This take-home midterm allows you to fill out your own annotated timeline of American history so that you can (1) See cause and effect between important historical events within the Atlantic World and the colonies that would become the United States in 1775-1776 (2) generally locate events in time, and (3) see the slow emergence of human rights from the “Old Truths.”At the end of each entry, please briefly note your sources in parentheses at the end. Example: (Lepore 23, class lectures, and PPT slide #45).
In addition to the entries I have explained, find 15 events taken from Jill Lepore’s These Truths (or other official readings) that I did not include on the timeline that you feel are both important and interesting. Find 10 Events from other assigned readings like Gary Nash’s two articles or my video lectures. Since Lepore does not always give dates, you may have to figure out the dateby a google search. Then place this entry at the appropriate chronological point on YOUR annotated timeline. Place an asterisk after the date for each of your Lepore entries (or you will not receive credit for them) like this [ 1774*]. Place two asterisks on other choices from Gary Nash or other readings/videos. Use as much direct quoting as possible.
Plan for an 8-hour investment here. This works best if you work gradually through the semester rather than cram it all in at the end. I recommend that you print a version out to keep track of it as you work through the assignments.
How to Answer: Annotated timelines should be concise and accurate. 1-4 sentences. Less can be more here—but you want a complete answer. Make every word count. Eliminate fluff and redundancy.
Methods to Get Good Answers:
1. Watch the 2020 Lecture series as assigned.
2. Consult the Lecture Note powerpoints. These are mostly searchable.
3. Check out the Lepore Index. Then go to her text.
4. Seach Shi electronic text.
5. Use quotes from Lectures, Lepore, Shi, Nash and other assigned materials to impress.
Grade: You are expected to get 95-100 percent of the answers correct here. I am grading you on the quality of the answers and your additions to the timeline from your selections of Lepore’s These Truths.
Check with Me: Let’s say you are starting your timeline and are uncertain how to do a good job. You can text me at 814-321-2434.
Some entries are free spaces and have no work needed from you. This is, after all, a collaborative exercise.
1452 Pope Nicholas V issues Papal Bull (a ruling by the Pope) declaring that people taken as captives in a just war can be enslaved (permanently, including future children).
1453 Fall of Constantinople. What were three major consequences of that event?
1492 The Alhambra Edict. What was it?
1492 Who was Torquemada? What was the Inquisition in Spain and who ended it (and when)?
1493 The Columbian Exchange Begins. How and why did sugar eventually become a major cash crop in the West Indies and Brazil?
1510 Dominican Friars object to the enslavement of indigenous people by Conquistadors in Santo Domingo.
1513 The Requerimiento issued declaring Spain’s divine right to subjugate indigenous peoples of the so-called “New World.” Read to indigenous people, it justified New Spain’s aggressive hierarchical reign by invoking God. Indigenous populations had to accept Spanish rule and allow preaching to them by Catholic missionaries on penalty of war, slavery or death (see Wikipedia if interested in more detail).
1519 Luther posts the 95 Theses in Wittenberg. What doctrine of Martin Luther’s was “anathema” to the Roman Catholic Church? Why was this a threat to the church hierarchy in Germany and Rome?
1521 What did Cortes topple, at last, with the decisive help of native allies?
1533 Who was Atahualpa and who had him executed?
1534: Who proclaimed the Act of Supremacy and what did it do?
1536 Young John Calvin writes Institutes of the Christian Religion. What is the most prominent doctrinal theological difference between Calvinism and Lutheranism regarding salvation?
1542 What did Las Casas advocate to Charles V as a policy change for New Spain? How did he regard the conquistador’streatment of indigenous peoples? Were the New Laws effective?
1567 The 3rd Duke of Alba establishes the Council of Blood. Describe the following Spanish Fury?
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada. How did this change thingsfor the future of North America?
1609 William Shakespeare writes Julius Caesar. For republicans (Whigs), Julius Caesar represents the tyrant to be avoided, and Marc Antony the perfect example of a demagogue. Watch a Youtube clip of Marc Antony’s soliloquy/eulogy for Caesar performed by Marlin Brando. How does the scene exemplify the techniques of the demagogue?
