World History: United States

Original North American colonies that signed the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776.

Begun as colonial muscling for control of the Ohio River valley, the French and Indian War (1754-1760) ignited the worldwide conflict between the British and French known as the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and ended France’s North American empire.

Settlement made by the Pilgrims on the coast of Massachusetts in 1620.

Union for "mutual safety and welfare" formed in 1643 by representatives of the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.

Plan formulated by John Law for the colonization and commercial exploitation of the Mississippi valley and other French colonial areas.

Italian explorer in the service of Spain who determined that the earth was round and attempted to reach Asia by sailing west from Europe, thereby reaching America (1492)

The original inhabitants of the American continent, who arrived during the last glacial period (according to some estimates, 14–40 000 years ago, but the issue is controversial) from Asia, crossing from Siberia over the Bering Strait, perhaps in three waves.

A movement culminating in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed first to end the slave trade, and then to abolish the institution of slavery and emancipate slaves.

Slavery has been found among many groups of low material culture, as in the Malay Peninsula and among some Native Americans; it also has occurred in more highly developed societies, such as the southern United States.

Loosely organized system for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of safety in free states. It was run by local groups of Northern abolitionists, both white and free blacks.

In US history, the belief that Americans had a providential mission to extend both their territory and their democratic processes westwards across the continent.

The right of women to vote; Throughout the latter part of the 19th cent. the issue of women's voting rights was an important phase of feminism.

US scientist and statesman.

American silversmith and political leader in the American Revolution.

American statesman.

American inventor of the cotton gin.

American actor and the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

Author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, a profoundly influential African American text during his era, Douglass rose through the ranks of the antislavery movement to become the most electrifying speaker and compelling writer produced by black America in the nineteenth century.

Women’s rights leader and feminist pioneer, born in Johnstown, New York, USA.

US antislavery and women's-suffrage campaigner.

US abolitionist who helped set up the Underground Railroad.

American author and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in America.

A Native Virginian and General in chief of the Confederate armies in the American Civil War.

American statesman and President of the Southern Confederacy during the American Civil War.

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of the most controversial books of its' time, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, USA.

Full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Britain and making them into the United States.

Struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. The casualty rate was roughly 120 in 10,000, the second heaviest of any large-scale American war. One way or another everybody within what became the United States took part in the conflict and felt its effects: Natives; Africans; patriots; loyalists; neutrals; Northerners; Southerners; and backcountry folk, both men and women.

the 1787 meeting in which the Constitution of the United States was drawn up.

Ratified in 1781 and superseded by the Constitution of the United States in 1789.

First 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States, adopted as a group in 1791.

Adopted by the Congress of Confederation for the government of the Western territories ceded to the United States by the states.

US religious evangelical revivalist movement, lasting from about 1800 to 1870.

The largest civil engineering project in western history to that date, the railroad was over 4,800 km/3,000 mi long and crossed deserts, canyons, and mountains, requiring the development of new construction techniques.

Bill that became law on May 30, 1854, by which the U.S. Congress established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

Forced march of the Cherokee Indian tribes from from their ancestral lands in the eastern United States to Oklahoma in 1838-39.

Series of conflicts between the Plains Indians and the US Army 1850-90, during the era of US westward expansion.

Slaughter of 450 Cheyenne and Arapaho by the 3rd Colorado Volunteers under Col John Chivington, during an unprovoked attack on Cheyenne peace chief Black Kettle's camp at Sand Creek, Colorado, on 29 November 1864.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn took place on 25 June 1876. It resulted in the death of about 265 officers and troops of the 7th Cavalry under the command of General George Armstrong Custer. The battle was the most serious defeat of the US army during the war for the Great Plains.

Major westward migration route in the USA used by pioneer settlers in the 19th century.

Sometimes called ‘the War Between the States’ or ‘the Second American Revolution’, a conflict in the USA which resolved two great issues: the nature of the Federal Union and the relative power of the states and the central government; and the existence of black slavery.

Armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain, 1812–15. The war was ostensibly fought for freedom of the seas, to end impressment, and for territory in Canada; yet the eventual peace treaty changed these circumstances little.

The influx of prospectors to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, following the discovery of gold in the American River by US surveyor James Marshall in January 1848

Case decided in 1819 by the U.S. Supreme Court, dealing specifically with the constitutionality of a Congress-chartered corporation, and more generally with the dispersion of power between state and federal governments.

A series of seven debates between the Democrat senator Stephen A Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln held August-October during the 1858 race for Illinois State senator.

The executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America.

Principle of American foreign policy enunciated in President James Monroe's message to Congress, Dec. 2, 1823. It initially called for an end to European intervention in the Americas, but it was later extended to justify U.S. imperialism in the Western Hemisphere.

A movement culminating in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed first to end the slave trade, and then to abolish the institution of slavery and emancipate slaves. The movement took place in Europe, mainly in the UK, and in the USA.

In U.S. history, loosely organized system for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of safety in free states.

The Confederate States of America (1861-65), the government established by the Southern states of the United States after their secession from the Union.

Generally dating from 1865 to 1877, Reconstruction is the term describing the period of readjustment following the American Civil War.

In 1803, the United States acquired from France the formerly Spanish region of Louisiana.