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Settlement of Jamestown
The British Virginia Company sailed to North America to escape religious and social persecution. Jamestown, Virginia was settled as the first permenant British settlement in North America -
Period: to
Jamestown to the American Civil War
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First African slaves are brought to Jamestowm
The first Africans were brought to Jamestowm on a Dutch slaveship but were not initially intended to be lifelong slaves. African laborers in early Jamestown were treated as second class citizens and were held at the same status as white indentured servants. -
King Charles I divides the Virginia Colony
King Charles I of England divided the Virginia Colony in order to create several smaller poprietary colonies to be ruled by leaders specifically appointed by the king himself. These would become known as the Chesapeake Colonies -
Discrminatory laws against Africans are enacted
The Virginia House of Burgesses created a set of laws that discriminated between blacks and whites which stated that all Africans and their offspring were to be treated as lifelong slaves. This institution of slavery would go on to flourish in America up until president Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the rift created between both races would only become more apparent as the country's history continued, before eventually dissapating during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion began when Virginia governer William Berkeley refused to act upon a series of Native American attacks on frontier settlements. Feeling neglected and enraged, Bacon, a frontiersman, lead a rebel army throughout Virginia and burned/attcked Native American villages along the way to Jamestown, which was also torched. -
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening of the early eighteenth century is characterized by a surge in expressions of religious feelings. It created a divide within churches which eventually led to more religious diversity, more competition to attract followers, and an increased need for the separation of church and state. The Great Awakening also sparked political change as Americans from different types of economic and cultural backgrounds found a common interst, thus leading to a more democratized nation. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian war began when English and French settlements each believed they owned the rights to the Ohio River Valley. As a result of the war, France's power in America virtually ceased to exist as they were forced to surrender their obtained territories, Spain was awarded the Louisiana Territiory for their involvement, and Britain was left with a crushing war debt, which promted parliment to enact the Stamp Act of 1765 on the colonies. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was issued after the French and Indian war and effectively closed off the frontier (west of the Appalachian Mountains) to colonial expansion. The proclamation was issued by British Parliment and was introduced to calm the fears of native Americans who felt that settlers in America would take over their traditional lands. The proclamation only attributed to colonist hate towards their mother country as they were restricted in their exercise of the "Manifest Destiny" -
American Revolution
Causes:
-King George III imposed heavy taxes (ex: stanp act, tea act) on the colonies as well as unfair legislations (quartering act)
-Colonists felt that they were not adaquetly represented in the British Parliment
-Colonists were restricted in their imports/exports and national revenue as Britain's practice of mercantilism prevented them from trading with other nations
Effects:
-The United States of America became an independent nation via the signing of the Treaty of Paris -
Declaration of Independence is signed
The Declaration of Independence was drafted and signed to list Americans' grievences over King George III of England's ruling of the colonies and to explain and justify the colonists' reasoning for desired independence. The declaration gaurenteed French support in the war against Great Britain. Those in favor of rebeling against Britain saw the declaration as a symbol of hope and promise for a new age of indepence and self government, while loyalists feared the document. -
Shay's Rebellion
Summary: Daniel Shays led a rebel group to shut down county courts and stop them from collecting taxes/debts
Causes:
-financial difficulties in post-war economy
-harsh tax legislations enacted to erradicate American war debt
-lack of hard currency
Effects:
-weakness of the American government was exposed
-US Constitution was editied to ensure that states managed their own internal domistic violence -
Washington's Neutrality in French Revolution
Causes:
-Hesitant to enter a war so soon after fighting one of their own
-American army wasn"t nearly as large or as trained as European armies
Effects:
-Thomas Jefferson resigned from the cabinet -French ambassador to the UNited States, Edmund Genet, was provoked into forcefully seizing British ships and converting them into war vessels in order to raise an American militia to support France's cause -
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by a federalist congress and made it more difficult for new immigrants to vote as well as gave the president the power to deport any foreigners deemed dangerous to the United States' national security. -
Marbury V. madison
Causes:
-President Jefferson ordered Secretary of State James madison not to deliver commissions to Federalist judeges whom president Adams had appointed in the final days of his presidency
-William Marbury sued in order to obtain his commission
Effects:
-Chief Justice marshall ruled that Marbury had a right to his commission
-Ruled that te Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional
-established doctrine of judicial review- Supreme Court could overrule actions of any branch -
Louisiana Purchase
Causes:
-Napolean (French leader) couldn't afford to keep the land due to French conflitcs
-French needed funding for their ongoing wars, and Americans wanted to expand the nation
Effects:
-Size of the United States more than doubled
