|
| |
|
| 1658 |
French traders Medard Chouart and
Pierre Esprit Radisson become the first Europeans to make contact
with the tribes of the northern Plains when they venture west and
south of Lake Superior in search of furs. |
 |
| 1674 |
Louis Joliet and the Jesuit Father
Jacques Marquette become the first Europeans to journey down the Mississippi.
THE PUEBLO REVOLT (1680-1692) |
|
| 1675 |
 Under
pressure from missionaries in the territory, New Mexican Governor
Juan Francisco de Treviño begins a campaign against Pueblo
religious practices, hanging four Indians in the plaza at Santa Fe
on accusations of witchcraft and publicly whipping 43 others.
Among those whipped is Popé, an Indian from the Ohke Pueblo
who has long resisted Spanish authority and who now begins encouraging
rebellion. The hardships of a near-decade long drought, coupled with
the increasing demands of the Spanish, help Popé win a receptive
audience in the pueblos. |
|
| 1680 |
From his headquarters in a kiva
at Taos, Popé leads the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in
New Mexico. On August 10, in a coordinated uprising at more than two
dozen Indian settlements, separated by hundreds of miles and six different
languages, the Indians kill more than 400 Spaniards, including 21
of the province's 33 missionaries, and sack or destroy every building
and church.
Those who survive flee to Santa Fe, where they are surrounded by a
combined force of 2,500 warriors who burn the town and mock their
persecutors, now barricaded in the Governor's Palace, by chanting
phrases from the Latin Mass. After a skirmish which temporarily drives
the Indians back, the Spanish retreat to El Paso on the Rio Grande,
establishing a secular community around the mission founded there
in 1659.
The Pueblo people watch this retreat from the hills overlooking Santa
Fe, content simply to have their homeland back again. Under Popé's
leadership they have carried out what will stand as the most successful
Indian revolt in North American history.
But even with the Spanish gone, the life of the Pueblos still bears
the scars of their influence. Popé eradicates all signs of
the Christian religion, but he retains elements of the Spanish political
system, setting himself up in the Governor's Palace as ruler of the
pueblos and collecting tribute from the once autonomous communities
of the region until his death in 1688. |
|
| 1682 |
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,
and Henri de Tonti complete a four-month voyage to the mouth of the
Mississippi, claiming the entire Mississippi Valley for France and
naming it Louisiana. |
|
| 1685 |
Intending to establish a permanent
French settlement in Louisiana, La Salle accidentally sails past the
mouth of the Mississippi River and lands in Spanish territory on the
Texas coast, where he founds Fort St. Louis. |
|
| 1687 |
La Salle is killed in a mutiny
when he attempts a desperate march from his outpost on the Texas coast
to French settlements on the upper Mississippi for assistance. Those
who remain behind at Fort St. Louis have all perished by the time
Spanish forces, patrolling the region against a rumored French incursion,
discover their settlement in 1689. |
|
| 1687 |
The Jesuit Father Eusebio Kino
arrives in present-day Arizona to begin building a string of 24 missions
that will minister to the local Indians. |
|
| 1690 |
Alonso de León establishes
a mission at San Francisco de los Tejas near the Neches River, the
first Spanish settlement in what will become Texas. By 1693, however,
resistance from local Indians and the absence of a French threat in
the region lead Mexican authorities to abandon this outpost and withdraw
from Tejas for more than twenty years. |
|
| 1692 |
On an expedition to reclaim New
Mexico for Spain more than a decade after the Pueblo Revolt, Diego
de Vargas leads a band of 200 soldiers from El Paso to Santa Fe, where
he surrounds the town before dawn and then calls on the Indians to
surrender, pledging clemency if they will swear allegiance to the
King and return to the Christian faith. After a decade in which many
have been forced to abandon their pueblos to escape Apache raiders,
the Indians gathered in Santa Fe agree to peace. Vargas keeps his
word, and over the next few months extends the same offer throughout
the region. By year's end, he has accomplished his mission and reimposed
Spanish rule over New Mexico almost without bloodshed. |
|
| 1705 |
Eusebio Kino produces a map which
finally establishes that California is part of North America, not
a giant island. |
|
| 1714 |
French explorer and fur trader
Etienne Veniard ventures up the Missouri River to the Platte. French
traders explore the length of the Mississippi and its tributaries
during these decades. |
|
| 1716 |
To guard their territory against
the spread of French trading posts in neighboring Louisiana, the Spanish
establish permanent border settlements in east Tejas near the Sabine
River. |
|
| 1718 |
 Martin
de Alarcon establishes San Antonio at the junction of the San Antonio
and San Pedro Rivers in Tejas, midway between Mexico and Spain's settlements
on the Sabine River along the border with French Louisiana. Nearby,
Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura establishes the mission of San Antonio
de Valero, later known as The Alamo. |
|
| 1718 |
New Orleans is established by the
French. |
|
| 1738 |
French fur trader Pierre de la
Verendrye arrives among the Mandans of the upper Missouri River, becoming
the first European to enter North Dakota. |
|
| 1741 |
French fur traders Pierre and Paul
Mallet complete a 2,000 mile trek through the interior of the continent.
