APUSH is all about timeline!! You don’t need to memorise the actual date just know where it falls in the timeline and what is it. If you need more notes on any of these, here’s the full study guide, the 16 required figures to know and the supreme court cases.

Period One

• 1492 – Columbus’ arrives in the New World

  • Flows of trade between the old world (Europe, Asia, Africa) & new world help increase food production and stimulate growth

  • Spain became the colonial power in the Americas.

  • Chart on Native American Views vs European Views

• 1587 - England’s first attempt to settle in North America

  • Sir Walter Raleigh sponsors Roanoke Island, which ended up disappearing (aka Lost Colony)

• 1588 - English defeat Spanish Armada

Period Two

• 1607 - Jamestown

  • marked the beginning of permanent English settlement in North America.

  • funded by the Virginia Company

  • leader of the settlement - Captain John Smith

• 1609 - 1610 - Desperation of English Settlers

  • Powhatan Confederacy aides Jamestown

  • tobacco as a cash crop

• 1620 - Mayflower Arrival in Plymouth

• 1649 – Toleration Act

  • Granted religious freedom to Christians in Maryland, a significant step towards religious tolerance in the American colonies.

• 1688 – Glorious Revolution

  • Overthrow James II, establishment of William and Mary as joint monarchs

• 1692 – Salem Witch Trials

  • unrest in religion, politics and gender led to the witch hysteria

  • many executions

Period 3

• 1754–1763 – Seven Years’ War

  • fought between the British and the French

  • causes : competition between British & France for control of colonial territories & territorial disputes such as Ohio Valley

  • William Pitt, the English Prime Minister during the war

  • Ended by Treaty of Paris in 1763, which gave England control of Canada and almost everything east of the Mississippi Valley. leads to anti-British sentiment

  • led to lots of debt, which led to heavy taxing post-war

• 1763 – Proclamation of 1763

  • forbids colonial settlement past Appalachian Mountains

  • made the colonists angry

• 1765 – Stamp Act

  • taxed goods produced within the colonies, led to boycotts

  • “no taxation without representation"“

  • act was repealed

  • Declaratory Act passed

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

• 1770 – Boston Massacre

  • Propaganda campaign that followed suggested that the soldiers had shot into a crowd of innocent bystanders

• 1773 – Boston Tea Party

  • tea tax protest

  • results in British response with “Intolerable Acts” (closes Boston Harbor, tightens control over Massachusetts government, Quartering Act)

• 1775 – Lexington & Concord

  • BEGINNING of American Revolutionary War

• 1776 – Declaration of Independence

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

• 1777 – Battle of Saratoga

• 1777 - Articles of Confederation

  • The first national constitution of the United States

  • limitations : gave the federal government no power to raise an army, no executive or judicial branch, gave each state one vote regardless of the state's population

• 1778 - Franco American Alliance

  • negotiated by Ben Franklin

  • brings French into war on the colonists side

• 1781 – Battle of Yorktown

  • END of American Revolutionary War

  • Major British general, Cornwallis, was surrounded by the French navy and George Washington’s troops, and surrendered

  • Began a long period of negotiations between the American colonies and Great Britain, which would finally end the war in October of 1783

• 1783 – Treaty of Paris

  • gave US land and independence

• 1787 – Constitutional Convention

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

  • 3/5ths Compromise : count 3/5 of slave population toward representation, empower Southern states

• 1788 – Washington’s Election

  • National Bank created

  • Hamilton’s financial plan to reduce debt

  • Neutrality Proclamation

  • Pinckney’s treaty 1796

  • no third term

• 1791 - Bill of Rights Added

• 1798 – XYZ Affair

• 1798 – Alien & Sedition Acts

Period 4

• 1800 – Jefferson’s Election

  • Marbury v. Madison

• 1803 – Louisiana Purchase

  • Lewis & Clark

• 1812–1815 – War of 1812

  • Hartford Convention - end of Federalist Party

  • American system - tariff, roads, re-chartered National Bank (protective)

    lobbied by Henry Clay

• 1815 – Battle of New Orleans

  • Jackson wins

• 1816–1824 – Era of Good Feelings

  • Only one political party, briefly leaves United States with unity

  • McCulloch v. Maryland

  • Panic of 1819 - people could not pay loans

• 1820 – Missouri Compromise

  • Missouri : slave state ; Missouri : free state

  • slavery is decided to be below 36º 30’ parallel

• 1823 – Monroe Doctrine

  • Policy of mutual non-interference and America's right to intervene in its own hemisphere

  • first of several doctrines that will become foreign policy

• 1820s – Sectionalism

• 1828 – Jackson’s Election

  • “Era of Common Man”

  • universal white male suffrage

• 1830 – Indian Removal Act

  • Jackson's treatment of the Cherokees with this act is one of the most criticized policies by modern scholars.

