1580s |
Raleigh’s
ill-fated English colony at Roanoke (1585-158?)
1588 The English defeat of the Spanish Armada organized by Queen Elizabeth 1591 Relief ship arriving at Roanoke finds no settlers |
1600s |
Jamestown:
The first successful English settlement in the New World
1606 King James I of England creates the Virginia Company - (both in London and Plymouth)
1607 Jamestown is established along the James River in Virginia (1607) in Powhatan territory
1608 John Smith establishes work discipline on the Virginia settlers in order to save the colony
The despised Separatists ("Pilgrims") of Scrooby (northern England) begin to flee to Holland
The French establish their first American colony at Quebec
1609-1610 Virginia's "starving time" |
1610s |
The
Jamestown settlement begins to take on its specific Virginia "character"
1612 John Rolfe begins the successful/profitable cultivation of tobacco in Virginia 1618 Chief Powhatan dies - his anti-English brother Opechancanough becomes chief 1619 The first African indentured servants arrive in Virginia Representatives of local Virginia communities gather as the House of Burgesses at Jamestown |
1620s |
The Separatists' (Pilgrims') Plymouth Colony is established in New England; religious
persecution in England increases; Virginia experiences the first Indian War
1620 With permission from James I and financial backing from London investors ('adventurers'), the Pilgrims sail on the Mayflower to America - arriving north of Virginia in the "New England" territory; possessing no specific land grant for the place ("Plymouth") where they are forced to settle, the Pilgrims themselves draw up an agreement for self-government: The Mayflower Compact 1621 Despite a deadly winter and early spring, half the colony survives - and celebrates a Thanksgiving
for its "success"
with its Indian friends: Squanto, Massasoit and braves from the
Wampanoag tribe William Bradford is repeatedly elected to the one-year term of Governor of the Plymouth Colony. 1622 Opechancanough leads the first Indian war in Virginia 1623 A small English commercial settlement is located at Cape Ann (Massachusetts) 1624 The Dutch establish Fort Orange up the Hudson River at present-day Albany 1625 The Dutch establish New Netherland with New Amsterdam (lower Manhattan) as its center James I dies; his son Charles I becomes king; he is even less tolerant of religious "dissenters" 1628 The Massachusetts Bay Company (heavily Puritan) secures a grant from the king to establish colonial settlements in New England; the first Puritan settlement is at Salem |
1630s |
Thousands of Puritans join the Pilgrims in New England; Maryland is founded for Catholics
1630 John Winthrop leads 11 ships and 700 Puritan settlers in a move to Massachusetts in 1630;
20,000 more ("the Great Migration") will arrive in Massachusetts over the next ten years
1634 "Freemen" in Massachusetts begin to elect their officers annually to the General Court; The
Calverts found a colony for English Catholics (and others) in Maryland
1635 Puritans begin to pour into the Connecticut River valley: Thomas Hooker takes a group of
religious dissenters to found the town of Hartford; Puritan 'purist' Roger Williams dissents from
the Massachusetts authorities and is expelled
1636 Williams establishes his Providence Colony (Rhode Island) along the Naragannsett Bay; he
purchases the land from the
local Indians and thus considers the colony his; no religious
restrictions are placed on citizenship in his colony;
Harvard college is founded - principally to train pastors
1637 A Pequot Indian uprising against Puritan settlers in the Connecticut Valley; 300+ settlers are killed;
but it ends disastrously for
the Indians (400 Pequots killed; the rest sold as slaves)
1638 Anne Hutchinson is expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1638); she takes up residence
near Williams' Providence
Colony [but soon moves on to the Hudson River frontier area - where
she is killed in 1643 by local Indians]
1639 Hartford and two other towns establish their own colony and government - under The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut - giving voting rights to a wider group of citizens; the New Haven colony (even stricter Puritan) is also founded in Connecticut |
1640s |
Virginia,
Maryland and the New England colonies settle in
