1580s |
Raleigh’s
ill-fated English colony at Roanoke (1585-158?)
1587 128 men, women and children are settled at Roanoke (today's coastal North Carolina)
1588 The English defeat of the Spanish Armada organized by Queen Elizabeth
1591 A relief ship finally able to get to Roanoke most mysteriously finds no settlers there |
| 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 Henry Hudson (working for the Dutch) looking for a water passage across North America, discovers
the "Hudson River"
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
1642 Sir William Berkely elected Virginia Governor (1642-1652 and 1660-1677)
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 bring their youth to 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 land ("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 William's 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 (very 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 Another quite German 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 A "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 slowly loses momentum
(second half of
the 1740s) ... though elements continue well into the 1750s
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)
Americans resist
strongly the move of George to place Anglican bishops (answering only
to the king)
over the churches in colonial America
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 George infuriates the colonists when he adds to his promise to his Indian allies to block English
settlement west of the
Appalachian Mountains also recognition of that same land as simply an
extension of Catholic Quebec
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 in Philadelphia (May)
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 Commander of the Continental Army (Jul)
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
ignores Charles'
orders and leads a group across the mountains to his new settlement 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, sensing their weak position in Boston, abandon the city
(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 the Hessians at Trenton and Princeton (Dec) - reviving American spirits
1777 The Articles of Confederation defining the colonies' new political alliance are 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 the British battleship 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 over
Clinton’s British army at Monmouth (New Jersey) on its move to New York (Jun);
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)
Charleston also falls to the British (May) – another huge American loss
Arnold switches sides; his plan to surrender West Point fails and he
narrowly escapes capture (Sep)
But Arnold – now serving the British – captures Richmond (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 even burns New London, Connnecticut (his home state) (Sep)
However ... with
considerable French help, and skillful American meneuvering, a trapped
British army
of over 7,000 troops under Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia (Oct)
The British interest in pursuing the war subsequently fades away
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 (Britain's Indian allies are furious)
1786 Virginia adopts Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom (Jan);
The Continental 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 Convention of the various state representatives meets during a long hot summer in Philadelphia
(May-Sep), 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 debate
largely deadlock between the contending interests, the American sage,
Ben Franklin,
in late June, calls for daily meetings to begin in prayer, to get the
representatives to think higher
than merely their own
state's political interests ... reminding them that God had plans for
America
that had nothing to do with their respective political interests
Roger Sherman's "Connecticut Compromise (or "Great Compromise") is
gradually (Jul) accepted,
finally opening the
way finally to the drafting of a Constitution for the new Federal Union
The Continental
Congress meanwhile passes the Northwest Ordinance (Jul) setting up
plans for
a number of slave-free
states, eventually to become members of the new Federal Union
1788 Federalists (nationalists) and Anti-Federalists (states-righters) debate constitutional ratification;
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay write The Federalist Papers (some 85 articles)
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 As his last act in office, 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 British arrogance on the high seas, plus young American War Hawks, push America toward war
In Fletcher v. Peck, Marshall's Supreme Court claims that federal authority takes precedence over
the laws of the individual states
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 Americans do
succeed foolishly in burning the Canadian capital at York (modern
Toronto) to the ground, almost
guaranteeing that the
British would do the same to the American capital should they get a
chance to do so
Although (thanks
to Jefferson) America had no navy to speak of, American privateers do
well on
the high seas in attacking British ships
1814 Having defeated Napoleon at Leipzig (late 1813) England now sends an experienced army to
America ... and
proceeds to annihilate American troops ... also burning Washington,
D.C. to the
ground in the process
But the British are blocked at Baltimore (the Star Spangled Banner) and then lose 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 war-weary America and Britain
(Britain's ongoing war with Napoleon's France ise finally over)
are hungry for peace
... and sign a treaty (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 crushed (Jan 8)
by Americans under
Andrew Jackson ... neither side aware that a peace treaty has just 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
westward-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)
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
A tight money policy by the BUS has thrown the country into deep
recession ... at the same time
that cotton from India emerges as a new challenge to the South’s cotton
production
Ultimately Federal spending and farmer's overborrowing produce a huge speculative crash
|
| 1820s |
A restless spirit infects the nation in this "Era of Good Feelings"
(closely identified with Monroe's
presidency: 1817-1825)
1820s Inspired by the dedication of the highly active Bishop Francis Asbury (1790s to 1816), Christian
"Methodism" spreads
quickly ... especially in the isolated and hardscrabbled western
frontier
lands – where hundreds of circuit riders work feverishly to spread the Christian Gospel
Finney
turns religous camp meetings into something of a religious science ...
his carefully
engineered religious program soon followed by other revivalists
Millennialism (expecting the 2nd coming of Christ) infects the
American religious heart everywhere
Thus the "Second Great Awakening" (actually started in the 1790s)
gathers momentum .. most
notably in Western New York (later
termed the "Burned-Over District")
This is
coupled with the growth of various Christian organizations uniting
various Protestant
denominations:
American Bible Society, American Sunday School Union, Board of Foreign
Missons,
Anti-Slavery Society, American Temperance League (anti-alcoholism), etc.
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
At the invitation of the Mexican government (needing Europeans to
counter fierce Indian
resistance) Stephen Austin (and others) flock to Tejas ... mostly
land-hungry Southerners
Americans also head Southwest, towards New Mexico via the Santa Fe Trail
1820 Henry Clay proposes the "Missouri Compromise" setting a north-south boundary distinguishing the
Slave and the
Free states ... determining which category new states will belong to in
entering
the Union; this
"solution" to the problem merely highlights a deepening North-South
divide
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, offering the necessary
military backup)
1824 Gibbons v. Ogden holds that only the federal government can regulate inter-state commerce
1825 John Adams' son John Quincy Adams becomes president ... and offers America four year of
amazingly calm government
The 8-year project of the Erie Canal is completed, opening a water
route from New York City all
the way to Lake Erie in the Great Lakes region
1828 The first segment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is started up (completed in 1830) ...
beginning a rush to build railroads that will continue unabated through
the entire 1800s
1829 War hero Andrew Jackson becomes President ... instituting a very "populist" version of democracy
for the country
|
1830s
|
This restless spirit of growth and movement is noticeable among Americans everywhere
1830s Cheap land creates a land-hungry spirit (much to the continuing distress of the harassed Indians)
and much questionable or shady land trading
Marshall fails to block
Jackson's "Indian removal" program ... which then runs through the
entire
1830s, forcing
all Indian tribes East of the Mississippi River to move to new "Indian
territory"
(principally Oklahoma) in the West
Unitarianism and Deism show strong growth in America (supported greatly
by Jeffeson)
1830 Joseph Smith publishes the Book of Mormon, beginning the Latter Day Saints (LDS or
"Mormons") ... also birthed in the "Burned Over District" of New York!
Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne debate the future of slavery in the fast-developing American
West
Overwhelmed by the American buildup in Tejas (Texas), Mexico now blocks
further immigration
1831 Cyrus McCormick demonstrates his new mechanical reaper ... revolutionizing the farming industry
1832 Sensing rising Mexican resistance, "Texians" increasingly look to the idea of independence
1833 William
Miller (also based in the Burned Over District) predicts Christ's
second coming to take
place in 1844
... birthing what eventually becomes the Seventh-Day Adventist
movement
1835 The Frenchman Alexis de Toqueville will detail what he observes of the unique America spirit in
his two volume study Democracy in America (1835/1840)
Mexicans send soldiers north
to break the Texan spirit of independence ... but only deepen it
1836 The
Mexicans respond immediately in sending a large force North ... to
overrun (and massacre)
Texans gathered at the Alamo; Texans captured elsewhere are massacred
at Goliad (also Mar)
Texans defeat a huge Mexican army and capture Mexican general/dictator
Santa Anna at the
battle of San Jacinto (April); effectively, Texas is now independent
Congress tries to put a "gag rule" on the rising and increasingly bitter debate over slavery
1837 The Great Financial Crisis of 1837
Now begins the debate as to what Texas is to do ... possibly even join
the US – something
fiercely resisted by anti-slavery Northern politicians; however, the
American economic
depression underway at that point seems to be a higher national
priority
Alton newspaper publisher and preacher Elija Lovejoy (Alton, Illinois)
is murdered on the fourth
assault on
his newspaper by a proslavery mob furious over his Abolitionism
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
Late 1830s Emerson (and his neighbor Alcott) propose a Higher or more "Transcendental" religion ... one
drawing much of its character from Hinduism
1830s-1840s The examples of Britain ending slavery in its country (1807) and then in its overseas Empire
(1833) – and the French doing the same in France itself (1794) and then in its overseas colonies
(1848) – only pushes the Abolitionists to press harder for the American abolition of slavery
For many
Americans, the ongoing Christian "Second Great Awakening" also inspires
them to take a
strong anti-slavery position
|
| 1840s |
The
powerful American expansion to the West brings America to full war with
Mexico ... also intensifying the North-South's slavery dispute
1841 Newly elected President William Henry Harrison catches pneumonia delivering his inauguration
address and soon
dies ... making his Vice President John Tyler the new American President
The
ongoing economic crisis pits Tyler against Clay over the actions to be
taken
1842 America and Canada agree on complicated border questions (The Webster-Ashburton Treaty)
1845 As outgoing President (Polk had just won the 1844 election), Tyler pushed Congress to invite Texas
to become part
of the Federal Union; Texas agrees (Dec) ... infuriating Mexico
Publisher O'Sullivan popularizes the term "Manifest Destiny" in the matter of America's Westward
expansion
Frederick Douglass's autobiographies (1845 and 1855) of his life as a
slave sell big in the north
1846 Texas-Mexico border questions greatly complicate the issue (troops from both sides moving into
the border
region) and finally Polk gets Congress to declare war (May)
Americans
are quick to seize Mexican lands West to the Pacific Ocean (June)
Then
General Zacharly Taylor moves his troops into Mexico ... joined by
Winfield Scott's troops
Meanwhile, America and the British finally agree on boundary questions
west of the Rockies ...
Britain finally recognizing the
Oregon Territory (including the future state of Washington) as
American; this
clears the way for a huge rush of Americans to the lush Oregon region – and
California to the south – by way of the "Oregon Trail"
1847 Mormons are led by Young to Utah ... to found (Jul) The City of Zion (Salt Lake City)
American troops are able to enter Mexico City (Sep) as Santa Anna
flees; the war is over
1848 America agrees (Jan – The Guadalupe Treaty) to pay Mexico $15 million for Texas and the Western
lands America now possesses ... resolving the issue somewhat
Also ... the tameness of the 1848 presidential elections and the
victory of the Mexican war
hero Taylor – whose views on the slavery issue are largely unknown – indicates a general
desire of most Americans to move past the burning issue of slavery
1849 The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California inspires an even greater "gold rush" to
California
|
| 1850s |
Southern-Northern tensions over the slavery issue become increasingly bitter – even violent
1850 Vice President Fillmore become US President (Jul) when Taylor dies only 16 months into his
presidency
The Fugitive Slave Act
of 1850 (Sep), promising the South to return escaped slaves, goes
ignored
by the growing
"Underground Railroad," secretly passing escaped slaves to the North
1851-1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin gains a huge audience in the North as a series
(1851) then as a book (1852)
1852 Fillmore orders Commodore Perry to use his naval fleet to return American sailors held in Japan –
and "open up" a Japan to Western
trade interests ... beginning a process (1852-1855) of doing
just that
With death of
both Clay (Jun) and Webster (Oct) that year, the political "Middle"
loses much of its
voice – instensfying North-South animosities
Presidential
elections that year bring the Democrat Party's Franklin Pierce to the
White House ...
a much less radical
candidate than the Whig Party's Winfield Scott (still too Abolitionist
for the
tastes of most
Americans at that point); the Whig Party will not survive this defeat
1853 Perry "blasts" his way into Tokyo harbor (Jul) forcing the Shogun to agree to American terms
The Gadsen
Purchase (negotiated in Dec) of land from Mexico ($10 million) will
allow the South to
extend a railroad all
the way to the Pacific Ocean (and move more Southerners there)
1854 A secret plan for the South to bring Cuba into the Union as a new Southern state is discovered
and blocked by an outraged North
A
compromise measure of Congress to let the Kansas-Nebraska territories
decide their own future
as slave or free
states merely serves to intensify hatred and violence there over this
issue
In
Congressional elections of that year, the Democratic Party survives
politically largely only in the
South, with the
new American Party (soon to give itself over to the Republican Party) – and a
number of other small parties – victorious in the North
1856 The new Republican Party takes the place of the former Whig Party – soon to be the ongoing
political opponent of the Democratic Party (even up to today!)
Pro-slavery raiders burn the town of Lawrenceville, Kansas, to
the ground (May)
Anti-slavery John Brown leads raiders to attack Pottawatome, Kansas
(May), killing five farmers ...
inspiring a pro-slavery counter strike (August) against Brown's town of
Osawatomie, killing a
similar number of individuals – including two of his sons
Former
diplomat and Democratic Party candidate James Buchanan is elected
president; but he
hopes simply to
be able to get the country to ignore the slavery issue ... or at least
let the
Supreme Court decide the issue
1857 Roger B. Taney's Supreme Court takes a strong pro-slavery position with its Dred Scott decision
(Mar) ... even
declaring that anti-slavery laws enacted in the North were
unconstitutional
A huge
crisis (the 1857 Panic) then hits the huge railway business and banking
industry ... when it
is feared that
the Dred Scott decision has thrown Western development into question
Federal
troops are sent to Utah to enforce the Mormons to end polygamy
(multiple wives); war
results; as a
byproduct of the war a large groups of Arkansans are murdered (Sep) by Mormons
as they pass
through Utah territory on their way West (the Mountain Meadows
massacre)
1858 Lincoln and veteran Democratic Party politician Stephen Douglas engage in seven public debates as
Illinois
candidates for the US Senate; Douglas is ultimately chosen by the
Illinois legislature ...
though the
opinion is held widely that Lincoln outclassed Douglas greatly – especially on the
slavery matter
1859 John Brown and a group of militant Abolitionists attack the military arsenal at Harpers Ferry ...
supposedly as
the spark designed to set off a massive slave revolt across the South;
the only
result is the
capture, killing or arrest, and soon execution of Brown and his men;
but it does set
off the legend of the amazing John Brown |
| 1860s |
A
horrible civil war breaks out between the North and the South; the
South is defeated; postwar North-South "Reconstruction" begins
1860 Lincoln delivers a stunning speech at the Cooper Union New York Republican convention (Feb)
Lincoln is elected US president ... sparking South Carolina
(Dec) to begin the break from the Federal
Union
1861 Confederates fire on a ship trying to bring supplies to Union
emplacements at Charleston (Jan)
Other Southern States come together to create the Confederate States of
America at a meeting
(Feb) in Montgomery, Alabama
... with Jefferson Davis appointed as Provisional President
Lincoln in inaugurated as president (Mar)
A massive Confederate attack on Fort Sumter forces Union troops there
to surrender (Apr)
Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina join the Confederacy; Kentucky remains "neutral" Western
Virginians
split from the state ... and eventually form their own new state:
West Virginia (May)
The chaotic Battle of Manassas
or Bull Run ... just south of the capital at DC (Jul)
An inconclusive battle at Wilson's Creek near Springfield, Missouri (Aug)
Grant distinguishes himself in an
othewise rather inconclusive battle at Belmont, Missouri (Nov)
Confederate officials aboard HMS Trent headed for Britain are seized ... then subsequently
released (Nov)
1862 Julia Ward Howe publishes (Feb) her poem, put to music, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," whic
becomes something of the Union army's marching song ... and which declares most
certainly that
it is God, going
before the Union troops, that is the guarantor of the Union's
ultimate victory in
the struggle to save the Union ... and end slavery
Union general Grant defeats
Confederate forces at Forts Henry and Donelson ... essentially taking
much of Tennesee out of action (Feb)
An inconclusive battle of the "Ironclads" between the South's Merimac (or Virginia) and the North's
Monitor at Hampton Roads near Norfolk, Virginia, surprises everyone (Mar)
An inclusive battle at Shiloh catches Grant by surprise; but the seeming Confederate "victory" is
very expensive for the
Confederates ... including the loss of their general A.S. Johnston Apr)
The very strategic
city of New Orleans is captured by Union Navy commander Farragut (Apr)
Union commander
McClellan marches the main Union army along coast Virginia ... fighting
battles in
a way to glorify his troops (and humself) – but of little strategic importance (Apr)
Grant moves his troops down the Mississippi River to Vickburg – the last key Confederate position
on the
strategic river ... thus cutting off Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas from
the rest of the
Confederacy – and outside the major action of the remainder of the war (May)
Confederate General
Joe Johnston (another Johnston!) is badly wounded in another round of
battle
with McClellan in
coastal Virginia (at the Chickahominy Creek); Robert E Lee thus takes
Confederate command (May)
McClellan meets and defeats Confederate forces (the 7-Days Battles) ... then pulls back to rest –
rather than finish off the Confederate military (Jun)
Union general Pope holds the ground at a Second Battle of Manassas or Bull Run ... unassisted by
McClellan, who decides simply to not join him in the action (Aug)
Meanwhile, with the Civil War as
America's major military obsession, American Indians have resumed
their attacks on
unprotected White settlers in the West ... with Sioux (Eastern Dakota)
tribesmen killing
several hundred German settlers at New Ulm (Aug); Lincoln sends Federal
troops
to stop the attacks; 300
Indians are are convicted of murder ... though only 38 are hanged
Lee is stopped by McClellan at Antietam Creek ... resulting in the highest single-day losses in the
war by
both sides; but McClellan then refuses to move to finish off the weary
Confederates (Sep)
Lincoln then (Sep) issues
the Emancipation Proclamation recognizing – as of the coming Jan 1st –
an official end to slavery in
the South – even inviting
former slaves to join the Union army
Lincoln finally removes McClellan from command ... giving the position to Ambrose Burnside (Nov)
Burnside attempts to live up to Lincoln's expectations and sends his army into Virginia ...
only to
face disaster at the city of Fredericksburg across the wide
Rappahannock
River (Dec)
1863 Burnside's second attempt on Fredericksburg ends in no less of a disaster (Jan)
Meanwhile in the
American West, Federal troops (led by Kit Carson) begin the round up
Navajo and
Apache tribes ... in
order to relocate them to the bleak Pecos River region in New Mexico
The new commanding
general Hooker moves Union troops around Fredericksburg ... but loses
his
nerve when he runs into
unexpected Confederate oppositon at Chancellorsville (May); huge losses
occur on both sides;
but especially hard on the Confederates was the accidental loss of
Stonewall
Jackson
Vallandigham and his
anti-war Northern Democrats ("Copperheads") attempt to stir widening
resistance in the North
to "Mr. Lincoln's War"; Vallandigham is arrested (May) ... but is
allowed
by Lincoln to slip off
to Canada; Vallandigham then tries to continue his campaign from there
The Union scores a
huge victory at the Battle of Gettysburg (early Jul); but new commanding
general Meade fails to
move against Lee's exhausted, retreating Confederate troops ... missing
the opportunity to end the war with a full Union victory
But at exactly the
same time (early Jul) Grant finally brings Vicksburg to surrender,
completing the
Union control of the strategic Mississippi River
Irish immigrants are
infuriated to learn that citizenship (which New York City boss Tweed
has offered
widely in order to
build up his voting base) also means military service ... and thus riot
(Jul)
Battle now focuses on
the central border regions of southern Tennessee and northern Georgia
...
at Chicamauga (Sep) and Chattanooga (Nov), producing significant Union victories
Lincoln delivers his
famous Gettysburg Address (Nov) commemorating the lives of soldiers
lost in the
huge battle there ...
also clarifying considerably the Union cause and its vital importance
to all
1864 With Grant now in command of the Union army in Virginia, Lee finds he is up against an individual
that will not back off
to rest following relentless engagements: Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, Cold
Harbor, etc. (May-Jun)
But the Virginia town
of Petersburg has built strong defenses able to block Union progress
(Jul)
Mobile, the last open Southern port, is brought to defeat by Farragut's
Union navy (Aug)
On the Georgia front,
Sherman has advanced his troops south, to surround (May) and defeat
(Sep)
the strategic city of Atlanta; Atlanta then burns widely (Nov)
While Petersburg
continues to hold out, Sheridan moves his cavalry into Western
Virginia, raiding and
crushing the Confederate spirit in the Shenandoah region (Sep-Oct)
With the war now
headed clearly in the Union's favor, Lincoln is easily reelected (Nov)
Meanwhile, White
bitterness against Indians in the West brings ongoing conflict ... with
700 Federal
troops attacking an
actually peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho community at Sand Creek, killing
mostly women and children ... while the men were away hunting buffalo (Nov)
In Northern Texas,
Federal troops under Carson moved to stop the Indian attacks on settlers
following the Santa Fe
trail to the West ... and engaged a huge Comanche and Kiowa Indian
coalition at the Battle of Adobe Walls (late Nov)
Sherman heads his
troops through Southern Georgia to Savannah, capturing Savannah as a
"Christmas present"
for Lincoln ... and giving the Union full control of the mid-South
(Nov-Dec)
1865 Congress passes the 13th Amendment ending slavery in the US (Jan); it is fully ratified (Dec)
Sherman heads
his troops north from Savannah through the Carolinas (Feb-Mar) ... with
Confederate resistance collapsing everywhere
Lincoln delivers
his famous Second Inaugural Address ... reminding Americans of their
covenant with
God
Both Petersburg
and Virginia's capital at Richmond are brought to defeat (Apr 3)
Lee surrenders to Grant at the Appomattox Court House (Apr 9)
Lincoln is
assassinated by Booth (Apr 14)... ending any possibility of some kind
of post-war
reconciliation between the North and the South
Vice President
Johnson becomes American president ... but faces the wrath of Northern
Republican
"Radicals" – led principally by Stevens and Sumner – when he attempts to follow Lincoln's idea of
North-South
reconciliation; Radicals view the Democrat Johnson as being simply
"pro-South" ...
and do everything they can to block his presidency
1866 Johnson's effort (Mar) to block Congress's authorization of the 14th Amendment (equality of all
citizens before
the law ... but also excluding from federal office anyone who had
fought against
the Union) merely
produces a strong political reaction in the North ... one that
increases greatly
the Republican
position in Congress in the elections (Nov) ... which in turn then
enables the
Republicans/Radicals
to easily overturn Jounson's vetoes of their other Reconstruction
programs
Former
Confederate General Forrest forms the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to fight
Southern Reconstruction
1867 US Secretary of State Seward negotiates the purchase of Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million
(Mar) – to block further Russian expansion into North America; the purchase price was considered
by many to have been excessive ... and called the deal "Seward's Folly"
The Chisolm
Trail is laid out ... to bring cattle north from southern Texas to the
railhead at Abilene
Kansas
1868 Johnson is impeached by the House (Mar) and only one vote short of being convicted by a required
two-thirds Senate vote (May) of "high crimes and misdemeanors"
The 14th Amendment is finally ratified (Jul)
Grant is elected
president (Nov); but he does not monitor his supporting politicians the
way he once
monitored his troops
... and corruption on a grand scale seeps into his presidency
1869 Congress passes (Feb) – Republicans supportive, Democrats fully opposed – the 15th Amendment,
granting the right to
vote by all citizens, regardless of "race, color, or previous condition
of
servitude" (slavery); the following Feb (1870) it is ratified
Fisk and Gould
attempt to conrner the entire gold market; Grant responds by releasing
federal gold
... undercutting deeply their profits
|
| 1870s | The Grant and Hayes Republican Administrations
1870 The 15th Amendment is ratified (Feb) confirming the right to vote of all citizens ... regardless of
"race, color, or previous servitude" (slavery)
Rockefeller
founds the Standard Oil Company ... the beginning of a huge energy
monopoly
1871 The British bring the Columbia region separating America from Alaska into the Canadian confederation
... disappointing Americans hoping to make an American connection there
1872 The Credit Mobilier scandal becomes public ... revealing the tricks of Union Pacific director Durant
and his personal
banking firm Credit Mobilier to increase dramatically the company's
profits ...
at the government's expense
Grant easily
reelected as US president ... in his run against Liberal Greeley
1873 Boss Tweed is finally brought to justice for the way he used his Tammany Hall organization –
through his control of the state's Democratic Party – to literally run the state of New York ...
at a huge profit to himself personally
Shipping and
railroad magnate Vanderbilt offers $1 million to start up a university
that bears his
name
But the country
suffers from a huge economic downturn that year ... the 1873 Panic
The Women's
Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is formed to fight alcoholism ...