• 1832 – Nat Turner’s Rebellion

  • Nat Turner rallied a gang that killed and mutilated 60 whites.

• 1830–1850 – Manifest Destiny

  • Americans believed in God-given right to western territories

• 1836 – Battle of the Alamo

Period 5

• 1845 – Annexation of Texas

• 1845–1848 – Mexican-American War

  • the Wilmot Proviso defeated quickly

• 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention

  • first women's rights convention

• 1850 – Fugitive Slave Law

• 1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin published

• 1854 – Bleeding Kansas

• 1857 – Dred Scott Decision

• 1860 – Lincoln’s Election

• 1861–1865 – Civil War

  • 1862 – Homestead Act'

  • 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation

  • 1863 – Gettysburg

  • 1865 - Lincoln Assassinated

• 1867 –Military Reconstruction Act of 1867

• 1867 – Purchase of Alaska

• 1877 – Compromise of 1877

  • military reconstruction ends in South

Period 6

• 1876 – Little Bighorn

• 1886 – Haymarket Square Riot

• 1887 – Dawes Act

• 1887 – Interstate Commerce

• 1890 – Wounded Knee

• 1890 – McKinley Tariff ; Sherman Antitrust Act

• 1894 – Pullman Strike

• 1896 – “Cross of Gold” speech

• 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson

Period 7

• 1898 – Annexation of Hawaii

• 1898 – Spanish American War

  • Americans drive Spanish out of Cuba & Philippines

  • Treaty of Maris ends war in 1900

• 1902 - Platt Amendment

• 1903 – Wright Brothers

• 1904 - Roosevelt Corollary

  • The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, also known as the Big Stick Policy, was used to justify repeated military intervention in Latin America due to the assertion of a threat to American security.

• 1917 – US enters WWI

  • Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917 and the Sedition Act in 1918 in response to opposition to U.S. involvement in the war

• 1918 - Fourteen Points

  • League of Nations made it not pass in Congress because Wilson was unwilling to compromise

• 1919 - Schenck v. United States

• 1920 – Women’s Suffrage

• 1920s – Red Scare

• 1920s – Prohibition

• 1929 – Stock Market Crash

  • Great Depression begins

• 1932 – FDR

  • 100 Days

  • New Deal implemented

• 1935 – Social Security Act

• 1939 – WWII starts in Europe

• 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor

• 1944 – D-Day

Period 8

• 1945 - Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• 1947 – Truman Doctrine

  • financial support of anti-Communist nations for containment of Communism Marshall Plan

• 1950–1953 – Korean War ; Civil Rights Movement begins

  • Dwight Eisenhower = President

  • North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950, which started the war

  • U.S. troops attacked North Korea under the umbrella of the United Nations, which led to China's entry into the war

  • Truman’s decision against MacArthur’s recommendations & MacArthur’s firing

• 1950s – McCarthyism

• 1954 – Brown v. Board of Ed.

• 1955 – Montgomery Bus Boycott

  • led to Martin Luther King Jr's national prominence and the integration of city buses

• 1957 – Sputnik

  • leads to NASA being established

• 1961 - JFK becomes President

  • Kennedy inherited the Cuban issue and attempted to solve it with the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion

• 1961 - Vietnam Conflict Begins

• 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis

  • brought US and Soviet Union closest to military confrontation

• 1963 – March on Washington

• 1963 – JFK assassinated; LBJ becomes President

• 1964 – Civil Rights Act

  • Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or gender

  • Most comprehensive piece of civil rights legislation in U.S. history

  • Prohibited discrimination in employment and public facilities

• 1965 - “Great Society” legislation

  • sweeping change to U.S. government since the New Dea

• 1968 – MLK killed, RFK killed

• 1968 – Tet Offensive

  • major turning point in the war, North Vietnamese and Vietcong nearly captured American embassy in Saigon

  • made the American public believe they were being lied to and the war was not winnable

• 1968 – Chicago Convention

• 1969 – Moon landing

• 1972 – Watergate break-in

  • Pentagon Papers

  • Senate hearing began in early 1973 and lasted for 1.5 years

  • Nixon resigned in August 1974 instead of facing impeachment proceedings

  • Vice President Gerald Ford took office and granted Nixon a presidential pardon

• 1973 – Roe v. Wade

• 1979 – Iranian hostage crisis

Period 9

• 1980 – Reagan elected

• 1989 – Cold War ends

• 1991 – Persian Gulf War

• 1994 – NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement established

• 1995 – Oklahoma City Bombing

• 2000 – Bush v. Gore

• 2001 – 9/11 Attacks

• 2008 – Great Recession

• 2008 – Obama elected

• 2011 – Affordable Care Act