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Common Sense
Written by Thomas Paine that argued for the colonies to become independent states and break political ties with the British monarchy. -
Lexington and Concord
Was the first military engagement of the American Revolution -
Second Continental Congress
Convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Battle at Bunker Hill
A British force attacked the colonists' position and managed to take the hill, suffering over a thousand casualties. Americans claimed a victory of sorts, having succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the attacking British army. -
Olive Branch Petition
Sent to King George III, in which delegates pledged their loyalty and asked the king to intercede with Parliament to secure peace and the protection of colonial rights. -
Declaration of Independence
Idea from Richard Henry Lee, five delegates formed a committee to write a statement in support of Lee's resolution. The declaration listed specific grievances against George III's government and also expressed the basic principles that justified revolution. -
Battle of Saratoga
British forces under General John Burgoyne had marched from Canada in an ambitious effort to link up with other foces marching from the west and south. Their objective was to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies (or states). But Burgoyne's troops were attacked at Saratoga by troops commanded by American generals Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. The British army was forced to surrender. -
Articles of Confederation
Modified Dickinson's plan to protect the powers of the individual states. -
Battle of Yorktown
Last major battle of the Revolutionary War, it was strongly supportd by French naval and military forces, Washington's army forced the surrender of a large British army commanded by General Charles Cornwallis. -
Treaty of Paris 1783
The peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War. Provided for the following, 1, Britain would recognize the existence of the United States as an independent nation. 2. The Mississippi River would be the western boundary of that nation. 3. Americans would have fishing rights off the coast of Canada. 4. Americans would pay debts owed to British merchants and honor Loyalist claims for property confiscated during the war. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays’ Rebellion was an armed rebellion led by Daniel Shays in central to western Massachusetts in 1786. Most of the rebels were poor farmers angered by debts and taxes and fear of being jailed by them. -
Shays' Rebellion
Captain Daniel Shays, a Massachusetts farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, led other farmers in an uprising against high state taxes, imprisonment for debt, and lack of paper money. The rebel farmers stopped the collection of taxes and forced the closing of debtors' courts. -
Constitutional Convention
Addressed problems in governing the United States of America, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. -
Northwest Ordinance 1787
For the large territory lying between the Great Lakes and Ohio River, the congress passed an ordinance that set the rules for creating new states. The Northwest Ordinance granted limited self-government to the developing territoy and prohibited slavery in the region. -
Judiciary Act 1789
An Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the United States. -
Second Great Awakening
A reprise of the Great Awakening of the early 18th century, was marked by an emphasis on personal piety over schooling and theology. It arose in several places and in several active forms. In northern New England, social activism took precedence; in western New York, the movement encouraged the growth of new denominations. In the Appalachian region of Tennessee and Kentucky, the revival energized Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. -
Chisholm v. Georgia
Two citizens of South Carolina brought suit against Georgia to recover British-owned property which had been confiscated by Georgia during the Revolutionary War. State officials refused to appear in court and vigorously denied the Court's jurisdiction. The Court's decision provoked widespread criticism, and two days later the Eleventh Amendment was proposed in Congress. It provided that federal judicial power was not to extend to suits against one of the states commenced by citizens of another s -
Whiskey Rebellion
Citizen revolt against a 1791 tax on alcohol, The tax on whiskey was bitterly and fiercely opposed by the settlers on the frontier from the day it was passed. Western farmers considered it to be both unfair and discriminatory -
XYZ Affair
President Adams sent 3 Americans to try and reach an agreement with France. The French government refused to meet the Americans, and demanded three apologies for a series of events. Each apology was known as X, Y, or Z according to President Adams. Americans saw this as an insult and wanted to go to war with France. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
It extended the time it took to become a citizen from 5 to 14 years, the President could deport anyone he deemed dangerous to this country, the President can deport anyone from a country the US was at war with at the time, made it a crime to speak out against the US. -
Revolution of 1800
The Revolution of 1800 was so named by the winner of the 1800 election, Thomas Jefferson. He called this election a revolution because his party, the Republicans, peacefully and orderly received the power with nothing but acceptance by the federalists. -
Marbury v. Madison
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. The landmark decision helped define the boundary between the constitutionally separate executive and judicial branches of the American form of government. -
Louisiana Purchase
Happened in 1803, when the United States paid approximately $15 million dollars for over 800,000 square miles of land, and President Thomas Jefferson headed this. Helped us explore new land like the Mississippi river and hoped to find a Northwest passage. (lewis and clark) -
Embargo Act 1807
This happened because American merchantmen and their cargo were seized as contraband of war by the belligerent European navies. It was enacted by the United States Congress against Great Britain and France. -
Nonintercourse Act 1809