1642-1649 The English Civil War (1642-1649) slows down immigration to America dramatically 1644 The General Court evolves into a 2-house legislature (by 1644): an upper house of the Governor and his Council and a lower House of Deputies elected by all male citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony 1649 Charles I is executed (Jan) by order of Parliament Calvert grants the Toleration Act of 1649 for Maryland (to attract non-Catholic settlers) |
1650s |
Chaotic
political developments in England seem not to touch the
colonies
1650-1660 England under the Puritan rule of
Oliver Cromwell, bringing briefly to England a "republican" form
of
government (Parliament
rules without a king) known as the Puritan Commonwealth |
1660s |
Charles
II takes the English throne; grants American "proprietary" colonies to
his supporters
1661 Virginia passes a law determining slave status based on the mother's slave status 1662 Massachusetts Puritans create the Halfway Covenant to gain church membership 1663 Charles grants wealthy friends the proprietary colony of Carolina 1664 The English defeat the Dutch and seize New Netherland; The Dutch colony is given to the King's brother James, Duke of York, thus becoming "New York"; The Maryland Act of 1664 turns African indenture into permanent slavery 1665 James grants a portion of his New York colony to Carteret and Berkeley as New Jersey |
1670s |
The
colonies suffer troubles from restless Indians and rebellious poor
whites
1674-1682 Carteret and Berkeley sell sections of New Jersey to various proprietors, including Penn 1675 Chief Metacomet ("King Philip") leads his Wampanoag tribe in an anti-English uprising ("King Philip's War") in New England; over 1000 settlers are killed; 1676 The uprising is crushed - with death or slavery for the Indians - and the end of the Wampanoag tribe "Bacon’s Rebellion" of English commoners against aristocratic authorities at Jamestown fails |
1680s |
The
idea of "human rights" grows both in England and in her northern American
colonies
1681 Charles II grants Pennsylvania to the Quaker William Penn in compensation for a large debt 1682 Penn founds the carefully designed Philadelphia as his colony’s capital 1685 James, Duke of York, (and crypto-Catholic) assumes the English throne as James II 1688 Parliament rises up against James (beginning the "Glorious Revolution"); Dutch Protestant cousin William of Orange leads the military effort (1688-1689) 1689 Parliament calls William to the throne to co-rule with his wife (James's Protestant daughter) Mary; the co-monarchs accept the Whig-dominated Parliament's Declaration of Rights The philosopher John Locke writes the Two Treatises of Government justifying this action in
terms of the
"natural rights" of Englishmen and the implicit "social contract"
between ruler and
ruled - which the King had violated; (Jefferson
will draw heavily from Locke's work in his drafting
of the Declaration of Independence in 1776) 1688-1697 King Williams War erupts between the French and English, involving Indians on both sides
(the fierce Iroquois
as English allies; the Wabanaki Confederation as French allies) |
1690s |
French
and Indian problems grow; the Puritan experiment is dying out in New England;
"Enlightenment" comes to the colonies
1691 Massachusetts is forced to become a royal colony 1692 The Salem witch hysteria breaks out; 24 people put to death as witches or die in prison (1692) 1693 Boston authorities bring the event to a halt The College of William and Mary is founded in (Williamsburg) Virginia as the colonies' 2nd college 1696 Deist John Toland publishes Christianity Not Mysterious 1699 Jamestown burns again; Virginia’s capital is moved to Middle Plantation (renamed "Williamsburg") |
1700s |
Mounting
problems with the French and Indians
1701-1713 Queen Anne's War [Europe: "War of Spanish Succession"] 1702 Mobile (Alabama) becomes the capital of the huge French territory of Louisiana 1704 The French-Indian massacre of the English settlement at Deerfield Massachusetts (Feb) |
1710s |
England
comes under the Hanoverian dynasty - adding to the remoteness of the
colonies
1712 Carolina makes slavery
permanent 1713 The Treaty of Utrecht assigns French Canada’s
Maritime provinces (Acadia) to the English; the war has left Spanish
Florida in turmoil and depopulated much of the Indian lands in the
South 1714 Hanoverian (German) George I becomes English King
(1714-1727) 1718 A newly built New Orleans is established on the
Mississippi as the capital of French Louisiana |
1720s |
Life in the colonies is increasingly comfortable - with a consequent spiritual
deadening
1717 Hanoverian George II becomes English King
(1727-1760) 1729 A dispute between differing cultures splits Carolina into two colonies, North and South |
