Download Ch. 1-27 Study Guide (Timeline)

Chapter 1-27 Timeline
6,000 years ago
• The Shaping of North America recorded history began.
~5,000 B.C.
• Development of corn or “maize in Mexico was revolutionary in that people didn’t
have to be hunter-gatherers, they could settle down and be farmers.
~1,200 B.C.
• Corn arrived in the present day U.S.
~1000 A.D.
• The 1st Europeans to come to America were the Norse (Vikings from Norway). The
Vikings landed led by Erik the Red and Leif Erikson.
1492
• On October 12, the first sighting of land by Christopher Columbus , an Italian
navigator who was funded by the Spanish government, discovered the "New World”.
The first sighting of land.
1494
• Treaty of Tordesillas: Spain and Portugal were disputing the lands of the New
World, so the Spanish went to the Pope, and he divided the land of South America
for them.
1531
• Primary idea behind Calvinism; states that salvation or damnation are foreordained
and unalterable; first put forth by John Calvin in; was the core belief of the Puritans who
settled New England in the seventeenth century.
1606
• The Virginia Company received a charter from King James I to make a settlement
in the New World.
1607
• On May 24, About 100 English settlers founded Jamestown.
Winter of 1609 to 1610
• Known as the "starving time" to the colonists of Virginia, only sixty members of the
original four hundred colonists survived. The rest died of starvation because they
didn’t adapt to the New World and posses the skills to obtain the food in the New
World.
1609
• Henry Hudson claimed Delaware and New York Bay for the Netherlands.
1619
• In Virginia settlers created the House of Burgesses, a committee to work out local
issues.
1620
• Mayflower Compact was a contract made by the voyagers on the Mayflower
agreeing that they would form a simple government where majority ruled. Step one in
self-government in the Northern colonies.
1630's
• John Winthrop immigrated to the Mass. Bay Colony in the to become the first
governor and to led a religious experiment. He once said, "We shall be a city on a hill,"
highlighting the special nature of Massachusetts.
1630
• Massachusetts Bay Colony is one of the first settlements in New England;
established in and became a major Puritan colony. Became the state of
Massachusetts, originally where Boston is located. It was a major trading center, and
absorbed the Plymouth community.
1634
• Maryland was the second plantation colony and the fourth overall colony to be formed,
founded by Lord Baltimore.
1635
• Hartford, Connecticut was founded.
1636
• Massachusetts Puritans established Harvard College to train men to become
ministers.
1636 and 1638
• Anne Hutchinson, a religious dissenter whose ideas provoked an intense religious
and political crisis in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, challenged the principles of
Massachusetts’ religious and political system. Her ideas became known as the heresy
of antinomianism, a belief that Christians are not bound by moral law. She was latter
expelled, with her family and followers, and went and settled at Pocasset (now
Portsmouth, R.I.).
1639
• The Connecticut River colony settlers had an open meeting and they established a
constitution called the Fundamental Orders. It made a democratic government. It was
the first constitution in the colonies and was a beginning for the other states' charters
and constitutions.
1642–1652
• William Berkeley was a British colonial governor of Virginia. He showed that he had
favorites in his second term which led to the Bacon's rebellion in 1676 , which he
ruthlessly suppressed.
1649
• Act of Toleration was a legal document that allowed all Christian religions in
Maryland. Protestants intruded on the Catholics in around Maryland. The act
protected the Catholics from Protestant rage of sharing the land. Maryland became
the #1 colony to shelter Catholics in the New World.
1660's
• Navigation Laws- England restricted colonial trade, saying Americans couldn't trade
with other countries. The colonies were only allowed to trade with England.
1662
• A Puritan church policy; the Halfway Covenant allowed partial membership rights to
persons not yet converted into the Puritan church; It lessened the difference
between the "elect" members of the church from the regular members; Women soon
made up a larger portion of Puritan congregations.
1664
• Charles II granted the area of modern-day New York to his brother, the Duke of York,
and that year, British troops landed and defeated the Dutch, kicking them out, without
much violence.
1670
• Carolina, named after Charles II, and was formally created.
