Periods 1+2
With this product, English settlers finally found a New World commodity that worked well in the mercantile system. Spanish explorers already had great success with gold and silver finds and the French created a vibrant market for furs in Europe.
What is tobacco?
Half a century of conflict between Britain and France over North America culminated in this war—the Seven Years’ War in Europe. Unlike previous Anglo-French wars, which were outgrowths of European conflicts, this one began with colonial initiatives. Fur traders and Virginia planters were interested in exploiting and developing the Ohio River valley. The French, determined to secure the territory against encroaching British and American traders and land speculators, built a chain of forts along Pennsylvania’s Allegheny River.
What was the French and Indian War?
In 1846, this man, held as a slave in Missouri, sued for his freedom arguing that he had lived for four years in Illinois, a free state, and Wisconsin, a free territory, and that his residence on free soil had erased his slave status. In 1850 a Missouri court ruled in his favor, but two years later, the state supreme court reversed this decision. Five years later his appeal reached the Supreme Court. By a vote of 7 to 2, the Court ruled that he had no right to sue in federal court because African Americans, enslaved or free, were not citizens; that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional; and that Congress had no right to exclude slavery from the territories.
Who was Dred Scott?
Cubans began to fight for their independence from Spain in 1895. Newspaper publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer worked up war fever among the public with reports of Spanish atrocities against Cuban rebels. On February 15, 1898 an explosion sank this US ship in Havana harbor. A naval court of inquiry blamed the explosion on a mine, further inflaming public sentiment against Spain. After ten days of debate, Congress declared war, but only after adopting the Teller Amendment, in which the United States made it clear that it did not harbor imperialist ambitions.
What was the USS Maine?
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
This speech given by the then sitting President in 1987, were amplified to both sides of the Berlin Wall, reaching both East and West Germans. In giving the speech, he hoped for an opportunity to make a “sign” of the USSR's sincerity and “advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace."
Who was Ronald Reagan?
“I gave them many beautiful and pleasing things, which I had brought with me, for no return whatever, in order to win their affection, and that they might become Christians and inclined to love our King and Queen and Princes and all the people of Spain; and that they might be eager to search for and gather and give to us what they abound in and we greatly need.”
These words were spoken by this Genoese explorer in 1493.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
This directive “preserved to the said Indians” the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and ordered white settlers “there forthwith to remove themselves from such Settlements,” forbade white settlement, and restricted commerce with the American Indians to traders licensed by the British government, requiring settlers to “take out a License for carrying on such Trade from the Governor or Commander in Chief of any of Our Colonies respectively.” Power over westward expansion was now in the hands of British officials.
What was the Proclamation of 1763?
“that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
These words come from perhaps the most recognizable speech ever given by a sitting president. They reinstated the just cause for which the Civil War was being fought and inspired the people of a divided nation.
What was the Gettysburg Address?
"I do not agree with those who hastily and inconsiderately adjudge the President’s work at the Peace Conference a failure. Whatever may be the imperfections of the Treaty from a political or economic standpoint, Woodrow Wilson did not fail. The outstanding thing for which he fought, the thing that transcends political and economic considerations, is the permanent peace of the world. Unless this is secured all else is failure; without this the sublimest hope of humanity is sunk in the black abyss; without this all political and economic adjustments are unstable and sooner or later will disappear."
This treaty would largely come to be seen as a failure for Wilson. Congress, concerned about conceding individual power in order to become a member of the League of Nations, refused to ratify it. Wilson had been the driving force behind the League of Nations, and while the other signatories of this treaty embraced the League, American isolationism quashed enthusiasm for it at home. This press statement, released as Wilson left office in 1921 by William Gibbs McAdoo—who was both Wilson’s son-in-law and his treasury secretary—defends the President’s handling of this treaty.
What is the Treaty of Versailles (1919)?
This hurricane hit New Orleans, Louisiana, causing the city’s levees to break. Overwhelmed by unprecedented flooding, residents attempted to evacuate the city but many were trapped in their homes or crammed into the shelter set up at the Superdome. The hurricane led to hundreds of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. While President George W. Bush ordered troops for the evacuation effort on September 1, 2005 and increased assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), Bush’s failure to address the disaster more quickly and comprehensively contributed to widespread criticism of the government’s response to the emergency.
What was Hurricane Katrina?
This group, seeking religious freedom arrived in New England aboard the Mayflower. On November 11, 1620, they signed the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony.
Who were the Pilgrims?
