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Period: 1400 to
European Exploration
European Exploration's main goals were to find a new sea route to Asia, knowledge, to spread Christianity, wealth and glory. During this time period, there was a new love for culture and scientific discovery called the Renaissance. Many European nations were in conflict at this time because they were all trying to increase their wealth and power by exploring. -
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Slavery
Slavery dates back all the way to the first civilizations like Sumer in Mesopotamia. During this period, people were kidnapped from Africa and forced to work as slaves and indentured servants. Both free and enslaved Africans, hundreds of thousands of them, helped the establishment and survival of the colonies in the New World. Slavery continued until the Union victory in the Civil War. -
Triangular Trade
This was the trade between three ports or regions. In early American settlement, goods came from two main sources which were England and Africa. Britain traded natural resources, goods, and people across the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to enrich their country. Mercantilism was the goal of the country to export more than they imported. -
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Revolutionary War
This was also known as the American Revolution and was the war that ended Great Britain's rule over the 13 new American colonies. The first battle was the battle of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. The French aided the colonies during their fight for independence by providing guns and ships beginning in 1778. The last battle was the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 where the British surrendered. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was the official break-up letter of America and England. The task of drafting a formal statement detailing the colonies' wishes was given to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Jefferson was the main author and the document was divided into five sections, including an introduction, preamble, the body, and the conclusion. -
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Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the colonies' first attempt at writing their own constitution. These gave the states their own independence and Congress as the last resort on conflicts. The AOC named the colonies "The United States of America." The biggest thing that the AOC lacked was the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce. -
The United States Constitution
The failure of the Articles of Confederation led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 for the creation of the new federal laws which is now known as the United States Constitution. This guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. The official date it was signed into law was September 17, 1787, by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philidelphia. This time, they had a plan for a stronger federal government with three branches and a system of checks and balances. -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights was written by James Madison and is the first ten amendments to the U.S. These amendments included freedom of religion, freedom of speech, press, petition, and assembly, privacy, due process of law, and equality before the law. The Bill of Rights did not apply to everyone, at first, because women were not allowed to vote until the 19th Amendment was passed. -
Invention of the Cotton Gin
In 1754, Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin. It was a machine that greatly increased the speed of cotton production. Its task was to remove seeds from cotton fiber which took much longer when done by hand. Cotton was America's leading export which made the gin very helpful. Although it was very successful, Whitney made very little money due to patent-infringement issues. -
Invention of the Steamboat
John Fitch was the first to build a steamboat in the United States. His first boat was 45 feet and successfully navigated the Delaware River in 1787. The improvement of the steamboat is highly attributed to the work of Scotsman James Watt. His work helped to usher in the Industrial Revolution. -
Louisiana Purchase
This purchase brought the United States about 828,000 square miles of territory from the French which allowed them to double in size. Almost 15 states were made from this territory and stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the South to the Canadian border in the north. The US paid $11,250,000 and assume claims of American citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000. The treaty was signed on May 2. -
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Lewis and Clark
President Thomas Jefferson tasked Meriwether Lewis with exploring lands west of the Mississippi River that comprised the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis chose William Clark as his accomplice for the mission. The exploration lasted over two years and covered about 8,000 miles of terrible terrain, harsh conditions, injuries, sickness, and much more. The journey was deemed a huge success and provided new geographic and social information about the new land they had obtained. -
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War of 1812
The War of 1812 was seen by many as the "second war of independence" after facing major powers of the British, Canadians, and Native Americans. During this war, the nation's capital was captured and burned in August of 1814. The many causes of this war included British attempts to restrict U.S. trade, impressment of American seamen, and America's desire to expand its territory. The Treaty of Ghent on February 17, 1815 ended the war. -
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Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution jumpstarted largely rural, agrarian societies in Europe and America into industrialized, urban ones. Goods that were once slowly crafted by hand were now being produced in mass numbers by machines in factories. The revolution began in Britain and spread to the rest of the world, including the US by the 1830s. This is often referred to as First Industrial Revolution. -
Monroe Doctrine
In a speech in 1823, James Monroe, the President at the time, warned European powers not to attempt further colonization. The US would see this as a hostile act if they continued to try to expand. This policy principle would become a building block of U.S. diplomacy for generations. -
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Trail of Tears
Andrew Jackson had been a long-time supporter of "Indian removal." in 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act which required Native Americans to leave their lands to allow for the land to be used for growing cotton. The Native Americans were forced to move to other Indian territories which many did not survive the trip. Facing harsh weather conditions and terrible food shortages and no help from the government many of them did not survive and this became known as the Trail of Tears. -
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Manifest Destiny