1676
• Nathaniel Bacon led a few thousand of these men in a rebellion against the hostile
conditions which is known as Bacon’s Rebellion.
1680
•
Though, many landowners were afraid of possibly mutinous white servants, by the
mid 1680s, for the first time, black slaves outnumbered white servants among the
plantation colonies’ new arrivals.
1681
• William Penn, an English Quaker, started the "Holy Experiment" of Pennsylvania;
persecuted because he was a Quaker; 1681 he got a grant to go over to the New
World; "first American advertising man"; freedom of worship.
1689–1691
• Leisler’s Rebellion was an ill-fated bloody insurgency in New York City took
place between landholders and merchants.
1690s
• A group of Salem girls claimed to have been bewitched by certain older women.
1691
• Plymouth merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Massachusetts got a new charter in which allowed all landowners to vote, as opposed
to the previous law of voting belonging only to the church members.
1699
• The Native Americans and Europeans would trade interacting with their culture
1700
• More and more slaves were imported, and in 1750, blacks accounted for nearly
half of the Virginian population.
1706
• Benjamin Franklin was born January 17, in Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin taught
himself math, history, science, English, and five other languages. He owned a
successful printing and publishing company in Philadelphia. He conducted studies of
electricity, invented bifocal glasses, the lightning rod, and the stove. He was an
important diplomat and statesman and eventually signed the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
1712
• North and South Carolina were officially separated.
• A slave revolt in New York City cost the lives of a dozen whites and 21 Blacks were
executed.
1730's and 1740's
• The Great Awakening was a religious revival occurring in the to motivate the souls of
colonial America.
1733
• Georgia was founded by a high-minded group of philanthropists, mainly James
Oglethorpe, named after King George II.
1739
• South Carolina blacks along the Stono River revolted and tried to march to Spanish
Florida, but failed.
• The War of Jenkins started between the Spanish and British.
1745
• America was betrayed by their British masters when New Englanders capture
Louisburg.
1754
• The British summoned the Congress to have the Iroquois tribes loyal to the British.
• George was the lieutenant that command Virginian militiamen.
• On July 4, George was surrounded by the French and surrender.
• At the Albany Congress, Benjamin Franklin wasn’t successful on to forge a plan for
intercolonial unity.Benjamin also promoted his political cartoon, the slogan saying
“Join or DIE.”
By 1759
• Agriculture was the leading industry. In Maryland and Virginia, tobacco was the
staple crop, and New York was exporting 80,000 barrels of flour a year.
1760's
• The Regulator Movement was a movement by western North Carolinians, mainly
Scots-Irish, that resented the way that the Eastern part of the state dominated political
affairs. They believed that the tax money was being unevenly distributed.
1763
• The British Proclamation forbid colonial settlement over the Applachain Mountains
led to a growing westward migration and outright defiance of British authority.
1764
• The Scots-Irish led the armed march of the Paxton Boys. The Paxtons led a march
on Philadelphia to protest the Quaker’ peaceful treatment of the Indians. They later
started the North Carolina Regulator movement in the hills and mountains of the
colony, aimed against domination by eastern powers in the colony.
1765-1766
• The Stamp Act and the Sugar Act was hated by the courts.
1773
• The Molasses Act was a British law passed in 1773 to change a trade pattern in the
American colonies by taxing molasses imported into colonies not ruled by Britain. It
was part of Britain’s policy of mercantilism. Americans responded to this attempt to
damage their international trade through bribery and smuggling.
• In April, British troops marched to Lexington and Concord to seize militia
gunpowder and capture Samual Adams and John Hancock.
• In December 16, Bostonians disguised themselves as Indians and dump all the tea
from the British to the Atlantic Ocean.
1774
• What lead to the American Revolution was because of the Boston Tea party of
1774.
• In the First Continental Congress of 1774, John Adams argued against a proposal
that American home rule under British authority.
• The Articles of Confederation led to some problems when they made treaties and
postal service which then led to a boycott Association of 1744.
1775
• The population numbered 2.5 million people.
• Great Britain ruled 32 colonies in North America. Only 13 of them revolted.
• During the invasion of Canada in October, American military offensive succeeded
in adding Canada as the 14th colony in rebellion.
