Timeline

First humans cross Bering Strait land bridge

c. 15,000-30,000 years ago

Rise of Aztec Empire (Tenochtitlan)

c. 1325-1521

Rise of Inca Empire

c. 1438-1533

Columbus's first voyage / Beginning of Columbian Exchange

1492

Treaty of Tordesillas (Spain/Portugal division)

1494

Spanish conquest of the Aztecs (Hernán Cortés)

1519-1521

Spanish conquest of the Incas (Francisco Pizarro)

1532-1533

Founding of St. Augustine (first permanent European settlement in US)

1565

Roanoke Colony fails ("Lost Colony")

1585-1590

Spanish Armada defeated by England

1588

Period 2: 1607 - 1754

Founding of Jamestown, Virginia

1607

First Africans brought to Jamestown

1619

Mayflower Compact / Founding of Plymouth Colony

1620

Founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony

1630

Pequot War

1636-1638

King Philip's War (Metacom's War)

1675-1678

Bacon's Rebellion

1676

Pueblo Revolt

1680

Salem Witch Trials

1692

Stono Rebellion

1739

First Great Awakening (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield)

1730s-1740s

Period 3: 1754 - 1800

French and Indian War (Seven Years' War)

1754-1763

Albany Congress & Plan of Union

1754

Pontiac's Rebellion

1763

Proclamation of 1763

1763

Stamp Act

1765

Stamp Act Congress

1765

Boston Massacre

1770

Boston Tea Party

1773

Intolerable (Coercive) Acts

1774

First Continental Congress

1774

Battles of Lexington and Concord

1775

Second Continental Congress

1775

Publication of Common Sense (Thomas Paine)

1776

Declaration of Independence

1776

Battle of Saratoga (turning point)

1777

Articles of Confederation adopted

1781

Battle of Yorktown

1781

Treaty of Paris (ends Revolutionary War)

1783

Shay's Rebellion

1786-1787

Constitutional Convention

1787

Northwest Ordinance

1787

Constitution ratified

1788

Washington inaugurated as first President

1789

French Revolution begins

1789

Bill of Rights ratified

1791

Haitian Revolution begins

1791

Whiskey Rebellion

1791-1794

Cotton Gin invented (Eli Whitney)

1793

Washington's Farewell Address

1796

XYZ Affair

1797-1798

Alien and Sedition Acts

1798

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

1798-1799

Period 4: 1800 - 1848

Election of Thomas Jefferson ("Revolution of 1800")

1800

Marbury v. Madison (establishes judicial review)

1803

Louisiana Purchase

1803

Embargo Act of 1807

1807

War of 1812

1812-1815

Hartford Convention

1814-1815

Treaty of Ghent (ends War of 1812)

1814

Battle of New Orleans

1815

Adams-Onís Treaty (Florida acquired)

1819

McCulloch v. Maryland

1819

Missouri Compromise

1820

Monroe Doctrine

1823

Erie Canal completed

1825

Election of 1824 / "Corrupt Bargain"

1824

Indian Removal Act

1830

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia & Worcester v. Georgia

1831-1832

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1831

Nullification Crisis

1832-1833

Bank War (Jackson vetoes Bank recharter)

1832

Trail of Tears

1838-1839

Texas Independence / Battle of the Alamo

1836

Seneca Falls Convention (Women's Rights)

1848

Period 5: 1844 - 1877

Mexican-American War

1846-1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1848

California Gold Rush begins

1848-1849

Compromise of 1850

1850

Uncle Tom's Cabin published (Harriet Beecher Stowe)

1852

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854

"Bleeding Kansas"

1854-1859

Dred Scott v. Sandford decision

1857

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry

1859

Election of Abraham Lincoln

1860

Secession of Southern states begins

1860-1861

Confederate States of America formed

1861

Fort Sumter attacked (Civil War begins)

1861

Homestead Act

1862

Pacific Railway Act

1862

Emancipation Proclamation

1863

Battle of Gettysburg

1863

Gettysburg Address

1863

Battle of Vicksburg

1863

Sherman's March to the Sea

1864