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2600 BCE
Maya
Was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its hieroglyphic script as well as art, architecture, mathematic, calendar, and astronomical system. -
1200 BCE
Bering Land Bridge
It’s a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska that was exposed during the Ice Age When the waters subsided. -
800 BCE
Dark Ages
Historical periodization, traditionally referring to the Middle Ages, that asserts that a demographic, cultural and economic deterioration occurred in Western Europe following the Decline of the Roman Empire. -
1300
The Renaissance
New interest in classical art in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the printing press, moveable type, and postal service allowed renaissance to spread across Europe. -
1348
The Black Death
The medieval black plague that ravaged Europe and killed a third of its population. It was due to the plague which is caused by a bacterium transmitted to humans from infected rats by the oriental rat flea. -
1492
Columbian exchange
Was the widespread transportation of plants, animals, culture, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage. -
Period: 1492 to
Beginnings to Exploration
Was the informal and loosely defined European historical period marking the time marking the time period in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture. -
1494
Barbados, Jamaica
Barbados was the richest of all European colonies in the Caribbean. The colony’s prosperity remained regionally unmatched until sugar cane production expanded in larger countries. -
English Colonization
It started in Jamestown, Virginia, and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the America. -
HeadRight System
It was used to attract new settlers to the region and address the labor shortage. With the emergence of tobacco farming, a large supply of workers was needed. New settles got 50 acres of land if they paid their way to Virginia. -
Middle Passage
Middle segment of the forced journey that slaves made from Africa to America throughout the 1600’s; to consisted of the dangerous trip across the Atlantic Ocean; many slaves perished on this segment of the journey. Bacon’s rebellion. -
Maryland
It was called Maryland in honor of the Queen of Charles I. The charter that Lord Baltimore received specified the name for the colony. -
John Winthrop
Was an English Puritan lawyer and a leading figure founding Massachusetts Bay. It is the second major settlement. -
Division of Carolinas
North Carolina drew the region’s discontented masses. As the two locales evolved separately and as their differing geographies and inhabitants steered contrasting courses, it causes the split. -
Glorious Revolution
Was the overthrow of King James II by the union of English parliament with the Dutch. -
Free-Black Communities
Free Blacks in the South numbered about 25,000 many owned property-few owned slaves themselves, free Blacks prohibited from working certain occupations & couldn’t testify against whites on court, Northern Blacks were especially hated by the Irish-competed for jobs. -
The Enlightenment
A European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It was heavily influenced by 17th century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its prominent exponents include Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith. -
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English Colonial Societies
Colonial society in the North America Colonies in the 18th century was represented by a small rich so group having cultural and economic organization. -
Act of Union
Were two acts of Parliament: the first one being the Scotland act of 1706 passed by the Parliament of England and the England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. -
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Colonial America
Many people who settled in the new World came to escape religious persecution. The pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. -
Triangular Trade
The trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that involved shipping goods from Britain to West Africa to be exchanged for slaves, these slaves being shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other materials, which were in turn shipped back to Britain. -
The Great Awakening
Was a series of religious revivals in the North American British colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries. During these “awakenings,” a great many colonist s found new meaning in the religions of the day. Also, a handful of preachers made names for themselves. -
Colonial Economy
refer to the system of production and utilize which were introduced in the colonies by the colonialist to fulfill their economic demands such as raw materials, markets, are for investment and areas for settlement. -
French and Indian War
A series of military engagements between Britain and France in North America between 1754 and 1763. The French and Indian War was the American phase of the Seven Years’ War, which was then underway in Europe. -
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The American Industrial Revolution
An early landmark moment in the Industrial Revolution came near the end of the eighteenth century, when Samuel Slater Brought new manufacturing technologies from Britain to the United States and founded the first U.S. -
Treaty of Paris 1763
War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies. In the terms of the treaty, France gave up all its territories in mainland North America, effectively ending any foreign military threat to the British colonies there. -
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The Revolutionary War
When the British finally surrendered. Americans were officially independent of Britain and set about establishing their own government. -
Stamp Act
Was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonist and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship’s papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. -
Boston Massacre
Arising from the discontent of Boston colonists toward British troops quartered in the city, in which the troops fired on the mob and killed several persons. -
1st Continental Congress
