apush timeline

🏴‍☠ Period 1 (1491–1607) – Pre-Columbian to Early Colonization

• 1492: Columbus arrives in the Americas (Columbian Exchange begins)

• 1587: Roanoke Colony founded (Lost Colony)

• 1588: Defeat of Spanish Armada (rise of English colonial power)

⚔ Period 2 (1607–1754) – British Colonial America

• 1607: Jamestown founded (first permanent English colony)

• 1619: House of Burgesses established (early self-government)

• 1619: First enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia

• 1620: Mayflower Compact signed (self-government in Plymouth)

• 1630: Puritans found Massachusetts Bay Colony

• 1636: Roger Williams founds Rhode Island (religious freedom)

• 1676: Bacon’s Rebellion (leads to shift toward race-based slavery)

• 1692: Salem Witch Trials

• 1730s–1740s: First Great Awakening (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield)

💡 Enlightenment Context

• John Locke: Natural rights (life, liberty, property); consent of the governed

• Montesquieu: Separation of powers

🗽 Period 3 (1754–1800) – Revolution & New Nation

• 1754–1763: French and Indian War (7 Years’ War)

• 1763: Proclamation Line restricts westward expansion

• 1765: Stamp Act (first direct tax, "no taxation without representation")

• 1770: Boston Massacre

• 1773: Boston Tea Party

• 1774: Intolerable Acts → First Continental Congress

• 1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord

• 1776: Common Sense by Thomas Paine

• 1776: Declaration of Independence

• 1777: Battle of Saratoga (turning point; France allies with U.S.)

• 1781: Articles of Confederation ratified

• 1783: Treaty of Paris ends Revolutionary War

• 1786: Shays' Rebellion (exposes weaknesses of AoC)

• 1787: Constitutional Convention (Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise)

• 1789: George Washington becomes first president

• 1791: Bill of Rights ratified

• 1796: Washington's Farewell Address (avoid political parties, foreign entanglements)

• 1798: Alien & Sedition Acts passed during Adams’ presidency

⚖ Period 4 (1800–1848) – Democratic-Republicans & Market Revolution

• 1800: "Revolution of 1800" – Jefferson elected peacefully

• 1803: Marbury v. Madison (judicial review)

• 1803: Louisiana Purchase

• 1812–1815: War of 1812 (U.S. vs. Britain)

• 1820: Missouri Compromise (36°30′ line; Missouri slave, Maine free)

• 1823: Monroe Doctrine (oppose European interference in Western Hemisphere)

• 1824: Corrupt Bargain – John Quincy Adams elected over Jackson

• 1828: Jackson elected (rise of "common man" politics)

• 1830: Indian Removal Act

• 1832: Nullification Crisis (South Carolina vs. Tariff)

• 1836: Texas declares independence from Mexico

• 1840: William Henry Harrison elected; Whig victory

🚂 Market Revolution & Reform Movements

• Lowell Mills: women in workforce

• Erie Canal and railroads: transportation boom

• 2nd Great Awakening: social reform, abolitionism, temperance

• Seneca Falls Convention (1848): women’s rights ("all men and women are created equal")

🔥 Period 5 (1844–1877) – Sectionalism, Civil War, Reconstruction

• 1845: Texas annexed

• 1846–1848: Mexican-American War

• 1850: Compromise of 1850 (CA free, Fugitive Slave Act)

• 1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act (popular sovereignty → Bleeding Kansas)

• 1857: Dred Scott v. Sandford (Blacks not citizens; slavery legal everywhere)

• 1860: Lincoln elected → SC secedes

• 1861–1865: Civil War

• 1863: Emancipation Proclamation

• 1865: 13th Amendment ends slavery

• 1865–1877: Reconstruction

• 1868: 14th Amendment (citizenship, equal protection)

• 1870: 15th Amendment (Black male suffrage)

• 1877: Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction (Hayes becomes President)

🧠 Must-Know Themes & Concepts

• Republican motherhood: Early role of women to raise virtuous citizens

• Manifest Destiny: Justification for U.S. expansion westward

• Sectionalism: North (industry), South (slavery), West (agrarian, infrastructure)

• Slavery debates: Always tied to new land & balance in Congress

• Judicial review: Marbury v. Madison

• Popular sovereignty: Let states decide (e.g., Kansas-Nebraska Act)

• Federalism vs. states’ rights: Recurring theme (Nullification Crisis → Civil War)

• Radical Republicans vs. Johnson: Congressional Reconstruction