Decade by Decade with SFI

1600-1650
Change over time: With the discovery of America, Europeans seized the opportunity to improve their societies in the New World by employing self-government and individualism.
1. James Colony founded in 1607
2. Separatists depart from Holland and sign the Mayflower Compact
3. First House of Burgesses
4. Puritans and the Cambridge Agreement
5. An Ordinance and Constitution of the Virginia Company sets a precedent of self-government

The Europeans were successful in colonization because they chose to use self-government and individuals to improve upon the things that dissatisfied them in Europe.

1650-1700
Change: America experienced continued tension with Native Americans erupting into conflicts and the start of the French and Indian war over land disputes; religion, dominantly puritanism, influenced governments structure in the colonies in a theocratic style in the lead up to the Great Awakening.
1. Bacon's Rebellion
2. King Phillip's war
3. Puritanism
4. Salem Witch Trials
5. Slavery

Slavery was introduced to the colonies in the triangular trade and slaves were seen as the lowest people in society. The institution of slavery, however, did nit immediately take root in America at the time due to indentured servitude and didn't see a dramatic rise until the turn of the 18th century.

1700-1750
Change: Throughout these years North America shifted from a period of early colonial disputes between Spain, Britain, and France to a time of increased education for the colonists, less tension between social classes, and religious revival due to the Great awakening which ultimately lead to a greater union between the colonists and prepared them for the revolution.
1. Great Awakening
2. Queen Anne's War
3. King George's War
4. War of Jenkins's Ear
5. Founding of Yale and Princeton

Although King George's war asserted British dominance on the North American continent with the defeat of the French and Spanish, its treaty also returned Louisburg to the French after New Englanders had fought for it; this event increased tension between Britain and the colonists and discouraged expansion by colonists but encouraged a greater colonial unity and growth.

1750's
Change:

1760's
Change: After Britain abandoned the policy of salutary neglect towards the colonies the motherland experienced a time of contempt because Britain would not extend representation to the colonists, the taxing policy was unfair and excessive on the colonists, and the colonists' privacy and natural rights were accosted. This growing discontent led to the minority war of the American Revolution in which the decade ended with American freedom in sight.
1. American Revolution
2. Declaration of Independence
3. Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Battles of Lexington and Concord
5. Olive Branch Petition

In order to get more of the colonists on the side of the rebels, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet, Common Sense, which showed colonists how the King conducted unfair policies over the colonies.

1770's
Change: Increasing American resistance to British laws passed to stop what the British viewed as colonial misbehavior eventually leads to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War with superior American strategy and geography advantages in addition to French assistance helping the American victory.
1. Lexington and Concord
2. Boston Tea Party
3. Coercive/Intolerable Acts
4. Stamp Act
5. Battle of Gettysburg

The Boston Tea Party was caused by Britain giving a monopoly to the East India Tea Company where the Americans had an outbreak against Britain's taxation policies.

1780's
Change: Although America now had independence from Britain, this period marked a time of stress and confusion over the thought of federal stability v. state government, there were a number of continued rebellion and foreign issues.
1. The Articles of Confederation
2. Shay's Rebellion
3. Barbary Pirates
4. West Coast Controversy
5. Three-Fifths compromise

The Articles of Confederation provided America with a weak national government and strong state governments as well as a Congress that hosted for equal representation in all states.

1790's
Change: Throughout this period a fledgling nation proved its strength by overcoming a bunch of rebellions and other major crises and conducted the first peaceful transition of power between two leaders in the election of 1796.
1. The Election of Adams in the 1796 election
2. Whiskey Rebellion
3. Fries' Rebellion
4. Alien and Sedition Acts
5. Yellow fever pandemic in Philadelphia

The election of 1796 showed the first peaceful transition of power in history which proves the theory of democracy and rule by the people through an elected leader.

1800's
Change: This decade marked the first ever peaceful change between political parties and the US began to settle in by further expanding its boundaries, manufacturing and the start of the fight to eliminate slavery.
1. The election of Thomas Jefferson
2. Congress bans the importation of slaves in 1807
3. The Embargo of 1807
4. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803
5. The Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Embargo of 1807, though meant to keep America out of a war with France and Great Britain, resulted in a US need to self-reproduce. The embargo essentially helped nurture US manufacturing and allow it to stand on its own. America was thus less dependent on foreign countries.

1810's
Change:

1820's
Change: This decade showed American advancement to more nationalistic feelings led mainly by President Monroe, who headed this Era of Good Feelings in a hope to stick with original Washington ideals to make a whole government without fractions that could endure the growing differences between the North and South.
1. Monroe doctrine
2. Missouri compromise
3. The addition of Maine and Missouri as states
4. American Colonization society
5. Democratic Party forms

The Monroe Doctrine claimed that Europe can no longer colonize America which also came with the addition of two new states.

