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

• Humans cross the Beringia land bridge into North and then South America, causing ecological havoc wherever they go.

988-1490

• 986: Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn't land (see also Norse colonization of the Americas).
• c. 1000: Norse settle briefly in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.^[1]
• c. 1450: Norse colony in Greenland dies out.
• 1473: João Vaz Corte-Real perhaps reaches Newfoundland; writes about the "Land of Cod fish" in his journal.

1492-99

Christopher Columbus landing in the New World.

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, lands on the island of San Salvidor in the Bahamas, discovering the New World for 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 the Pacific Ocean.
• 1513 – Juan Ponce de León defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec Empire.
• 1520s – Spanish begin the 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 finds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World.
• 1590 – Roanoke Colony found deserted.

1600–1699

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.

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

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 III and Mary II
• 1689 – Dominion of New England ceases to exist as Governor is deposed.
• 1689 - Start of Leisler's Rebellion
• 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
• 1691 - Leisler's Rebellion put down.
• 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.

See also

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