American History · Chronicle II of X
Thirteen Colonies · 1492-1763
Jamestown to the French and Indian War: the making of colonial America.
ContactEvent
Sailing for Spain, Christopher Columbus makes landfall in the Caribbean, opening the Americas to European colonization and the vast, often catastrophic Columbian Exchange.
The exchange of crops, animals, and ideas transformed both hemispheres, but Old World diseases such as smallpox devastated Indigenous populations, killing a large share within a century of contact.
First SettlementsPolitical
English colonists plant Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America; after early starvation it survives on tobacco, a crop that will shape the Southern economy.
Slavery Takes RootEvent
A ship brings the first recorded enslaved Africans to Virginia, the beginning of a brutal system of racial slavery that will underpin the colonial economy for generations.
New EnglandPolitical
Separatist Pilgrims land at Plymouth and sign the Mayflower Compact, an early agreement of self-government, founding a Puritan New England built around church and town meeting.
Proprietary ColoniesPolitical
Quaker William Penn establishes Pennsylvania as a haven of religious tolerance, and lays out Philadelphia — soon one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the colonies.
Fear and FaithReligious
In Puritan Massachusetts a wave of witchcraft accusations leads to the execution of twenty people, a lasting emblem of mass hysteria and the dangers of religious zeal.
The Great AwakeningReligious
Fiery preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield spark the Great Awakening, an emotional revival that crosses colonial lines and fosters a shared American identity.
Imperial WarMilitary
Britain and France, each allied with Indigenous nations, fight for control of North America. British victory removes the French threat but leaves London with enormous war debts.
Aftermath of VictoryPolitical
The 1763 Treaty of Paris gives Britain a vast North American empire, but a royal proclamation barring settlement west of the Appalachians angers colonists eager for land.
1 more entry, to 1763
