APUSH Timeline (from Ramya Ravuri)

Columbus arrives in the New World

1492 Period 1

Spain became the first colonial power in the Americas

England’s first attempt to settle in North America

1587 - Period 1

Sir Walter Raleigh sponsors Roanoke Island (Lost Colony) ends up disappearing

English defeats Spanish Armada

1588 - Period 1

Starts real English efforts to colonize

Jamestown

1607 - Period 2

• Marked the beginning of permanent English settlement in North America

• Funded by Virginia Company

• Captain John Smith leader

Desperation of English Settlers

1609-1610 - Period 2

• Powhatan Confederacy aides Jamestown

• Tobacco as cash crop (John Rolfe)

Mayflower Arrival in Plymouth

1620 - Period 2

Toleration Act

1649 - Period 2

Granted religious freedom to Christians in Maryland

Glorious Revolution

1688 - Period 2

Overthrew James II, establishment of William and Mary as joint monarchs

Salem Witch Trials

1692 - Period 2

Unrest in religion, politics, and gender led to witch hysteria

Seven Years’ War

1754-1763 - Period 3

• British vs French

• Causes: Competition for control of colonial territories and territorial disputes (Ohio Valley; French attempt to prevent British expansion)

• William Pitt was the English Prime Minister during the war

• Treaty of Paris 1763 ended war

  • Gave England control of Canada and almost everything East of the Mississippi Valley

• Lots of debt —> heavy taxing post-war

Proclamation of 1763

1763 - Period 3

• Forbade colonial settlement past Appalachian Mountains

• Seen as punishment to colonists

Stamp Act

1765 - Period 3

• Taxed goods produced in colonies (boycotts)

• “No taxation without representation”

• Act repealed and Declaratory Act passed

  • Parliament can tax and legislate in all cases anywhere in the colonies

Boston Massacre

1770 - Period 3

British soldiers shot into a crowd of innocent bystanders

Colonists were angry; attacking verbally

Boston Tea Party

1773 - Period 3

• Tea tax protest

• Results in British response with Intolerable Acts

  • Closed Boston Harbor and tightened control over Massachusetts government

Lexington & Concord

1775 - Period 3

Beginning of American Revolutionary War

“The shot heard round the world”

Declaration of Independence

1776 - Period 3

Articulated the principle of individual liberty and government’s responsibility to serve the people

Battle of Saratoga

1777 - Period 3

First great American victory

Articles of Confederation

1777 - Period 3

• First national constitution of the US

• Limited: No federal power to levy taxes, raise troops, or regulate commerce (One voice per state despite size)

Franco American Alliance

1778 - Period 3

• Negotiated by Ben Franklin

• Brings French into war on colonists’ side

Battle of Yorktown

1781 - Period 3

• End of American Revolutionary War

• British general surrendered to George Washington’s troops surrounded by French navy

• Began negotiations between colonies and Great Britain

Treaty of Paris (Revolutionary War)

1783 - Period 3

• Gave US land and independence

• Agreed Loyalists were not to be persecuted

Constitutional Convention

1787 - Period 3

• Great Compromise: HOR (representation according to population) and Senate (2 per state)

• 3/5th Compromise: Empowered Southern states

Washington’s Election

1788 - Period 3

• National Band created

• Neutrality Proclamation: Stayed neutral during conflicts between France and Great Britain

• Farewell Address 1796 cautioned against alliances/political parties and recommended isolation

Bill of Rights

1791 - Period 3

First 10 amendments to Constitution

XYZ Affair

1798 - Period 3

• US refused French bribe and suspended trade with them

• Creation of American Navy and “Quasi-War” (undeclared naval war between US and France)

Alien & Sedition Acts

1798 - Period 3

• Enacted by Federalists to reduce foreign influences and increase power

• Harder to get citizenship

• Federalists seen as less democratic (Limited criticizing media and Jeffersonian Republicans)

Jefferson’s Election

1800 - Period 4

• Third president (first change in leadership Federalist —> Jeffersonian Republican)