Was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies who met from September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania early in the American Revolution. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
The first great battle of the Revolutionary War; it was fought near Boston in June 1775. The British drove the Americans from their fort at Breed’s Hill to Bunker Hill, but only after the Americans had run out of gunpowder. -
Olive Branch Petition
Drafted on July 5 ,1775, was a letter to King George III, from members of the Second Continental Congress, which represents the last attempt by the moderate party in North America to avoid a war of independence against Britain. -
The Declaration of Independence
Is defined as the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. An example of the Declaration of Independence was the document adopted at the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776. -
Massachusetts Constitution
Fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. Voters approved the document on June 15, 1780 -
Treaty of Paris 1783
Negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. The Continental Congress named a five-member commission to negotiate a treaty-John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. -
Period: to
New Republic
The liberal American magazine of commentary on politics and the arts published since 1914, with influence on American Political and cultural thinking. -
Shay's Rebellion
An uprising led by a former militia officer, Daniel Shays, which broke out in western Massachusetts in 1786. Shay’s follower protested the foreclosure of farms for debt and briefly succeeded in shutting down the court system. -
Three Branches
The division of government into executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In the case of federal government, three branches were established by the Constitution. The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and the other federal courts. -
The Great Debate
In the ratification debate, the Anti-federalist were against the Constitution. They complained that the new system threatened liberties, and failed to protect induvial rights. One faction opposed the Constitution because that thought stronger government threatened the sovereignty of the states. -
Virginia Plan
Was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a gathering at the Convention of 1787. -
Northwest Ordinance
The Government of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the River Ohio, and known as The Ordinance of 1787. Was an act of the congress if he Confederation, passed July 13, 1787. -
Election of 1788
Was the first quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Saturday, January 10, 1789. It was conducted under the new United States Constitution which had been ratified earlier in 1788. -
Whiskey Rebellion
Was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called “whiskey tax” was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. Farmers resisted the tax. -
Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791 and guaranteeing such rights the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship. The English constitutional settlement of 1689, confirming the statement of James II and the Protestant series, and laying down the principles of parliamentary supremacy. A formal declaration of the legal and civil rights of the citizens of any state, country, federation, etc. -
Cotton Gin
While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. In facts, the opposite occurred. Cotton growing became so profitable for the planters that it greatly increased their demand for both land and slave labor. -
Jay's Treaty
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and as Jay’s Treaty, was a 1795 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted war, resolved issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783. -
XYZ Affair
Was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the administration of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. -
Election of 1800
Was the fourth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, October 31 to Wednesday, December 3, 1800. In what is sometimes referred to as the “Revolution of 1800”, Vice President Thomas Jefferson defeated President John Adams. -
Changes in Communication
Industrialized marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and textile industries, along with the development of the steam engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution, which also saw improved systems of transportation, communication and banking. -
Changes in Agriculture
Agriculture had dominated the British economy for centuries. During the 18th century after a long period of enclosures, new farming systems created an agricultural revolution that produced larger quantities of crops to feed the increasing population. -
Period: to
The Age of Jefferson
Was widespread with conflict, partisan passion, and larger -than-life personalities. On the domestic front, a new party, the Republicans, came to office for the first time and a former vice president was charged with treason. -
Judiciary Act of 1801
Reduced the size of the Supreme Court from six justices to five and eliminated the justices’ circuit duties. To replace the justices on circuit, the act created sixteen judgeships for si judicial circuits. -
Louisiana Purchase
The purchase by the United States from France of the huge Louisiana Territory in 1803. President Thomas Jefferson ordered the purchase negotiations, fearing that the French, then led by Napoleon, wanted to establish an empire in North America. -
Native American Confederation
Old Northwest that began to form in the early 19th century around the teaching of Tenskwatawa. Under Tecumseh’s leadership, the confederation went to war with the United States during Tecumseh’s War and the War of 1812. -
Madison Presidency
Was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. After the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, Madison won election to United Stats House of Representatives. -
Era of Good Feelings
A phrase coined by the Columbian Centinel, a Boston newspaper, to describe the early presidency of James Monroe, whose administration found the country at peace and the economy successful. -
