Timeline of Colonial America

Pre-Columbian era to 1500

• 30,000–11,000 Before the Common Era (B.C.E.) – First native peoples enter North America from Asia via Beringia.
• 11,000 B.C.E. – Disappearance of the land bridge between North America and Asia.
• 5000 B.C.E. – Beginning of agriculture in the Tehuacán Valley matorral.
• 1500 B.C.E. – Emergence of Eastern Woodland culture.
• 1200 B.C.E. – Emergence of the Olmec culture.
• 500 B.C.E. – Emergence of Maya civilization and Adena culture.
• 300 B.C.E. – Maize first grown in Eastern North America.
• 100 B.C.E. – C.E. 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.
• 796 - Council of Three Fires (also known as the Three Fires Confederacy) was formed.
• c. 1021 – Norse settlement is founded at L'Anse aux Meadows. It is possibly connected with the attempted colony of Vinland, established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with Norse colonization of North America. ||
• 1142 - The Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the League of Peace and Power) is formed.
• 1200 – Population of Cahokia reaches roughly 30,000.
• 1500 – Disappearance of major Mississippian settlements.

1492–1550 - Age of European Exploration and Settlement

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus' first voyage.
• 1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal divides the Western Hemisphere, the "New World". Later European powers ignore Spain's and Portugal's claim.
• 1496 – Santo Domingo, on the island of Hispaniola founded by the Spanish, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas.
• 1497 – First voyage of John Cabot, sponsored by Henry VII of England to search for a Northwest Passage.
• 1498 – Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama reaches India.
• ca. 1500 – First African slaves taken to Hispaniola.
• 1513 – Ponce de León in Florida.
• 1519–1521 – Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztec Empire with thousands of indigenous allies. Mexico City founded on the ruins of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan
• 1531–1533 – Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca Empire with indigenous allies.
• 1534 - Jacques Cartier claims the Gaspé Peninsula in North America for France.
• 1539–1542 – Spaniard Hernando de Soto explores North America from the Gulf of Mexico to the Ozarks.

1553–1603 - Reigns of Mary I of England (1553-1558) and Elizabeth I of England

• 1553 – Earliest regular English voyages to Africa begin to Guinea; region claimed by Portugal
• 1555 – Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands granted a royal charter by Mary I of England to pursue prospects for exploration and colonization; Muscovy Company established; first accounts of English voyages on the African coast of Guinea published
• 1559 – Tristan de Luna founded the first short-lived settlement Pensacola, Florida
• 1560-1603 – "Elizabethan Sea Dogs" (privateers), state-sanctioned attacks and plunder of Spanish ships
• 1564 – Privateer John Hawkins begins African slaving voyages
• 1565 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida. Spanish;Spanish destroy thr Anglo-French Huguenot settlement in Florida
• 1570 – Spanish attempt to found the Ajacán Mission in Virginia
• 1574 – Sir Richard Grenville proposes colonizing South America
• 1576 – Martin Frobisher's first expedition to Newfoundland
• 1579 – Francis Drake claims New Albion for England.
• 1585 – The Roanoke Colony is founded. English.
• 1588 – England and its Dutch allies defeat the Spanish Armada, ending Spanish naval dominance; Thomas Harriot publishes A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, an account of his voyage to Roanoke; contains an early account of the Native American population encountered by the expedition; it proved very influential upon later English explorers and colonists.
• 1595 – Spanish attempt to found the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato in Georgia.