• Supported state’s rights

Marbury v. Madison

1803 - Period 4

• William Marbury commissioned by President Adams with “Midnight Appointments”

• Commission not delivered so sued James Madison

• Refused and Supreme Court deemed remedy unconstitutional (expanded fed gov powers and exercised Court’s role to interpret Constitution)

Louisiana Purchase

1803 - Period 4

Doubled US territory and bought land from France (Agrarian expansion encouraged by Jefferson)

Embargo Act of 1807

1807 - Period 4

• Jefferson declared America will keep their own ships from leaving port to foreign destinations (Attempt to separate from Napoleonic Wars)

• Economic depression and angered federalists

War of 1812

1812 - Period 4

• British encouraging Tecumseh to fight against US encroachment

• British violating US maritime rights

Battle of New Orleans

1815 - Period 4

• Jackson wins over British, fought after treaty signed

• US economy turned from agrarian to industrialization

Era of Good Feelings

1816-1824 - Period 4

• Only 1 political party, US in unity during Monroe’s presidential term

• Panic of 1819 where people couldn’t pay their loans

McCulloch v. Maryland

1819 - Period 4

No state can control an agency of the federal government

Maryland tried to levy tex on a local branch of the US Bank

Missouri Compromise

1820 - Period 4

• Senate evenly divided between slave and free states

• Missouri = slave state and Maine(from Massachusetts) = free state

• Slavery illegal above 36 30’ except Missouri

Monroe Doctrine

1823 - Period 4

• Policy of mutual non-interference as well as America’s right to intervene in its own hemisphere

• Sent a message for other countries to look away from Latin America

Sectionalism

1820s - Period 4

Loyalty to a region of a nation rather than to the nation itself

Jackson’s Election

1828 - Period 4

• Era of Common Man

• Universal while male suffrage

• “Self-made Westerner”

Indian Removal Act

1830 - Period 4

Provided federal enforcement to move Native American tribes west of the Mississippi (Andrew Jackson)

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

1832 - Period 4

Nat Turner (slave) led 75 in revolt killing the family of his owner, then the families of others. Led to stricter slave laws in the South and less support for abolition.

Manifest Destiny

1830-1850 - Period 4

American belief that America was destined to expand to the Pacific and possibly into Canada and Mexico (God-given right to Western territories)

Ordinance of Nullification

1832 - Period 4

• South Carolina declared they would resist by force any attempt to collect tariffs

• Rescinded once Henry Clay presented Compromise Tariff of 1833

Battle of the Alamo

1836 - Period 4

Mexico successfully reclaimed Texas with more strict restrictions after Texan settlers rebelled (Mexico refused to sell Texas to the US)

Whig Party

1840s - Period 4

• Stemmed from Federalist Party and the National Republican Party (opposers of Jackson’s policies)

• Encouraged banks and corporations, caution of westward expansion

• Northern businesses, manufacturing interests, and large Southern planters

Annexation of Texas

1845 - Period 5

Congress annexed Texas with plans to negotiate a settlement for that land with Mexico, but was rejected

Mexican-American War

1846-1848 - Period 5

• US-Mexico border set at the Rio Grande

• Ended by Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848

  • Gave land originally asked for (New Mexico, AZ, CA, TX, and some of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada)

Wilmot Proviso

1846 - Period 5

Amendment to a Mexican War appropriations bill

• Would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, never passed.

Seneca Falls Convention

1848 - Period 5

First women’s rights convention

Compromise of 1850

1850 - Period 5

• California admitted as a free state

• New Mexico and Utah territories slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty

• Federal payment of 10 million to Texas for New Mexico territory

Fugitive Slave Act

1850 - Period 5

• Federal commissioners could pass judgment on “fugitive slaves” in all states with a reward of $10 for every person

• Increased rift between North and South, Part of Compromise of 1850

Bleeding Kansas

1854 - Period 5

• Kansas and Nebraska created to organize area West of Missouri and Iowa

• Slavery up to popular sovereignty (revoking Missouri Compromise)