1730s |
Georgia founded; the 1st Great Awakening erupts in reaction to Deistic rationalism
1730 Deist Matthew Tindal publishes Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730) 1732 Georgia (notably Savannah) is founded by soldier, philanthropist James Oglethorpe as an
experiment in
social rehabilitation - and as an English buffer against Spanish
raids coming from Florida 1735 The 1st "Great Awakening" breaks out in Jonathan Edwards' congregation in Massachusetts 1738-1739 John Wesley and George Whitefield start up the Great Awakening in England 1739 Whitefield arrives in the colonies to carry forward the Great Awakening; Franklin, though a Deist, becomes a lifetime friend of Whitefield's |
1740s |
Once again hostilities among the European powers draw the colonies into their conflict
1740s The Great Awakening gathers strength (first half of the 1740s) - then loses strength (second half) The "War of Jenkins' Ear" (mostly early 1740s) over the right of English to sell slaves to Spanish
colonies; conflict
between Georgia and Spanish Florida ends inconclusively 1744-1748 King George's War [Europe: "War of Austrian Succession"]; Americans take the initiative to seize the vital French fortress at Louisbourg (1745); in the final peace treaty, the English return the fort to the French ... deeply disappointing the Americans (1748) 1749-1754 The French build a number of forts in the Ohio Valley to stop the spread of the English |
1750s |
The French and Indian War [Europe: the "Seven Years' War"] erupts (1754-1763)
1750 Georgia ends Oglethorpe’s ban on slavery 1753 George Washington builds Fort Necessity (Southwestern Pennsylvania); 1754 ... but loses it to the French who build Fort Duquesne; The effort of English Gen. Braddock (with Washington) to take Fort Duquesne ends in disaster The Albany Congress meets to negotiate an alliance with the Iroquois; Benjamin Franklin proposes a plan (the Albany Plan) for permanent union - but the colonial assemblies fail to support the idea 1755 The English-French contest becomes global ... and total; The "Great Expulsion" (1755-1763) of
11,500 French Acadians
from the Maritime Provinces of Canada; 1600 Acadians (the "Cajuns")
trek to the Gulf Coast bayous of lower Louisiana 1758-1759 the British take the French forts in Canada, and Quebec is seized |
1760s |
Economic and political tensions mount between England and the colonies
1760 A young George III becomes English king, determined to hold his rule over the colonies tightly 1762 Spain enters the war on France's side; Spain loses Gibraltar, but is awarded the Louisiana territory by the French (thus Spanish until 1802, when secretly given back to Napoleon's France) 1763 The French and Indian War ends; the Proclamation of 1763 prohibits English settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains; Pontiac leads a major Indian uprising ... which is crushed by Amherst 1765 In part in order to cover military expenses, the English Parliament passes the Quartering Act and the Stamp Act; the "Stamp Act Congress" gathers in New York City to appeal the Act 1766 Parliament repeals the Stamp Act 1767 ... but extends Parliament's mercantile control over the colonial economies with the Townshend Acts, taxes on imports to the colonies 1769 Four (subsequently just two) British regiments are sent to occupy a noncompliant Boston |
1770s |
Full-scale conflict breaks out between England and the colonies
1770 The "Boston Massacre" - British sentries at the Customs House fire on an angry crowd, killing 5 1772 "Committees of correspondence" are established to strengthen the unity of the colonies 1773 The British Tea Act of 1773 ... and the Boston "Tea Party" 1774 Parliament passes the "Intolerable (or "Coercive") Acts" in reprisal; the 1st Continental Congress gathers in Philadelphia, passing the Suffolk Resolves and adopting the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. George III: "The die is cast." 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord occur (Apr) when Gage moves to seize colonial military supplies; the 2nd Continental Congress gathers (May) in Philadelphia; Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold capture Fort Ticonderoga (May); the Battle of Bunker Hill is a mixed victory for the British (Jun); Washington is appointed (Jul) Commander of the Continental Army; Americans under Arnold and Daniel Morgan fail to capture Quebec (Dec) despite a valiant effort
The Transylvania Company purchases
