Period 1
(1491-1607)
(1491-1607)
This Spanish labor system forced Indigenous people to work for colonizers.
Encomienda System
This was the first permanent English settlement in North America- founded in 1607.
Jamestown
This war left Britain deeply in debt and helped cause new taxes on the colonies.
French and Indian War
This 1803 land deal doubled the size of the United States.
Louisiana Purchase
This war added vast western territory and intensified the slavery debate.
Mexican-American War
This exchange after 1492 reshaped the Atlantic world by spreading crops, animals, disease, and people.
The Columbian Exchange
This cash crop saved the Virginia colony economically.
Tobacco
Colonists used this slogan to protest British taxation.
"No Taxation Without Representation"
This war increased American nationalism and helped destroy the Federalist Party.
The War of 1812
This compromise admitted California as a free state and included a stronger fugitive slave law.
Compromise of 1850
Europeans were initially drawn to the Americas largely for these three motives.
God, Glory, Gold
This 1676 uprising revealed tensions between frontier settlers and colonial elites, and accelerated the shift from indentured servitude to racialized, hereditary slavery in Virginia.
Bacon's Rebellion
This document, written by Thomas Jefferson, announced colonial independence in 1776.
Declaration of Independence
This 1823 policy warned European nations against further colonization in the Western Hemisphere.
The Monroe Doctrine
This 1854 law allowed settlers to decide whether slavery would exist in their territories, using the concept of popular sovereignty.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
This crop, first domesticated in the Americas, became one of the world’s most important staple foods.
(Maize/corn)
These religious dissenters founded Massachusetts Bay to build a “city upon a hill.”
Puritans
Under this first national government, the central government was too weak to tax effectively.
The Articles of Confederation
Andrew Jackson justified this policy as beneficial to both Americans and Native peoples, but it led to forced migration and thousands of deaths.
Indian Removal Act/Trail of Tears
These three constitutional amendments ended slavery and expanded citizenship and voting rights after the war.
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
This Spanish priest criticized the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples and argued for their humanity in works like A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.
Bartolomé de las Casas
This 1730s–1740s religious revival emphasized personal faith and challenging established authority, which helped to lay the groundwork for the American Revolution.
The First Great Awakening
This 1786–1787 uprising by indebted Massachusetts farmers exposed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and helped lead to the Constitutional Convention.
Shays' Rebellion
This 1832 crisis tested the balance between federal and state power when Andrew Jackson threatened force against a state claiming it could invalidate a federal tariff.
Nullification Crisis
This agreement resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876 by making Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for the removal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.
Compromise of 1877