I: Frontier Era: Early Colonial (early 1600's-1776)
The Beginning. The United States is just a series of modest British colonies in North America
II: Frontier Era: Early Independence (1776-1865)
Independent America, but still in the early stages. America is still a modest frontier nation, though one that is rising.
March 5, 1770: The Boston Massacre
April 19, 1975: The Battles of Lexington and Concord
The American Revolutionary War
July 4, 1776: The Signing of the Declaration of Independence
Formative years, part 1: The Revolutionary War
September 3, 1783: The Treaty of Paris
The American Revolutionary War Ends
Formative years, part 2: Building a Government
The great age of the intellectual Founding Fathers
The drafting of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights
June 21, 1788: The American Constitution is ratified
The Formative years are complete, save for the issue of slavery
The age of early frontier expansion begins
*July 14, 1789: the Storming of the Bastille
The French Revolution
*February 1, 1793: France declares war on Britain and the Netherlands
Britain and the Netherlands at war with France
America tries to stay neutral
*May 18, 1803: Britain declares war on Napoleon
Britain and Napoleon at war
America tries to stay neutral
*July 5-6, 1809: The Battle of Wargam
Napoleon defeats Austria
Napoleon at the peak of his power
June 18, 1812: the War of 1812 begins
*America's fight to earn its place in the European world is upon us*
Great Britain tries to force the United States to join the war against Napoleon
America fights Great Britain to stay neutral
June 24, 1812: Napoleon Invades Russia
October 19, 1812: Napoleon's retreat from Russia begins
April 11, 1914: Napoleon abdicates in France
February 17, 1815: The Treaty of Ghent is Ratified
The War of 1812 Ends
America has earned its place in the European World
December 2, 1823: American President James Monroe declares the Monroe Doctrine
The British Empire enforces the Monroe Doctrine, keeping all other European powers out of the Americas
America has formalized its place in the European world
*The United States of America has successfully earned its place in the European world*
1820 on: America struggles with the issue of slavery
1845: the Potato Famine begins in Ireland
Millions of Irish in time come to America
The great migration from Europe into America begins
The economic rise of America as a Great Power begins
1848: The Springtime of Nations in Europe
Many European nations attempt to establish independence and Democracy
1849: The Springtime of Nations fails
Millions of people in Europe will in time come to America instead
The great migration from Europe into America accelerates
The economic rise of America as a Great Power accelerates
1850's Tensions grow in America as America continues to struggle with the issue of slavery
April 12, 1861-May 26, 1965: The American Civil War
*The Last Great Act in the founding of America*
*Slavery is abolished in America*
*The founding of America is Complete*
**Detail Part 1: The Founding of America Is Complete**
III: Frontier America: America Rising (1866-1913)
Independent America, rising but not fully emerged, not just yet. The job of laying the foundations has been complete. The seed can now grow.
The frontier south of Alaska and Canada (on Earth), at least in the west, still exists. America steadily and rapidly grows from a growing frontier nation to become the economic powerhouse of the world, but is still little concerned with affairs outside of the Americas. Guided by Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution, and the Founding Fathers, and with immense resources, with cultures from Irish to Italian to Jewish to Mexican to west African, America has immense potential.
This potential will be realized as America takes its place in the effort to rebuild in the face of the greatest catastrophe in the history of civilization.
IV: The War Years: America Becomes a Citizen of the World (1914-1945)
July 28, 1914: The Great War, the greatest catastrophe in the long, thousands-years-long history of civilization, begins, itself the culmination of a long century of competitive colonialism and Industrial greed as the nations of Industrial Europe consume more and more of the lands of the Earth until they have nothing to consume but each other
July 28, 1914: They begin to consume each other
The Great War begins
The Great Catastrophe has begun
1914 on: The world in flames, America is unfallen
America, already the economic powerhouse of the world, is the great hope of the world
January 1917: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band plays New York City
March 7, 1917: The first Jazz record is released
*The American cultural Golden Age begins*
November 11, 1918: Germany tires of war and death
*The Great War finally ends*
November 12, 1918: America begins to rebuild the world
The world turns to America, already the economic powerhouse of the world, as their great unfallen hope for civilization
America helps rebuild the world
American Jazz, Hollywood movies, and other American popular culture gives people hope and joy
*The Jazz Age is here* *The world begins to heal*
1918 on: Aviation pioneers returning from the war pioneer flight in airplanes and zeppelins
Secretly, futurists begin to develop the idea of space travel and rocket technology
*The Age of Flight is here!*
March 16, 1926: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket
*The Rocket Age has begun!*
October 24, 1929: The Stock Market Crash of 1929 Begins
American economic resources, stretched thin by the effort to rebuild the entire world from the Great War, fall into an economic crisis
*The Great Depression begins worldwide*
The Great Depression: the rise of dictatorships
The world falls back into despair with the Stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression
Russia, already fallen to Communists, falls to the paranoid dictatorship of Josep Stalin
Germany, traumatized and humiliated and blamed for the Great War, gives in to despair and desperation more and more
Late October-early November 1929: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, responds to the Stock market crash and Great Depression
Franklin D. Roosevelt, governor of New York, responds to the Stock Market Crash with a form of moderate Socialism very different from Marx's Communism, creating the first successful Socialist state- the state of New York within the United States
Hope comes in the face of the Great Depression from Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York
November 4, 1930: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to a second term as Governor of New York
November 8, 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States
The first in a great series of leaders has emerged in America, in response to the global crisis
Franklin D. Roosevelt will implement his moderate Socialist policies across the United States
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President of the United States
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal begins
1933 on: America begins to slowly recover from the Great Depression
Optimism and hope return to America
August 21 1935: The Benny Goodman Big Band plays the Palomar Ballroom playing hot Swing Jazz
The concert, broadcast nationwide on radio, is a sensation
*The Swing Age begins*
A new age of optimism and hope has began in America!