a huge section of Kentucky from the Cherokee; Daniel Boone is hired to lead settlers to the new territory via the "Wilderness Road"; Boonesboro founded 1776 The Deist Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense (Jan); Henry Knox brings cannon from
Fort Ticonderoga to Boston
(Mar); the British vacate Boston (Mar); British efforts to take Charleston fail (Jun); Thomas Jefferson composes The Declaration of Independence (Jul); Washington's army escapes at Brooklyn Heights but loses New York to the British (Aug); Washington defeats Hessians at Trenton and Princeton (Dec) 1777 The Articles of Confederation proposed by Congress; Washington is unable at Brandywine to stop
Howe’s British advance on
Philadelphia (Sep) or dislodge them at Germantown (Oct); however, Americans under Horatio Gates (with a lot of help from Arnold and Morgan) defeat a huge British army at Saratoga (Oct); Washington’s exhausted troops enter winter quarters at Valley Forge (Dec); Gates participates in the failed Conway Cabal to take command from Washington (late 1777 early 1778) 1778 The Saratoga victory leads to the French Alliance (Feb); Jones captures HMS Drake (Apr); The
British now under Clinton
decide to vacate Philadelphia in order to better defend New York City;
because of the cowardice of
American Gen. Lee, Washington narrowly miss a potential victory (Jun) over Clinton’s British army on the move at Monmouth (New Jersey); Clinton then decides to shift the war to the American South where Tory (pro-British) sentiments are stronger; the British take a lightly defended Savannah (Dec) 1779 Spain joins France as an American ally (Apr); An American effort to retake Savannah fails (Oct) |
1780s |
The conflict ends in American victory; a new Federal Republic is created
1780 Clinton captures a huge American army under Southern commander Gates at Camden (South Carolina) (May); Arnold switches sides; his plan to surrender West Point fails and he narrowly escapes capture (Sep); but Arnold captures Richmond for the British (Dec) 1781 The Articles of Confederation are ratified, creating the Congress of the Confederation (1781-1789) Morgan defeats Tarleton’s Raiders at Cowpens [a major American victory] (Jan); America's new Southern commander Nathanael Greene draws British Gen. Cornwallis into Virginia; Arnold burns New London (Sep); a trapped British army of over 7,000 troops under Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia (Oct) 1782 Lord North resigns as Prime Minister (Mar); Parliament votes to end the war (Apr); preliminary peace terms are agreed on at Paris (Nov) 1783 Washington quashes the Newburgh Conspiracy [some of his offices want to seize power from a corrupt Congress](Mar); The formal signing of the Treaty of Paris (Sep); all territory west to the Mississippi River is ceded to the Americans (Indian allies are furious) 1786 Virginia adopts Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom (Jan); Congress adopts the Indian Ordinance of 1786; the Annapolis Convention calls for a full conference in Philadelphia to propose changes to the Articles of Confederation (Sep) 1787 Shay’s Rebellion In Massachusetts is crushed (Jan), but awakens American leaders to the need for a stronger national union; a representative Convention meets during a long hot summer (May-Sep)
in Philadelphia, debating the
interests of the small states (equal representation of all states vested in the New Jersey Plan) versus the interest of the large states (proportional representation according to population size vested in the Virginia Plan), with the Connecticut compromise (Great Compromise) opening the way finally to the drafting of a new Constitution for the Union of 13 states; Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance (Jul) 1788 Federalists (nationalists) and Anti-Federalists (states-righters) debate constitutional ratification; Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay write The Federalist Papers advocating
ratification; the Federalists
carry the day, bringing the new Constitution to ratification (summer) 1789 Washington inaugurated in New York as the first U.S. president (Apr); The French Revolution breaks out (Jul) spurred by the ideals of the Enlightenment (and the example of the new American Republic)
 |
1790s |
The Republic struggles to establish new (and hopefully viable) political norms
early 1790s Mounting political feud rises in Washington's Presidential cabinet between Treasury Secretary Hamilton (Federalist) and Secretary of State Jefferson ("Republican"/strong states-righter), with Washington generally supporting Hamilton (to Jefferson's great ire) 1790 Hamilton announces a new national bank’s "assumption" of all public debt (national and state);