1830's
Change: This decade was characterized by the presidency of Andrew Jackson with revolutionized the role of the federal government by his use of almost dictatorial powers which exercised the authority of the central government; the abolition movement gained ground under the leadership of Frederick Douglass and other abolitionist sources such as William Lloyd Garrison.
1. Nullification Crisis
2. Ending of the 2nd National Bank
3. Indian removal Act
4. Specie Circular
5. Abolition movement

The Nullification Crisis showed Jackson was not afraid to use his presidential power and weight to end dissent, which set the tone for his authoritative terms as president.

1840's
Change: During the 1840's the US was initially an isolationist country but became increasingly involved in foreign affairs close to home due to the beliefs provided by manifest destiny, creating tensions with Mexico and Japan; internal conflict and controversy also grew over the issue of slavery which led up to the civil war.
1. Manifest Destiny
2. Mexican War
3. Treaty of Wanghai
4. Frederick Douglass and his battle for Civil Rights
5. Texas Annexed

The Treaty of Wanghai signified an increase in the U.S.'s part in foreign relations; which showed how a once very internally focused country suddenly concentrated on other countries, namely China, and how aggressive America had become in its negotiations.

1850's
Change: The pre-Civil war decade marked the extremities of the factions of the US Government over the issue of slavery and how compromises, literature, court decisions, riots and protests, an economic depression, and even political beatings could not stop the issue of slavery rom causing the Confederacy to secede from the Union.
1. "Bleeding Kansas"
2. Compromise of 1850
3. Kansas-Nebraska Act
4. Sumer-Brooks Incident
5. Dred Scott v. Sanford

"Bleeding Kansas" was the miniature wars in Kansas between ploslavery forces and abolitionists, especially the attacks by John Brown. Massacres occurred between these two groups foreshadowing the civil war

1860's
Change: The Republican party, led by Abraham Lincoln, pledged to preserve the Union, to fight slavery, and to begin the reconstruction of the South after the end of the war.
1. The passage of the Emancipation Proclamation
2. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
3. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments
4. Reconstruction
5. General Ulysses S. Grant

The ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments proclaimed the rights of slaves and validated the views and works of Abraham Lincoln.

1870's
Change: The 1870s is also known as the Gilded Age showed a post-Civil War mayhem of mass corruption in the economy and government which weakened the government's power over the states and created disorder within the systems that the government of the US relied on to maintain stability.
1. Spoils system
2. Credit Mobilizer
3. Trusts, Monopolies, and big businesses
4. Ulysses S. Grant
5. Panic of 1873

To meet greater social mobility people took steps to climb social ranks such as earning a government job. Money and publicity would be used to gain jobs which left the government with unskilled workers, this basically defines the spoils system.

1880's
Change: Throughout this decade, America saw many shifts in power from the Republican to Democratic party and also saw new reform legislations that would directly impact the future ties between politics and big business and industry as well as politics and labor groups and farmers.
1. The election of Grover Cleveland
2. Pendleton Act of 1883
3. Interstate Commerce Act
4. American Federation of Labor
5. Farmers alliances

The Interstate Commerce Act allowed the federal government to regulate interstate commerce rather than having industries do so.

1890's
Change: This decade signified a time where political groups became more radical, migration was at its peak and there was a bigger focus on gold, and the growth of military power and influence.
1. Western settlement
2. Spanish-American War
3. Panic of 1893
4. Homestead Act
5. McKinley Tariff Act

The Panic of 1893 showed how the increased dependence on gold could affect the economy. The focus on gold caused over speculation until the stock market crashed.

1900's
Change: The US inherited a controversial yet popular theroy of political orientation that seemed to stand as a protective and defensive doctrine, but in truth favored imperialist ideas to better the conditions of society while remaining hidden behind this captured defense. Citizens began questioning this when they could not justify it giving way to the emergence of true progressives and new literature.
1. Russo-Japanese Treaty
2. Platt Amendment
3. Meat and Inspection Act
4. Trust busting
5. Great White Fleet

With the emergence of the progressives also came critical problems with resources, a big one being meat. Meat would be unlabeled, outdated, and contained dangerous chemicals. When citizens realized this they protested and the Mean and Inspection Act was passed enforcing inspection of meat for all large producing meat companies.

