Precolonial America
These were the first peoples to inhabit North America, long before European arrival.
Native Americans
This colony was founded in 1607 and was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Jamestown
This event in 1773 involved American colonists, disguised as Native Americans, dumping over 300 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act.
Boston Tea Party
This document, ratified in 1781, served as the first constitution of the United States, establishing a weak central government.
Articles of Confederation
These two political factions emerged in the 1790s, with one supporting a strong central government and the other advocating for states' rights and a limited federal role.
Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans
This large and complex Native American civilization built massive earth mounds and thrived in the Mississippi River Valley.
Mississippians
This colony was founded by the Puritans in 1630 and became a model of Christian charity and religious reform.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
This battle in 1777 was the turning point of the American Revolution, convincing France to officially ally with the American colonies.
Battle of Saratoga
This event in 1786, driven by economic turmoil, exposed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and led to the drafting of a new constitution.
Shays' Rebellion
This Founding Father and leader of the Federalist Party served as the first Secretary of the Treasury and was a strong proponent of a national bank.
Alexander Hamilton
This term refers to the exchange of goods, ideas, diseases, and people between the Old World and the New World following European contact.
Columbian Exchange
This colony was established in 1636 by Roger Williams as a haven for religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
Rhode Island
This 1781 battle effectively ended the American Revolution, as British General Cornwallis was forced to surrender to General George Washington.
Battle of Yorktown
This 1787 meeting in Philadelphia was called to address the issues with the Articles of Confederation, but it ultimately resulted in the creation of a new Constitution.
Constitutional Convention
This political party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution and opposed Hamilton's financial plans.
Democratic-Republican Party
This native confederacy in the Northeast was known for its sophisticated political alliance of multiple tribes.
Iroquois Confederacy
This colony, founded in 1681, was a Quaker-founded colony known for its policy of religious tolerance.
Pennsylvania
This 1774 act closed the port of Boston and imposed harsh penalties on Massachusetts as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, leading to greater colonial unrest.
Coercive Acts (or Intolerable Acts)
This early U.S. President is known for his role in establishing the executive departments and for overseeing the nation's first steps toward neutrality in foreign affairs.
George Washington
This 1798 law, passed by the Federalists, targeted immigrants and critics of the government, and it helped solidify the political divide between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
Alien and Sedition Acts
Native societies in the Southwest, like the Ancestral Puebloans, adapted to their environment using this type of farming technique.
irrigation
This rebellion in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon, was a protest against the colonial government’s handling of Native American relations and class inequality in Virginia.
Bacon's Rebellion
This pamphlet, written by Thomas Paine in 1776, encouraged colonists to break away from British rule and helped ignite revolutionary fervor.
Common Sense
This agreement, passed in 1791, added ten amendments to the Constitution and protected individual liberties, such as freedom of speech and religion.
Bill of Rights
The political divide between these two early parties—Federalists and Democratic-Republicans—set the stage for the eventual rise of a two-party system in the U.S., later evolving into parties such as the Whigs and the Democrats.
First Party System