Jefferson and his
political ally Madison are strongly opposed to this centralizing of
economic power 1791 Congress approves Hamilton’s plan for a US Bank and the plan for central financing of the public debt The states ratify 10 Constitutional Amendments (Bill of Rights), guarantying key political protections
against the
unlimited growth of central (or ‘national’) governmental power 1793 The French Republic has alienated all other European monarchies; all of Europe is again at war The political hostility between Hamilton (pro-British) and Jefferson (pro-French) deepens Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality is a rather pro-British position; "Citizen Genet"' welcomed
by Jefferson as French
Ambassador ... but proves to be an unwelcome meddler in American
politics The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Jay in the Chisolm v. Georgia case affirms that a citizen has the right to sue a state government in a federal court 1794 As an immediate reaction to the Chisolm case, the 11th Amendment is added to the Bill of Rights,
affirming the immunity of
the states from such lawsuits (unless a state agrees to a hearing) The French Republic dissolves into a state of unbounded political slaughter (the Reign of Terror)
Massachusetts farmers rebel against
Hamilton's excise tax on their whisky production; Washington personally leads a 13,000-man army to swiftly crush the "Whiskey Rebellion" The Jay Treaty seems to surrender American maritime rights to the increasingly aggressive English The cotton gin is invented, vastly deepening the importance of slavery to the Southern economy 1796 Washington steps aside, serving only 2 terms (and glad to be going home to his farm), ... establishing a tradition of a peaceful transfer of limited presidential power (to John Adams) 1798 French aggressions on the high seas lead arch-Federalists to want to go to war with France (and to political war with the pro-French Jeffersonian Republicans ... with the Alien and Sedition Act) Adams agrees to a treaty with the French, thus avoiding war, but getting him no gratitude from the
Republicans and costing him
the support of a number of arch Federalists (and re-election in 1800) |
1800s |
The Federalist/Republican rivalry deepens ... within a rapidly expanding America (growing by
25% each decade)
1800 The American capital is moved to Washington, D.C., a town mostly yet an ideal rather than a reality Jefferson is narrowly elected President (over Burr); Adams is humiliated by his loss 1801 Adams signs the midnight judicial appointments, including John Marshall as Supreme Court Chief Justice; Marshall will greatly expand the powers of the Federal judiciary branch (1801-1835) 1802-1810 Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin reverses Hamilton's policies, cutting federal
expenditures in half
(importantly the army and navy) and reducing the federal debt, but
proposing
massive road and canal building to open the interior to
settlement, favoring Republican farmers of
the American South and West
and undercutting Federalist bankers and merchants of New England 1803 Marshall’s Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (questioning the "midnight" judicial appointments) assumes the power of "constitutional review" of Congress's legislation Jefferson's envoys to Napoleon secure the Louisiana Purchase for $15 (actually $11.2) million
(acquiring land for settlers
who will most likely be supporters of Jefferson’s Republican Party!) 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark lead a party exploring (to the Pacific) the newly purchased Louisiana territory 1804 The 12th Amendment eliminates the confusion caused by the 1800 presidential election Jefferson orders the (small) navy to end the piracy of the Barbary States (the Libyan coast) Following a long-simmering political feud, Burr kills Hamilton in a duel 1806 Pike leads a military party to further explore parts of the American West (today's Colorado) 1806-1807 Britain moves to block American shipping to France, and seize sailors deemed to be "English" 1807 Jefferson responds by outlawing exports to or from France or England ... infuriating New England exporters 1808 Jefferson's Secretary of State and chief supporter Madison is elected President |
1810s |
Another war with England (the "War of 1812") promotes the rise of a younger, more "national,"
American generation ...