1775–1776
• The war at Bunker Hill lasted for 14 months until April 1775- July 1776 where
British colonists and British were fighting.
1776
• Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson.
1778
• Washington was able to stall the British army in New York City.
• The France-Alliance was Americans helping with French protect their land from the
British.
1785
• The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 was western territories that would proceed
through becoming equal states of the Union.
1786
• Daniel Shay and his followers wanted to help poor western farmers and debtors.
1789
• Ever since the constitution was created in 1789, population increased in
Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore.
1790–1794
• Washington and Hamilton didn’t want to engage in economic or military relations
with Britain.
1791
• Another constitution was created in 1791 which is called the Bill of Rights have
answered American principles dealing with rights.
• The Bank of the United States was created by the congress.
1793
• George Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation in 1793 that the fundamental basis
of American policy would be isolationism and realism.
• Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin that increases and revolutionizes the economy of
the South.
1798
• The Sedition Act of 1798 declared that anyone who criticized the President or other
federal officials could be fined or imprisoned.
1800
• The Federalists had a host of enemies stemming from the Alien and Sedition Acts.
• Thomas Jefferson won the election
• The “Revolution of 1800” (power changes to republicans from federalist).
• A slave named Gabriel from Richmond ,VA lead revolt, but was foiled resulting in
its leaders being hanged.
1801
• On March 4, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated president in Washington, D.C.
• The Judiciary Act of 1801 – Was a law passed by the Federalist Congress to make
President adams to stay up till midnight signing laws.
1802
• Jefferson enacted a new naturalization law in April 14, that directed the clerk of the
court to record the entry of all aliens into the United States. The Act f 1802
reaffirmed that every State and Territorial court was considered a district court
within the meaning of the laws pertaining to naturalization, and that any
persons naturalized in such courts were accorded the same rights and
privileges as if they had been naturalized in a district or circuit court of the
United States.
• The Spaniards at New Orleans withdrew the right of deposit guaranteed by
the Pinckney Treaty of 1795.
1803
• Marbury vs. Madison- Secretary of State, James Madison held up one of John
Adams' "Midnight Judges" appointments. The appointment was for a Justice of the
Peace position for William Marbury. Marbury sued. It was the first time the Supreme
Court declared something "unconstitutional", and established the concept of judicial
review in the U.S.
• Thomas Jefferson purchased tons of land from napoleon for 15 million. The
Louisiana purchase was permanent on April 30.
1804
• Jefferson tried to impeach Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase.
• Jefferson sent Louis and Clark to explore the great unknown of Louisiana.
1805
• Treaty of Peace from Tripoli was the first treaty concluded between the
United States of America and Tripoli, signed at Tripoli on November 4, 1796
and at Algiers (for a third-party witness) on January 3, 1797. It was
submitted to the Senate by President John Adams, receiving ratification
unanimously from the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797 and signed by Adams,
taking effect as the law of the land on June 10, 1797. The Treaty was
renegotiated in 1805 after the First Barbary War.
1806
• London issued the Orders in Council.These forbade French trade with the United
Kingdom, its allies, or neutrals, and instructed the Royal Navy to blockade French
and allied ports.
1807
• The Embargo Act passed by Congress restricting American ships from engaging in
foreign trade between the years of 1807 and 1812.
• Robert Fulton invented the first steamboat.
1809
• Congress removed the Embargo Act in March 1, and replaced it with the NonIntercourse Act, that regulated commerce between Native Americans and nonIndians.
• James Madison swore of presidency on March 4.
1810
• Macon’s Bill Noumber 2 became a law on May 1, 1810, and was intended to
motivate Britain and France to stop seizing American vessels during the Napoleonic
Wars.
• August, Napolean removed French commercial restrictions.
• Fletcher vs. Peck- In 1795, the Georgia state legislature passed a land grant
awarding territory to four companies. The following year, however, the legislature
voided the law and declared all rights and claims under it to be invalid. In 1800, John
Peck acquired land that was part of the original legislative grant. He then sold the
land to Robert Fletcher three years later, claiming that past sales of the land had
been legitimate. Fletcher argued that since the original sale of the land had been
declared invalid, Peck had no legal right to sell the land and thus committed a
breach of contract.
