Timelines Flashcards
Timeline: The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492
13,000-7,000BC: Humans cross land bridge between Asia and North America. 5,000BC: Corn domesticated in Mesoamerica. 2,000BC-900AD: Mayan civilization flourishes in Yucatan Peninsula. 622: Muhammad receives vision for Islam. 1,000AD: Leif Ericson arrives in present-day Canada. 1,100AD: Cahokia at its peak near modern St. Louis. 1325-1521: Aztec civilization flourishes in present-day Mexico. 1346: Black Death decimates Europe. 1492: Columbus arrives in Bahamas. 1400-1532: Inca Empire thrives in South America.
Timeline: Early Globalization - The Atlantic World, 1492-1650
1492: Christopher Columbus lands on Hispaniola. 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas divides the Americas between the Portuguese and the Spanish. 1517: Martin Luther publishes Ninety-Five Theses. 1521: Hernan Cortes conquers Tenochtitlan. 1530: John Calvin strengthens Protestantism. 1534: Henry VIII breaks with Catholic Church and establishes Church of England. 1584-1590: English efforts to colonize Roanoke fail. 1603: Samuel de Champlain founds New France. 1607: First permanent English settlement begins at Jamestown. 1624: The Dutch found New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
Timeline: Creating New Social Orders - Colonial Societies, 1500-1700
1565: Spanish establish St. Augustine in present day Florida(it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States). 1607: English settle Jamestown. 1609-1645: Jamestown colonists and Powhatan Indians fight Anglo-Powhatan Wars. 1610: Spanish establish Sante Fe in present day New Mexico. 1620: English Puritans draft Mayflower Compact and found Plymouth Colony. 1675-1676: King Philip (Metacom) wages war against Puritan colonies. 1676: Nathaniel Bacon leads armed rebellion against Virginia governor. 1680: Pope leads Pueblo Revolt in Santa Fe.
Timeline: Rule Britannia! The English Empire 1660-1763
1660: Charles II ascends English throne and Restoration begins. 1681: William Penn founds Pennsylvania Colony. 1688-1689: Glorious Revolution overthrows King James II. 1689: Bill of Rights establishes constitutional monarchy in England. 1733: James Oglethorpe founds Georgia for “worthy poor”. 1739: Slaves revolt in Stono Rebellion. 1741: Suspicious fires lead to New York Conspiracy Trails. 1754: French and Indian War (Seven Years War) begins. 1763: Treaty of Paris eliminates New France.
Timeline: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763-1774
1763: Proclamation Line establishes boundary restricting westward settlement. 1764: Sugar Act reduces tax on molasses and strengthens compliance. 1765: Stamp Act and Stamp Act Congress. 1767: Townshend Revenue Act. 1770: Boston Massacre. 1773: Tea Act, Patriots dump tea into Boston Harbor in Boston Tea Party. 1774: Coercive Acts and First Continental Congress.
Timeline: America’s War for Independence, 1775-1783
1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord and British win costly victory at ‘Battle of Bunker Hill’. 1776: Thomas Paine publishes ‘Common Sense’ and ‘2nd Continental Congress’ signs ‘Declaration of Independence’. 1777: American forces defeat General Burgoyne at the ‘Battle of Saratoga’. 1781: Lord Cornwallis surrenders to American and French forces at Yorktown. 1783: The United States and Great Britain sign the ‘Treaty of Paris’.
Timeline: Creating Republican Governments, 1776-1790
1776-1780s: States draft revolutionary constitutions. 1781: Continental Congress ratifies Articles of Confederation. 1784-1787: Northwest Ordinances outline process for sale of new lands. 1786-1787: Massachusetts farmers rise up in Shays’ Rebellion. 1787: Philadelphia Constitutional Convention drafts plan for federal government. 1787-1788: Constitution is debated across country. 1789: U.S. Constitution is implemented. 1791: Congress passes ‘Bill of Rights’.
Timeline: Growing Pains - The New Republic, 1790–1820
1791: Congress passes ‘Bill of Rights’. 1794: Western Pennsylvanians protest in ‘Whiskey Rebellion’; Jay’s Treaty ensures commerce between U.S. and Britain. 1798: Congress passes ‘Alien and Sedition Acts’. 1803: Thomas Jefferson brokers Louisiana Purchase. 1807: Embargo attempts to end British practice of capturing American soldiers. 1812-1814: ‘War of 1812’. 1814: ‘Treaty of Ghent’ ends War of 1812.