Leaving their outpost on the Missouri River in 1738, they journey
upriver to the Platte, then west to Santa Fe. From there they follow
the Canadian River east to the Arkansas and then head down the Mississippi
to New Orleans. They discover a range of mountains at the headwaters
of the Platte which the Indians call the Rockies, becoming the first
Europeans to report on this uncharted mountain range. |
|
| 1741 |
Russians Vitus Bering and Alexi
Chirikov explore the coast of Alaska. |
|
| 1743 |
French explorers Francois and Louis-Joseph
de la Verendrye bury an inscribed lead plate at Fort Pierre, South
Dakota, claiming the area for France. |
|
| 1753 |
Describing British ambitions in
the New World, Bishop George Berkeley writes, "Westward the course
of empire takes its way." |
|
| 1755 |
Beginning of the Seven Years War
between England and France, which in the British colonies of North
America is known as the French and Indian War. |
|
| 1759 |
Responding to a Comanche attack
that destroyed two missions on the San Saba River in central Tejas,
a Spanish force of 600 marches north to the Red River where they engage
several thousand Comanche and other Plains Indians fighting behind
breastworks and armed with French rifles. The Spaniards are routed,
losing a cannon in their retreat, and Comanche raids become a constant
threat to settlers throughout Tejas. |
|
| 1762 |
France cedes its colonial territories
west of the Mississippi to its ally Spain to compensate for the loss
of Cuba, Florida, Minorca and the Philippines to the British in the
Seven Years War. |
|
| 1763 |
The Treaty of Paris ends the French
and Indian War. France cedes its Canadian territories to England. |
|
| 1764 |
Auguste Chouteau, a 14-year-old
from a wealthy family in New Orleans, begins clearing a site for St.
Louis, a new trading post on the Mississippi River near the mouth
of the Missouri. |
|
| 1764 |
Catherine II of Russia orders further
exploration of Alaska and revokes the fur tax, lending strong governmental
support to the growth of trade with the Aleuts and raising the prospect
of a permanent Russian settlement in North America.