1603-1625 - Reign of James VI and I

• 1603 – Martin Pring maps Cape Cod and Massachusetts
• 1605 – George Weymouth explores New England.
• 1606 – The London Company and the Plymouth Company are granted charters by the crown.
• 1607 – Founding of the Jamestown, Virginia, first permanent English overseas colony. Attempted colony at Sagadahoc fails.
• 1608 – Founding of Quebec City, New France by Samuel de Champlain.
• 1609–10 – The Starving Time at Jamestown.
• 1609 – Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River, establishes Dutch claim to New Netherland
• 1609-1646 Anglo-Powhatan Wars between Indigenous peoples of Virginia and English settlers appropriating their territory
• 1610 – First English settlement in Newfoundland
• 1611–1616 – Thomas Dale and Thomas Gates serve as Governor of Virginia.
• 1613 – Shirley Plantation is founded. Oldest continually operated farm in the United States.
• 1614 – Peace between the Virginia colony and the Powhatan Confederacy.
• 1619 – First meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses. First enslaved Africans in Virginia.
• 1620 – The Pilgrims found the Plymouth Colony.
• 1622 – Indian massacre of 1622 in Virginia.
• 1624 – Virginia Company collapses and Virginia becomes a crown colony. Dutch West India Company founds New Netherland.
• 1624–1626 – Massachusetts Bay Colony founded.
• 1624–1628 – Mohawks defeat the Mahicans.

1625-1649 - reign of Charles I of England

• 1626 – Founding of Salem, Massachusetts (originally called "Naumkeag").
• 1626 – Peter Minuit purchases Manhattan.
• 1627 – George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore abandons the Province of Avalon.
• 1627 – Barbados founded by the English.
• 1628 – Dorchester Company reorganized as the New England Company.
• 1629 – New England Company reorganized as the Massachusetts Bay Company. John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges agree to split their land claims into New Hampshire and Maine.
• 1629 – Kiliaen van Rensselaer institutes the patroon system in New Netherland.
• 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.
• 1632 - 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.
• 1634 - First English settlers arrive in Maryland.
• 1634–1636 – First English settlements in the Connecticut River Valley.
• 1635 – Roger Williams expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1635 - First meeting of the Maryland General Assembly.
• 1635 - Saybrook Colony founded.
• 1636 – Connecticut Colony founded.
• 1636 - Roger Williams founds the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
• 1636 - Harvard University founded, oldest English university in America.
• 1637 – The Pequot War results in the killing of many of the Pequot people. * * 1637 - New Haven Colony is founded.
• 1637 - 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. Four New Hampshire towns vote to join Massachusetts.
• 1642 – Beginning of the English Civil War.
• 1643 – The New England Confederation is founded.
• 1643–1645 – Kieft's War between the Native Americans and the Dutch settlers.
• 1644 – Parliament grants charter to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Saybrook Colony incorporated into the Connecticut Colony.
• 1644–1646 – Second Native American Massacre. The Plundering Time in Maryland.
• 1646 – Peter Stuyvesant becomes Director-General of New Netherland.
• 1647 – Witch trials in Connecticut begin.
• 1648 – The Cambridge Platform.
• 1649 – Regicide of Charles I. Death of John Winthrop.

1649-1660 - English Commonwealth

• 1649 - Abolition of the monarchy and House of Lords. Supremacy of Parliament.
• 1650 - Board of Trade established. Virginia targeted for supporting the Royalist cause.
• 1651 – First Navigation Act issued. Virginia acknowledges the authority of the Parliament of England rather than the monarchy.
• 1652 – Massachusetts Bay Colony authorizes John Hull and Robert Sanderson to issue colonial coinage.
• 1653 - Instrument of Government, first written constitution; division of powers.
• 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.
• 1656 – First Quakers arrive in New England.
• 1657 – Jews allowed to become burghers of New Amsterdam. Flushing Remonstrance lays groundwork for religious freedom in America.
• 1658 – Death of Oliver Cromwell, succession of Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector
• 1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector

1660-1685 - Reign of Charles II of England

• 1660 – The Restoration of the monarchy in England, with Charles II becoming king. William Berkeley restored as governor of Virginia.
• 1660 - First of the Navigation Acts enumerates exports from the colonies. Execution of Mary Dyer.
• 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 of 1664 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. Royal commission establishes royally controlled Province of Maine.
• 1666 – Great Fire of London.
• 1668 – Massachusetts Bay Colony reasserts control over Province of Maine
• 1669 – The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina are drawn up. Revolt of the Long Swede in Delaware.
• 1670 – Charleston, South Carolina is founded, originally as Charles Town.
• 1672–1674 – Third Anglo-Dutch War.
• 1673 – Third Navigation Act regulates intercolonial trade. Virginia land rights given to Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper and Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington.
• 1674 – East Jersey and West Jersey chartered.
• 1675-1678 – King Philip's War between Native Americans and English settlers; 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.
• 1679–1681 – 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 – "Hull Mint" closed. John Hull dies. Gove's Rebellion occurs for 1 day in Province of New Hampshire
• 1683 – Province of New York holds first assembly and issues the Charter of Liberties. Institution of quo warranto proceedings against the Province of Massachusetts.