1811
• November 7, American general William Henry Harrison took over
headquarters at Tippecanoe.
1812
• June, London ordered the Orders in Council to be suspended.
• War of 1812- Old England and New England engaged in war.
1813
• Oliver Hazard led American troops to capture british fleet.
1814
• March 27, Indian rebellion was destroyed making the east area safe for
settlement.
• British troops and American troops fought along Lake Champaign route.
• September 11, Captain Thomas MacDonough defeated British troops.
•In August British troops entered Washngton D.C. and destroyed plenty of
buildings.
1816
• The Hartford Convention, a secret convention was held in Hartford,
Connecticut due to the Federalist unsatisfactory, proved to be the death of
the Federalist Party, as their last presidential nomination was trounced by
James Monroe in 1816.
• Tariff of 1816- Created because Britain started cutting prices low for
American supplies.
1817
• Congress distrubted $1.5 million to the states for internal improvement.
• The American Colonization Society was founded that helped blacks return to
Africa.
1818
• Treaty of 1818- Negotiation between Monroe admin and England.
1819
• In 1819, American was falling apart financially.
• The Florida Purchase Treaty of 1819.
• McCulloch vs. Maryland- –Involved the state of Maryland & their right to tax
the federal bank.
• Dartmouth College vs. Woodward- In 1816, the New Hampshire legislature
attempted to change Dartmouth College-- a privately funded institution--into
a state university. The legislature changed the school's corporate charter by
transferring the control of trustee appointments to the governor. In an
attempt to regain authority over the resources of Dartmouth College, the old
trustees filed suit against William H. Woodward, who sided with the new
appointees.
1820
• Land Act of 1820- is a United States federal law that eliminated the
purchase of public land in the United States on credit. It also reduced the
minimum size of the tract from 160 to 80 acres.
1821
• Cohens vs. Virginia- The Cohens were a Virginia family accused of selling
lottery tickets illegally which was brought to the supreme court.
1822
• Republic of Liberia was founded that helped blacks return to West Africa.
• A free black named Denmark Vesey led a revolt, but was betrayed by informers
and was hanged.
1823
• Monroe Doctrine- A policy of the United States introduced on December 2, stated
that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in
the Americas would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention. The
Monroe Doctrine asserted that the Western Hemisphere was not to be further
colonized by European countries but that the United States would neither interfere
with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European
countries. It proved to be the most famous of the long-lived offspring of that nationalism.
1824
• Russo-American Treaty gave Russian claims on the Pacific Northwest
coast of North America south of parallel 54°40′ north over what Americans
know as the Oregon Country to the United States.
• Henry Clay created the American System.
• Gibbons vs. Ogden- A New York state law gave two individuals the
exclusive right to operate steamboats on waters within state jurisdiction.
Laws like this one were duplicated elsewhere which led to friction as some
states would require foreign (out-of-state) boats to pay substantial fees for
navigation privileges. In this case a steamboat owner who did business
between New York and New Jersey challenged the monopoly that New
York had granted, which forced him to obtain a special operating permit
from the state to navigate on its waters.
• The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824- The election of 1824 involved three major
figures in American history, and was decided in the House of
Representatives. One man won, one helped him win, and one stormed out
of Washington denouncing the entire affair as “the corrupt bargain.”
• Universal white manhood suffrage (every white men can vote).
• Congress had increased the general tariff from 23% to 37%.
1825
• Robert Owen founded New Harmony, IN.
1826
• The American Temperance Society was formed at Boston. They were
members who had taken a pledge to abstain from drinking distilled
beverages.
1828
• Tariff of 1828- was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United
States on May 19, 1828 designed to protect industry in the northern United
States.
• John C. Calhoun wrote “The South Carolina Exposition” in 1828, talking
about the tariff problems.
• Congress proclaimed the Cherokee Tribal council to be illegal.
• The first railroad in U.S. was introduced
• Free public education, triumphed in 1828 along with the voting power
in the Jackson election - there were largely ill-taught and ill-trained
teachers.
1829
• The Bank War- controversy over the Second Bank of the United States
and the attempts to destroy it by then-president Andrew Jackson.