particularly
rampant among America's industrial workers
1874 In reaction to the Panic, Republicans are swept from power
1875 With the Democrats now in charge in Congress, the Reconstruction Program for the South dies
With the
invention of barbed wire, homesteads on the Great Plains can protect
farmlands ... but
also serve to block
the movement of cattle herds across those plains from Texas to Kansas
1876 A huge Indian coalition (led by Sitting Bull) – attempting to drive Whites from the Dakotas and
Montana – are confronted by Federal troops led by Sheridan; one of his divisions led by Custer is
grandly defearted by
the Indians (Jun) at Little Bighorn River ... merely strengthening the
resolve
of Whites to finally end completely "the Indian Problem"
Widespread
corruption within the Grant Administration (notably Babcock and the
Whiskey Ring)
causes the Republicans
to drop Grant as their presidential candidate ... and choose Hayes
Hayes narrowly
wins the strongly and long-contested presidential election (against
Tilden) – when
he gains Louisiana
support by offering his "Compromise": withdrawing Federal troops
from the
South
Bell patents the phone ... and forms a phone company of his name
1877 This ends Reconstruction ... and brings forth "Jim Crow" laws across the South, which force Blacks
back into a state of servitude
Huge labor strife hits the railroad industry when companies feel that
they have to cut back wages
to make any profit at all
Edison invents the phonograph
1878 Hayes vetoes the Bland-Alison Act requiring the US Treasury to purchase the Westerners' silver to
back the dollar (and
not just the more expensive gold); but Congress overrides the veto (Feb)
Then when Hayes
vetoes a bill by Congress outlawing Chinese labor, a strong reaction
brings a
Democratic Party victory in both houses in the 1878 Congressional elections
Edison invents a
carbon-filament light (improved two years later to last over 1200 hours)
Two steam-driven automobiles compete in a 200-mile race in Wisconsin
|
| 1880s | The rise of Industrial America ... and the battle for the West
1880s The number of buffalo that once covered the Great Plains drops to almost the extinction level ...
making life for the American Indian very difficult
1880 Edison founds the Ediuson Illujminating Company for New York City, making the 110-volt system
standard for America
1881 Republican Garfield is elected US president (1880) – but is in office only a few months when
he is shot (Jul)
... and dies (Sep); Vice President Arthur takes his place
1883 Arthur signs into law the Pendeton Act – making civil service appointments by a Civil Service
Commission based on skill ... not political favor
1884 Democrat Cleveland is narrowly elected US President ... helped by Republicans (Mugwumps) who
view the Republican candidate Blaine as corrupt (Arthur had chosen not to run again)
Cleveland
attempts to reduce very high American (protectionist) tariffs ...
making enemies of
American
industrialists and their political friends; being a "gold man" he also
tries to cut back on
federal silver purchase ... angering Westerners and Southerners
1886 The Knights of Labor workers' organization at this point includes 800,000 members
However ... the
Haymarket Square Riot is blamed unfairly on worker radicalism ...
beginning the
decline of the
Knights of Labor (the organization hardly surviving half dozen years
later)
A very hard winter kills hundreds of thousands of cattle ... ruining
numerous cattle barons
1887 Under the Dawes Severalty Act (1887) Indians are supposed to take up farming ways on their
reservations
... and end their nomadic ways (and break their rebellious spirit)
Hawaiians revolt under
King Kamahameh V ... leading White-American plantation owners of the
Missionary
Party to force a new constitution on the king ... the beginning of the
American
"democratization" of Hawaii (White Americans controlling the new
legislature)
1888 Cleveland is very narrowly defeated by Harrison (grandson of the former, briefly serving US
president Harrison) ... Harrison supporting the "silverites" – that is, Western silver miners ...
and in general
the poorer Americans wanting cheaper dollars to cover their debts
1889 Union workers win a huge strike at Carnegie's Homestead steel plant
Addams purchases
the Hull House in Chicago ... to support and encourage poor women and
children
|
| 1890s | America's entry into the "Gilded Age" (for some Americans anyway)
1890 At this point, some mere 1 percent of the American population at the top of the social ladder
earns over 50 percent of the nation's wealth ... with – at the other end of the social ladder –
some 44 percent of the population together earning only 1 percent of the nation's wealth
The Sherman Antitrust Act comes into force (Jul) ... originally
designed to break up trade unions ...
but ultimately used to go after industrial monopolies
Also,
Sherman's Silver Purchase Act goes into effect (Jul) in support of the
"silverites"
In
Congressional elections, Republicans lose more Congressional seats (Nov)
The Indians undertake a supreme effort to remove the White Man from their world ... taking up the
Ghost Dance in
the belief that this would make them immune to the White Man's bullets;
Sitting
Bull is arrested ... but killed by Indian police (mid-Dec);
At the same time (late Dec) federal troops attack Lakota Indians at Wounded Knee Creek, with
numerous
Indians killed ... basically ending any further Indian idea of
resistance to White
expansion
1891 Queen Liliuokalani takes the Hawaiian throne and dismisses the Constitution
1892 Harrison loses his reelection to Cleveland (Nov) ... and his wife to tuberculosis two weeks before
the election
1893 Another economic panic hits America ... which Cleveland worsens by having Congress repeal
Sherman's
Silver Act; industrial unemployment expands greatly as companies shut
down
Anti-Liliuokalani rebellion breaks out in Hawaii ...and US marines are
sent in to restore "order"
1894 The economic situation worsens further with widening worker unrest ... stirred by Socialist Debs;
hard hit is the railroad industry, with 125 thousand workers on strike – Cleveland sending troops
to break the strike at the Pullman (luxury railroad car) plant
White
businessman Dole becomes president of a new Hawaiian republic ... and
then requests
Hawaii's annexation to America
Cleveland's Democrats suffer a huge setback in the 1894 Congressional
elections (Nov)
1895 Cleveland finally accepts Morgan and Rothchild's offer to sell 3.5 million ounces of gold to the US
Treasury (in
exchange for 30-year bonds) ... saving the dollar from collapse
1896 Edison invents the movie projector
The strongly silverite Bryan defeats
pro-gold Cleveland as Democratic Party candidate ... but loses
the national election to Republican McKinley ... McKinley's
campaign skillfully directed by Hanna
1898 America decides (Apr) to back the Philippines independence movement against Spain – and also a
similar action
in Cuba ... America stirred to that action against Spain by the sinking
of the
battleship Maine in Havana's harbor (Feb)
Dewey's American fleet destroys the Spanish fleet in the Manila (Philippines) harbor (May)
The American
charge up San Juan Hill (Jul) brings Spain another huge humiliation ...
and much glory
to Roosevelt and
his "Rough Riders" (although others took on more of the action)
A battle-weary
Spain simply turns control of the Philippines over to America (Aug) ...
for America to
begin its reform of the Philippines – to make it a model (the American model) of "democracy"
After much
debate about imperialism, Congress (barely) approves the annexation of
Hawaii (Aug)
1899 But the Filipinos did not ask for such American "sponsorship" ... and rise up in revolt against its new
American overseers
In China, local
"Boxers" have risen in rebellion against their Western occupiers (plus
Japan) and
Chinese who have
accepted the Western cultural intrusion; various Western (and Japanese)
armies are sent to
China to put down the rebellion ... including a number of
American troops
US Secretary of
State Hay (with much British support) proposes an "Open Door Policy" to
keep
China from being
carved up into various Western imperial sectors or "protectorates" ...
allowing
China to be open to Western trade in any part of the country
|
| 1900s | Industrial America enters the 20th century
1900 McKinley is renominated as Republican candidate for US president, with Roosevelt as his
vice-presidential candidate; Mckinley wins the election a second time
against Bryan
1901 But McKinley is only six months into his second term when he is shot and killed; Roosevelt
is thus now US president
Carnegie sells
his steel business to J.P. Morgan for $480 million; he gives most of
his earnings away
to various charities and social endeavors
1902 The Philippine Organic Act gives limited self-government to the Filipinos ... though bloody resistance
against American authority will continue in the Philippines for another
dozen years
1903 Ford sets up the Ford Motor Company in Detroit
An American
alliance is formed (Nov) between Panamanian separatists seeking
independence from
Colombia
and offering cooperation in the building of an American canal across
Panama (the
French had just
given up the canal effort due to malaria and other problems)
The Wright
brothers test their first engine-powered, human-piloted plane (Dec)
1904 The Olds Motor Vehicle Company of Michigan is the leading US car manufacturer at this point
The masssive
Panama Canal project gets underway ... but will take 10 years to
complete
Roosevelt easily
wins reelection as US president (Nov) ... but promises not to run again
1905 Roosevelt hosts a diplomatic conference in Portsmouth New Hampshire between Russia and Japan
– to bring an end to their military conflict (the Russo-Japanese War) ... gaining the next year's
Nobel Peace Prize for his effort
The Wright brothers fly a plane 24 miles in 39 minutes!