SPANISH SETTLEMENT OF CALIFORNIA |
|
| 1769 |
 Father
Junipero Serra, a Franciscan accompanying a Mexican expeditionary
force under the command of Gaspar de Portola, establishes Mission
San Diego de Alcala near the site of present-day San Diego. The outpost
is the first in a planned string of settlements along the coast of
Spain's California territory which are intended to guard against Russian
intruders. Before his death in 1784, Serra founds eight more missions,
including San Carlos at Carmel (1770, his headquarters in California),
San Gabriel near present-day Los Angeles (1771), and San Francisco
(1776). |
|
| 1769 |
Jose de Ortega, a scout with the
Portola expedition, discovers the entrance to San Francisco bay. |
|
| 1772 |
Pedro Fages, now in command of
the Portola expedition, leads a scouting party into central California,
exploring San Francisco Bay and the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. |
|
| 1775 |
Forced to labor in the mission
fields and to worship according to the missionaries' teachings, the
Indians at San Diego rebel against the Spanish, burning every building
and killing most of the inhabitants, including the mission's head
priest. Thanks to a Spanish sharpshooter, the Indians are finally
driven off and the Spanish retain control of their outpost. |
|
| 1776 |
The Declaration of Independence
marks the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. |
|
| 1776 |
A group of nearly 200 settlers,
led overland from Mexico across desert and mountain by Governor Luis
Anza, arrive to establish a permanent colony on San Francisco Bay. |
|
| 1778 |
British Captain James Cook discovers
Hawaii, which he names the Sandwich Islands after his benefactor,
the Earl of Sandwich. Cook goes on to explore an Alaskan estuary,
now called Cook's Inlet, in hopes that it might be the Northwest Passage,
and sails along the Northwest seacoast, where he trades the Indians
pennies for sea otter pelts that will fetch $100 in China. |
|
| 1781 |
A band of settlers, following the
overland trail from Mexico, escape a massacre by once-friendly Yuma
Indians along the Colorado River. Fifty-five members of their party
are killed and nearly 70 are taken captive. The 46 survivors forge
on to Mission San Gabriel, near which they establish Los Angeles.
But the overland route to California is abandoned and Spain's northernmost
province becomes increasingly isolated and self-dependent. |
|
| 1781 |
The British surrender at Yorktown
marks the end of the American Revolutionary War. |
|
| 1784 |
Russia establishes its first North
American colony on Kodiak Island. |
|
| 1784 |
The North West Company is established
in Montreal to challenge the Hudson's Bay Company for control of the
fur trade on the northern Plains. |
|
| 1787 |
The Northwest Ordinance sets guidelines
for settlement on the American frontier, including the prohibition
of slavery and a requirement to deal fairly with Indians. |
|
| 1787 |
The United States Constitution
is approved by the Constitutional Convention and ratified by the states
the following year. |
|
| 1788 |
The Columbia, captained by Robert
Gray of Boston, trades iron tools, mirrors and trinkets with Indians
of the Northwest for otter furs. Gray explores the Columbia River,
which he names for his ship, establishing an American claim to the
region. Two years later, the Columbia returns to Boston after a trading
stop in China, becoming the first American ship to circle the globe. |
|
| 1792 |
The Russian Orthodox Church begins
missionary work in Alaska, establishing a bishopric at Sitka. |
|
| 1792 |
British Captain George Vancouver,
a veteran of Cook's expeditions, begins a survey of the Pacific coast.
Charting the many inlets and channels north from near San Luis Obispo
to Prince of Wales Island, he confirms that no sea lane connects the
Pacific with Hudson Bay. On this voyage he circles Vancouver Island,
which he names for himself, and explores Puget Sound, which he names
for Peter Puget, the officer who first sights it. |
|
| 1793 |
Alexander Mackenzie, a fur trader
with the North West Company, becomes the first white man to cross
the North American continent. From his trading post, Fort Chipewyan
on Lake Athabasca in what is now Alberta, Canada, Mackenzie crosses
the Rocky Mountains and travels through British Columbia, eventually
canoeing down the Bella Coola River to the Pacific. |
|
| 1795 |
The Treaty of San Lorenzo establishes
the border between the United States and Spanish territories along
the Mississippi and gives U.S. merchants the right to ship goods through
New Orleans duty-free. |
|
| 1797 |
Charles Chaboillez, a fur trader
with the North West Company, establishes Pembina, a trading post at
the junction of the Pembina and Red Rivers in present-day North Dakota. |
|
| 1799 |
The Russian American Company establishes
its headquarters at Sitka, Alaska. |
|
| 1799 |
Daniel Boone leaves Kentucky for
"elbow room" in the Spanish territories west of the Mississippi,
settling near St. Charles on the Missouri River. |
