INFO: in the left column you can find the date (check: there are 2 or 3 wrong but can’t remember which ones…) – in the middle column the
event that happened on that date – in the left column extra information + reference to quotes seen in class > you can find the quotes listed per
class on p25-36
Green: battles // blue: acts // orange: constitution related // yellow: important moments in history // red: deaths // grey: longer period
class 1: the early days – Independence
1565 first European settlement in St-Augustin, Florida
1607 First ever document written by settlers in Jamestown,
Virginia
1619 first Africans imported as indentured slaves
1620 Mayflower > Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts protestant separatists (= separate from English Church)
1630 Arbella > Massachusetts Bay Colony protestant puritans (= purify English Church) = reformers > John Winthrop >
create religious utopia as model for the world > quote: founding document of
the New World ‘A modell of Christian Charity)
1830 Indian Removal Act (Andrew Jackson)
1830-1850 trail of tears
1890 Wounded Knee (Sitting Bull, Wovoka, Lakota Sioux in South Dakota, Ghost Dance movement)
1763 end of Seven Years’ War > England gets colonies from France > no money > taxation by George
Grenville (PM 1763-1765)
1764 Sugar Act law passed by Parliament GB > put taxes on sugar and other imported goods
from non-British sources > to make money > it strengthened harsher
penalties for smuggling + courts without juries to prosecute smugglers
1
, Culture & history US (Lou Van Goethem)
1765 Stamp Act > law passed by Parliament GB > imposed direct tax on American colonies >
sought to raise money to pay for this army through a tax on all legal and
official papers and publications circulating in the colonies
1767 The Townshend Acts taxation on imported goods
5 March 1770 Boston Massacre > Red Coats were sent to American colony, Boston, to intimidate + control
boycotters > snowballs > shots fired > 5 people killed
12 April 1770 most of the Townshend duties repealed by British because of colonial protests BUT tax on tea was retained as symbolic
government authority of parliament
may 1773 Tea Act strengthened the tea tax in American colonies > British East India Company
had monopoly on tea trade
16 December Boston Tea Party colonists, disguised as Native Americans, boarded British ships in Boston
1773 Harbor and dumped chests of tea into the water in protest against the tax.
1774 Coercive Acts series of laws passed by British Parliament to punish colony of Massachusetts
Bay for Boston Tea Party
September 1st Continental Congress in Philadelphia
1774
1775 The Midnight ride of Paul Revere > took horse from Boston to Concord to warn colonial militias (= minutemen)
that Red Coats were approaching (to seize munitions stored in Concord +
arrest rebel leaders)
1775 Battle on Lexington Green colonists lost > beginning of American Revolutionary War (= political
development of founding the country)
May 1775 2nd Continental Congress
June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill American colonies fortified Breed’s Hill to challenge British control over
Boston > the British won
4 July 1776 Declaration of Independence “all men are created equal”
17 November Articles of Confederation served as US first Constitution
1777
2
, Culture & history US (Lou Van Goethem)
1 March 1781 Confederation formally announced
17 October British surrender
1781
1781-1789 The Critical Period the colonists had to find a country + divide power between 13 colonies > no
loyalty initially to the idea of American identity > they all wanted autonomy >
during this period a lot of congresses to divide power > Washington was built
to become state of federal power (George Washington = 1st President US) >
SO AGREEMENT: balance between state power and federal power
1786 Shays’ rebellion armed uprising in Western Massachusetts > highlighted weaknesses of
Articles of Confederation + influenced drafting of US Constitution
1787 Constitution Convention signed 17 September > read out loud on 4th July in Philadelphia
Class 4: political institutions
1781-1788 Articles of Confederation loose league, weak central government, one-house
legislature, no taxation from central government – only
3
, Culture & history US (Lou Van Goethem)
states
December 7, 1787 Constitutional Convention new Constitution?
5 states (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia,
Connecticut) ratify the Constitution
February 1788 US Constitution ratified by Massachusetts, Maryland and South Carolina agree to ratify the document with assurance that
amendments would immediately be proposed
June 21, 1788 US Constitution ratified by New Hampshire (9th state)
1788 The Federalist Papers 3 founding fathers: John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, James
Madison
see: quotes Alexander Hamilton
March 4, 1789 US Constitution in operation
April 30, 1789 George Washington inaugurated as America’s first president
June 1789 US Constitution ratified by Virginia
July 1789 US Constitution ratified by New York
1789 Bill of Rights 10 amendments that are considered unalterable
why? Constitution said nothing about how many parties
for example
- So this way they were sure that the civil rights
won’t change when the federal government
changes
February 2, 1790 US Supreme Court held 1st session – marking the date when the
government was fully operative
May 29, 1790 US Constitution ratified by Rhode Island (13th state)
4
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