1685-1689 - Reign of James II of England

• 1685 – 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. Reverend John Wise jailed.
• 1688 – Province of New York added to the Dominion of New England.
• 1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II of England

1689-1694 - Reign of William III and Mary II

• 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 Native American troops. Massachusetts Bay Colony becomes first colony to issue paper money. Spain begins to colonise Texas.
• 1691 – The Province of Carolina passes a law for the better ordering of slaves. Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and Nova Scotia combine to form Province of Massachusetts Bay.
• 1692 – First of the Salem witch trials.
• 1693 – The College of William & Mary founded in Williamsburg. Rice culture introduced in the Province of Carolina.

1694-1702 - Reign of William III of England (as sole monarch)

• 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. Mary Allerton, last surviving passenger on the Mayflower, dies.
• 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. Great Peace of Montreal signed between the government of New France and Native Americans. Yale College 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.

1702-1714 - Reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain

• 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 – New York Slave Revolt of 1712.
• 1713 – Treaty of Utrecht ends Queen Anne's War.

1714-1727 - Reign of George I of Great Britain

• 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; Carolina converted to a crown colony.
• 1720 – New France builds Fort Niagara. Slaves become the majority of the population in South Carolina.
• 1721 – 1721 Boston smallpox outbreak leads to first public inoculation drive.
• 1723 – Colony of Virginia passes an act to deal with slave conspiracies.
• 1727 – British build Fort Oswego.

1727-1760 - Reign of George II of Great Britain

• 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.
• 1736 – Bellevue Hospital founded in New York City.
• 1739 – Outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear. The Stono Rebellion in the Province of South Carolina is crushed.
• 1740 – The Plantation Act is passed to encourage immigration to the colonies and regularize colonial naturalization procedures. 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. Knowles Riot in Boston.
• 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.
• 1751 – Pennsylvania Hospital founded. George Washington visits Barbados; only trip he takes outside the United States.
• 1752 – Philadelphia Contributionship founded by Benjamin Franklin. Oldest insurance company in the United States.
• 1754 – Outbreak of French and Indian War. French build Fort Duquesne. Albany Congress, where plans of colonial union are unveiled. Columbia University founded as King's College by George II Royal Charter.
• 1755 – Braddock Expedition.
• 1755–1758 – Expulsion of the Acadians.
• 1756 – Beginning of Seven Years' War in Europe. 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.

1760-1783 - Reign of George III of Great Britain in the Thirteen Colonies

• 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 Native Americans killed by the Paxton Boys.
• 1764 – April: The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Sugar Act and the Currency Act; Brown University founded as College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The Hartford Courant is founded.
• 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 – March: Boston makes first attempt at a nonimportation agreement. June: Townshend Acts passed. 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. December: Dartmouth College founded by King George III Royal Charter.
• 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. May: Tea Act passed. December: The Boston Tea Party.
• 1774 – March: Boston Port Act passed. May: Massachusetts Government Act passed. June: Quartering Act passed. September–October: First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.
• 1775 – March: "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech. March–April: Parliament passes the Restraining Acts. April: Battles of Lexington and Concord. May: 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 2: The Lee Resolution is approved, officially separating the United Colonies from the British Empire. July 4: Adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• 1776–1783 – American Revolution.
• 1783 – September: Britain signs the Treaty of Paris, recognizing American independence. November 25: The British evacuate New York, marking the end of British rule, and General George Washington triumphantly returns with the Continental Army.

See also

• Timeline of the American Revolution
• Timeline of Canadian history

References