madison had just finished his term, the Federalist party was becoming less and less noticable which resulted in Monroe's election. -
Election of 1824 (corrupt bargain)
In the presidential election of 1824, no candidate received a majority vote, so it went to the House of Representatives. The House elected John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, supposedly because Henry Clay (Speaker of the House at the time) convinced them, under the impression that in exchange he would one day be given the position of Secretary of State. As a result, Jacksonians attacked the administration as being corrupt and not on the people's side. -
Election of 1828
The Election of 1828 was a rematch between John Q Adams and Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson won, and as a result, Jacksonian democracy rose. -
Indian Removal Act 1830
Land greed was a big reason for the federal government's position on Indian removal. This desire for Indian lands was also abetted by the Indian hating mentality that was peculiar to some American frontiersman. -
Nullification Crisis 1832
Called the tariffs from the federal government on the State of South Carolina unconstitutional and therefore making them null and void. -
Texas Independence
Texas won its independence from Mexico following the Texas Revolution. -
Mexican-American War
This war was the result of a border dispute between Texas and Mexico, and it followed the annexation of Texas. The United States won the war. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This ended the Mexican American war, and has the United States pay 15 million dollars to Mexico in exchange for the Rio Grande border for Texas and land that included New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. -
Dawes Act
Document that shared out pieces of land to individual Indians. This treated them as individuals rather than tribes. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
Battle between Native Americans apart of the Sioux and the U.S. government. It left 150 Native Americans dead and was the final battle between the two groups. -
Spanish-American War
This was a war between America and Spain that was the result in America’s intervention in the Cuban Revolution. This war allowed the U.S. to control Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. -
Founding of the NAACP
Civil-rights organization in response to lynching and race riots towards black people. It pushed for economic equality. -
First Red Scare
A time marked by people wanting a socialist revolution for workers and being accused with political radicalism. -
Red Summer
Marks the race riots ocurring in more than three dozen cities around the United States. These riots occured becuase of post WW1 events and racism towards blacks. -
Harlem Renaissance
Also called the "New Negro Movement" that stretched from the 1920s-1930s. Lots of art and literature spurred though this time period from different African American artists. -
Election of 1932
The race was between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt during the depression of the 30's. Roosevelt blamed Hoover and his weak policy and favoritism of businesses and corporations for the Great Depression and won by a landslide. -
New Deal
The New Deal was President Roosevelt's response to the stock market crash and depression of the 1930's. It included work programs, housing projects, and regulations on the stock market to restore citizen's faith in the bank system, all of which came out from 1933-1936. It utilized Keysian economics. -
Attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombing of these two cities took place during the final stages of WWII. These bombings showed the power of the United States as an ally or enemy for the other nations of the world. -
Truman Doctrine
This doctrine was an American foreign policy which provided economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey due to the communist threats imposed on them. This doctrine was the start of the containment policy, which stressed the importance of stopping Soviet expansion. -
Creation of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. -
Fall of China to Communism
The rise of Communism in China is mainly due to a man named Mao Zedong, China’s communist leader at the time. -
Korean War
The Korean War was mainly a result of the division of Korea between the various allies at the end of WWII. The U.S. provided aid to South Korea in repelling the invasion of the North. -
Election of 1952
President Eisenhower was elected. This was a time of great tension between the U.S. and Soviet Russia.