1906 A huge earthquake hits San Francisco hard (Apr)
A strong
pentecostal Christian revival breaks out on Azusa Street in Los Angeles
(also Apr) – and
continues in one form
or another until around 1915 ... ultimately inspiring the creation of
the
Assemblies of God – and other forms of pentecostalism to follow ... all the way up to today
1907 Morgan forms a group of investors to put money back into a failed Wall Street ... saving the
American economy from
collapse; he also buys a failing industrial conglomerate; Roosevelt does
not press the matter
of potential monopolitistic practices ... for the action is well needed
He does however
act strongly in supporting the Tillman Act ... preventing corporate
contributions to
federal political campaigns – so as not to let the big-money boys control the democratic process
(that law would be set aside by the Supreme Court with rulings in 2010
and 2014 ... in effect
making it "unconstitutional" to set boundaries on campaign contributions!)
1908 Ford introduces the Model T Ford at $825 ... comparatively very inexpensive (with prices dropping
every year as production expands rapidly)
The Wright
brothers fly their newest model before the disbelieving but now
astonished French (Aug)
... and the US military (Sep)
Roosevelt ends
his presidency by sending a fleet of 16 white-colored battleships on a
cruise around
the world ... to announce America's arrival as a great power
Roosevelt's
friend Taft easily wins the Republican Party presidential nomination
... and the
presidential election itself (Bryan again the Democratic Party candidate)
|
| 1910s | America's slow emergence as a great power
1911 American businessmen are upset when Mexico's newly elected President Madero promises to spread
Mexico's wealth
more evenly around Mexican society (Americans own over 40% of that
wealth)
1912 The Republican Party presidential convention splits in a confrontation between Roosevelt and Taft
... supporting Taft – and sending Roosevelt off to start his own Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party
With the
Republicans split, the Democratic Party candidate Wilson wins the
presidential election
1913 The 16th Amendment is ratified (Feb), allowing Congress to collect an income tax directly from the
American citizenry
Mexican
President Madero is overthrown and killed in a plot to put General
Huerta in power ...
involving considerable cooperation by the American ambassador
The 17th
Amendment is ratified (Apr) "democratizing" the US Senate ... making
the election of US
senators no longer the
responsibility of the states (their governors or legislatures) but now a
matter of direct election by the American voter
The Federal
Reserve is founded to intervene with funding when the American economy
seems in
danger of collasping
Rockefeller
establishes his Foundation with $250 million in startup funds for
medical research
Ford institutes his new moving assembly line ... making the Model T even cheaper – affordable by
even his own assembly workers
1914 At this point American industry is responsible for one-third of the world's total industrial production
... more than
Britain, France and Germany combined ... though these European nations
still see
America as a rather backward society
US Secretary of
State Bryan and president Wilson are unhappy about Mexican developments
...
and send
American troops to Veracruz (Apr) to bring down the Huerta government
When war breaks
out in Europe (Aug) America takes a very neutral position ... though
the reality of
the way the war
is conducted in the Atlantic works to the detriment of the German side
of the
conflict
1915 The movie Birth of a Nation runs a full 158 minutes
The British luxury liner Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat (May) ... 128 Americans among the
1200 people drowned – infuriating America ... and bringing the Germans to promise no more
such attacks (even though the Lusitania was very illegally carrying war goods in its hold)
1916 The Filipinos are finally promised independence (in the future) ... though the matter will be delayed
for another 30 years
Wilson runs for presidential reelection – and wins – in part on the theme "he kept us out of war"
1917 A starving Germany resumes U-boat attacks on the Atlantic to break the British blockade ... and
Russia
undergoes a "February Revolution" (Mar) which brings down the Russian
imperial
government – and supposedly opens the door for Russia to now be counted among Europe's
democracies
This
causes Wilson to go to Congress requesting a Declaration of War (Apr) ... because in his mind
the European
war is now morally a battle between good "democracies" and evil
"autocracies"
1918 Wilson announces before Congress (Jan) his "Fourteen Points" ... a peace proposal to end the war
Trained
American troops now (early 1918) arrive in number in Europe ... along
the front at Belleau
Wood and St. Mihiel
An
exhausted Germany finally (Nov) accepts a cease-fire and armistice to
end the fighting; peace
talks will now presumably begin
Rockefeller expands his Foundation ($550 Million) to now also conduct
social research
A Spanish Flu epidemic hits the world – intensely so that autumn ... crippling and killing millions of
Americans (and millions more elsewhere)
Wilson arrives in Paris (Dec) ... and misunderstands the intent of the
adoring crowds that greet him
1919 The 18th Amendment is ratified (Jan) ... making the manufacture, sale, or trafficing of liquor illegal
But the Paris peace talks will in no way follow Wilson's idea of
"fairness" ... with Britain and France
out for revenge against Germany and its allies – not fairness
The only
thing Wilson comes back having won in the talks was the willingness of
his European allies
to join his proposed League of Nations
Wilson is
hit by a stroke (Jul) ... which incapacitates him deeply (but unknown
to the country)
The US Senate rejects the peace treaty (Dec) – and consequently America's entrance into his
League of Nations – to the huge disapppointment of a crippled Wilson
|
| 1920s | The "Roaring Twenties"
1920s Due to the return of the European farmers to their fields and herds, a deep economic "depression"
hits the American farms (and the rural banks funding those farms) just after the war ... ten
years ahead of
the Great Depression which will hit all America ... urban as well as
rural
But in the
American cities, a new offering of cars, radios, home appliances, etc.
makes urban life
dazzling (The Roaring Twenties)
And the
explosive growth of "speakeasy" bars in urban America develops in
defiance of Prohibition
Accompanying
this is the development of mobster organizations (such as Capone's
Chicago
organization)
And race riots
(Whites against Blacks) and the growth of the Ku Klux Klan – even across the North –
shake America's moral foundations deeply
Popular writers – part of the "Lost Generation" (such as Fitzgerald and Hemmingway) – narrate
stories about
individuals struggling with the meaninglessness or unfairness of life
And Freudian
psychology, which mocks religion as being mere self-delusion, becomes
very popular
1920 A payroll robbery and murder in Massachussets (Apr) leads to the arrest of Italian immigrants Sacco
and Vanzetti ...
found guilty at their trial the following year (Jul 1921) ... setting
off a bitter
debate about their guilt or innocense – and the fairness of the American justice system
The 19th Amendment is ratified (Aug), qualifying women as voters in all
elections ("women's
suffrage")
A bombing of Wall Street – and death and injuring of many (Sep) – intensifies a growing Red Scare
(fear of the
rising world of Communism ... popular among many immigrants and
industrial workers
in America)
1921 Harding's short-lived presidency (1921-1923) has great difficulty in keeping itself under moral
restraint ...
due to the ambitions of particular individuals (not Harding himself)
America hosts an
international Naval Conference in Washington (Nov 1921-Feb 1922) to set
limits
on the number of naval warships various countries are allowed to have
1922 Presbyterian minister Fosdick is brought under question about his anti-Fundamentalist preaching ...
causing him to resign from the denomination; Rockefeller then appoints him as pastor of a New
York City church
he himself funded; the Liberal vs. Fundamentalist Christian battle is
on!
1923 Harding's death (Aug) brings to the presidency Vice President Coolidge ... who takes the opposite
path by conducting a morally-tight (even Puritanical) presidency
1925 The "Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tennessee (Jul) rivets the attention of Americans ... in the
form of a huge
debate about the origins and development of life on this planet ... and
which
version
(Christian or Darwinist) should be passed on to rising generations as
the Truth
1927 Ford introduces the Model A Ford, replacing the Model T ... which at that point over 15 million had
been produced!
Lindberg flies
his plane across the Atlantic from New York City to Paris (May) ...
amazing the world!