• David Walker writes Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.
1830
• U.S. population was around 13 million.
• Mexico created freed slave causing controversy.
• Indian removal Act was passed.
• Joseph Smith claimed to have found golden tablets in NY with the Book of
Mormon inscribed creating the mormon church.
1831
• Nat Turner, a black preacher, he led a revolt that resulted in the murder of 60
Virginians.
• On January 1, William Lloyd Garrison issues the first antislavery newspaper, The
Liberator.
1832
• Tariff of 1832 was a protectionist tariff in the United States.
• The nullies had two-thirds over unionist. Declared the tariff of 1832 to be
voided in the South Carolina boundaries.
• Sauk and Fox tribe revolted but failed.
1833
• Stephen Austin went to Mexico city to dissolve conflict but was jailed for 8
months.
1835
• Santa Anna raised army to smother the Texans.
1836
• Wheat crops failed with two banks collapsing lead to an almost U.S. panic.
• Texans declared their independence.
1837
• Rebellion in Canada; America may have went to war.
• “Wildcat Banks” created the Panic of 1837.
• An American ship, the Caroline, was attacked on American waters by a
British ship.
1838
• Fredrick Douglas a black abolitionist escapes slavery.
1839
• Theodore Dwight Weld writes a propaganda pamphlet called American Slavery as
It Is.
1839–1840
• Texas makes treaties with France, Holland, and Belgium.
1840
• Independent treasury was passed.
• Irish potato famine led to many to flee to the U.S.
• Catholic became a major faith due to the immigrants.
• Commonwealth vs. Hunt- In 1839, the Boston Journeymen Bootmakers' Society
called a strike against all employers who hired non-union members. The leaders of
the society, including one Mr. Hunt, were arrested and charged with conspiracy. Mr.
Hunt's defense was that the union's attempted organization and strike was in fact
lawful.
• Abolitionists establish the Liberty Party.
1841
• Brook Farm; Massachusetts experiment where 20 intellectuals committed to
Transcendentalism.
• William Henry Harrison becomes president on March 4.
• President Harrison dies on April 4.
• John Tyler takes his oath in office on April 6.
1843
• Dorothea Dix fought for reform of the mentally insane in her classic petition.
1844
• Millerites (Adventists) – predicted Christ to return to earth on Oct 22, 1844.
When this prophesy failed to materialize, the movement lost a lot of followers.
• Henry Clay and James K. Polk was nominated for presidency.
• On July 3, the U.S. and China signs its first treaty with the Treaty of
Wanghia.
1845
• Douglass writes his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
• Texas was invited to become the 28th state in the U.S.
• James K. Polk becomes President on March 4.
1846
• Elias Howe & Isaac made the first sewing machine.
• Polk lowers tariffs.
• On January 13 Polk sends 4000 men under General Zachery Tyler to go
and settle a showdown with Mexicans.
• Polk asks Congress to declare war on the Mexicans on the basis of
unpaid claims (California) and Slidell’s Rejection.
• On April 25 Mexican troops attack General Taylor’s command.
1848
• Germans came to America due to crop failure and war of 1848
• The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention.
• Abolitionists establish the Free Soil Party.
• On February 2 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed with the
agreement of the US paying 15 mil for Oregon, California, and Texas.
• Gold was discovered in California.
1849
• Zachery Taylor becomes president on March 4.
1850
• The U.S. totaled for 1733 families owning at least 100 slaves.
•The south was losing about 1000 slaves a year.
• Compromise of 1850- Was an intricate package of five bills, passed in September
1850, defusing a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and
the free states of the North.
• John C. Calhoun dies March 31st.
• The Fugitive Slave Law “Bloodhound Bill” was strengthened.
• Harriet Tubman smuggles about 300 slaves to the north and Canada.
1851
• Neal S. Dow becomes the “Father of Prohibition “sponsored Maine Law of 1851
which prohibited making and sale of liquor.
1852
• Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin , the book exposes the true
evils of slavery.
1853
• Franklin Pierce becomes president on March 4.
1854
• Senator Stephen A. Douglass proposes the Kansas Nebraska Act that allows
slavery in these territories.