Swing jazz brings new joy as Hollywood movies bring comfort: American popular culture brings comfort and hope to the world!
The optimism and hope of the Swing Age brings new hope and comfort to an uncertain world
The United States of America is once again the great unfallen hope of the world!
September 1, 1939: Germany, traumatized and giving in to despair, lashes out and tries to destroy the world
The Second World War begins
Japan, the last unfallen nation of old Asia, fearful, takes advantage of the chaos to begin a war of conquest, in desperation trying to save as much of the world as possible
But only brings more war to the world
June 22, 1941: Germany invades Russia
Josep Stalin's Soviet Union is forced to join the war against Nazi Germany
September 8, 1941: The Siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) begins
October 2, 1941: The Battle of Moscow begins
December 7, 1941: The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor
The War has come to America
December 8, 1941: America responds
America has ended its isolation
America has formally entered the War to save Civilization
*America now leads the effort to save Civilization*
January 7, 1942: The Battle of Moscow Ends
July 17, 1942: The Battle of Stalingrad (Volgograd) begins
The Siege of Leningrad is ongoing
Nazi German forces are stretched across a thousand miles of Russia and Ukraine
Late 1942: The Russian winter of 1942 begins
February 2, 1943: The Battle of Stalingrad ends
The German retreat begins
*The world is being saved!*
April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler kills himself in despair, facing defeat
May 8, 1945: Germany surrenders to the Allies
The War in Europe ends
*The World has been saved!*
August 15, 1945: The Second World War ends
*The Great Catastrophe Ends*
**The Healing and Rebuilding of the world begins**
V: The Early Rise (August 1945-1957)
Not America's rise, but the World's! The Great Catastrophe is over! The Rebirth of the World Begins!
1945 on: The United States of America, led by President Harry S. Truman, leads the Rebirth of the World
The great Alliance of NATO is formed
America and NATO show mercy to Germany and Japan
America leads the containment of Josep Stalin's Soviet Union
*The Rebirth of the World has Begun!*
June 22, 1945: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play Town Hall in New York City
November 26, 1945: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie record at Savoy Records
*The Bebop Age Begins*
*The Modern Jazz and Hipster 'Beatnik' Age Begins*
1946 on: Wehner von Braun launches his Aggregate 4 ('V-2') rockets in America for their intended purpose by their creator: to explore outer space
*The exploration of outer space with sounding rockets begins in America*
October 14, 1947: Chuck Yeager breaks the sound Barrier
*The Jet Age has Begun*
**The early American Golden Age has begun**
**The World Is Being Reborn!**
January 21, 1949- March 9, 1950: The Miles Davis 'Birth of the Cool' band records in New York City
Members of this band go on to lead the next phase of the Modern Jazz movement, Cool Jazz
1951: The NAACP files a class-action lawsuit against the segregation of American schools
The Civil Rights movement begins in America
*America begins to solve its own worst problems*
November 4, 1952: Beloved war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President of the United States
March 5, 1953: Josep Stalin dies
The Khruschev Thaw begins in the Soviet Union
*Russia begins to live again*
April 22- June 17 1954: The Army vs. McCarthy hearings are televised in America
*America faces and defeats the fear of Communists*
May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court of the United States rules against racial segregation
*The first in a series of great victories in the Civil Rights Movement in America*
**The World is Healing**
1955: 'Rock Around the Clock' is included in the movie 'Blackboard Jungle'
Hard Bop joins Cool Jazz in the Modern Jazz movement
Summer 1955: Miles Davis plays the Newport Jazz Festival
The First Great Miles Davis Quintet is formed
'Rock Around the Clock' by Bill Haley and the Comets becomes the first hit rock and roll song
The Rock Era begins
*American popular culture leads a new age of optimism and hope*
**The Age of the 57 Chevy is born**
VI: The American Golden Age (1958-1990)
The Age of Apollo and Gemini, Elvis and The Beatles! The full rebirth of the world is here! And America is leading the way!
October 4, 1957: Sputnik is Launched by the Soviet Union
The Space Age has begun
February 1, 1958: Explorer 1 is launched by America
America enters the Space Age
Explorer 1 becomes the first object to orbit the Earth, observe outer space, and report back!
**The true American Golden Age begins!**
**The Rebirth of the World enters new heights!**
The Age of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the beatniks: the spiritual rebirth of the world begins!
The Age of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Rock and Roll!
1959: The Greatest Year in Jazz
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
John Coltrane Giant Steps
Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come
Dave Brubeck Time Out
*Modern jazz explores new musical frontiers!*