Sacco and
Vanzetti are put to death (Aug) ... as the international debate
continues
1928 The Presbyterian leadership now swings to the Liberal side of the spectrum ... requiring Princeton
Seminary to move
to a move Liberal position ... causing professor Machen and others to
quit
Princeton and form the Westminster Seminary in nearby Philadelphia
US Secretary of
State Kellogg signs an agreement in Paris (Aug) with French Foreign
Minister
Briand,
promising not to resort to war (except for self-defense!); other
countries join the
Kellog-Briand Pact, presuming to put the curse of war away forever
Coolidge
choses not to run again ... and Hoover is nominated and elected US
President (Nov)
1929 America's speculative fever comes to a crashing end with the selling panic that hits the Wall Street
Stock Market
(Oct) ... when it dawns on investors that the glory days of industrial
sales are
over
|
| 1930s | The Depression, the rise of the Dictators, and the beginning of World War Two
1930 Initially, Hoover takes no action ... seeing the crisis as purely economic ... not political
1932 At this point almost 30% of the American workforce is unemployed
Hoover sponsors
the Emergency Relief and Construction Act to employ workers ... getting
criticism
from the Democrats for attempting to introduce "Socialism"
Hoover worsens
his cause dramatically by refusing to cooperate with a "Bonus Army" of
17,000
unemployed
former soldiers ... who converge on DC (May) to request that a promised
pension be
given them now
(rather than 10 years later); Hoover eventually (Jul) sends
troops to clear out
their DC encampment
The Democrats
succeed in getting the voting public to see Hoover as the cause of the
Depression
... and Roosevelt (Teddy's nephew Franklin) campaigns promising an (unspecified) "New Deal"
– gaining a huge victory in the presidential elections (Nov)
1933- Roosevelt's New Deal actually turns into exactly the Socialism that the Democrats had accused
1935 Hoover of attempting ... except that the New Deal involved an extensive takeover of the
nation's economy
by the Roosevelt government; the whole thing is justified by pointing
out
the dangers and evil of a greatly failed
"Capitalism" (privately owned industry)
Roosevelt's New Deal develops public parks, builds hydroelectric dams,
highways, and municipal
buildings), controls agricultural prices, regulates the banking and
investment industry, and
creates the
Social Security retirement trust fund ... helping put many of the
unemployed
back to work ... and helping to stablize the economy
Meanwhile, traditional American society has come into such deep
disrepute because of the
country's
economic collapse ... that it inspires a number of intellectuals to
join in declaring a
new Humanist Manifesto (1933) that offers a new and quite secular (and Socialist) Humanist
religion in replacement of traditional Christianity
Also, American intellectuals are
taken in by the Stalinist deception that real industrial progress (not
going on at the
time in America) depends on the Stalinist social model ...
intellectuals not
understanding
that the Russian phenomenon is based on turning Russian workers into
government
slaves ... something carefully hidden from the sight of the West (and
America)
And when
Mussolini's Italian troops invade a peaceful Ethiopia (Oct), Americans
are shocked ... but
do little in
response ... American oil companies even ignoring the League's
sanctions – happy to
sell oil to Mussolini
Indeed, Congress
begins its annual passage of the Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, 1937 and
1939)
forbidding
Roosevelt to get involved in any of the international crises breaking
out across the
world
At this point
also (1935), the Supreme Court begins to declare Roosevelt's New Deal
programs as
unconstitutional ... upsetting Roosevelt greatly
A massive and
lasting drought hits the American mid-West ... creating the "Dust Bowl"
(1935-1937)
... forcing farmers to abandon their farms and head West – looking for work of any kind
1936 Roosevelt is reelected with a 61% popular majority and near total sweep of the electoral vote (Nov)
A bloody civil war breaks out in Spain ... and numerous idealistic
Americans join in the "democratic"
struggle of the
Republicans against the traditionalist Nationalists (the latter led by
Franco)
1937 So annoyed is Roosevelt with the Supreme Court that he announces plans to expand the number of
Court justices (with
his own appointees) ... but backs down when even Congressional
Democrats refuse to go along with the
plan; this plan also damages his popular support
Then, with all of the New Deal work projects now completed,
unemployment climbs back up again
(private industry had not made any
kind of comeback during the New Deal era) ... and America
slides back into the Depression
Auto and steel worker strikes grow violent in confrontations between
striking workers, scabs, and
police or security-service personnel
... with numerous brutal deaths often accompanying these
conflicts; 18 people die in a battle
between strikers and scabs at Republic Steel's Cleveland
plant ... and police kill ten and wound many more strikers and family members simply gathered
for a Memorial
Day picnic near Republic Steel's plant in Chicago (both events in late
May)
Blacks also receive the wrath of frustrated (and crazily angry) Whites
The idea of massive trans-Atlantic flight via huge blimps collapses
with the tragic destruction of the
massive blimp Hindenburg (May)
Americans are growing alarmed at the language and actions of Hitler in
Germany ... but know of
little that they can do about such
matters; some Americans however want to imitate Hitler
And the Japanese military acts on its own to invade China (Jul) ... to
begin the conquest of that
country – murdering millions of Chinese in the process; America is shocked!
1938 When Hitler marches his troops into Austria (Mar) to force the union of that country with his Nazi
Germany,
Americans are shocked further ... seeing war clouds developing across
the world – but
not sure what to
do about these matters; the situation is worsened that year (Sep) when
the
British
authorize Hitler to also seize the German borderlands of Czechoslovaki
Americans are
horrified when Hitler's Nazis begin their full assault (Nov) on
Germany's Jewish
population
1939 Hitler completes the seizure of all of Czechoslovakia (Mar) ... with the help of the Slovaks – who
resent the Western ways of their Czech partners
Hoping to turn
Hitler's aggressions now westward (towards France and Britain) Stalin
signs a peace
treaty with
Hitler (Aug) ... which secretly divides Poland between them as a buffer
zone
Hitler makes his
move a week later into Poland (Sep) and Britain and France declare war
against
Hitler; World
War Two has officially begun (though underway in China since 1937)
Two weeks later
Stalin moves into his half of Poland ... but the world does nothing;
but when Stalin
sends his troops
into Finland (Oct), the League condemns the move ... which also
achieves little
– except Russia's resignation from the League
Indeed, little
is done in the West to counter the moves of these tyrants ... leading
Hitler to scorn
the Western response as the Sitzgrieg (Sitting War); even in the West it comes to be termed
the "Phony War"
However, on the high seas, Churchill's navy traps the German battleship Graf Spree at Montevideo,
Uruguay (Dec) ... causing its captain to scuttle this valuable battleship rather than surrender it
|
| 1940s | World War Two ... and the beginning of the Cold War
1940 Hitler moves his army across Denmark and his navy to the shores of Norway (Apr) ... to gain access
to Swedish
iron ore needed for his war machine; he then invades Belgium, the
Netherlands
and France (May)
quickly overrunning these three countries (by early Jun); he then
begins an
air assault on
Britain (Jul) ... in preparation for a channel crossing and invasion of
Britain;
America is
shocked ... but is in a position to do little about all this; but it
vastly increases its
defense budget ... and sells "surplus" war goods to Britain – including 50 battleships (Sep) given
to Britain in
exchange for British land on which to build American air bases
Germany, Italy
and Japan sign a Tripartite Pact (Sep) uniting these three
authoritarian societies as
the "Axis Powers"
Roosevelt is reelected to his third term as president (Nov)
1941 After much heated debate, Congress approves "Lend Lease" (Mar), permitting Roosevelt to sell, lend
or transfer any goods to any country (Britain expected to be the major
recipient, but also China
... and then soon Russia) that he deems necessary for "American defense"
Hitler now turns
his troops against the Russians (Jun) ... in quest of the
grainfields and oil lands he
deems necessary
for Germany's continued dominance; but the Russians prove highly
resistant
America is so
unhappy about Japanese action in China and Southeast Asia that it
places an
embargo on sales of oil, iron and other strategic goods to Japan (Jul)
Roosevelt meets Churchill at sea (Aug), to agree to mutual wartime goals (the Atlantic Charter) ...