Timeline: A Nation on the Move - Westward Expansion, 1800-1860
1803: Thomas Jefferson brokers ‘Louisiana Purchase’. 1805: Lewis and Clark’s expedition reaches the Pacific Ocean. 1819: U.S. acquires Florida under the Adams-Onis Treaty. 1820: Missouri Compromise divides Louisiana Purchase into “slave” and “free” states. 1845: United States annexes Texas. 1846: U.S. declares war on Mexico; Great Britain cedes Oregon territory to U.S. 1848: Mexican Cession adds vast new territory to U.S. 1848: California Gold Rush begins. 1850: Henry Clay brokers ‘Compromise of 1850’.
Timeline: Industrial Transformation in the North, 1800–1850
1807: Robert Fulton builds first successful steamboat. 1813: Francis Cabot Lowell founds ‘Boston Manufacturing Company’. 1819: Bank panic leads to depression. 1825: Erie Canal opens. 1831: Cyrus McCormick invents mechanical reaper; Mohawk and Hudson Railroad begins service. 1838: Samuel Morse first demonstrates the telegraph. 1841: P.T. Barnum’s ‘American Museum’ opens in NYC.
Timeline: Jacksonian Democracy, 1820–1840
1824: John Q. Adams elected president in “corrupt bargain”. 1828: “Tariff of Abominations” protects northern manufacturers; Andrew Jackson wins popular and electoral votes. 1830: Congress passes Indian Removal Act. 1832: Nullification crisis risks violent secession; President Jackson vetoes renewal of 2nd Bank of U.S. 1834: Whig Party forms in opposition to the Democratic Party. 1837: Financial panic prompts extended recession. 1840: Whig candidate William Henry Harrison elected president.
Timeline: Cotton is King - The Antebellum South, 1800-1860
1794: Eli Whitney patents cotton gin. 1803: U.S. purchases Louisiana Territory from France. 1811: Charles Deslondes leads slave revolt in Louisiana. 1831: Nat Turner leads slave rebellion. 1845: United States annexes Texas. 1850: John C. Calhoun’s “Disquisition of Government” is published. 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’. 1854: Ostend Manifesto is made public. 1855: William Walker conquers Nicaragua and legalizes slavery.
Timeline: Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses, 1820-1860
1827: American Temperance Society is formed. 1830: Joseph Smith founds ‘Church of the Latter Day Saints’. 1831: Nat Turner leads slave rebellion. 1833: William Lloyd Garrison founds American Anti-Slavery Society. 1841: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalism and “Self-Reliance”. 1848: Supporters of women’s rights gather at Seneca Falls. 1854: Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden; Or, Life in the Woods. 1855: Most northeastern states “go dry” by prohibiting alcohol.
Timeline: Troubled Times - The Tumultuous 1850s
1850: Henry Clay brokers ‘Compromise of 1850’. 1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes ‘Uncle Toms Cabin’. 1854: Anti-Slavery Whigs, Democrats, and Free-Soilers form Republican Party; Congress passes Kansas-Nebraska Act. 1856: Preston Brooks canes Charles Sumner. 1857: Supreme Court hands down Dred Scott decision. 1858: Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate in Illinois. 1859: John Brown raids Harpers Ferry. 1860: Lincoln elected president.
Timeline: The Civil War, 1860-1865
1860: South Carolina secedes from Union. 1861: Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter; First Battle of Bull Run. 1862: Confederate forces retreat after Battle of Shiloh; General Robert E. Lee defends Richmond; Battle of Antietam. 1863: Abraham Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation; Racially motivated riots break out in New York; General Ulysses S. Grant leads Vicksburg Campaign; Battle of Gettysburg. 1864: General William Tecumseh Sherman invades the South; Atlanta falls to Sherman’s forces; Lincoln is reelected. 1865: Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrenders.