• Kansas couldn’t decide —> devastating fights between pro and anti slavery groups

Dred Scott Case

1857 - Period 5

Enslaved man taken from Missouri (slave state) to Illinois (free state) and sued for freedom

Taney Court ruled Scott didn’t have the right to bring forth a suit and ruled Missouri Compromise unconstitutional (“enslaved people’s were property”)

Lincoln’s Election

1860 - Period 5

• Abraham Lincoln nominated by republicans and believed in free soil ideal (completely abolish slavery)

• Lincoln won and South seceded further (Douglas lost)

Confederate States of America

1860s - Period 5

Southern states seceded from the union and adopted their own constitution and president (Jefferson Davis)

Civil War

1860s - Period 5

• South: resist being conquered to protect culture and institutions

• North: Wealthy with moral high ground and established trade routes

Radical Republicans

1860s - Period 5

Pushed Lincoln to embrace emancipation and shift goal of war to liberating enslaved people as well as preserving the Union

Homestead Act

1862 - Period 5

Granted land to anyone who would farm it for at least five years (passed when Southern Democrats not a part of Congress)

Emancipation Proclamation

1863 - Period 5

Declared all enslaved people to be free in the South. Kept England from joining the war on the South’s side.

Battle of Gettysburg

1863 - Period 5

Southern General Robert E. Lee defeated in Pennsylvania. Bloodiest and most decisive battle of the Civil War.

Lincoln’s 10% Plan

1863 - Period 5

• When 10% of Southerners take oath promising loyalty to the Union, a state government could be formed

Lincoln Assasinated

1865 - Period 5

Thirteenth Amendment

1865 - Period 5

Abolished slavery in the US

Fourteenth Amendment

1868 - Period 5

Made Black Americans citizens and declared no state could refuse them equal protection nor deny life, liberty, and property

Fifteenth Amendment

1970 - Period 5

No state could deny the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude

Reconstruction

1865-1877 - Period 5

• South under army’s control to oversee elections and the rights of freed people

• US tried to transform organization and society of former Confederate states

• Ended with Compromise of 1877 (ended federal control of the South which led to Jim Crow laws and disenfranchisement)

Alaskan Purchase

1867 - Period 5

Alaskan territory purchased from Russia

Compromise of 1877

1877 - Period 5

Military reconstruction ends in the South

Battle of Little Bighorn

1876 - Period 6

US fought Sioux and Cheyenne coming from the US encroachment onto Native lands

“Custer’s Last Stand” - American Lt. Col. Custer died with many soldiers (propaganda)

Gilded Age

1870-1890s - Period 6

Described surface-level wealth and extravagance hiding underlying poverty and corruption

Haymarket Square Riot

1886 - Period 6

Bomb exploded during rally in support of a labor strike

Publicly marked Knights of Labor as anarchists

Dawes Severalty Act

1887 - Period 6

• Encouraged Native American tribes to breakup and assimilate into American society

• Distributed reservation lands among individual members of the tribe

• Remaining tribal lands sold to white people

Interstate Commerce Act

1887 - Period 6

Monitored price discrimination within the railroad industry —> led to Progressive Era

Wounded Knee Massacre

1890 - Period 6

• Federal army believed Sioux and other triads were organizing a rebellion (Ghost Dance movement)

• Army shot 200 unarmed people

Sherman Antitrust Act

1890 - Period 6

Declared contracts, combinations, or conspiracies in restraint of interstate trade illegal (monopolies, corporations, labor unions)

Populist Party

1892 - Period 6

• Founded to advance the interest of farmers demanding government ownership of telephone/graph and railroad industries

• Ideas —> Progressive Party

Please v. Ferguson

1896 - Period 7

• Plessy refused to leave a railroad car only for white people but it was ruled that “separate but equal” was constitutional

• Overturned by Brown v. Board of Education

“Cross of Gold” Speech

1896 - Period 7

• Criticized gold standard and advocated for coinage of silver (popular among debt-ridden farmers)