though America is officially at war with no one at that point
The Atlantic
Charter will be adopted by many other countries (Sep) ... and become
the basis of the
group termed the "United Nations"
Hitler continues
to ignore America's pro-British" neutrality" ... although a German
Uboat sinks an
American
destroyer protecting a merchant convoy (Oct) ... leading Congress to
put aside its
Neutraliy Acts
Japan, anxious to reach the resources of Dutch Indonesia – and worried about America's strategic
position in the Philppines across Japan's path to those resources – decides to bring America to
its knees by
knocking out America's Pacific fleet anchored in Hawaii (Dec); but
Roosevelt is not
interested in
any form of surrender ... and gets Congress immediately to declare war
against
Japan; a few
days later, Hitler foolishly decides to honor his pact with Japan and
declares war
on America;
America is now fully involved in World War Two ... on two fronts,
Europe and the
Pacific
Meanwhile,
Hitler's offensive in Russia comes to a halt as a harsh Russian winter
sets in
1942 Sadly an American (and even larger Philippine) military force, surounded by Japanese troops and
unable to
resupplied by sea (the Pacific fleet largely disabled), is forced to
surrender (May)
But a planned
Japanese surprise seizure of the vital mid-Pacific island of Midway is
anticipated by
American
aircraft carriers (that had been out of Hawaii at the time of Japan's
bombing there)
whose planes do
enormous damage to the surprised Japanese fleet (Jun); this battle will
mark
Japan's furthest
expansion ... and the beginning of its retreat in the Pacific
Americans join
with the British in attacking the Southern German-Italian flank along
the
Mediterranean coast of North Africa (Oct-Nov)
The Germans,
having resumed their action against Russia (Jun) now find their
progress halted at the
city of Stalingrad (Nov-Dec) ... as another brutal winter sets in
1943 The battle in the Pacific moves north from New Guinea (Buna Beach - Jan) and the Solomon Islands
(Bouganville -
Nov) ... and west from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands (Tarawa - Nov)
The surviving – and surrounded – German troops at Stalingrad are forced to surrender (Feb) ...
beginning the
Russian counteroffensive against the Germans; a huge battle at Kursk
(Jul-Aug)
destroys much of the German army
The
British-American Allied troops take Sicily from the Germans and
Italians (Aug) ... at which point
the Italians
drop out of the war (Sep) ... having already deposed Mussolini (Jul);
the Germans
continue the fight from the mountains in Italy
1944 The Americans decide to do an end run around the Germans with a coastal landing in Anzio (Jan) –
but wait too long to
get off the beach ... and find themselves trapped there (until May)
The long-awaited
cross-channel offensive against the Germans takes place at Normandy
(Jun) ...
beginning the
German retreat in France; the same day, American troops enter a freed
Rome
Representatives of the Allies or "United Nations" gather at Brreton
Woods (New Hampshire) to plan
for the coming post-war economic and financial challenges (Jul)
The Russians
advance against the Germans all the way up to Poland's capital, Warsaw
(Aug) – and
then halt ... so as to let the Germans finish off the Polish resistance ... thus leaving Poland
defenseless against an expansive Russia; then the Russian resume their
advance (Oct)
Americans
advance against the Japanese from the East (Saipan, Tinian, Guam -
Jun-Aug);
MacArthur's
American troops finally begin the liberation of the Philippines (Oct)
Roosevelt is reelected to his fourth presidential term (Nov)
A hoped for Allied swing north into Germany from the Netherlands stalls
(Nov); then the Germans
attempt a
counter attack against American troops in Eastern Belgium ... which
also fails (Dec)
1945 Russian and American-British troops now find themselves in a collapsing Germany (Jan) ... with the
Russians most
likely to reach Berlin first (located in northeastern Germany)
Roosevelt,
Churchill and Stalin meet (Feb) at Yalta (southern Russia) to go over
postwar plans;
seeing how the
Japanese are so willing to fight, it is expected that it will take
another two
years to bring
Japan to defeat; Roosevelt is delighted when Stalin promises to bring
Russia into
the war against
Japan after Germany is defeated ... under the provision of Russia
gaining
Japanese land
and becoming the "protector" of various Chinese and Korean territories
American troops
now find themselves on Japanese islands (Iwo Jima - Feb / Okinawa -
Apr) ... with
the Japanese
seemingly willing to defend their land down to the last man, woman and
child
To America's
huge shock and horror, a very sick Roosevelt suddenly dies (mid-Apr)
... bringing the
relatively unknown Truman to the US presidency
Hitler commits
suicide (end of Apr) ... and the German government collapses; the
German military
surrenders officially (early May)
Truman, Churchill and Stalin meet at the Berlin suburb of Potsdam (Jul) ... to go over postwar plans;
halfway through
the conference, Churchill is informed that he is to be replaced by
Labour Party
leader Atlee – both as prime minister and as Britain's chief delegate to the Potsdam conference
... a result of British national elections that just took place
Two American
atomic bombs are dropped over Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki
(Aug) ... finally
breaking the Japanese resolve to fight to the end
Realizing that
the war with Japan is about over, Stalin immediately declares war
on Japan – in order
to claim the fruits of the Yalta agreement
Japanese
delegates sign the documents of surrender aboard the US battleship Missouri (Sep); the
war is officially over
|
| 1950s | The Cold War in full force
1950 The
|
| 1960s | The turbulent 1960s
1960 The
|
| 1970s | The troubled 1970s
1970 The
|
| 1980s | The "Regan Era" marks
a decade of a return to more traditional values
1980 The Former actor and 2-term California
governor Reagan (of the old "Vet" generation) crushes
Carter in the November
elections
|
| 1990s | The sole Superpower
enjoys a decade of incredible prosperity and international leadership –
and cultural hedonism
1991 A Bush (Sr.) victory against Iraq
in the Gulf or "Desert Storm" War (early 1991) puts Vietnam
defeatism
behind America – restoring a sense of America's rightful place as a sole superpower
leading the world
1992 But US economic difficulties (another
economic bubble in the US housing and banking bursts)
undercuts Bush in
his re-election bid – and brings in the young Boomer (former Arkansas
governor and
Democratic Party candidate) Clinton to the White House in 1993
Clinton undertakes a Liberal reform
agenda (national health insurance and open homosexuality in
the military)
which explodes in his face – and he backs down ... to the distress of his wife
Hillary, who had been heading up his medical program effort
1993 To everyone's great shock, Muslim terrorists – soon connected to the al Qaeda organization –
succeed in destroying six stories of the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center and
killing six people and injuring a thousand others (Feb)
Clinton
hosts a successful peace conference between Israeli Prime Minister
Rabin and PLO leader
Arafat (Sep) ...
which however is undone when Rabin is killed by a Jewish radical (Nov
1995)
The UN
requests American help in getting food relief past Somali gangs to a
starving Somali public
... which Clinton answers (Oct) – and then wisely backs down from when he realized he was
not getting much Somali support
1994 A cautious Clinton slowly responds to another UN request for American assistance – in Haiti,
where a miliary junta had taken over and had created a huge
humanitarian crisis; when he saw
he would have
real support, he sent US representatives, then military to Haiti ...
forcing the
junta to restore the elected President to power in Haiti
1995 Republican leader Gingrich’s Contract with America inspires a Republican takeover of Congress
(Jan), based on the
Republican promise to balance the budget, reduce Federal government
spending (especially
endless welfare payments) and lower taxes
To save his presidency, Clinton gradually moves
to take up much of Gingrich’s program himself
Once
again, America is asked to step in to fix a crisis ... "ethnic
cleansing," mostly by Serbs of
non-Serbs, in much of the former Yugoslavia – but in the province of Bosnia in particular
Clinton
responds with NATO air strikes (Aug-Sep) and with other allies to
attack Serbian positions
... resulting in
the willingness of the Serbs to agree to the Dayton (Ohio) Accords (Nov)
1998 Muslim terrorists destroy and kill workers at the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya (Aug)
Clinton responds with air attacks on al Qaeda training camps in
Afghanistan ... and (mistakenly)
a site in the Sudan
1998-1999 Ethnic strife breaks out in Kosovo
(also part of former Yugoslavia) with America again
taking up the role as the world policeman – separating the warring ethnic
groups (Serbs and
Kosovars this round) in the former Yugoslavia and bringing peace to the
region
Yeltsin's Russia struggles with corruption
in its effort to find stability as a "democracy;" the
Russian love
of Western culture cools.