1856
•Civil war erupts in Kansas over slavery and proslavery.
• In May, John Brown and a band of followers kill 5 proslavery citizens.
• On May 22, Congressman Preston S. Brooks beats Senator Charles Summer with
a cane.
1857
• Hinton R. Helper publishes The Impending Crisis of the South a book that tries to
find that the ones that were truly suffering were the poor non slave owning whites.
• Kansas has enough citizens for statehood.
• Proslavery forces in Kansas drafted the Lecompton Constitution that states that the
people must vote for or against slavery .
• March 4, James Buchanan becomes president
• March 6, The Supreme Court handled the Dread Scott Decision.
• The Financial Crash of 1857 caused the overstimulation of growing grain,
speculation of land, and railroads caused economic problems.
• Tariff of 1857 reduces 20% on goods.
1858
• Cyrus Field created the first telegraph cable between U.S. and Europe.
• August–October- Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass met in seven
debates.
1860
• The original 13 states now had become 33 states.
• Pony Express became popular. It was a mailing service between 1860-1861. Ran
through St. Joeseph, Missouri, to Sacrementa, California.
• Only 250,000 blacks were free because they either bought out their freedom or
were emancipated but were considered as just a third race.
• Blacks numbered 4 million in the south.
1861
• March 4, Abraham Lincoln becomes president.
• April 12, the Union makes it way to Fort Sumter.
• April 15, Lincoln calls on 75000 men and volunteers.
• Trent Affair with the union removing 2 confederates bound for Europe.
• February 15, Jefferson Davis becomes President of the Confederate States of
America.
• Congress passes the Morrill Tariff Act granted generous grants of public lands to
states for support of education.
Civil War
• July 21, the First Battle of Bull Run; a Confederate Win.
1862
Civil War
• March- The Second Battle of Bull Run; Confederates win (Pope vs. Lee).
• April- Battle of Shiloh; Confederates claim victory (Grant vs. Johnston).
• August- Battle of Merrimack and Monitor; a naval standstill.
• Sept 17, – Battle of Antietam; due to knowledge of battle plans, North claims a victory
(McLellan vs. Lee).
• N.P. Gordon was the only slave trader to ever be executed for violating the
importation of blacks to America. He was executed in NY.
• The Alabama escapes to the Portuguese Azores and took weapons and a crew
from 2 British ships.
• Homestead Act allows free land.
1863
• Northern Armies were in dire need of volunteers with each state having to meet a
certain quota according to population.
• Congress passes a federal conception law that allows rich boys to pay someone to
take their place in the war.
• Emancipation Proclamation- Abraham Lincoln emancipates the slaves
Civil War
• May- Battle of Vicksburg; North Wins (Grant vs. Pemberton).
• July- Battle of Gettysburg; North/Union wins (Mead vs. Lee).
1864
• Homestead Act- Acquisition of up to160 acres of land to farmers for a nominal fee
of $30. Provisionary period of 5 years residence and proof of improvements.
• Presidential Elections, Lincoln triumphs over McLellan.
• Wade-Davis Bill is Vetoed. Lincoln vetoes the bill as it proclaims Southern
Reconstruction as a legislative (meaning Senate and House) and not executive
(Presidential) matter.
1865
• Surrender at Appomattox. General Lee surrenders at Appomattox, officially ending the
Civil War.
• Assassination of Lincoln.
• Freedmen’s Bureau Established (lasts until 1872)- an agency set up to aid
emancipated blacks with food, home, and employment
• Black Codes- Southern government restrictions on emancipated slaves, grows into
Jim Crow Laws.
1866
• Fourteenth Ammendment Passes- (Civil Rights Bill) full citizenship to former
slaves.
1867
• Reconstruction Act- Republicans gain military control over the South.
• Tenure of Office Act prevents president from removing civil officers without Senate
approval.
• USA acquires Alaska from Russia by purchase.
1868
• Johnson is impeached and acquitted.
• Grant wins presidential elections.
1869
• May 10- Transcontinental Railroad joins in Utah. Railroads by Union Pacific and
Central Pacific meet, revolutionizing transport and economics of the United States.
