A NEW WORLD

Its really not just a story of discovery and immigration, but the beginning of a new nation that happened when the first European settlers arrived and managed to start a colony in Jamestown. That settlement slowly thrived, and slowly led to more colony settlements along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent. The coast served the immigrants well, allowing them continued trade with Europe for those items that they could not produce themselves.

Immigration, even in the beginning, was fueled by desires to escape political oppression, gain religious freedom, and to seek new opportunities. Thus, as a period of economic oppression swept England between 1620 and 1635, the first waves of English immigrants survived long trips across the Atlantic, suffering meager rations, overcrowding, terrific storms, illness and disease.

The Colonies and settlements continued to spread, encompassing areas along the majestic rivers and water passages. During the first 100 years, only trappers and traders ventured west past the dense forests and formidable Appalachian Mountains. However, almost from the beginning, the settlers thought that it was their right to expand westward.

A Brief Time line of National History:

1607-British Colony of Jamestown was granted charter by King James I, and after many hardships, was established.
1609-Hudson River area was settled by Dutch colonists.
1614-John Rolfe produced a popular new variety of tobacco in Virginia, defining the economy of Virginia.
1619-The first African slaves were brought to Virginia.
1630-John Winthrop and his Puritan counterparts brought their charter with them granted by King Charles I, establishing the Puritan or Congregational Church in Massachusetts Bay.
1637-A colonist settlement in the Connecticut River region touched off a war with the Pequot Indians.
1643-New England Confederation was formed, in part, as the defense that the new colonies felt they were not receiving from England. This was also the first attempt at unity.
1644-Puritan dissenter, Reverend Roger Williams, who had been previously banned from the Puritan settlement, purchased land from the Narragansett Indians in what is now known as Providence, Rhode Island. Reverend Williams received a charter, from a sympathetic English Parliament, that established Rhode Island as a distinct colony with complete separation of church and state, as well as freedom of religion.
1681-William Penn, a friend of King Charles II, received a large tract of land that is now known as Pennsylvania. Though a Quaker himself, he actively recruited religious dissenters from both England and the North American continent. By the time he arrived in 1682, the "City of Brotherly Love", Philadelphia, which he founded, was full of Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers who represented the diverse religious backgrounds of Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, and Baptists. Penn was also noted for promoting equality, granting rights to women, and compensating the Delaware Indians for land on which the Europeans settled.
1732-Georgia, the final of the original thirteen colonies was settled. General James Oglethorpe was in charge of the fortifications of the community, known as a reformer he worked to create a place where the poor and former prisoners could make new starts, after migrating to Georgia in exchange for eliminating prison sentences.
1680-England ceases to be the chief source of immigration to the American Colonies.
1685-Pennsylvania's population reached approximately 9000.
1735-John Peter Zenger sat in prison for nine months while being tried against the charge of "Seditious Libel”. Andrew Hamilton, defended John P. Zenger by stating that he only wrote the truth in his "New York Weekly Journal". He was found not guilty.
1730's-The late part of the 1730 era brought a "Great Awakening", reviving the Christian beliefs of the settlers. The preaching of personal conversions and the in-errancy of the Bible by George Whitefield, a Wesleyan Revivalist, and Jonathan Edwards of the Congregational Church, set the tone for many new Evangelical Denominations.
1754-The Albany Congress, consisting of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New England Colony, and Iroquois Indian Representatives in Albany, New York, was called to help deal with conflicts and to promote loyalty to the British. Benjamin Franklin drafted the "Albany Plan", a proposal that the Albany Congress thought absolutely necessary, to form a union of the colonies, for their own preservation. However, the Plan failed to be adopted by the colonists and settlers.
1754-1763-The French and British war was fought for the dominance of America. The Iroquois League, a powerful and complex Native American Nation, consisting of five Indian Tribes, sided with the British and helped them win the war.
1763-The "Peace of Paris" consisted of France relinquishing all of Canada, the Great Lake areas, and all the territory East of the Mississippi to the British. Following England's triumph over France, Britain now faced a problem governing their empire. By this time, the colonists were experienced in self-government. The colonies had a social order built on individual rights that contributed to a liberal democratic society. The colonies also had highly developed commercial coastal cities. These factors did not show the colonists that Britain was their protector, but rather a possible danger to them.
1763-The British Government issued a Royal Proclamation restricting Westward Movement. The British Parliament was trying to protect the colonists from impeding on the Indian Nations and inciting conflict, but the colonist saw it as limiting their indelible rights.
1764-The British Parliament issued a prohibitive duty tax on molasses, wines, silks, coffee and and other luxury items with the "Sugar Act." The British Parliament was trying to discourage trade with the Dutch, the French and other non-English areas.