1910's
Change: America is now considered a world leader as the issues with immigration and poverty, labor and monopoly struggles, and work safety and child labor ends. World War One really helped in boosting Americas economy.
1. WWI
2.Ratification of 19th amendment
3. "New Immigrants"
4. Assembly lines
5. End of Progressive Era

WWI was the climax of the Progressive Era which reverted it back to its isolationist status by the end of the was.  America was a world power by the end of the war as well as socially altered back at home with women in the workforce and more minority rights.

1920's
Change: The 1920's experienced profound cultural changes including modern philosophies portrayed in the increased independence of women in their style, traditionalist and modernist conflicts, music influences from African Americans, and anti-prohibitionist groups.
1. Scoped Trial
2. Harlem Renaissance
3. Nativism
4. Flappers
5. Prohibition

The prominent style of young women of this decade was the flapper style which helped increase the acceptances of sexual promiscuity of women and he independence and equality of women challenging the traditional, modest view of women.

1930's
Change: The 1930's was a period of economic and international turbulence aas the United States was struck by both a failing stock market and deteriorating control over foeign threats that would eventually lead to the Second World War. It was defined by the reform legislation and a movement towards worldwide peace which is unattained.
1. The Great Depression
2. Roosevelt's New Deals
3. Isolationism
4. The Dust Bowl
5. Invasion of Poland in 1939

Both the first and second New Deals introduced new welfare legislation to help the country through labor and economic growth. Components of these included Social Security and the Fair Labor Act.

1940's
Change: This decade saw an era of war production and migration where the US was able to pull out of the Great Depression, experience new ideas in art and culture, and exit the idea of isolationism by building up alliances with the nations in Europe while Eruope experiences a time of great loss and dependency on unity.
1. Hitler
2. The Holocaust
3. NATO
4. Marshall Plan
War Production Board

The Holocaust showed the allies how terrible Hitler and the Nazi's were giving them a common enemy while the mass exodus of Jews marked a new era for culture changes and integration in many different countries.

1950's
Change: The US moved away from the postwar desire of calm atmospheres to more interventionist actions, especially against communism, abroad and increasing awareness of social and political issues at home.
1. Korean War
2. "dynamic conservatism"
3. Brown v. Board of Education
4. Massive Retaliation
5. Domino theory

The Domino theory claimed that if one country fell to communism then all surrounding would then also fall to it creating this domino effect of communism.

1960's
Change: In this time period America had a grat change in its relationship with other nations during the Cold War. This shaped future USnpolicies towards acting and reacting in global situations.
1. Cuban Missile Crisis
2. Bay of Pigs Invasion
3. Gulf of Tonkin Incident
4. Korean War
5. Dominican Republic action

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very alarming situation for Americans and lead to future developments to avoid ever having threats as close as this. This Crisis was essentially that the Soviet Union brought a nuclear missile into Cuba which could be activated at any time and directed towards the USA.

1970's
Change: Domestic reform was on the rise and policies from environmental issues to highway control were affected.
1. 26th amendment
2. Inflation increase
3. US gas embargo
4. Emergency Conservation highway act
5. EPA is passed

With inflation and unemployment on the rise, the US begins to focus on internal issues rather than foreign ones.

1980's
Change: Throughout the 1980's, President Reagan's conservatism and Reagonomics caused unemployment, recession, and excessive military expenditures; thus, the larger military intensified the Cold War, and there were more foreign policy issues with Muslim extremist groups near the end of the 80's.
1. Tax cuts
2. Excessive military spending
3. Recession of 1982
4. Muslims taking American hostages
5. "New right" movement

The excessive military spending and tax cuts lead to the Recession of 1982 which involved the rise of unemployment and more tension with the Soviet Union.

1990's
Change: During this decade America grew intellectually with the era of Technology creating a booming economy; improved domestically with numerous legislation passed, and influenced foreign policy with the creation of the world Trade Organization.
1. Iraq invades Kuwait which puts America into getting involved in the Gulf War
2. The Gulf War ends
3. NAFTA goes into effect
4. WTO created
5. Iraq Liberation Act

With the creation of the World Trade Organization, America's trade with other countries was stabilized with the establishment of set rules of trade among nations.

2000's
Change: During the start of the 21st century, United States lifestyle was changed by catastrophes, such as the 9/11 bombings leading to the war on terrorism; and an economical change, much like that of the stock over speculation in 1929, from the thriving economy early in the decade to a crash with the over speculation of mortgage rates.
1. Mortgage Crisis of 2007
2. 9/11 terrorist bombings
3. Iraqi war
4. War on Terrorism
5. American recovery and Readjustment Act

The Mortgage Crisis was the first time in almost 80 years that the US had such a drop in the economic situation as it had been thriving since post WWII.