• Speech by Democratic presidential nominee

Annexation of Hawaii

1898 - Period 7

• Hawaii first destabilized by Army and others when Queen was overthrown by a few

Open Door Policy

1898 - Period 7

• US foreign policy for China

• Had the invading forces of China state they will not interfere in U.S. interests and commerce

Spanish-American War

1898 - Period 7

• Cuba rebelling against Spanish rule with “Yellow Press” in the US

• U.S.S. Maine blown up - war fought in Cuba and the Philippines

• Treaty of Paris - Cuba got independence, US got Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, Spain got money

• Platt Amendment made Cuba an American protectorate (1902)

Philippine-American War

1899 - Period 7

After Treaty of Paris, first time US fought a war to prevent another country from becoming independent

Theodore Roosevelt

1901-1909 - Period 7

Diplomatic style (Panama Canal) and supported conservationism (environmental) for national resources

Big Stick Policy

1904 - Period 7

• Roosevelt

• Used to justify repeated military intervention in Latin America for “American security”

Seventeenth Amendment

1913 - Period 7

• Progressive Initiative: each state elects two senators by popular vote

• Allowed citizens to have a more active voice in government

Woodrow Wilson

1913-1921 - Period 7

• Led US into WWI

• Progressive reforms (child labor, eight-hour work day)

• Defended segregation, very racist

• “Watchful waiting” policy for rejecting alliances with leaders in Mexico

3 Causes for WWI

1) Growing nationalism in Austria-Hungary and France increased tensions

2) Colonial expansion in Africa and China created conflict

3) Military buildup and established alliances helped lead to war

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary assasinated

• Triple Entente: Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Japan, US

• Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria

Espionage and Sedition Acts

1917-18 - Period 7

Imprisonment and fines for statements that aided the enemy, hindered the draft, or incited military rebellion

Forbade criticism of government or flag, limited free speech upheld by Supreme Court

Fourteen Points

1918 - Period 7

• Called for open pace treaties, free trade and transportation, and arms reduction w/ League of Nations

• All but League of Nations rejected (Europe thought Germany deserved worse punishment)

Treaty of Versailles

1919 - Period 7

Paris Peace Conference; created League of Nations with Germany bearing all the blame

US v. Schenck

1919 - Period 7

• Schneck created pamphlet opposing military draft during WWI —> Espionage Act rejection

• Supreme Court: speech may be suppressed if it created a clear and present danger

Prohibition

1919 - Period 7

• Continuation of Temperance movements in the early 1800s

• Eighteenth Amendment prohibited manufacture, sale, transport of liquor

• Led to bootlegging and speakeasies

• 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933

Red Scare

1919 - Period 7

• Thousands arrested for being suspectived of being Communists and radicals

• Feared revolution and change in the ideologies that the US was built on

Women’s Sufferage

1920 - Period 7

Nineteenth Amendment provided women’s suffrage (Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton)

Emergency Quota Act

1921 - Period 7

• Limited Immigration

• Only 3% of certain nation in US 1910 allowed to immigrate

• 1924 Johnson-Reed Act lowered quota numbers and excluded Asian immigrants

The Great Depression

1929 - Period 7

• Stock market crash of 1929 brought US into a recession, causing a wolrwide drop in production and prices

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1933-1945 - Period 7

• “Hundred Days” - passed first New Deal and Congress passed emergency acts

• 3 R’s - Relief, Recovery, Reform

First New Deal

1933-34 - Period 7

• Provide recovery through public works, business and agricultural regulation, and price stabilization

• Criticized for [spending too much of relief] and [too favorable to business interests]

Good Neighbor Policy

1930s - Period 7

FDR withdrew marines from Haiti, Dominican Republic, and other areas in Latin America

Indian Reorganization Act

1934 - Period 7

• Reversed Dawes Act

• Restored tribal basis and recognized tribal lifestyle by returning ownership and providing economic relief

Second New Deal

1935-41 - Period 7

• Sweeping economic changes pushing programs to assist particular groups (labor organizations) rather than central planning

• Social Security Act protected older workers