"The moment is, indeed, important! – If government shrinks, or is unable to enforce its laws; fresh maneuvers will be displayed by the insurgents – anarchy & confusion must prevail – and every thing will be turned topsy turvey in that State; where it is not probable the mischiefs will terminate."
This excerpt was written by this man in response to Shays' Rebellion, an event which highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the need for a stronger national government.
Who was George Washington?
On July 18, 1863, on Morris Island near Charleston, South Carolina, this volunteer infantry, a Union regiment of free African American men, began their assault on Fort Wagner, a Confederate stronghold. After the Civil War, a sergeant of the unit, William Harvey Carney, became the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for taking up the fallen Union flag and carrying it to the fort’s walls. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of the regiment, was killed in the charge, along with 116 of his men, and the Union forces failed to capture the fort.
What was the 54th Massachusetts?
In 1954, this man began a series of televised congressional investigations into communists in the US Army. The broadcasts exposed him as an unscrupulous bully, and the Senate eventually voted to censure him for his conduct during the hearings.
Who was Senator Joseph McCarthy?
The National Security Council issued in 1950 this classified report, which outlined a plan that would shape American Cold War policy for years to come. It advocated the worldwide containment of Communism and major rearmament. The report emphasized the need for an American commitment to fighting Communism globally, not just in Europe, and pointed to military intervention as the most effective form of containment.
What was NSC-68?
In what is present-day New Mexico, indigenous Native Americans coordinated an uprising against the Spanish at dozens of settlements scattered across hundreds of miles. The Indians destroyed buildings and churches and killed more than 400 Spaniards. They burned Sante Fe and drove the Spanish back to El Paso. While this revolt was the most successful effort by American Indians to drive out European settlers from their lands, the Spanish were back in twelve years.
What was the Pueblo Revolt (Pope's Rebellion)?
South Carolina, with the support of Vice President John C. Calhoun, in protest of federal protective tariffs, declared the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void in the state. President Jackson charged that the state was “on the brink of insurrection and treason.” He sent federal military forces to Charleston, but the crisis was resolved with the passage of Henry Clay’s compromise tariff bill in 1833. The event is more commonly known by this name.
What was the Nullification Crisis?
In 1887, Congress passed this legislation, making the railroads the first industry subject to federal regulation. Congress passed the law largely in response to public demand and pressure from farmers and populist groups.
What was the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887?
On February 21, 1965, this radical black leader and former Nation of Islam minister was assassinated during a lecture in Harlem in New York City. Three Nation of Islam members were later convicted of the murder. The trials and investigation are often viewed as a failure of the justice system towards African Americans.
Who was Malcolm X?
By the beginning of 1770, there were 4,000 British soldiers in Boston, a city with 15,000 inhabitants, and tensions were running high. On the evening of March 5, crowds of day laborers, apprentices, and merchant sailors began to pelt British soldiers with snowballs and rocks. A shot rang out, and then several soldiers fired their weapons. When it was over, five civilians lay dead or dying, including an African American merchant sailor who had escaped from slavery more than twenty years earlier.
Who was Crispus Attucks?
"I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing."
This excerpt can be found within the writings of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of (Name)," a book about this man's experiences of the horrors of the international slave trade. This man was the author of that book.
Who was Olaudah Equiano?
"I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans, under Santa Ana. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade, for twenty-four hours, and have not lost one man. The enemy have demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison is to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves"
It was at this building, an old Spanish mission, that William Barret Travis sent out riders carrying a plea for reinforcements. He and some 145 rebels would be defeated by the vastly superior Mexican forces, but their final stand would become a rallying cry for future independence.
What is the Alamo?
“the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development.”
This idea was written and discussed within this historian's “frontier thesis” at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1890, however, the Census Bureau stated that all the land within the United States was claimed, and that the frontier was "closed" and thus no longer could offer the "self-democratizing" process he had outlined.
Who was Frederick Jackson Turner?
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court in this case ruled that abortion fell under the Constitutional right to privacy. The Court mandated federal protection for pregnancy termination during the first trimester and allowed state laws limiting it during the second and third trimesters.
Just today (May 4, 2022), it appears that this decision may be struck down by the Supreme Court, undoing some 50 years of women's reproductive rights.
What is Roe v. Wade?
On April 7, 1862, this battle ended in Union victory. It was the bloodiest battle up until that point in American history, with more American casualties than the Revolution, War of 1812, and Mexican-American War combined. Union forces suffered 13,047 casualties (dead, wounded, and missing) and the Confederates, 10,699.
What was the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), Tennessee?