1870
• Fifteenth Ammendment Ratified. Prevents restrictions on voting based on race,
color, or history as slave. Does not ensure women’s suffrage.
1871
• Force Acts- Bills set to protect voting, especially for Black Americans
Southerners protest against Force Acts with Jim Crow Laws.
1872
• George Catlin wanted national parks and was achieved in 1872 with
Yellowstone.
•Grant wins second term.
1875
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed equal accommodations in public areas and
prohibited discrimination. Ruled unconstitutional in 1883.
• Resumption Act- Paper money could be redeemed for gold value.
1876
• Hayes-Tilden Standoff- The Presidential elections between Hayes and Tilden
comes to a stand-off. No solution made until the next year.
• Bell invents the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell develops technology that
connects the United States.
• Battle of Little Bighorn- General Custer were defeated by Native Americans. An
example of the clash between the federal government and the Native Americans.
• Colorado becomes State
1877
• Compromise of 1877 was disputed states of South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida
submitted pairs of returns. In February 1877, Democrats accepted Hayes as
president. In return for withdrawal of federal troops from remaining states.
• End of Reconstruction Era.
1879
• Edison invents electric light. The invention of the electric light bulb, among others,
prompts the expansion of cities.
1880
• Garfield wins elections.
1881
• Garfield is assassinated and Arthur assumes presidency
1882
• Chinese Exclusion Act (immigration Restriction) excluded the Chinese from
receiving citizenship.
1883
• Pendleton Act- As a reaction to Garfield’s assassination, regulation of (who
becomes) civil servants.
1884
• Cleveland wins elections.
• Indian Sun Dance is outlawed. Coincides with an increase of Sun Dance among
Native American tribes causes a backlash.
1886
• May 4- Haymarket Square Bombing- A worker’s strike escalates when a dynamite
is thrown into the crowd.
• Wabash Case- Individual states do not possess jurisdiction over interstate railroads
1887
•Interstate Commerce ActSet up the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Prohibited rebates, pricier short hauls, and pools.
Required railroads to openly publish rates.
• Hatch Act grants federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment
stations in connection with the land-grant colleges
• Dawes Severalty Act of 1887- Dissolved legal status of many tribes and eliminated
tribal ownership of lands. Government designated leaders. There was probationary
period of 25 years before attainment of citizenship (if the Native Americans followed
the rules).
1888
• Harrison wins elections
1889
• Reed assumes Speaker of the House.
• North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming achieve
statehood.
1890
• Billion-Dollar Congress- Under the leadership of Reed, Congress passes the
billion-dollar mark.
• McKinley Tariff Act of 1890- Tariffs rise up to 48.4% on dutiable goods.
• Sherman Silver Purchase Act- Government buys silver at higher prices and
repealed to protect gold reserves.
• Sherman Anti-Trust Act- Prohibits trade-restricting contracts, combinations, and
conspiracies.
• Battle of Wounded Knee- The Sioux and the federal forces led by Gen Forsyth
meet, killing many civilian Sioux.
1892
• Cleveland wins second term.
1894
• Wilson-Gorman Tariff lowers tariff rates.
1895
• JP Morgan lends $65million to government. The national reserve drops to a low
that loans are needed.
1896
• Utah becomes a state.
• Plessy v. Ferguson- Courts ruled that segregation was legal
“separate but equal”.
• McKinley wins elections.
1897
• Dingley Tariff Bill of 1897- Higher tariff rates to raise revenue for National Treasury.
Stronger than the Democratic Wilson-Gorman Act of 1894.
1898
• February 18- USS Maine exploded in Havana. Spain became a scapegoat for the
explosion, despite not being involved with the ship.
• Spanish-American War- America wins and gains control of Guam, the Philippines
and Puerto Rico.
• Teller Agreement- Cuba is declared free from Spain.
• Hawaii is Annexed.
1899
•Philippine Islands Acquired.
1900
• Gold Standard Act of 1900. Paper money could be traded in for gold.
• McKinley wins election.
1901
•Platt Agreement outlines what is the USA’s involvement in Cuban internal affairs.
• McKinley is Assassinated, Roosevelt Becomes President.