Timeline: The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877
1863: Abraham Lincoln unveils “Ten Percent Plan” or ‘Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction’. 1865: John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln; Congress establishes ‘Freedmen’s Bureau’; 13th Amendment ratified. 1866: Congress passes ‘Civil Rights Act’. 1867: Radical Republicans pass ‘Military Reconstruction Act’. 1868: Congress moves to impeach Andrew Johnson; 14th Amendment ratified. 1870: 15th Amendment ratified. 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes defeats Samuel Tilden in contested presidential election. 1877: ‘Compromise of 1877’ ends Reconstruction.
Timeline: Go West Young Man! Westward Expansion, 1840-1900
1848: California Gold Rush begins. 1862: Homestead and Pacific Railway Acts encourage westward migration; ‘Dakota War’ fought. 1869: Transcontinental Railroad completed. 1873: Barbed wire invented. 1876: ‘Battle of Little Bighorn’ fought. 1882: ‘Chinese Exclusion Act’ passed. 1887: ‘Dawes Severalty Act’ divides Indian tribal lands.
Timeline: Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900
1870: John D. Rockefeller founds ‘Standard Oil’. 1873: Andrew Carnegie founds ‘Carnegie Steel’; ‘Panic of 1873’ triggers extended depression. 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone. 1877: ‘Great Railroad Strike’ lasts forty-five days. 1879: Thomas Edison invents the light bulb. 1886: Labor rally at Haymarket Square erupts in violence; ‘American Federation of Labor’ is founded. 1892: ‘Homestead Steel Strike’.
Timeline: The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900
1876: Professional baseball begins with the founding of the National League. 1885: Chicago builds first ten-story skyscraper. 1887: Frank Sprague invents electric trolley. 1889: Jane Addams opens ‘Hull House’ in Chicago. 1890: Jacob Riis publishes ‘How the Other Half Lives’; ‘Carnegie Hall’ opens in New York. 1893: ‘City Beautiful’ movement begins. 1895: Coney Island amusement parks open.
Timeline: Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900
1873: Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner publish ‘The Gilded Age’. 1877: ‘Compromise of 1877’ results in Rutherford B. Hayes presidency. 1881: Charles Guiteau assassinates President James Garfield. 1883: Congress passes ‘Pendleton Civil Service Act’. 1891: Populist Party emerges out of Alliance movement. 1894: Coxey’s Army marches on Washington; Pullman Strike paralyzes railroad traffic. 1896: William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan for president.
Timeline: Leading the Way - The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920
1901: President William McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt assumes presidency. 1906: Meat Inspection Act passes; Pure Food and Drug Act enacted. 1910: Interracial coalition forms NAACP. 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire triggers first factory inspection laws. 1912: Roosevelt founds Progressive Party. 1913: Sixteenth Amendment authorizes federal income tax; Seventeenth Amendment subjects U.S. senators to popular vote. 1920: Eighteenth Amendment prohibits manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages; Nineteenth Amendment guarantees women right to vote.
Timeline: Age of Empire - American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914
1893: Turner presents ‘Frontier Thesis’. 1898: U.S. fights Spanish-American War; U.S. annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. 1899: Hay drafts ‘Open Door Policy’ regarding trade in China. 1900: Boxer Rebellion erupts in China. 1901: Congress approves ‘Platt Amendment’ regarding Cuba. 1903: U.S. obtains rights to build Panama Canal. 1904: Theodore Roosevelt announces ‘Roosevelt Corollary’.
Timeline: Americans and the Great War, 1914-1919
1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo; World War I begins in Europe. 1915: German U-boat sinks RMS Lusitania. 1916: Pancho Villa’s forces attack Columbus, New Mexico. 1917: Germany sends the secret Zimmermann telegram; Woodrow Wilson delivers ‘Peace Without Victory’ speech; U.S. declares war on Germany. 1918: U.S. soldiers engage Germans in the Argonne Forest; Wilson issue his ‘Fourteen Points’. 1919: ‘Treaty of Versailles’ officially ends World War I.
Timeline: The Jazz Age - Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929
1920: Warren G. Harding elected president with landslide popular vote. 1923: Teapot Dome scandal rocks Harding presidency. 1924: Henry Ford sells Model Ts for $300; Congress enacts ‘National Origins Act’, establishing quotas for immigration. 1925: John Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution in Tennessee. 1927: Charles Lindbergh flies solo across Atlantic Ocean; Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Massachusetts. 1928: Herbert Hoover elected president.
