Download important events and people in 20th and 21st century

IMPORTANT EVENTS AND PEOPLE IN AMERICAN HISTORY
THROUGH 19TH CENTURY
Question no.2, Topic 2
Discovering America
- Vikings, 1492 - Columbus, then Spain, France and Netherlands
- 1607 – Jamestown, VI – 1st English permanent settlement (Roanoke – settlers disappeared),
set up by the London Company, profit from tobacco (John Rolfe)
- 1620 – Mayflower – Plymouth, MA
- Puritans – predestination, City upon a hill – God’s perfect comm., set up Harvard (Boston)
- 1692 – Salem witch trials (MA)
- The Great Awakening – (1730-1760s) religious revival sparked by Jonathan Edwards and
George Whitefield in Penn., spread into all 13 colonies
- Old Lights (traditional - Methodists, Presbyterians) v. New Lights (more emotional,…)
Birth of a New Nation
- 1754-1763 – the French Indian War – fight for control over Ohio Valley, turned into a big
conflict, British get into debt and decide to enforce laws upon the colonies – no more
salutary neglect
- Proclamation of 1763 (illegal to move west from the Appalachian mountains), Townshend
Acts (general tax on all colonial imports,…) → Boston tea party
- 1774 - 1st Continental Congress – demanded to have the same rights as the British,
organized a boycott of British products
- 1775 – Lexington and Concord – the 1st battle of the American Revolution
- 1776 – Thomas Paine published Common Sense
- Declaration of Independence – July 4th 1776, written by T.Jefferson, issued by the 2nd
Continental congress, based mainly on the ideas of John Locke (all people are created
equal,…)
- 1781 – the battle of Yorktown – the last battle of the Revolution
- 1787 – Constitutional convention in Philadelphia, ratification of the Constitution, presided
by George Washington (1789 he became the President)
- 1791 – the Bill of Rights – first ten amendments of the Constitution, deal was made by
Madison
19th Century
- 1803 - Louisiana Purchase – land bought from Napoleon (just for about 15 million dollars)
- it doubled the size of the US, gave it full control over New Orleans and Mississippi
- Lewis and Clark expedition – all the way to Oregon
- 1817 – 1825 – The Era of Good Feelings (they won the War of 1812) – strong nationalism,
first time the US perceived itself to be one country
- 1830 – Indian Removal Act – under Jackson, he decided to move Indians west of
Mississippi, most of them ended up in Oklahoma
- 1838 – the Trail of Tears – Cherokee tribe (civilized Indians but they had gold on their
land) was moved out of Georgia to Oklahoma, they have walk all the way – ¼ of the tribe
died on the way
- Manifest Destiny – 1840s belief in the inevitable expansion of the US (it’s one of the
causes of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48)
- Important abolitionists: William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott,
Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1857 – Dred Scott v. Sandford – a lawsuit that resulted in the ruling that slaves were
property, and the court would not deprive slave owners of their property without due
process of law according to the 5th amendment
- the North and South became divided mainly over the issue of slavery (North wanted to
abolish it, South wanted to protect it)
- slaves raised tobacco, indigo, and cotton fields
The Civil War (1861-1865)
- starting with SC, 7 southern states seceded from the union (SC, MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX),
created the Confederate States of America, and elected Jefferson Davis as their president, 4
other states seceded later on (VA, AR, NC, TN)
- 1861 – Fort Sumter – 1st battle of the Civil War, the South fired first
- 1862 – Emancipation Proclamation – Lincoln announced that all slaves in Confederate
territory still in rebellion were freed, issued after the battle of Antietam where the Union
won; it inspired the northerners, kept the GB and France out of war, and changed the goal
of the war (from keeping the Union into ending slavery)
- 1865 – the 13th Amendment ended slavery
- the Reconstruction Era started
- African-Am. became sharecroppers, the federal govt. promised “40 acres and a mule”
The Labor Unions
- Late 1800s - industry was developing very fast, unions were established to protect the
workers
- Knights of Labor – for all workers, failed in the 90s
- The American Federation of Labor – for skilled white males only
- Problems with monopolies, created to limit competition
- Great Railroad Strike, Homestead Strike (against the Carnegie Steel), Pullman Strike
- Teddy Roosevelt created the Square Deal - balance of power between labor, consumer, and
safety interests against business, manufacturers and profit
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