War of 1812
A war between Britain and the United States, fought between 1812 and 1815. The War of 1812 has also been called the second American war for independence. -
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Westward Expansion
Was encouraged by the concept of the Manifest Destiny of America and the belief that Westward Expansion was divine right of the American people. -
McCulloch V. Maryland
Was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The state of Maryland had attempted to delay the operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not charted in Maryland. -
Greek Revival
Inspired by the contemporary Greek independence movement, this building style, popular between 1820 and 1850, imitated ancient Greek structural forms in search of a democratic architectural vernacular. -
Second Great Awakening
Was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained power by 1800 and, after 1820, membership roe fast among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. -
Mass Transporting
The growth of the Industrial Revolution depended on the ability to transport raw materials and finished goods over long distances. There were three main types of transportation that increased during the Industrial Revolution, which were: waterways, roads, and railroads. -
Industrialization
The Union’s industrial and economic capacity increased during the war as the North continued its quick industrialization to subdue the rebellion. In the South, a smaller industrial base, fewer rail lines, and an agricultural economy based upon slave labor made mobilization of resources more difficult. -
Immigration
People in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U.S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. -
Missouri Crisis
A settlement of dispute between slave and free states, contained in several laws passed during 1820 and 1821.Northern legislators had tried to prohibit slavery in Missouri, which was then applying for statehood. -
Monroe Doctrine
A principle of US policy, originated by President James Monroe in 1823, that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US. -
Corrupt Bargain
When the 1824 election ended without any candidate receiving a majority in the electoral college, the House of Representatives awarded the election to John Quincy Adams. -
Temperance Movement
Typically criticize alcohol intoxication, promote complete abstinence (teetotalism)., or use its political influence to press the government to pass alcohol laws to regulate the availability of alcohol or even is complete prohibition. -
Election of 1828
Was the 11th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, October 31, to Tuesday, December 2, 1828. It featured a re-match between incumbent President John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson, who won a plurality of the electoral college vote in the 1824 election. -
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Age of Jackson
Historians and political scientists, lasted roughly from Jackson’s 1828 election as president until slavery became the dominant issue after 1848 and the American Civil War dramatically reshaped American politics. -
Stephen F. Austin
: Was an American impresario. Known as the “Father of Texas”, and the founder of Texas, he led the second, and ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the Unites States to the region in 1825. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid- 19th century. -
Joseph Smith
Religious leader who founded the Merman Church in 1830. A member if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. -
Whig Party
An American political party formed in the 1830s to oppose President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Whigs stood for protective tariffs, national banking, and federal aid for internal improvements. -
Second Party System
Name for the political party system in the United States during the 1800s. One was the Democratic Party, led by Andrew Jackson. The other was the Whig Party, started by Henry Clay. The Whig Party was made up of members of the National Republican Party and other people who were against Jackson. -
Worcester V. Georgia
Was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacate the conviction Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state. -
Tariff Act of 1832
Was a protectionist tariff in the United States. It reduced the existing tariffs to remedy the conflict created by the tariff of 1828, but it was still considered unsatisfactory by some in the South, especially in South Carolina. -
American Anti-Slavery Society
Was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, and Arthur Tappan. Fredrick Douglass, an escaped slave, was a key leader of this society who often spoke at its meeting. -
Age of The Common Man
Began a new era in American politics. Jackson was anything but common. The period from Jackson’s inauguration as president up to Civil War is known as the Jacksonian Era or h Era of the Rise of the Common Man. -
Manifest Destiny
Is a term for the attitude during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. -
Mexican-America War
A war fought between the United states and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. The United States won the war, encouraged by the feelings of many Americans that the country was accomplishing its manifest destiny of expansion. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The war officially ended with the February 2, 1848, signing Mexico of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. -
Annexation of Texas
Was the 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of America, which was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845. The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico on March 2, 1836. -
Suffrage
After the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 demand women’s suffrage for the first time, America became distracted by the coming Civil War. The issue of the vote resurfaced during Reconstruction. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution proposed granting the right to vote to African American males. -
California Gold Rush
Began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The news of Gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and Abroad. -
