TIMELINE STATES
UNITED 1838-2000
of the
1846-1848 The US acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in the wake of the Mexican War including California and New Mexico.
1860-1865 The conflict over issues of how much control the federal government should have over the states, industrialization, trade, and especially slavery increases tension between Northern and Southern states. After Abraham Lincoln is elected president in 1860, 11 Southern states secede from the Union and set up an independent government: the Confederate States of America. These events lead to the outbreak of the Civil War 18611865 leaving the South defeated and ending slavery at the cost of more than half a million lives.
adapted from The Library of Congress http://www.americaslibrary.gov/index.html
Presidents Andrew Jackson (1828-1837), John Tyler (1841-1845), and James Polk (1845-1849) like many Americans of this time, embrace the notion of enlarging the "empire for liberty." In other words they want to expand the borders of America westward. While some pioneers head west to California, others attempt to expand the idea of what "liberty" in America means.
1848-1855: The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley sparks the Gold Rush. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners travel by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; in one year the non-native population grows from 1000 to 100.000. The first steps toward reconstructing the fragmented nation is the vote of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 readmitting Southern states into the Union. The 14th Amendment (1868) provides former slaves with national citizenship, and the 15th Amendment (1870) grants black men the right to vote. In southern US states, in 1890 the Jim Crow laws are voted, implementing a "Separate but equal" status for African Americans. The laws were in force until 1965.
1878-1889 The Gilded Age is marked by the growth of industry (iron and steel), railroad development, the birth of robber barons (J.D. Rockefeller, A. Carnegie) and a wave of immigrants.
1929, October 29th: aka Black Tuesday: the stock market crashes starting a time of depression (until 1941).
1933: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launches the "New Deal" recovery programme which includes major public works.
1898 - Following the SpanishAmerican war, US gains Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Cuba
1890s-1920s: The Progressive era is a period of widespread social activism and political reform including prohibition, woman suffrage (1920), the regulation of child labour, reform of the penal system, and the expansion of educational opportunities and social services for marginalized groups. 1920s: Women exercise their newly found freedom and many whites take up an interest in African American culture. Harlem nightclubs thrive with their jazz musicians (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington). Sale and manufacture of alcoholic liquors is outlawed (Prohibition era) and gangsterism thrives.
1950s: The Cold War begins. Fear of the Read Scare grows with Senator McCarthy's hearings.
1955-1975: The Vietnam War.
The US Presidents after WWII: 1945-1953: Harry S. Truman 1953-1961: D. Eisenhower 1960-1963: J.F. Kennedy 1963-1969: Lyndon Johnson 1969-1974: Richard Nixon 1974-1977: Gerald Ford 1977-1981: Jimmy Carter 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan 1989-1993: George Bush Sr 1993-2001: Bill Clinton 2011-2009: George Bush Jr 2009—present: Barack Obama
October 29, 1929 aka Black Tuesday: the stock market crashed
1878-1889: The gilded age is marked by the growth of industry (iron and steel), railroad development, the birth of robber barons (J.D. Rockefeller, A Carnegie) and a wave of immigrants.
The growth of industry and a wave of immigrants marked this period in American history. The production of iron and steel rose dramatically and western resources like lumber, gold, and silver increased the demand for improved transportation. Railroad development boomed as trains moved goods from the resource-rich West to the East. Steel and oil were in great demand. All this industry produced a lot of wealth for a number of businessmen like John D. Rockefeller (in oil) and Andrew Carnegie (in steel), known as robber barons (people who got rich through ruthless business deals). The Gilded Age gets its name from the many great fortunes created during this period and the way of life this wealth supported.
1890s-1920s: The Progressive era wa a period of widespread social activism and political reform including prohibition, woman suffrage, the regulation of child labor, reform of the penal system, and expansion of educational opportunities and social services for marginalized groups.
prohibition, woman suffrage, the regulation of child labor, campaigns to abolish the convict lease system and reform the penal system, and expansion of educational opportunities and social services for marginalized groups.
Women exercised their newly found freedom and many whites took up an interest in African American culture. Harlem nightclubs thrived, spotlighting numerous artists such as jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Sale and manufacture of alcoholic liquors outlawed. The Prohibition era sees a mushrooming of illegal drinking joints, home-produced alcohol and gangsterism