An ongoing computer revolution continues to bring unprecedented prosperity to many Americans
Towards the end of his presidency
Clinton gets caught in a sex scandal (Monica) – but manages to
survive Republican impeachment efforts
|
| 2000s | Muslim terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center focuses Bush Jr.'s presidency -
producing military/diplomatic resolve to "remake" Afghanistan and Iraq politically and
culturally - also helping to plunge the American government into deep indebtedness
2000 Putin comes to power in Russia (2000) to put the country back on a more traditional authoritarian
political course – to the distress of America
Republican Bush (Jr.) narrowly defeats
Democrat Gore in the 2000 presidential elections
2001 Bush, as a "compassionate conservative,"
proposes a new look for the Republican party – which
slowly reveals itself
as being rather similar to the Democratic Party's vision of political
"progressivism"
run from Washington: Bush, Jr. pushes hard for his "No Child Left
Behind"
program – which proposes to put American education under close
federal government supervision
But Muslim (al-Qaeda) terrorist destruction
of the World Trade Center (Sep 11 or 9/11) refocuses
Bush's presidency, producing
American military/diplomatic resolve in Afghanistan against the
al-Qaeda
terrorists and their Taliban hosts (who have sworn themselves to the total
destruction
of Western civilization); in this, America and Bush' will receive deep world sympathy, confidence
and support
(However, Bush
dared not do the same with respect to nuclear armed and supposedly
friendly
Pakistan – where there was an even greater al Qaeda presence);
But oddly and
dangerously foolish enough, a strong push of his Neo-Conservative
advisors Cheney
and Rumsfeld to expand in the Middle East America's "democratic in Saddam Hussein's quite
secular Iraq (no connection with al Qaeda) undermines that same global support
2003 Indeed, in the face of widespread opposstion to the Iraq invasion, Bush decides to invade Iraq
anyway (Mar), plunging
American troops into what Cheney clearly knew was a "quagmire"
Bush equally foolishly sends
incompetent Bremer to Iraq (May) ... who undercuts the support
America was actually
receiving from the Iraqis ... most importantly, its military and
professional
classes that initially were quite cooperative; Bremer now makes enemies of them
2004 Bush then tries to turn the running of an agonizingly long war over to the Iraqis (Jun); but Arab
Sunni and Shi'ite hatreds and Kurdish independent-mindedness produce such deep political
schisms that "democratic" self-government does not automatically spring forth in Iraq; America
is now stuck in the "quagmire" trying to hold the country together
Most amazingly,
Bush defeats very Liberal Democrat John Kerry in the November elections
... and
the Republicans increase their majorities in both the House and Senate
2005 A Federal District Judge declares in 2005 that only a Darwinist, not Biblical, explanation of the
origins of life can be taught in public schools ... and fines a school
board $1 million in damages
for its "inanity" for suggesting that a child might also personally and
privately want to consult a
non-Darwinian viewpoint
2006 Unsurprisingly, Congressional elections (Nov) by a now disillusioned American electorate end the
Republican control of
Congress ... with huge Republican losses in both the House and Senate
China's economy
continues to boom, presenting a challenge for the world's resources +
America's
economic dominance in the world; indeed, China has moved into the position
of now being one
of the economic powerhouses in the world – running up
a huge surplus in the balance of trade
with America – and helping offset
a growing American national indebtedness by buying American
public debt
Nuclear North Korea and near-nuclear
Iran (with only mild disapproval from Russia and fast-rising
China) move
to challenge Western (American) world dominance
2008 A ballooning American government deficit takes on monumental proportions (growing from $5 trillion
to well over $10 trillion in the 8 years of the Bush presidency)
A near financial meltdown of a number of major American banks – inspired in great part by foolish
mortgage lending to "subprime" customers (and the overbuilding of homes) pushes the financial
world to the brink of
collapse (2008); but a US government "bailout" in the last days of the
Bush
presidency provides an expensive a rescue of the banks
National
elections (Nov) pit the seasoned military and political veteran and
proven war-hero
(Republican) John McCain against the inexperienced political celebrity and multi-racial (Democrat)
Barack Obama; in the
vote, the Republicans lose not only the White House but suffer an even
bigger political loss
in Congress (now numbering 257 Democrats to 178 Republicans in the
House;
59 Democrats to 41 Republicans with 2 left-leaning independents in the Senate)
2009 As President, Obama quickly follows Bush's program of a buyout of troubled American businesses,
extending the Federal buyout to much of the American
automotive industry (GM and Chrysler)
He also runs up the public
debt with "economic incentives" to try to put life back into the economy
Obama delivers a speech in Egypt
affirming America's new support for the Islamic world (Jun)
Brazil, Russia, India
and China hold a summit conference agreeing to bring their economies
together
in closer cooperation
(Jun) … designed to make them less dependent on the West's economy –
and in particular the American dollar – for their development;
South Africa
will join the next year – now constituting an organization known by the
initials BRICS
The American
economy does not recover from the financial crisis, despite vast
amounts of Bush
and Obama
government funding to "stimulate" the economy; this increases greatly
the national
debt
A
Democrat-controlled Congress pushes through Obama's national health
program (Nov-Dec)
... which Obama signs into law (Mar 2010)
|
| 2010s | America struggles to locate its national identity at home and to find its way abroad in a
multipolar political, economic and cultural universe
2011 During the "Arab Spring" (2011) the Middle East is shaken by the rise of Muslim rebel groups,
particularly in
Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya; America and the West try to stay out
of the mess
Osama bin Laden is finally killed by Navy SEALs in Pakistan (May)
2012 Obama threatens Assad with US counteraction if he does not stop his repression in Syria ...
but fails to deliver on the threat, helping to add to the Syrian
confusion ... and driving Assad to
Putin's Russia for support
Obama is re-elected in a race with the Republican Romney (Nov)
2014 Masked Russian troops seize Crimea from Ukraine (Feb); America and the West react only
with anger ... and some economic threats aimed at Putin's Russia
Jihadists
announce the creation of an Islamic state/caliphate in Iraq and Syria -
ISIS (Jun)
2015 The Supreme Court decides 5-4 that "marriage" must also include homosexual unions (Jun)
China claims ownership of
the South China Sea by starting construction of naval air bases on
dredged islands
2016 Because of negotiations undertaken by Secretary of State Kerry, American economic sanctions
are lifted
against Iran ... who supposedly has ended nuclear weapons development
(Jan)
The American
federal debt reaches nearly $20 trillion by the end of the Obama
Presidency
Businessman and TV celebrity Donald Trump defeats Hillary Clinton in
the 2016 presidential
elections. Democrats protest that the election
was not fair (he won the electoral college vote
but not the popular
vote) ... and become determined to bring down the Trump Presidency by
whatever means possible.
ISIS is crushed
when its capital at Raqqa is taken by pro-American forces (2017) ...
but ISIS's
forces are
merely scattered and spread into the surrounding areas of the Middle
East
2018 Confirmation hearings of Supreme Court appointee Kavanaugh turn ugly as Democrats bring out
claims of a misogynist
event during his high school years ... stirring "Me Too" feminist wrath
when he is confirmed
Horrible living
conditions in Central America (and elsewhere) send hundreds of
thousands of Latinos
(and others) north to attempt to cross the border into America ...
2018-2019 But House Democrats block efforts of Trump to erect a wall to stop this invasion (2018/19)
2019 Democrats' efforts to find impeachable "collusion" in the 2016 election between Trump and Russia
are hurt by the
Mueller inquiry ... which finally finds insuficient basis to bring
criminal charges
against Trump (Mar)
A global pandemic originates at the end of 2019 in China (Covid-19)
|
| 2020s | The political-moral problems challenging America and the Western world continue to mount
2020 This coronavirus pandemic hits the world at the beginning of the year ... killing millions across the
globe, deeply
undermining national economies (includin America's) ... and disrupting
life in
general
2020 A very elderly professional Washington politician (A Democrat serving almost a half-century in
Washington), Biden is elected US President (Nov)
2021 Trump protests that the 2020 election was not fair ... and encourages protesters to march on the
Capitol Building
the day Congress is affirming the vote (January 6); a violent disaster
results;
numerous court cases are filed against Trump
In his first
day in office, Biden issues Executive Order after Executive Order ...
in order to bring
the country more fully under the "progressive" control of the
Washington bureaucracy … in
every possible realm of life
The massive invasion by
"illegals" crossing into America from Mexico continues to go largely
unblocked
Biden completes Trump's
plan for an American withdrawal from Afghanistan … but the actua l
operation (Aug) proves to be merely a disastrous abandonment of
American assets and
allies there
2022 America and Europe swing to strong support of Ukraine when Putin's Russia suddenly (Feb)
attacks Russia ... starting up a war which drags on and on
2024 Several Middle Eastern countries join BRICS … and begin to move against the American dollar's
place of prominence in the world's economy
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|
Miles
H. Hodges