-Eliminated foreign presence in the United States
-increased Jefferson's popularity and decreased hamilton's/other Federalists -
Death of Alexander Hamilton
Causes:
-Former vice president Aaron Burr planned to win the new York governorship in 1804 and have the state secede from the rest of the nation
-Alexander Hamilton won the governship and humiliated Burr
-Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel
Effects:
-Federalists lost their last great leader as well as their momentum and political prowess -
Embargo Act 1807
Causes:
-The british warship Leopard fired on the U.S. Chesapeake killing three Americans
-caused sharp increase in anti-British feelings
-Jefferson enacted the embargo in lieu of declaring war, as many Americans had demanded
Effect:
-prohibited American mervhant ships from sailing to any foreign port
-backfired and brought economic hardships onto the United States
-repealed in 1809 -
War of 1812
Causes:
-British violation of U.S. neutral maritime rights
-Britian and France both acted as if the other "owned" property rights to the Atlantic ocean
-Domestic pressures with native Americans/"war hawk congress' also provoked Madison into declaring war on britain
Effects:
-war declaration divided the us (north/new england opposed the war, the south supported it)
-Treaty of Ghent ended the war
-U.S gained the respect of other nations as they had dfeated Britain twice -
Panic of 1819
Causes:
-Second Bank of the United States (BUS) failed to provide physical currency after giving out large bank loans
-Unregulated banking
-Henry Clay's American system added to fiscal discomfort
Effects:
-Westerners called for land reform
-nationalistic beliefs were shaken -
Missouri Compromise
Causes:
-Congress had attempted to keep an orderly balance of slave states and free states
-missouri's application for statehood would tip the political scale in the South's favor
-Missouri was the first of the Louisiana purchase to apply for ststehood, which made Congress worry for the future ratio of slave to free states
Effect:
-Henry Clay proposed that Missouri would become a slave state, Maine would be a free state, and the rest of the Louisiana Territory would be free beyond the 36/30 -
Monroe Doctrine
Causes:
-America desired control of latin America
-America did not want any further European colonization in Latin America
Effects:
-European colonization of latin America ceased
-Doctrine had little impact in its own era
-became more relevent in the 1840's when president Polk used it to justify his own actions -
Lowell Mills
Textile Mills in Lowell, massachusetts became the first to utilize young farm women as factory workers. Although considered a minor job, it was women's first of many appearences in the development of labor. -
Jackson Vetos the BUS
Jackson believed that the Bank of the United States was abusing its powers and only served the interests of the wealthy. It was because of this belief that Jackson vetoed the bank's recharter bill and revoked all federal funding,denouncing the bank as a 'private monopoly". President jackson then created his own system of "pet banks" (various state banks) -
Texas Revolution
Mexico had initially invited American settlers to settle in Texas, but under the newfound dictatorship of Santa Anna, white settlers were mistreated. Santa anna disposed of the nation's system of federal governement and forced all of Texas's inhabitiants to become Roamn Catholics. Texans, under Sam Houston, revolted and overthrew the Mexican governement in Texas. However, Mexican leaders failed to recognize the signed treaty as legitimate and insisted that texas was still part of Mexico. -
Panic of 1837
Causes:
-Jackson's state banks had backfired
-->state banks' reckless credit policies
Effects;
-Massive unemployment
-Van Buren moved federal funds from state banks to an independent treasury
-encouraged western expansion -
Abolitionist Movement Begins
William Llyod Garrison's radical antislavery newspaper, The Liberator, was the first to advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery in every state/territiory in the U.S. Garrison's ideas, however, served to split the abolitionist movement. the Liberty Party believed that political action, not radicalism or violence, would bring about an end to slavery. -
Seneca Falls Convention
leading feminists in America met in Seneca Falls, New york to advocate for women's rights in America. By the conclusion of the convention, a "Declaration of Sentiments" was created and declared that all men and women are created equal. The little success achieved at the convention paved the way for women leaders like Elizabeth Cady stanton and Susan B. Anthony to campaign for equal opportunities and be heard. -
Compromise 1850
Compromise of 1850:
-California would be admitted as a free state
-Mexican Cession would be divided into two sections (Utah and New Mexico) each with popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery
-Ban the selling of slaves in Washington, D.C.
-adopt a new Fugitive Slave Law and enfore it harshly -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act:
-Kansas and Nebraska would be divided into two separate territories and would be given popular sovereignty.
--> would open up farmland for Senator Stephen Douglas's transcontinential railroad
-divided the nation almost to the point of civil war -
Lincoln-Douglas debates
Lincoln and Douglas debated for the senate seat of Illonios. The debates mainly circiled around the issue of Bleeding Kansas and failed popular sovereignty issued by Douglas. Although Douglas won the debates, lincoln emerged as a leading contender for the Republican nomination for president in 1860 as well as a well known public figure. -
Outbreak of the American Civil War
The American Civil War was sparked by the secession of the South from the rest of the United States in 1861. Southern leaders had threatened to secede if Republican Abraham Lincoln had won the presidential election of 1860, which he did without carrying a single southern state. Southerners feared Lincoln's opposition towards the institution of slavery, and so decided to form their own "country" in order to protect
their way of life.
-->war is declared and the first shots are fired in 1861
