Thematic Timeline - AMERICAN AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
Example of a thematic timeline for "American and National Identity"
1450
~Castile and Aragon joined to create Spain; the Inquisition helps create a sense of Spanishness
~John Calvin establishes a Protestant commonwealth in Geneva, Switzerland
1550
~English conquest and persecution of native Irish
~Growing Protestant movement in England
1600
~Pilgrims and Puritans seek to create godly commonwealths
~Powhatan and Virginia Company representatives attempt to extract tribute from each other
1660
~Restoration makes England a monarchy again; royalist revival
~The Glorious Revolution makes England a constitutional monarchy
~Massachusetts loses its charter (1684) and gains a new one (1691)
1690
~Colonists gain autonomy in the post-Glorious Revolution era
~Tribalization developing among Native American peoples
1700
~Social mobility for Africans ends with collapse of tobacco trade and increased power of gentry
1720
~African American community forms in the Chesapeake
~Planter aristocracy emerges in the Chesapeake and South Carolina
~Culture of gentility spreads among well-to-do
1750
~Victory in the Great War for Empire sparks pro-British pride in the colonies
~Desire for political autonomy and economic independence strong
1763
~Concept of popular sovereignty gains force in the colonies
~Colonists lay claim to rights of Englishmen
1776
~Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) causes colonists to rethink political loyalties
~States rely on property qualifications to define citizenship rights in their new constitutions
1787
~Indians form Western Confederacy (1790)
~Second Great Awakening (1790-1860)
~Emerging political divide between South and North
1800
~Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh revive Western Indian Confederacy
1810
~War of 1812 tests national unity
~State constitutions democratized
~American Colonization Society (1817)
~Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (1818) spreads notion of the self-made man
1820
~David Walker's Appeal... to the Colored Citizens (1829) attacks slavery
~Rise of southern sectionalism
1830
~W. L. Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society (1833)
~Female Moral Reform Society (1834) defines gender identity
~Texas gains independence (1836)
1840
~Antislavery Liberty Party (1840)
~New African American culture develops in Mississippi Valley
~Whites migrate to Oregon and California
~Arrival of millions of Germans and Irish causes social conflicts
~Wars against Seminole peoples in Florida (1835-1842, 1855-1858)
1850
~Black and white preachers promote Christianity among slaves
~Free blacks in North become politically active
~Conflicts of Hispanics and Anglos in the Southwest
~White diseases and brutality kill most California Indians
~Comanches and Sioux dominate Great Plains peoples and control trade in horses and buffalo hides
1860
~Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and Thirteenth Amendment (1865) free blacks from slavery
~Aided by Freedmen's Bureau, African Americans struggle for freedom, land, and education
1870
~U.S. wars against Plains Indians (Cheyennes, Sioux, Apaches, and Nez Perce) open their lands to white miners, ranchers, and farmers
~Dawes Act (1887) seeks Indian assimilation
1890
~"American exceptionalism" and rise of imperialism
~Alfred Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890)
1900
~Insular Cases establish noncitizenship status for new territories (1901)
~California, Washington, and Hawaii limit rights for Asian immigrants
1910
~New Ku Klux Klan founded (1915)
~Post-WWI race riots
~Wartime pressure for "100% loyalty"; dissent suppressed
1920
~National Origins Act limits immigration (1924)
1930
~Bonus Army (1932)
~Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
~Social Security created (1935)
1940
~Internment of Japanese Americans
~To Secure These Rights (1947)
~Segregation in armed services until 1948
~Desegregation of armed services (1948)
~Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)
1950
~Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
~Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)
~Little Rock - Central High School desegregation battle
~Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded (1957)
1960
~Greensboro sit-ins
~The Feminine Mystique (1963)
~Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (1964-1965)
~National Organization for Women founded (1966)
~Alcatraz occupation (1969)
~Black Power
~Student and antiwar activism
1970
~Equal Rights Amendment (1972)
~Roe v. Wade (1973)
~Bakke v. University of California (1978)
~Harvey Milk assassinated (1978)