Timeline of pre–United States history

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from before the lead up to the American Revolution (c. 1760).

Antiquity

• Eurasians cross the Trans-Siberian land bridge into North America.
• Vikings first discovered America by sailing the Atlantic.

1400–1499

Christopher Columbus landing in the New World.

• 1492 - Christopher Columbus financed by Spain lands on the island of Hispaniola, discovering the New World for 12th century Europe.
• 1497 - John Cabot lands in Newfoundland, beginning the British colonial presence in Continental North America.

1500–1599

• 1513 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses isthmus of Panama, sees Pacific Ocean.
• 1513 - Juan Ponce de León defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec empire.
• 1520s - Spanish begin conquest of Maya civilization.
• 1521 - Hernán Cortés destroys the Aztec empire.
• 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for France, explores coastline from present-day Maine to North Carolina.
• 1542 - Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America.
• 1565 - Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida the first Spanish settlement in the New World, and is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States.
• 1570s - Iroquois Confederacy founded.
• 1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, in the Virginia Colony.
• 1590 - Roanoke Colony found deserted.

1600–1699

1600s

• 1607 - Jamestown is founded by the Virginia Company of London as the beginning of the Colony of Virginia.
• 1607 - Popham Colony founded by the Virginia Company of Plymouth in present-day Maine. It is abandoned the following year.

1610s

• 1614 - Dutch claim New Netherland.
• 1619 - Slavery introduced to the Colony of Virginia.

1620s

The Mayflower in Plymouth.

• 1620 - Mayflower Compact signed.
• 1625 - Foundation of New York City as New Amsterdam.
• 1628 - Massachusetts Bay Colony founded.

1630s

Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, the founder of Maryland

• 1630 - Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1630 - Manor of Rensselaerswyck founded.
• 1634 - Province of Maryland founded.
• 1634 - Theologian Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1635 - Connecticut Colony founded by Thomas Hooker.
• 1636 - Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations founded by Roger Williams.
• 1636 - Harvard College founded.
• 1637 - New Haven Colony founded.
• 1637 - Pequot War ends in New England.
• 1638 - Delaware Colony founded.
• 1638 - New Sweden established.
• 1639 - Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony signed.
• 1639 - Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted.

1640s

• 1640 - French and Iroquois Wars escalate to full warfare.
• 1643 - New England Confederation created
• 1643-1645 - Kieft's War in New Netherland
• 1644-1646 - Third Anglo–Powhatan War
• 1649 - Maryland Toleration Act
• 1649 - Execution of King Charles I and establishment of Commonwealth in England.

1650s

• 1655-1660 - Peach Tree War
• 1659-1663 - Esopus Wars

1660s

New Amsterdam is captured by the English

• 1660 - British republic collapses, Charles II becomes King
• 1662 - Halfway Covenant adopted
• 1663 - King Charles II grants charter for a new colony, Province of Carolina
• 1664 - New Amsterdam captured by the English at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War
• 1667 - New Netherland ceded to England under Treaty of Breda
• 1669-1670 - John Lederer of Virginia explores the Appalachian Mountains

1670s

• 1670 - Charles Town (Charleston) founded in present-day South Carolina
• 1671 - The Batts-Fallam expedition sponsored by Abraham Wood reaches the New River (West Virginia)
• 1672 - Blue Laws enacted in Connecticut
• 1672-1673 - Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette explore the Illinois Country
• 1674 - New Netherland permanently relinquished to English with Treaty of Westminster
• 1675 - King Philip's War (1675–76) in New England
• 1676 - Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
• 1677 - Province of Maine absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony
• 1679 - War between the Westo and colonial South Carolina results in the destruction of the Westo.

1680s

William Penn signing a treaty with the Native Americans of Pennsylvania

• 1680 - Pueblo Revolt in Spanish New Mexico
• 1682 - Province of Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
• 1682 - René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle travels down the Mississippi River to its mouth
• 1685 - King Charles II dies and James II succeeds to throne, reducing colonial autonomy
• 1686 - Dominion of New England decreed
• 1687 - Yamasee Indians from Spanish Florida move to South Carolina, becoming an important ally of the English
• 1688 - Glorious Revolution deposes James II and replaces him with William and Mary
• 1689 - Dominion of New England ceases to exist as Governor is deposed.
• 1689 - King William's War (1689–1697), part of the wider War of the Grand Alliance, begins

A 19th century illustration of the Salem Witch Trials

1690s

• 1690 - Schenectady Massacre
• 1692 - Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts
• 1697 - King William's War ends in North America with the Treaty of Ryswick

Rev. George Whitefield, is often credited for beginning and popularizing a new religious movement known as The Great Awakening all over Colonial America

1700–1759

See Timeline of the American Revolution for events starting from 1760.

1700s

• 1701 - The Collegiate school at Saybrook is founded in Connecticut; it will later be renamed as Yale College
• 1702 - William III dies, is succeeded by Queen Anne
• 1702 - Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession) begins
• 1702 - East Jersey and West Jersey become crown colonies

1710s

• 1713 - The Treaty of Utrecht is signed, bringing an end to Queen Anne's War.
• 1715 - Yamasee War in South Carolina colony
• 1718 - Blackbeard is killed in battle by lieutenant Robert Maynard in the waters off the Province of North Carolina

1720s

• 1725 - Father Rale's War (1722-1725)
• 1727 - George I dies, is succeeded by George II
• 1729 - Province of Carolina proprietors sell out to Crown

1730s

• 1732 - The Province of Georgia is founded by General James Oglethorpe.
• 1735 - John Peter Zenger is found innocent of libel by the New York City trial on August 4th.
• 1739-1740 - George Whitefield begins his travels throughout the colonies. His message of everyday Christians having a personal connection with God resonates and begins the First Great Awakening.

1740s

• 1744 - King George's War (1744-1748)
• 1749 - Province of Georgia overturns its ban on slavery
• 1749 - Father Le Loutre's War (1749-1755)

1750s

• 1752 - Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment
• 1754 - French and Indian War begins, part of the Seven Years' War
• 1754 - Albany Congress, in which a "Union of Colonies" is proposed
• 1758 - Treaty of Easton

See also

• Timeline of the colonization of North America
• Colonial history of the United States
• Timeline of United States history