1619 The Jamestown colony purchases 20-30 Africans from English privateers who had taken them from a Spanish ship. Controversially, according to Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619Project, she believes we should “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”This debate had fueled the present “culture war” over American history curricula in high schools.
1620: Pilgrims arrive at Plymouth. Why were they known as Dissenters? Reference Lepore ‘The Rulers and the Ruled.”
1603-1625 What sort of ruler was James I of England, the first Stuart King and namesake of Jamestown? Did he believe in absolute divine right? (see Lepore and Video)
1621: What was the business model of the Dutch West Indies company? How did New Netherland fit into its scheme?
1622: Opechancanough’s Attack on Jamestown. What was theobjective? Do you think that indigenous people can be accused of genocide or are they always justified in killing settlers, or do you see it as something else?
1629: Charles I dissolves Parliament. This begins the “Eleven Years of Tyranny” Jill Lepore notes that this act added to emigration from England to America. (No Question)
1636 Pequot War: Describe the sides. What was this conflict over? How did it end? (See Nash and Lepore). Did the Puritans have any indigenous allies?
What happened at Mystic?
1636 Free Will (antinomian) Debate in Puritan Boston.
Who was Roger Williams?
Who was Ann Hutchinson?
1640: Charles I recalled Parliament after what has been called “eleven years tyranny.” This would precipitate the English Civil War(s). What was Charles I seeking in calling back Parliament?
1643-45 Willem Kieft’s War. Who was Governor Kieft? How would you describe the war? Did the “Dutch” settlers support Kieft’s action?
1649 Charles I Beheaded at the behest of Oliver Cromwell and Parliament. What was he accused of doing?
1651 Oliver Cromwell institutes Navigation Acts. Which former ally were these measures especially targeted toward?
1650-75 See Enslaved voyages table. Rank the top 3 European powers who transported the most enslaved people into the Western Hemisphere with the number of souls.
1660 The Stuart Restoration. What was it?
1663 2nd Esopus War. What happened at modern day Kingston (Wiltwyck) and Hurley (Nieu Diorp)? Were the Esopus justified in their war of revenge?
1663 Founding of the Carolinas and the mission of the Royal African Company: How was Charles II going to enrich his cronies and himself?
1664 Fall of New Amsterdam. Briefly describe.
1670-1715 Indigenous Slave Trade: Historian Alan Gallay estimates that from 1670 to 1715 English slave traders in the Carolinas sold over 24,000 Native Americans to the West Indies.This would be an issue in the Yamasee Wars and the Tuscarora Wars. (No question)
1676 Bacon’s Rebellion. How did this expose rifts in Colonial society between former indentured servants and Tidewater elites?
1676 King Phillip’s War. What happened? Which New York centered tribe helped the Puritans prevail over the Wampanoag?
1682 William Penn drafts the republican charter known as the Frame of Government for Pennsylvania. How would you describe his political beliefs?
1683 Governor Dongan of New York and the Assembly issue a Charter of Liberties and Privileges in defiance of the King…what did it proclaim?
1685 James II ascends the English throne and formulates a plan for the Dominion of New England. What did the Dominion of New England seek to crush?
1685 Louis XIV revokes of the Edict of Nantes (in the Edict of Fontainebleau). This ends civil religious tolerance for French Protestants in France.
1688 Glorious Revolution. Briefly, what happened? Who ends up on the throne of England?
1689 “1st” American Revolution was provoked by James II.
1689 English Bill of Rights (no question) lays out Rights of Englishmen. This will be the basis of the United States Bill of Rights some 100 years later. Note that the American Revolution of 1775 was largely fueled by colonists’ demands to have “the Rights of Englishmen” as established in 1689.
1690: Jacob Leisler was known for his virulent anti-popism. What did he do and what became of him?
1689-1765 General Policy of “Salutary Neglect.” What do historians mean in using the term?
1690 Massacre in Schenectady begins what is known as “King William’s War.” With England now rules by Protestants, tensions erupted between Catholic France (where James II fledafter the Glorious Revolution) and William and Mary.
1690 Salem Witch Trial. Was this a case of mass hysteria? How many “witches” were executed?
1700-1725: See Enslaved Voyages Site or reference my slides/lectures which look at these numebrs. What inferences can you make? How did trends change after 1675?
