Thematic Timeline - POLITICS AND POWER

Example of a thematic timeline for "Politics and Power"

1450

~Rise of monarchical nation-states in Europe

~Aztecs and Incas consolidate their empire

~Probable founding of the Iroquois Confederacy

~Rise of the Songhai Empire in Africa

1550

~Elizabeth's "sea dogs" plague Spanish shipping

~English monarchs adopt mercantilist policies

~Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588)

1600

~James I claims divine right to rule England

~Virginia's House of Burgesses (1619)

~English Puritan Revolution

~Native Americans rise up against English invaders (1622, 1640s)

1660

~Restoration of the English crown (1660)

~English conquer New Netherland (1664)

~Dominion of New England (1686-1689)

~Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)

~War of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697)

~Founding of the Restoration Colonies: the Carolinas (1663), New York (1664), Pennsylvania (1681)

1690

~Parliament creates Board of Trade (1696)

~War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713)

1720

~Robert Walpole is prime minister (1720-1742)

~Stono Rebellion (1739)

~War of Jenkins's Ear (1739-1741)

~War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

1750

~French and Indian War/Seven Years' War (1754-1763)

~The Albany Congress (1754)

1763

~The Treaty of Paris (1763)

~Pontiac's Rebellion (1763)

~Stamp Act Congress (1765)

~First Continental Congress (1774)

~Second Continental Congress (1775)

1776

~The Declaration of Independence (1776)

~States adopt republican constitutions (1776 on)

~Articles of Confederation ratified (1781)

~Treaty of Paris (1783)

1787

~U.S. Constitution drafted (1787)

~Conflict over Alexander Hamilton's economic policies

~First national parties: Federalists and Republicans

1800

~Jefferson reduces activism of national government

~Chief Justice Marshall asserts federal judicial powers

~Triumph of Republican Party and end of Federalist Party

1810

~Struggle to expand the suffrage begins with Maryland reformers

~Martin Van Buren creates first statewide political machine (1817-1821)

~Missouri crisis (1819-1821) over slavery

1820

~Rise of Andrew Jackson and Democratic Party

~Anti-Masonic Party and Working Men's Party rise and decline

1830

~Tariff battles (1828, 1832) and nullification

~Whig Party forms (1834)

~Jackson destroys Second Bank, expands executive power

1840

~Log cabin campaign (1840)

~Second Party System flourishes

~Lawyers emerge as political leaders

~Mexican War and Wilmot Proviso (1846) increase sectional conflict

~Gold Rush makes California eligible for statehood - free or slave?

1850

~Reform becomes political: states enact Maine-style temperance laws (1851 on)

~Compromise of 1850

~Whig Party disintegrates; Know-Nothing Party attacks immigrants

~Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) sparks creation of Republican Party

~"Mormon War" over polygamy (1858)

1860

~Eleven southern states secede from Union, sparking Civil War (1861-1865); the Union's triumph preserves a continental nation

~Fourteenth Amendment (1868) extends legal and political rights

1870

~Fifteenth Amendment (1870) extends vote to black men

~Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction

~Democrats make sweeping congressional gains (1874)

~Era of close party competition in national elections (1874-1894)

~Reconstruction ends (1877)

1880

~Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)

~Peak influence of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1880s)

~Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

~Hull House settlement founded (1889)

1890

~Rise of People's Party (1890-1896)

~Sweeping Republican gains as Americans respond to severe depression (1894)

~"Solid South" emerges; African American disenfranchisement in South (1890-1905)

~William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan (1896)

~National Consumers' League founded (1899)

1900

~William McKinley reelected on pro-imperialist platform (1900)

~William McKinley assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president (1901)

~Niagara Movement calls for full voting rights and equal opportunities for blacks

~Women's suffrage movement grows

1910

~Woodrow Wilson elected president (1912)

~Red Scare (1919)

~Woodrow Wilson issues Fourteen Points (1919)

~U.S. Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles (1919, 1920)

1920

~Nineteenth Amendment grants women's suffrage (1920)

~Prohibition (1920-1933)

~Teapot Dome scandal (1923)

~Republican "associated state," probusiness policies (1920-1932)

1930

~Franklin Roosevelt elected president (1932)

~First New Deal (1933)

~Second New Deal (1935)

~Roosevelt attempts to reform Supreme Court (1937)

1940

~Roosevelt elected to fourth term (1944)

~GI Bill (1944)

~Roosevelt dies (1945)

~Harry Truman becomes president (1945)

~Loyalty-Security Program

~Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

~Truman reelected (1948)

~Truman's Fair Deal (1949)

1950

~Cold War liberalism

~McCarthyism and Red Scare

~Eisenhower's presidency (1953-1961)

1960

~John F. Kennedy's New Frontier

~John F. Kennedy assassinated (1963)

~Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory (1964)

~War on Poverty; Great Society

~Riots at Democratic National Convention (1968)

1970

~Richard Nixon's landslide victory (1972)

~Watergate scandal; Nixon resigns (1974)

~Jimmy Carter elected president (1976)

~Moral Majority founded (1979)

1980

~New Right helps elect Ronald Reagan president

~Iran-Contra scandal (1985-1987)

~George H. W. Bush elected president (1988)

1990

~Bill Clinton elected president (1992)

~Republican resurgence (1994)

~Welfare reform (1996)

~Clinton impeached and acquitted (1998-1999)

2000

~George W. Bush wins presidency in contested election (2000)

~USA PATRIOT Act (2002)

~Barack Obama elected first African American president (2008)

2010

~Health-care reform (2010)

~Tea Party helps Republicans regain control of House of Representatives

~Barack Obama reelected president (2012)