Timeline of Colonial America

This is a timeline of the major events related to the colonial history of the United States.

Pre-Columbian era, to 1500

• 30,000-11,000 B.C. - First native peoples enter North America from Asia via Beringia.
• 11,000 B.C. - Disappearance of the land bridge between North America and Asia.
• 5000 B.C. - Beginning of agriculture in the Tehuacán Valley matorral.
• 1500 B.C. - Emergence of Eastern Woodland culture.
• 1200 B.C. - Emergence of the Olmec culture.
• 500 B.C. - Emergence of Maya civilization and Adena culture.
• 300 B.C. - Maize first grown in Eastern North America.
• 100 B.C. - A.D. 400 - The Hopewell tradition flourishes.
• 600 - Emergence of Mississippian culture.
• 700 - Use of the bow and arrow becomes widespread among peoples of Eastern North America.
• 1200 - Population of Cahokia reaches roughly 30,000.
• 1500 - Disappearance of Mississippian culture.

Age of Discovery, 1420-1550

• 1420 - Bartolomeu Perestrello discovers Madeira.
• 1431 - Gonçalo Velho discovers the Azores.
• 1471 - Portuguese mariners reach the Gold Coast.
• 1487 - Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope.
• 1492 - Christopher Columbus' first voyage .
• 1494 - The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the New World between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal.
• 1497 - First voyage of John Cabot, searching for the Northwest Passage.
• 1498 - Vasco da Gama reaches India.
• ca. 1500 - First African slaves taken to Hispaniola.
• 1519 - Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztec Empire.
• 1531-33 - Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca Empire.
• 1539-42 - Hernando de Soto explores North America from the Gulf of Mexico to The Ozarks.

Reign of Elizabeth I of England, 1558-1603

• 1558 - Elizabeth I of England becomes Queen of England.
• 1565 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida.
• 1576 - Martin Frobisher resumes English search for the Northwest Passage.
• 1585 - The Roanoke Colony is founded.
• 1588 - Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Reign of James I of England, 1603-25

• 1605 - George Weymouth explores New England.
• 1606 - The London Company and the Plymouth Company are granted charters.
• 1607 - Founding of the Jamestown Settlement. Attempted colony at Sagadahoc fails.
• 1609-10 - The Starving Time at Jamestown.
• 1609 - Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River.
• 1611-16 - Thomas Dale and Thomas Gates serve as Governor of Virginia.
• 1614 - Peace between the Virginia colony and the Powhatan Confederacy.
• 1619 - First meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses. First Africans in Jamestown.
• 1620 - The Pilgrims found the Plymouth Colony.
• 1622 - Indian massacre of 1622.
• 1624 - Virginia Company collapses and Virginia becomes a crown colony. Dutch West India Company founds New Netherland.
• 1624-26 - Dorchester Company founded.
• 1624-28 - Mohawks defeat the Mahicans.

Reign of Charles I of England, 1625-49

• 1625 - Accession of Charles I of England.
• 1626 - Founding of Salem, Massachusetts (originally called "Naumkeag"). Peter Minuit purchases Manhattan.
• 1627 - George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore decides to abandon the Province of Avalon.
• 1628 - Dorchester Company reorganized as the New England Company.
• 1629 - New England Company reorganized as the Massachusetts Bay Company. Kiliaen van Rensselaer institutes the patroon system.
• 1630 - Puritans found Boston and ten other settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Winthrop preaches his City upon a Hill sermon. First meeting of the Massachusetts General Court.
• 1632 - Tax protest at Watertown. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore obtains charter to found the Province of Maryland.
• 1634 - Creation of the shires of Virginia. Council members insist on viewing the Massachusetts charter. First English settlers arrive in Maryland.
• 1634-36 - First English settlements in the Connecticut River Valley.
• 1635 - Roger Williams expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. First meeting of the Maryland General Assembly. Saybrook Colony founded.
• 1636 - Connecticut Colony founded. Roger Williams founds the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Harvard University founded.
• 1637 - The Pequot War results in the extermination of the Pequot people. New Haven Colony is founded. Anne Hutchinson expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1638 - Founding of New Sweden. First mention of slavery in the laws of the Province of Maryland.
• 1639 - Crown formally recognizes the Virginia Assembly.
• 1641 - First meeting of representatives in New Netherland.
• 1642 - Beginning of the English Civil War.
• 1643 - The New England Confederation is founded.
• 1643-45 - War between the Indians and the Dutch settlers.
• 1644 - Parliament grants charter to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Saybrook Colony incorporated into the Connecticut Colony.
• 1644-46 - Second Indian Massacre. The Plundering Time in Maryland.
• 1646 - Peter Stuyvesant becomes Director-General of New Netherland.
• 1648 - The Cambridge Platform.
• 1649 - Regicide of Charles I. Death of John Winthrop.