1764-The British Parliament enacted a "Currency Act" to prevent the colonists from manufacturing their own currency, which left them short of hard cash to enact business with.
1765-The "Quartering Act" required the colonists to provide Royal Troops with barracks and provisions.
1765-The "Stamp Act" issued by Britain required revenue stamps to be purchased and placed on newspapers, pamphlets, and legal documents. This "Taxation without Representation" caused hostility in the most powerful and respected groups in the American colonies, such as clergymen, lawyers, journalists, merchants and businessmen, leading merchants to organize resistance and form non-importation associations this caused the decline of trade with the “Mother Country.” A secret society called the Sons of Liberty was formed to protest the Stamp Act.
1765-In October the Massachusetts Assembly invited all of the colonists to appoint delegates to a Stamp Act Congress in New York. Twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies debated and adopted a set of resolutions, asserting that "no taxes ever have been or can be constitutionally imposed on them, by their respective legislatures," and also stating that the Stamp Act had a "manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists." British Parliament did not budge until British merchants, feeling the effects of American colony boycotts, backed up and joined in the request of repeal.
1766-British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and also Modified the Sugar Act..
1767-The American Colonist did not feel victorious for long, as the British Chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townshend, began a new fiscal program. In an attempt to lower taxes at home, duties were assessed on British imports to the Colonies on items such as paper, glass, lead and tea. Although most of the colonists just boycotted the imports, violence erupted in Boston. Two British Troops were dispatched to protect custom officials, without realizing that just the sight of the troops would incite more uprising.
1770-Antagonism between the Bostonians and the British soldiers resulted in mobbing, leading to three Bostonian being shot to death.
1770-Understanding the depths of the opposition, Parliament decided to back down repealing the Townshend duties except on tea.
1772-Samuel Adams feared that the British rule on the colonists could again be applied with devastating results on the colonist's rights to liberty. He adamantly preached to make the colonists aware of their own power and importance. He organized the Boston town meeting to select a "committee of Correspondence" to state the rights and grievances of the colonists. The committee corresponded with other colonies and urged them to draft replies. Committees were set up in most of the colonies.
1773-British government permitted the East India Tea Company a monopoly on tea imports to the American Colonies, allowing the Tea Company to bypass the wholesalers, thus selling at a reduced price to the retailers. The monopoly threatened the viability of the Colonist merchants. In retaliation, the agents of the East India Tea Company were forced to resign up and down the eastern seaboard. New shipments of tea were either returned to England or warehoused. In Boston however, the agents under the protection of the royal governor made preparations to land incoming cargoes regardless of the rebel opposition.
1773-A band of men led by Samuel Adams disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians, and threw the tea into the Boston Harbor. Parliament responded by closing Boston Harbor until the payment was made for the tea. The action threatened economic doom for Boston. Instead of isolating the punishment on Boston as Parliament had intended, the other colonies came to the aid of Boston.
1774-Fifty five Colonial representatives met in Philadelphia on September 5. As the first Continental Congress, they drafted a resolution affirming the colonist's rights to "life, liberty, and prosperity," and the rights of provincial legislatures to set "all cases of taxation and internal polity."
1774-King George III, not intending on concessions, wrote "the die is now cast, the colonies must either submit or triumph" in response to a signed petition from Philadelphia.
1775-April 19, noted the first skirmish in Lexington between the "ready in a minute" colonist militia and British troops.
1775-May 10, The Second Continental Congress met and voted "to go to war." Some members who were not in favor of total separation, adopted an Olive Branch Petition requesting a chance to work out an agreement with King George, which he rejected. Instead, he issued a Proclamation on August 23, 1775, declaring the colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
1776-July 4, The Continental Congress convened and adopted the draft written and presented by a committee of five headed by Thomas Jefferson. The draft became known as the Declaration of Independence.
1783-September 3, After being aided by France, the Treaty of Paris not only concluded the Revolutionary War, it acknowledged the independence, freedom and sovereignty of the Thirteen States. The new United States stretched north to Canada, south to Florida, and west to the Mississippi River.
1787-The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in northwest territories.
1790-Over 120,000 settlers were lured to the Appalachian area by the richness of the soil.
1803-The United States obtained the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million from France, ending the fear that the French Government had plans for a formidable colonial empire just west of the fledging United States.
1808-The slave trade was abolished.
1812-The British-American War solidified the nation under the Constitution, but alas began a rift between the Northern and the Southern States.