1707: Queen Anne and the Act of Union. Why is that significant to the English and the “British”? What happened with the British slave trade after the Act of Union? See Voyage data.
1711-18 The Tuscarora and Yamasee Wars in North and South Carolina—fueled in part by deep resentment of Native enslavement– resulted in a reduction of Native enslavement and an increase in African enslavement.(No question)
1712 After a deadly slave revolt (and reprisals) in New York City, the British parliament imposed harsh restrictions on enslaved people and a severe manumission tax opposed by Governor Hunter of NY. What was the point of a manumission tax and why did Governor Hunter oppose it?
1713 What was significant about the Asiento that the British received through the Treaty of Utrecht ending The War of Spanish Succession?
1715 The Cherokee intervened decisively in the Yamasee Warby switching sides. What caused the war? Were the Cherokee on the winning side?
1720-1740 The First Great Awakening has been described by historians as leading to a democratization of Christianity. Who was Johnathan Edwards? What is “fire and brimstone”? Who was George Whitefield?
1732 James Oglethorpe. How did he embody Whig/reformist ideas in Georgia?
1739 Stono Rebellion. Identify. What were the consequences for the importation of the enslaved?
1741 New York City Slave Conspiracy. How did paranoia and racism combine? Which is more appalling to you, the Salem Witch Trial or the NYC slave conspiracy?
1754 What was significant, even in failure, of the AlbanyCongress?
1755 Braddock’s Defeat. What did George Washington do here, having already helped provoke the war in the Fort Necessity campaign?
1757 What happened after the fall of Fort William Henry—all later featured in James Fenimore Cooper’s historical romance The Last of the Mohicans?
1759 Death of Wolfe and Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. What was the significance for North America?
1759-1761 Cherokee Rebellion.
1763-6 Describe Pontiac’s Rebellion. What was Pontiac’s objective? Was this genocidal or justified—or find another description?
1763 Lord Jeffrey Amherst allows smallpox-infested blankets to be given to Indigenous people at Fort Pitt during Pontiac’s Rebellion. This single-incident has been much cited.
1763 What was the Proclamation Line of 1763? What did the British government hope to obtain? Why did that infuriate many colonial Americans?
1765 Stamp Act. What were the unintended consequences? Did it work? What resistance groups were created in response? What might happen to Stamp Tax collectors?
1768 Non-Importation Acts. American Whigs and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty organize consumer boycott of British goods and buy American domestic goods instead. The British Tories thought American women—unable to live without British goods– would force their husbands to back down. They were wrong. Patriotic women forced the British to repeal the Townshend Acts taxing glass, paper, lead, paint, and tea. Second rate “homespun” clothing soon became the rage, a badge of American patriotism—and the British had managed to make the fashionable unpopular.
1773 Gaspee Affair. Describe its significance? Was smuggling important to the causes of the American Revolution?
1773 Boston Tea Party. What happened?
1774 Intolerable Acts. Identify—and how was Boston specifically punished for the Boston Tea Party?
What was the Quebec Act?
1774 First Continental Congress summonsed in response to the Intolerable Acts. Where did it meet?
April, 1775 Lexington and Concord. What were the British marines looking to find? How did it work out for them?
1775 What was the Olive Branch Petition?
1775-6 Siege of Boston including Bunker Hill: Who was Henry Knox in 1775? What did he do?
1775 Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation. Was the American Revolution about British abolitionists trying to wipe out colonial slavery? In the controversy generated by the 1619 project, who was right, Wilentz or Hannah-Jones?
1775-1800: Who were the 3 largest enslaved trading nations according to the database? Do you think the numbers show that the British were “abolitionists” as the 1619 Project claims?
1776 Battles for New York City. How would you evaluate Washington’s performance?
1777 Saratoga. What were the consequences?
1780 Why was Major Andre hung on the orders of George Washington?
1780-81 Nathaniel Greene, the Southern Campaign, and Yorktown. How would you evaluate this campaign? How did an enslaved man help Lafayette and Greene?
1783 Newburgh Conspiracy. What made this a decisive turning point in American political history?
1786 Shay’s Rebellion. What happened? How did it affect George Washington?
1777-1787 The Articles of Confederation. How would you evaluate the Articles as a governing document? What were its core weaknesses?
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