his replaced the Embargo Act of 1807, during the last of President Jefferson's presidency. This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. The intent was to damage the economies of the United Kingdom and France, but was a ineffective. -
Fletcher v. Peck
The first case in (1810) which the Supreme Court ruled a state law unconstitutional, the decision also helped create a growing precedent for the sanctity of legal contracts, and hinted that Native Americans did not hold title to their own lands. -
Macon’s Bill No. 2 1810
Became a law in 1810 and was intended to motivate Britain and France to stop seizing American vessels during the Napoleonic Wars.The law lifted all embargoes with Britain and France for a short period of time, also took place during Madison's presidency. -
War of 1812
In 1812, the U.S. declared war on Britain. Americans wanted to stop impressment. They also wanted Britain to stop arming the Indians. In 1814, the British navy fired at Fort McHenry. Francis Scott Key watched the battle. He saw the American flag flying above the fort and wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” This became the national anthem. Later that year, the U.S. and Britain signed a peace treaty. The Treaty of Ghent did not give either country any new land. Unaware of the treaty, British forces -
Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve, 1814, ended the War of 1812 and established a new foreign policy dynamic between the United States and Great Britain. -
Election of 1816
8th quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, November 1 to Wednesday, December 4, 1816. It came at the end of the two-term presidency of Democratic-Republican James Madison. With the Federalist Party in collapse, Madison's Secretary of State, James Monroe, had an advantage in winning the presidency against very weak opposition. Monroe won the electoral college by the wide margin of 183 to 34. -
Second Bank of United States
Served as the nation's federally authorized central bank during its 20-year charter from February 1817 to January 1836. -
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
In 1819, 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. -
McColluch v. Maryland
In 1819, Congress chartered The Second Bank of the United States. In 1818, the state of Maryland passed legislation to impose taxes on the bank. James W. McCulloch, the cashier of the Baltimore branch of the bank, refused to pay the tax. -
Johnson v. McIntosh
Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that held that private citizens could not purchase lands from the Native Americans. As the facts were recited by Chief Justice John Marshall the successor in interest to a private purchase from the Piankeshaw attempted to maintain an action of ejectment against the holder of a federal land patent. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
Ogden had a monopoly to operate steamboats in a certain area in New York and New Jersey. Gibbons operated steamboats there as well, so Ogden sought injunctive relief against Gibbons. -
Election of 1824
John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, after the election was decided by the House of Representatives. The previous years had seen a one-party government in the United States, as the Federalist Party had dissolved, leaving only the Democratic-Republican Party as a national political entity. In this election, the Democratic-Republican Party splintered as four separate candidates sought the presidency. This process did not yet lead to formal party organization, but later, th -
Election of 1828
It featured a rematch between John Quincy Adams, now incumbent President, and Andrew Jackson, the runner-up in the 1824 election. With no other major candidates, Jackson and his chief ally Martin Van Buren consolidated their bases in the South and New York and easily defeated Adams. The Democratic Party merged its strength from the existing supporters of Jackson and their coalition with the supporters of Crawford (the "Old Republicans") and Vice-President Calhoun. Jackson was the first President -
Indian Removal Act 1830
The act authorized him to negotiate with the Indians in the Southern United States for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their homelands. -
Nullification Crisis 1832
This ordinance declared by the power of the State that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the sovereign boundaries of South Carolina. -
Texas Independence
When Santa Anna made himself dictator of Mexico and tried to enforce his laws on Texas, a group of American settlers led by Sam Houston revolted and declared Texas to be an independent republic. -
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Split Main and British Canada and settled the boundary of the Minnesota territoy. -
Election of 1844
Democrat James Knox Polk defeat Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposed -
Mexican-American War
Caused by the United States wanted to expand and the annexation of Texas -
Wilmot Proviso
Proposed by a Pennsylvania Congressman, David Wimot, proposed that an appropriations bill be amended to forbid slavery in any of the new territories acquired from Mexico. Passed the House twice but was defeated in the Senate. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848
Negotiated in Mexico by American diplomat Nicholas Trist provided for the following, 1. Mexico would recognize the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas. 2. The United States would take possession of the former Mexican provinces of California and New Mexico, the Mexican Cession. For these territories, the United States would pay $15 million and assume the claims of American citizens against Mexico. -
Gadsden Purchase
Mexico agreed to sell thousands of acres of semidesert land to the United States for $10 million. -
Ostend Manifesto
Three American diplomats were secretly dispatched to Cuba to secretly negotiate to buy Cuba from Spain. The document was leaked and caused many antislavery members of Congress to become angry -
Panic of 1857
Serious drop in prices, especially for midwestern farmers, and increased unemployment in nothern cities. -
Alaska Purchase
Due to Seward's lobbying and also in appreciation of Russian support during the Civil War, Congress agreed to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. -
Dawes Act
Adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians. Dawes Act was amended in 1891 and again in 1906 by the Burke Act. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it. A scuffle over Black Coyote's rifle escalated and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th Cavalry's opening fire indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their own fellow troopers. -
U.S.S. Maine
The U.S. battleship, Maine, was at anchor in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, when it suddenly exploded, killing 260 Americans on board. -
Teller Amendment
Declared the United States had no intention of taking political control of Cuba and that once peace was restored to the island, the Cuban people would control their own government. -
Spanish-American War
Demands by Cuban patriots for independence from Spanish rule made U.S. intervention in Cuba a paramount issue in the relations between the United States and Spain -
Open Door Policy
All nations would have equal trading privileges in China -
Boxer Rebellion
A secret society of Chinese nationalist, Boxers, attacked foreign settlements and murdered dozens of Christian missionaries. -
Election of 1900
William McKinley reelected with Theodore Roosvelt as vice president. -
Platt Amendment
Required Cuba to agree to, 1. Never to sign a treaty with a foreign power that impaired its independence. 2. Never to build up an excessive public debt. 3. To permit the United States to intervene in Cuba's affairs to preserve its independence and maintain law and order. 4. To allow the United States to maintain naval bases in Cuba, including one at Guantanamo Bay. -
Panama Canal
Panama grants the U.S. control over the Panama Canal zone for $10 million. -
Roosevelt Corollary
An addition to the Monroe Doctrine, stated that no European countries were allowed to intervene in Latin American affairs. -
Gentlemen’s Agreement
The Japanese government secretly agreed to restrict the emigration of Japanese workers to the United States in return for Roosevelt persuading California to repeal its discriminatory laws. -
Election of 1908
Theodore Roosevelt had announced his intention not to seek a third term. He preferred to be succeeded by his secretary of war, William Howard Taft. -
Founding of the NAACP
African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination”. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people. -
Mexican Civil War (Revolution)
Ended dictatorship in Mexico and established a constitutional republic. -
Election of 1912
President William Taft was defeated by Democrat Woodrow Wilson -
Jones Act
- Granted full territorial status to that country 2. Guaranteed a bill of rights and universal male suffrage to Filipino citizens 3. Promised Philippine independence as soon as a stable government was established.
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Red Summer
Red Summer describes the race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities in the United States during the summer and early autumn of 1919. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases groups of blacks fought back, notably in Chicago, where, along with Washington, D.C. and Elaine, Arkansas, the greatest number of fatalities occurred, the riots followed postwar social tensions. -
First Red Scare
The origins of the first Red scare lay in the Russian Revolution and the horrendous experience of World War I. Communism was not yet perceived as the only enemy; Anarchism (the advocacy of violent overthrow of government and law) also caused fear. In the United States, no great effort was made to separate these two political philosophies, for they both seemed to represent a single threat: foreign attempts to undermine the nation's government and institutions. -
Harlem Renaissance
A cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement." Unofficially recognized to have spanned from about 1919 until the early or mid 1930s. Many of its ideas lived on much longer. The zenith of this "flowering of Negro literature", as James Weldon Johnson preferred to call the Harlem Renaissance, was placed between 1924 and 1929. -
Election of 1932
The United States presidential election of 1932 took place as the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression were being felt intensely across the country. President Herbert Hoover's popularity was falling as voters felt he was unable to reverse the economic collapse, or deal with prohibition. Franklin D. Roosevelt used what he called Hoover's failure to deal with these problems as a platform for his own election, promising reform in his policy called the New Deal. Roosevelt w -
New Deal
Series of social, economic, and governmental reforms in response to the Great Depression -
Attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In Hiroshima, an estimated 80,000 people were killed in a split second. Some 13 square kilometres of the city were obliterated. By December, at least another 70,000 people had died from radiation and injuries. Three days after Hiroshima's destruction, the US dropped an A-bomb on Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of at least 70,000 people before the year was out. -
Truman Doctrine
A foreign policy in 1947 that provided economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey who were being threatened by communism. President Harry S. Truman, and the doctrine extended to become the basis of the American Cold War Policy. -
Creation of NATO 1949
An international alliance of 26 countries of Europe and North America to create and ensure peace and security. Signe April 4, 1949. All NATO decisions are made by the member countries on the basis of consensus. -
Fall of China to Communism
Mao was instrumental in establishing an early form of Chinese communism in the years 1928-34. He helped to develop it and create the military and political strategy in the Yenan years of 1935-45 that won the civil war in 1949. He then went on to mold communist China and ruled it -
Korean War
The Korean war was a battle between North Korea (who were communist) and South Korea (who were capitalist) both wanting to unify Korea under their control. -
Election of 1952
Unpopular incumbent President Harry S. Truman decided not to run, so the Democratic Party instead nominated Governor Adlai Stevenson II of Illinois; Stevenson had gained a reputation in Illinois as an intellectual and eloquent orator. The Republican Party countered with popular war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower and won in a landslide, ending 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House.