1814-Great Britain accepted the Treaty of Ghent in December, which provided for the cessation of hostilities, the restoration of conquests, and a provision to settle boundary disputes between the U. S. and Canada. However, as word was slow to travel from Europe, the fighting continued until 1815 near New Orleans. It settled the question once and for all of the British dominion south of the Canadian Border.
1819-The union consisted of eleven "Slave" States and eleven "Free" States. The temporary balance was upset when Missouri applied for entry into the Union as a slave state. The Missouri compromise accepted the application of Maine as a free state, but banned slavery in all the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.
1829-Gold discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, which, along with North Carolina had been guaranteed to the Cherokee by treaty.
1830-Chicago, a mere trading post, was spurred on by western expansion. The pioneer farmers proved to be the backbone of the movement. Commerce followed them as they established permanent settlements. As an example, Chicago had progressed into one of the largest and richest cities during the lifetimes of the original settlers. However, westward expansion brought with it more conflict with the original land's inhabitants, the Native-Americans.
1832-Congress passed a bill that revised the earlier Protective Tariff Bill of 1828. The Southern states felt that the tariff bill of 1828 unfairly limited the Southern states while all its benefits protected interest in Northern manufacturing. John C. Calhoun resigned as Vice-President and declared in his South Carolina Exposition and Protest that states had the right to nullify oppressive national legislation. The state of South Carolina adopted an Ordinance of Nullification, which declared both the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void, and allowed for a military force within its borders. In response, Jackson sent seven small naval vessels and a Man-of-war to Charleston. He also issued a proclamation that South Carolina was on the "brink of insurrection and treason."
1838-Among the most progressive of the eastern tribes, the Cherokees were forced to make a long and cruel trek to Oklahoma in what later was called the "Trail of Tears." Altogether, 94 treaties were signed with Native Tribes during the two terms of President Andrew Jackson.
1846-The Mexican American War was fought in Texas.
1847-The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1847 ceded the Southwestern States of Texas, New Mexico, Utah and California for $15 million.
1848-Gold was discovered in California, which brought the "Gold Rush" of 1849. 80,000 settlers quickly invaded California.
1850-The compromise of 1850 admitted California into the Union as a "Free" State. The renewed sovereignty of statehood, and the differences between the Northern and Southern States, and the continued to obligation of newly admitted states to choose "Slave" or "Free" increased tensions.
1854-Regions that now comprise Kansas and Nebraska were being rapidly settled. As Missouri was already sided by the two free states of Illinois and Iowa, the state fought to keep Kansas and Nebraska free to "choose for themselves." The Kansas-Nebraska Act, written and supported by Stephen A. Douglas, passed Congress. However, the influx of both slave holders and anti-slavery families into Kansas resulted into armed conflicts, dubbing Kansas "Bleeding Kansas."
1860-The open prairies of the Midwest flourished with both wheat and cattle. However, with the introduction of the McCormick reaper to cut and harvest grain, the nations' wheat production grew from 35 million hectoliters in 1850 to nearly 61 million hectoliters in 1860 - with more than half grown in the Midwest.
1860-Abraham Lincoln campaigned for Presidency on the platform that Slavery could spread no further, a Tariff for protection of industry, and enactment of a law granting free homesteads to settlers who would help in the opening of the west.
1860-November elections, Abraham won over Douglas with only 39% of the popular vote, but won a clear majority of the electoral votes.
1860-December 20, South Carolina seceded the Union.
1861-By February, five more Southern States seceded. The six states signed a provisional Constitution of the Confederate States of America. Texas began to move towards secession.
1861-March 4, President Lincoln is sworn into office.
1861-April 12, Confederate guns opened fire on the Federal garrison at Ft. Sumter at the Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
1861-April 17, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina quickly follow secession. The Civil War claimed more American lives that any other conflict before that time. The Slave States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri remained in the Union.
1862-The Pacific Railway Act is signed into law to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific ocean. Railroad expansion provided new avenues of migration into the American interior.
1863-January 1, President Lincoln issued the preliminary "Emancipation Proclamation."
1865-April 9, Lee surrendered his completely surrounded troops at Appomattox.
1865-April 11, President Lincoln gave a public address to unfold a generous reconstruction policy to reunite the Union.
1865-April 14, President Lincoln was assassinated.
1865-December, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery.

With the end of the Civil War the country could look to the West with a new since of purpose. The fertile plains of the Midwest were tempting to the ever increasing flow of immigrants from Europe. These immigrants felt they were helping to build the nation, while they had opportunities available to them that they may not have had in their native countries.

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