Election of 1848
The United States presidential election of 1848 was the 16th quadrennial presidential election, held of Tuesday, November 7, 1848. It was won by Zachary Taylor of the Whig Party, who ran against Lewis Cass of the Democratic Party and former President Martin Van Buren of the newly formed Free-Soil Party -
Underground Railroad
A network of houses and other places that abolitionist s used to help slaves escape to freedom in the northern states or in Canada before the Civil War. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Allowed citizens in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide locally whether to allow slavery. The act was modeled on the Compromise of 1850 but repealed both that compromise and the Missouri Compromise of 1820. -
The American Party
The Whig Party, which was an anti-Jackson alliance between Southern Republicans and Northern Democrats, disintegrated in the 1850s over the increasingly contentious issue of slavery. Most members also favored temperance and opposed slavery. -
Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and aver a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Election of 1852
The United States presidential election of 1852 was the seventeenth quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1852. T bore important similarities to the elector of 1844. Once again, the president was a Whig who had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of his war-hero forerunner. -
Robert E. Lee
A general of the nineteenth century; the commander of Confederate troops during the Civil War. Before the war, he led the marines who put down the insurrection by John Brown at Harpers Ferry and took Brown captive. -
John Breckenridge
He ran as the presidential candidate of a group of Southern Democrats, but lost the election to the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln. In the 1860 presidential contest, he captures the electoral votes of most of the Southern states, but finished a distant second among for candidates. -
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Sectionalism
The North were becoming more opposed to slavery, whether for moral or economic reasons an Southerners were becoming more united for their defense for slavery. -
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The Civil War
The War between the United States and eleven Southern States that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States, it lasted four years. -
Grant's Western Campaign
While Buell was facing Bragg’s threat in Kentucky, Confederate operations in northern Mississippi were aimed at preventing Buell’s reinforcement by Grant, who was preparing for his upcoming Vicksburg campaign. He intended to link up with Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn’s Army of West Tennessee and operate against Grant. -
Carpetbaggers
Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War. Many carpetbaggers were said to have moved South for their own financial and political gains. -
Gettysburg Address
A speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Lincoln was speaking at the dedication of soldiers’ cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Was an executive order issued on January 1, 1863, by President Lincoln freeing slaves all portions of the United States not then under Union control (that is, within the Confederacy). -
Conscription Act
During the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passes a conscription act that produces the first Wartime draft of U.S. citizens in American history. The act called for registration of all males between the ages of 20 and 45, including immigrants with the intention of becoming citizens, by April 1. -
Andrew Johnson Administration
17th President of the United States. Johnson became president as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. -
Abraham Lincoln
The 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
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Reconstruction
The period after the Civil War were the states formerly part of the Confederacy was brought back into the United States. During Reconstruction, the South was divided into districts for supervision of elections. -
Election of 1866
Event in the early reconstruction era, which Andrew Jackson had a conflict with the Republicans whether reconstruction should be tolerant or harsh toward the defeat of the South. -
Election of 1868
Johnson had divided many of his constituents and had been charged by Congress. Although Johnson kept his office, his presidency was ruined. After numerous ballots, the Democrats nominated former New York Governor Horatian Seymour to take on the Republican candidate, Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. -
Ulysses Grant
Commanded the victorious Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and served as the 18th U.S. president from 1869 to 1877. An Ohio native, Grant graduated from West Point and fought in the Mexican-American War. -
Freemen's Movement
Were three bills passed by the United States Congress between. It was criminal codes which protected African-Americans right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. -
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The Constitution
Established America’s national government and fundamental laws, and certain basic rights. -
Panic of 1873
Was a financial crisis that provoked a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879, and even longer in France and Britain. -
Compromise of 1877
Was an informal claim, implicit deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election. It resulted in the pulling the last troops out of the South, and formally ended the Reconstruction Era. -
Mass Production
The fast development of industry that occurred in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It was characterized using steam power, the growth of factories, and the mass production of manufactured goods. -
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Cultural Changes
Contemporary globalization has produced many changes in our economy, society, culture, and politics. To many, the quality of resilience that Indian culture had shown earlier is slowly diminishing now.