• Hay-Pauncefote Treaty- Panama remains neutral while allowing US to build the
Panama Canal under its power.
1907
• Oklahoma becomes a state.
1908
• Root-Takahira Agreement- A mutual agreement between Japan and the USA to
respect each other’s Pacific territories.
Important People and Groups (1860’s onwards)
President Abraham Lincoln
Republican candidate for 1860
Emancipation Proclamation
Gettysburg Address
President Andrew Johnson
Assumed presidency after Lincoln’s assassination
Impeached from office
President Ulysses S. Grant
Republican candidate for 1868 and 1872 elections
Served as a general in the Civil War
Maintained presidency for two terms
President Rutherford Hayes
Republican candidate for 1876 elections
“The Great Unknown” from Ohio
President James A. Garfield
Republican candidate for 1880 elections, from Ohio
Won against Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock
Employed Blaine for Secretary of State and Conkling as senator
Assassinated in 1881 (died in Sept 19, 1881) by Charles J. Guiteau
President Chester A. Arthur
Vice president of Garfield, succeeded him as president after assassination
Record of cronyism and accepting bribes
President Grover Cleveland
Democratic candidate of 1884, 1888 and 1892
Governor of New York
He had an illegitimate son that he provided for
Won elections due to Republican clergyman's slam on Irish Americans ("Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion")
Supported laissez-faire and lowered tariffs
Vetoed sending seeds to Texas, "the government should not support the people"
Vetoed several hundred pension bills
Reelected in 1892
Repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
President Benjamin Harrison
Son of William Henry "Tippecanoe" Harrison
Republican candidate for 1888 election
Gained support of industrialists who opposed the Pendleton Act
President William McKinley
Republican candidate for 1896 elections
Opposed big business
Waged the Spanish-American War
Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines annexed
Assassinated in Buffalo, NY
President Theodore Roosevelt
Democratic candidate for 1900 elections
Led US to build Panama Canal
Negotiated peace for Russo-Japanese War
“Boss” Tweed
Bribery, graft, corruption, and fraudulent elections
Took around $200 million from New York City
New York Times publishes damning evidence against Tweed
Prosecuted by Samuel J. Tilden
Thomas B. Reed
Republican Speaker of the House from Maine
His intimidating leadership earned his nickname "Czar Reed"
Led the Billion-Dollar Congress
People's Party/Populists
Rooted in Farmer's Alliance
Inflation through silver coinage at the rate of 16 silver ounces per one gold ounce
Graduated income tax
Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and telephone
Direct election of senators, one-term presidency limit
Initiative and referendum, shorter workdays, and immigration restrictions
Steel King Andrew Carnegie
Vertical integration, where one company controlled all phases of manufacturing
Owned ¼ of steel and earned $40million a year by 1900; a social darwinist
Oil Baron John D. Rockafeller (Standard Oil Company, 1870 onwards)
Horizontal integration, gained monopoly by allying with competitors
Religious yet unethical business-wise, attributed his success as God’s graces
Controlled 95% of all American oil refineries in 1877
Social Darwinist
Kept prices on oil low due to buying out competitions (thus limiting the competition)
Banker’s Banker J. Pierpont Morgan
Wall Street
Bought Carnegie’s steel business at $400million in 1901
enlarged the company in 1901 into the United States Steel Corporation
National Labor Union
1866-1872
600,000 members of both skilled and unskilled laborers
excluded Chinese and worked little for women and Blacks
prompted the formation of the Colored National Labor Union
Won the eight-hour workday for government workers
Knights of Labor
Supported the “producers”, both skilled and unskilled, male and female, white and black
Chinese not admitted
Protested for eight-hour workdays
Wabash strike in 1885 led to a massive increase in members
Failed strikes increased after being wrongfully associated w/ Haymarket Square Bombing
Gradually lost members and fused with other union groups by the 1890s
American Federation of Labor
Founded in 1886 by Jewish, London-born New Yorker Samuel Gompers
An association of different unions that did little for unskilled workers, women, and blacks
Against socialism and shunned politics
Sought better wages, hours, and working conditions
Reached for all-union labor through boycotts and walkouts