Manifest destiny, a phrase first coined in 1845, is the idea that the United States is destined by God to expand. They expanded their idea of democracy and capitalism across the continent of North America. This provided rapid expansion of the United States and the issue of slavery became a bigger deal and lead to the outbreak of the Civil War. -
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Westward Movement
Westward expansion was the 19th-century movement of settlers into the west on the North American continent. This began with the Louisiana Purchase. This was fueled by the gold rush and the belief in "Manifest Destiny." The settlers saw the movement west as both justified and inevitable. -
Dred Scott Decision
The Dred Scott Decision also known as Dred Scott v. Sandford, was a 10-year fight for freedom for a black slave man named Dred Scott. Dred Scott was born into slavery around 1799 in Southampton County, Virginia. In April 1846, Dred and Harriet filed separate lawsuits for freedom against wrongful enslavement but their court case took way longer than anticipated. They needed help and found it in their church, abolitionists, and the Blow family which had once owned them. -
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Civil War
The Civil War began in 1861 after decades of tensions between the North and South due to their conflicting views on slavery. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 cause seven southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America and four more states soon joined them. The war ended in Confederate surrender in 1865. This was the deadliest war ever fought on American soil with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed and millions more injured. -
13th Amendment - Abolition of Slavery
This amendment was ratified in 1865 in the aftermath of the Civil War. This amendment abolished slavery in the United States. In the beginning, the proposed amendment passed in the U.S. Senate but failed in the House of Representatives. On January 31, 1865, the House of Representatives passed the proposed amendment, and the next day Lincoln approved a joint resolution. -
14th Amendment - Equal Treatment Under the Law
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. This Amendment granted citizenship to all people born in or naturalized in the United States. This included formerly enslaved people and guaranteed all citizens protection under the law. This was one of the three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era. This amendment also authorized the federal government to punish states that interfered with their citizens' right to vote. -
15th Amendment - Voting Rights for Black Men
The 15th Amendment's goal was to protect the voting rights of African American men after the Civil War. It was adopted into the Constitution in 1870. Even though this amendment had been adopted, practices to discriminate against black citizens were being used to keep them from voting. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave blacks the true freedom and right to vote by taking down any barriers that people tried to put up. -
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World War I
World War I is also known as the Great War. It began in 1914 after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire also known as the Central Powers fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, and the United States known as the Allied Powers. On November 11, 1918, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice which ended the war. -
19th Amendment - Voting Rights for Women
The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, and gave women the right to vote, which is a right known as women's suffrage. The movement for women's rights launched on a national level at the Seneca Falls Convention and the demand for a vote became the center of the women's rights movement. -
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The Great Depression
The Great Depression began with the stock market crash of October 1929 which sent Wall Street and many of the American people into a panic. By 1933, the depression had reached its lowest point with 15 million Americans being unemployed and nearly half the country's banks had failed. When the depression ended, World War II began. -
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New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. Roosevelt became President in 1933 and he acted quickly to get the American people back on their feet and to stabilize the economy. The New Deal projects and programs fundamentally changed the U.S. federal government by expanding its size and its role in the economy. -
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World War II
The war started on September 1st, 1939, and ended on September 2nd, 1945. The war started when Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The war was against the Allies, (Britain, France, Russia, China, and the US) and the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). The Holocaust was one of the worst events to happen and many people died because of it. -
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Korean War
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when 75,000 soldiers from North Korean People's Army crossed the 38th parallel. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. In July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea's behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. In July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
This was a landmark court case that ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. This was a Supreme Court case that was one of the building blocks of the civil rights movement. This helped to establish that "separate-but-equal" education and other services were not equal. -
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long and costly war that was highly unsupported by the American people. This war was between North and South Vietnam to see who would take over the country. More than 3 million people were killed in this war and this included over 58,000 Americans. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest. This protest consisted of African Americans refusing to ride buses in Montogomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place for over a year and is now regarded as the 1st large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. The city of Montgomery was ultimately ordered by the Supreme Court to integrate the bus system. -
"I Have a Dream" Speech
The "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. About 250,000 people were in attendance and it remains one of the most famous speeches in history. In his speech, he weaved in many references to the Bible and the founding fathers while using universal themes that depicted the struggles of African Americans. It has become and remained one of the signature moments of the civil rights movement. -
September 11
This is one of the events in history that many people alive today actually experienced. On this day, 19 militants associated with al Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group, carried out terrorist attacks on various targets in the US. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers in New York City and the third hit the Pentagon. A fourth plane is thought to have been headed to the U.S. Capital Building but crashed in a field. Almost 3,000 people were killed during these attacks.