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Timeline of pre–United States history

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Timeline of pre–United States history

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from before the lead up to the American Revolution (c. 1760).

Contents

Antiquity

  • Eurasians cross the Trans-Siberian land bridge into North America.
  • Vikings first discovered America by sailing the Atlantic.

    • 1400–1499

  • 1492 - Christopher Columbus financed by Spain lands on the island of Hispaniola, discovering the New World for 12th century Europe.
  • 1497 - John Cabot lands in Newfoundland, beginning the British colonial presence in Continental North America.

    • 1500–1599

  • 1513 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses isthmus of Panama, sees Pacific Ocean.
  • 1513 - Juan Ponce de León defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec Empire.
  • 1520s - Spanish begin conquest of Maya civilization.
  • 1521 - Hernán Cortés destroys the Aztec empire.
  • 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for France, explores coastline from present-day Maine to North Carolina.
  • 1542 - Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America.
  • 1565 - Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida the first Spanish settlement in the New World, and is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States.
  • 1570s - Iroquois Confederacy founded.
  • 1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World.
  • 1590 - Roanoke Colony found deserted.

    • 1600s

  • 1607 - Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, founded in the Colony of Virginia.

    • 1610s

  • 1614 - Dutch claim New Netherland.
  • 1619 - Slavery introduced to the Colony of Virginia.

    • 1620s

  • 1620 - Mayflower Compact signed.
  • 1625 - Foundation of New York City as New Amsterdam.
  • 1628 - Massachusetts Bay Colony founded.

    • 1630s

  • 1630 - Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • 1630 - Manor of Rensselaerswyck founded.
  • 1634 - Province of Maryland founded.
  • 1634 - Theologian Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • 1635 - Connecticut Colony founded by Thomas Hooker.
  • 1636 - Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations founded by Roger Williams.
  • 1636 - Harvard College founded.
  • 1637 - New Haven Colony founded.
  • 1637 - Pequot War ends in New England.
  • 1638 - Delaware Colony founded.
  • 1638 - New Sweden established.
  • 1639 - Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony signed.
  • 1639 - Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted.

    • 1640s

  • 1640 - French and Iroquois Wars escalate to full warfare.
  • 1643 - New England Confederation created
  • 1643-1645 - Kieft's War in New Netherland
  • 1644-1646 - Third Anglo–Powhatan War
  • 1649 - Maryland Toleration Act
  • 1649 - Execution of King Charles I and establishment of Commonwealth in England.

    • 1650s

  • 1655-1660 - Peach Tree War
  • 1659-1663 - Esopus Wars

    • 1660s

  • 1660 - British republic collapses, Charles II becomes King
  • 1662 - Halfway Covenant adopted
  • 1663 - King Charles II grants charter for a new colony, Province of Carolina
  • 1664 - New Amsterdam captured by the English at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War
  • 1667 - New Netherland ceded to England under Treaty of Breda
  • 1669-1670 - John Lederer of Virginia explores the Appalachian Mountains

    • 1670s

  • 1670 - Charles Town (Charleston) founded in present-day South Carolina
  • 1671 - The Batts-Fallam expedition sponsored by Abraham Wood reaches the New River (West Virginia)
  • 1672 - Blue Laws enacted in Connecticut
  • 1672-1673 - Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette explore the Illinois Country
  • 1674 - New Netherland permanently relinquished to English with Treaty of Westminster
  • 1675 - King Philip's War (1675–76) in New England
  • 1676 - Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
  • 1677 - Province of Maine absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • 1679 - War between the Westo and colonial South Carolina results in the destruction of the Westo.

    • 1680s

  • 1680 - Pueblo Revolt in Spanish New Mexico
  • 1682 - Province of Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
  • 1682 - René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle travels down the Mississippi River to its mouth
  • 1685 - King Charles II dies and James II succeeds to throne, reducing colonial autonomy
  • 1686 - Dominion of New England decreed
  • 1687 - Yamasee Indians from Spanish Florida move to South Carolina, becoming an important ally of the English
  • 1688 - Glorious Revolution deposes James II and replaces him with William and Mary
  • 1689 - Dominion of New England ceases to exist as Governor is deposed.
  • 1689 - King William's War (1689–1697), part of the wider War of the Grand Alliance, begins

    • 1690s

  • 1690 - Schenectady Massacre
  • 1692 - Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts
  • 1697 - King William's War ends in North America with the Treaty of Ryswick

    • 1700–1759

    See Timeline of the American Revolution for events starting from 1760.

    1700s

  • 1701 - The Collegiate school at Saybrook is founded in Connecticut; it will later be renamed as Yale College
  • 1702 - William III dies, is succeeded by Queen Anne
  • 1702 - Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession) begins
  • 1702 - East Jersey and West Jersey become crown colonies

    • 1710s

  • 1713 - The Treaty of Utrecht is signed, bringing an end to Queen Anne's War.
  • 1715 - Yamasee War in South Carolina colony
  • 1718 - Blackbeard is killed in battle by lieutenant Robert Maynard in the waters off the Province of North Carolina

    • 1720s

  • 1725 - Father Rale's War (1722-1725)
  • 1727 - George I dies, is succeeded by George II
  • 1729 - Province of Carolina proprietors sell out to Crown

    • 1730s

  • 1732 - The Province of Georgia is founded by General James Oglethorpe.
  • 1735 - John Peter Zenger is found innocent of libel by the New York City trial on August 4th.
  • 1739-1740 - George Whitefield begins his travels throughout the colonies. His message of everyday Christians having a personal connection with God resonates and begins the First Great Awakening.

    • 1740s

  • 1744 - King George's War (1744-1748)
  • 1749 - Province of Georgia overturns its ban on slavery
  • 1749 - Father Le Loutre's War (1749-1755)

    • 1750s

  • 1752 - Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment.
  • 1754 - French and Indian War begins, part of the Seven Years' War
  • 1754 - Albany Congress, in which a "Union of Colonies" is proposed.
  • 1758 - Treaty of Easton

    • References

    Timeline of pre–United States history Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA