1607-Settlement of Jamestown
• First permanent English settlement in North America
• Faced several hardships that made settlement difficult• Attacks from Native Americans
• Diseases
• Starvation
• Success supplies, cultivation of tobacco, & temporary peace with Native Americans
Battles of Lexington and Concord
• First battles of the American Revolutionary War.
• Tensions had been rising between the unfair treatment of the colonist by the King of England.• “No taxation without
representation!”
July 4, 1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence
• This document established American independence from Great Britain and created the United States of America.
Battle of Yorktown
• Last major military conflict of the American Revolutionary War.
• Basically ends the war in America’s favor.
1781-Articles of Confederation
• First Constitution of the United States
• Major problem: • Very weak federal gov’t
had too little power
1783-Treaty of Paris
• Treaty between United States and Great Britain
• Official document that ended the American Revolutionary War.
1787-U.S. Constitution
• Supreme Law of the Land
• Details the framework of the gov’t
• Guarantees citizens certain rights
1832- Nullification Crisis “Null and Void”
• Establishes state sovereignty• States can void a
federal law
1861-Civil War Begins
• 7 States secede from the U.S. after Abraham Lincoln is elected president.
• First shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter
1863- Emancipation Proclamation
• Issued by Abraham Lincoln
• Official document that outlawed slavery in the United States.
1865- Civil War Ends
• General Robert E. Lee & the South surrender to the Union at the Appomattox Courthouse
• Southern states are admitted back into the Union.