English Interregnum, 1649-60

• 1651 - In the wake of the English Civil War, Virginia acknowledges the authority of the Parliament of England.
• 1656 - First Quakers arrive in New England.
• 1655 - Dutch take control of New Sweden. The Peach Tree War between Dutch settlers and the Susquehannock and allied tribes. Maryland fights the Battle of the Severn.
• 1657 - Jews allowed to become burghers of New Amsterdam.
• 1658 - Death of Oliver Cromwell.
• 1660 - Execution of Mary Dyer.

Reign of Charles II of England, 1660-85

• 1660 - The Restoration of the monarchy in England, with Charles II becoming king. William Berkeley restored as governor of Virginia. First of the Navigation Acts enumerates exports from the colonies.
• 1662 - Crown confirms the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut. New Haven Colony incorporated into the Connecticut Colony. Half-Way Covenant in New England. In the Colony of Virginia, the House of Burgesses passes a law declaring that, with respect to slavery, children take the status of their mother.
• 1663 - Second Navigation Act regulates exports to the colonies. Crown grants proprietary charter creating the Province of Carolina.
• 1664 - Royal commission investigates conditions in New England. As part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, England captures New Netherland and renames it the Province of New York.
• 1665 - The Duke's Laws are issued.
• 1666 - Great Fire of London.
• 1669 - The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina are drawn up.
• 1670 - Old Charles Town is founded.
• 1672-74 - Third Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1673 - Third Navigation Act regulates intercolonial trade. Viriginia land rights given to Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper and Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington.
• 1675 - Outbreak of King Philip's War; Northfield, Massachusetts abandoned.
• 1676 - Bacon's Rebellion quashed. Metacomet defeated. William Penn and the Quakers purchase West Jersey.
• 1677 - Colonists in North Carolina rebel against Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper. Edmund Andros, Governor of New York, negotiates the Covenant Chain with the Iroquois.
• 1679-81 - Debate over the Exclusion Bill in England.
• 1680 - Destruction of the Westo people in South Carolina. Charleston, South Carolina relocated to its current location. Province of New Hampshire becomes a royal colony.
• 1681 - William Penn granted charter to establish Province of Pennsylvania. Edward Randolph appointed customs collector for New England. City of London loses its charter.
• 1682 - Philadelphia founded. Plant cutter riots in Gloucester County, Virginia.
• 1683 - Province of New York holds first assembly and issues the Charter of Liberties. Institution of quo warranto proceedings against the Province of Massachusetts.

Reign of James II of England, 1685-89

• 1685 - Duke of York becomes James II of England. Articles of misdemeanor drawn up against provinces of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Creation of the Dominion of New England
• 1686 - Edmund Andros becomes Governor General of the Dominion of New England. First German Pietists arrive in Pennsylvania.
• 1687 - New England protests against arbitrary taxes.
• 1688 - Province of New York added to the Dominion of New England. Glorious Revolution in England.

Reign of William III of England, 1689-1702

• 1689 - April: Dominion of New England overthrown in Boston. June: Leisler's Rebellion. July: Proprietary government overthrown in Maryland. War breaks out with Kingdom of France, beginning the Nine Years' War in Europe; beginning of King William's War in the colonies. George Keith controversy divides Pennsylvania Quakers.
• 1690 - Schenectady, New York devastated by French and Indian troops. Massachusetts Bay Colony becomes first colony to issue paper money.
• 1691 - The Province of Carolina passes a law for the better ordering of slaves.
• 1692 - First of the Salem witch trials.
• 1693 - Rice culture introduced in the Province of Carolina.
• 1696 - Board of Trade established.
• 1697 - Treaty of Ryswick signed, ending King William's War.
• 1699 - Parliament bans export of colonial woolens. Free blacks ordered to leave the Colony of Virginia.
• 1700 - Neutrality treaty between the Iroquois and New France. William Kidd arrested in Boston.
• 1701 - William Penn issues his last frame of government. Delaware Colony granted charter, separating it from Pennsylvania. Yale University founded.
• 1702 - East Jersey and West Jersey merge, becoming the Province of New Jersey. Beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe / Queen Anne's War in the colonies. Province of Carolina attacks St. Augustine.

Reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, 1702-14

• 1704 - Raid on Deerfield. The Province of Carolina allows the arming of slaves during time of war.
• 1705 - The House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.
• 1707 - Benjamin Church fails to take Port Royal.
• 1710 - Francis Nicholson takes Port Royal.
• 1711 - The British fail to take Quebec City.
• 1711-12 - North Carolina begins the Tuscarora War in fighting with the Tuscarora people.
• 1712 - Nine whites are killed by slaves in the Province of New York.
• 1713 - Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War.

Reign of George I of Great Britain, 1714-27

• 1715 - South Carolina begins the Yamasee War against the Yamasee people.
• 1718 - Blackbeard killed by naval forces of the Colony of Virginia.
• 1719 - Rebellion against proprietary officials in South Carolina.
• 1720 - New France builds Fort Niagara. Slaves become the majority of the population in South Carolina.
• 1723 - Colony of Virginia passes an act to deal with slave conspiracies.
• 1727 - British build Fort Oswego.

Reign of George II of Great Britain, 1727-60

• 1729 - Proprietary rights to South and North Carolina are surrendered.
• ca. 1730 - For the first time, the majority of slaves in Chesapeake, Virginia were born in the New World.
• 1732 - The Province of South Carolina attempts to ban the import of slaves. The Province of Georgia is founded.
• 1735 - The Province of Georgia bans slavery.
• 1739 - Outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear. The Stono Rebellion in the Province of South Carolina is crushed.
• 1740 - Battle of Cartagena de Indias, where the colonists are called "Americans" for the first time. James Oglethorpe fails to take St. Augustine. South Carolina enacts the Negro Act of 1740.
• 1741 - The New York Conspiracy of 1741 is suppressed. Jonathan Edwards preaches "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", a key moment of the First Great Awakening.
• 1745 - New Englanders take Louisbourg.
• 1746 - Princeton University founded, with Jonathan Dickinson as its first president.
• 1747 - Founding of the Ohio Company.
• 1748 - Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, ending the War of the Austrian Succession.
• 1750 - Thomas Walker passes through the Cumberland Gap. Reversing itself, the Province of Georgia decides to permit slavery.
• 1754 - French build Fort Duquesne. Albany Congress, where plans of colonial union are unveiled.
• 1755 - Braddock Expedition.
• 1755-58 - Expulsion of the Acadians.
• 1756 - Battle of Fort Oswego.
• 1757 - Siege of Fort William Henry.
• 1758 - Siege of Louisbourg; Battle of Fort Frontenac; Battle of Fort Duquesne. The first black Baptist church is founded in Lunenburg, Virginia.
• 1759 - Battle of the Plains of Abraham. St. Francis Raid.
• 1760 - Battle of the Thousand Islands, after which Jeffery Amherst receives the surrender of New France.

Reign of George III of Great Britain, 1760-83

• 1760 - October: George III becomes king.
• 1761 - February: Writs of Assistance challenged in Massachusetts. December: Ban on colonial land grants.
• 1763 - February: Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War. April: George Grenville becomes First Lord of the Treasury. May: Beginning of Pontiac's War. October: Royal Proclamation of 1763. December: Conestoga Indians killed by the Paxton Boys.
• 1764 - April: The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Sugar Act and the Currency Act.
• 1765 - March: Stamp Act is passed. May: Quartering Act is passed. Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Resolves. August: Riots in Boston. October: Stamp Act Congress held in New York City. November: The Stamp Act due to come into effect.
• 1766 - January: The New York Assembly refuses to implement the Quartering Act. March: The Declaratory Act is passed, repealing the Stamp Act.
• 1767 - June: Townshend Acts passed. March: Boston makes first attempt at a nonimportation agreement. November: Publication of Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania begins.
• 1768 - February: Massachusetts sends circular letter to the other colonial assemblies. March: Second nonimportation agreement is reached. June: Bostonians riot when HMS Romney seizes the Liberty. September: A convention of Massachusetts towns is held.
• 1769 - February: Parliament passes resolve calling for harsher treatment of the American colonists.
• 1770 - March: The Boston Massacre. April: The Townshend duties are repealed on all goods except tea.
• 1772 - June: Gaspée Affair. October: Committee of correspondence established in Boston.
• 1773 - March: Virginia Intercolonial committee of correspondence established. December: The Boston Tea Party.
• 1774 - March: Boston Port Act passed. May: Massachusetts Government Act passed. September-October: First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.
• 1775 - March-April: Parliament passes the Restraining Acts. April: Battles of Lexington and Concord. Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. August: Proclamation of Rebellion.
• 1776 - January: Publication of Common Sense. April: American ports opened to all nations. May: Continental Congress authorizes the drafting of new state constitutions. July 4: Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• 1776-83 - American Revolution.
• 1783 - September: Britain signs the Treaty of Paris, recognizing American independence.