Curtis: 1215-1800

Front 1

Magna Carta imposes restrictions on English monarch, establishing the principle that no person is above the law.

Back 1

1215

Front 2

Gutenberg prints a Bible using moveable type. The advent of type creates printed books.

Back 2

1454-1455

Front 3

Various European countries explore the New World, making claims on the land under various theories that they developed to legitimize European settlement of Indian lands.

Back 3

1492-1600s

Front 4

Spanish begin to import Africans to the New World colonies as slaves.

Back 4

1514-1517

Front 5

The Protestant Reformation begins. Within a few decades, most churches of N.Europe, including the Church of England, have withdrawn from papal jxdn and have been placed under civil authority.

Back 5

1517

Front 6

English colonists land at Jamestown, VA, making the first permanent English settlement in N. America

Back 6

1607

Front 7

The first blacks come to VA as indentured servants, but by ____ slavery as taken root in VA.

Back 7

1619, 1640

Front 8

The Pilgrims land in the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, adopting a compact for self-government.

Back 8

1620

Front 9

The English Revolution begins; Charles I is tried and beheaded in _____.

Back 9

1640, 1649

Front 10

The English Levellers propose an Agreement of the People w/expanded parliamentary franchise and limitations on the power of government (including Parliament) in the interest of individual liberty.

Back 10

1649

Front 11

John Locke's The Second Treatise of Government challenges absolute monarchy.

Back 11

1680

Front 12

Sir Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in which he sets forth his laws of motion & gravity.

Back 12

1687

Front 13

The English "Glorious Revolution" establishes the primacy of Parliament over the Crown

Back 13

1688-1689

Front 14

Parliament passes the English BOR. The BOR declares that: levying $ for the use of the Crown w/o consent of Parliament is illegal; that it is the right of subejcts to petition the King, and all prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal; that the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeaches or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament; that excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposes, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted; and that parliaments ought to be held frequently. -----The BOR was an act of Parliament, so it could not be repealed by subsequent Parliaments. It limited the power of the King, not Parliament.

Back 14

1689

Front 15

First printed newspapers; printed news sheets existed earlier during the English revolutions of the 1640s

Back 15

1689

Front 16

The jury acquits journalist John Peter Zenger in NY on the charge of seditious libel. The case is an early landmark in "freedom of the press." Zenger's counsel had argued that writing the truth about political affairs is one of the privileges of freeborn Englishment and is not a crime.

Back 16

1735

Front 17

In anticipation of the war with France, Ben Franklin proposes the Albany Plan of Union which would have established a "Grand Council" of representatives of all the Colonies.

Back 17

1754

Front 18

Writs of Assistance Case. James Otis, in the MA colony, challenges writs of assistance (general search warrants that allowed searches without specifying in advance the person or place to be searched). Otis argues even if authorized by Parliament the writs are illegal because "An Act Against the Constitution is Void"

Back 18

1761

Front 19

The French & Indian War ends. Britain issues Proclamation of 1763 to stop colonists from settling west of Appalachian Mtns. This is the first of a number of new laws and regulations that create conflict between Britain and the colonies, and ultimately lead to the American Revolution.

Back 19

1763

Front 20

Parliament passes the Stamp Act. Widespread protests against "taxation w/o representation" unify colonies in their conflict with Britain. The Stamp Act Congress meets in NY. Delegates from 9 colonies protest the Stamp Act and plan concerted action against the policities of Parliament. Congress asserts that it is "the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own conset, given personally or by their representations"

Back 20

1765

Front 21

The Declaration of Independence of the colonies from Great Britain: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; then whenever any form of gov't become sdestructive of these ends it is the right to the people to alter or abolish it..."

Back 21

1776

Front 22

The first state constitutions are adopted. They vary greatly: all but two have a religious test for office holding, some have broad adult male suffrage, many allow free blacks to vote, and some have property requirements for voting. NJ allows woment o vote (but th state abrogates this right in early 1800s)

Back 22

1776-1790

Front 23

Surrender of British forces at Yorktown, VA ends most military hostilities in the Revolution. The state sratify the Articles of Confederation, the first American federal constitution for the 13 new states.

Back 23

1781

Front 24

The treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution

Back 24

1783

Front 25

The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia proposes the U.S. Constitution. It is ratified in ____ after heated Federalist/ Anti-Federalist debate. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay write pro-union editorials, now known as The Federalist Papers.

Back 25

1787, 1788

Front 26

Meeting under the Articls of Confederation, the Congress passes the Northwest Ordinances, which sets up a system of government for terriroties as a prelude to statehood. The Ordinance also bans slavery in the area north of the OH River.

Back 26

1787

Front 27

George Washington is unaugurated as the first President of the US.

Back 27

1789

Front 28

First Congress convenes.

Back 28

1789

Front 29

BOR proposed

Back 29

1789

Front 30

Congress enacts Judiciary Acts of ____, which creates the federal courts.

Back 30

1789

Front 31

Congress enacts the first Fugitive Slave Law.

Back 31

1793

Front 32

Chisholm v. GA: citizens of one state are allowed to sue the gov't of another state.

Back 32

1793

Front 33

Eli Whitney invents a gin to remove seeds from cotton, which revives the moribund institution of slavery by making the production of cotton in the South much more profitable.

Back 33

1793

Front 34

The 11th Amendment is ratified, effectively ovverruling Chisholm v. GA (1793), which had allowed a citizen of one state to sue another state.

Back 34

1798

Front 35

The Sedition Act criminalizes "false and malicious" criticisms of the President or Congress (but not of the Vice President). As construed, It reaches false opinions as well as false facts.

Back 35

1798