and further undercuts Indian power east of the Mississippi
1810 Fletcher v. Peck claims federal authority takes precedence over the laws of the individual states British arrogance on the high seas, plus young American War Hawks, push America toward war 1811 Harrison defeats British allies, the Shawnee Indians, at Tippecanoe, Indiana, restarting Indian wars 1812 A Republican Congress affirms Madison's call for war with England (the "War of 1812"); Federalist are
cool on the idea even though it
is mostly New Englanders suffering from British actions 1812-1814 Three American military expeditions to Canada are major failures; although (thanks to Jefferson) America had no navy to speak of, American privateers do well on the high seas 1814 Having defeated Napoleon at Leipzig (late 1813) England sends an experienced army to America ... and proceeds to annihilate American troops, burning Washington, D.C. to the ground, but becoming blocked at Baltimore (the Star Spangled Banner) and then losing battles to the Americans on Lake Champlain and at Chippewa New York Meanwhile, Federalist New Englanders are planning a separate treaty with England ... even the possibility of seceding from the Union But a peace treaty is signed (Dec 24) in Ghent (Belgium). The War of 1812 is over ... almost! 1815 Meanwhile England has sent an army to occupy New Orleans, which is stunningly defeated (Jan 8) by Americans under Andrew Jackson ... neither side aware that a peace treaty has been signed back in Europe!
The war has led Americans to a sense of true
national unity ... and brought respect from Europe.
It also finished off the
Federalist Party, with many members joining the Republican Party ...
but as National
Republicans (a younger breed who will eventually form the Whig Party);
even the old guard
of the Jeffersonian Republicans are losing ground
politically to new ways of doing politics And the war has been disastrous for a huge number of Indian tribes who got caught up in the
conflict; they are thrown
on the defensive everywhere, with little to protect themselves from advancing hordes of White settlers 1816 The Second Bank of the United States (BUS) is formed (the charter of the first one was not
renewed in 1811);
but a tight money policy throws the country into deep recession (also cotton
from India emerges as a new challenge to the South’s cotton
production) James Monroe scores a landslide victory for the presidency over the Federalist candidate; he is a
congenial man,
hoping to promote national unity and end the political partisanship
characteristic
of the Federalist-Republican feuding; but he is also
too accommodating to be able to curb the feuds that grow within his cabinet 1818 Jackson marches an army into Spanish Florida, ostensibly to break Seminole Indian power ... and
then overruns Spanish
positions (an act of war with no Congressional authorization) 1819 The stunned Spanish sign the Adams-Otis Treaty acknowledging the loss of Florida (and also any
claims to the Pacific
Northwest) ... they are paid $5 million in compensation for Florida McCulloch v. Maryland denies the right of the states to tax federal agencies (the Maryland branch of the BUS); Dartmouth College v. Woodward confirms the sanctity of all contracts
 |
1820s |
A restless spirit infects the nation in this "Era of Good Feelings"
(closely identified with Monroe's
presidency: 1817-1825)
The Second Great Awakening (actually started in the 1790s) gathers momentum .. especially in
Western New York (later
termed the "Burned-Over District"); Millennialism (expecting the 2nd coming of Christ) infects the American religious heart everywhere; America is fast becoming an industrial nation (agriculture, textiles, heavy industry) ... and within
20
years will equal or surpass British productivity in many
industrial areas Americans head Southwest, towards New Mexico via the Santa Fe Trail 1821 Cohens v. Virginia: Marshall declares that the Supreme Court has review powers over state courts 1823 Monroe announces to Congress his "Monroe Doctrine" dedicating America to the defense of the
Latin American
Republics which had recently secured their independence from Spain (the
English were major silent partners in this policy) 1824 Gibbons v. Ogden holds that only the federal government can regulate inter-state commerce 1828 The Baltimore and Ohio railroad is founded ... beginning a rush to build railroads that will continue unabated through the entire 1800s |
1830s
|
This restless spirit of growth and movement is noticeable among Americans everywhere
The Frenchman Alexis de Toqueville will detail this in his two volume study Democracy in America (1835/1840); cheap land creates a land-hungry spirit (much to the continuing distress of the harassed Indians) and much questionable or shady land trading, 1830 Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon, beginning the Latter Day Saints (LDS or "Mormons") 1837 The Great Financial Crisis of 1837 Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge severely restricts monopolistic practices 1839 Bank of Augusta v. Earle holds that corporations have legal rights even in other states |
1850s |
The
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1860s |
The
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1870s |
The
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1880s |
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