TimeLine
AD 700:
Chumash travel the Pacific coastline in plank canoesAt Santa Barbara Bay, Chumash ancestors make plank tomols, or canoes, from the trunks of fallen redwood trees that float south hundreds of miles on ocean currents to Chumash territory. There the Chumash split the wood into planks, sew them together using cordage made from plants, and seal the tomols with a mixture of pine pitch and sand. They paddle these canoes along the coastline, visiting villages where related tribes live. Driftwood is only one of the important resources that the ocean supplies to the Chumash. Their diet is rich with marine mammals and shellfish. Whalebones serve as girders for the domed Chumash houses, which are large enough to shelter as many as 50 people. THEME Land and Water REGION California AD 1000: Viking ships land in Mi’kmaq homelandsViking ships visit the homelands of the Mi’kmaq people in areas now known as Maine, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. The Norsemen trade a little with the Inuit and perhaps with the Mi’kmaq; the Inuit probably obtain yarn from the Vikings. At home, the Vikings describe grapevines and fascinate their friends with tales that are reported by a Muslim geographer in AD 1150. “[In North America] there are animals of such enormous size that inhabitants of the inner islands use their bones and vertebrae in place of wood in constructing houses. They also use them for making clubs, darts, lances, knives, seats, ladders, and in general, all things which elsewhere are made from wood...” —Al-Idrisi, author of Nuzhet al-Mushtaq, AD 1150, a compendium of travelers’ stories from around the world THEME Land and Water, Native RightsREGION Hawai‘iTHAD 1200: Tahitian settlers in Hawai‘i set up social classesLed by chief-priest Pa‘ao, Tahitian settlers in the Hawaiian Islands set up a stratified society of ali‘i (chiefs), kahuna(priests), koa (warriors), maka‘ainana (workers), and kaua(servants). The chiefdoms enforce kapu (taboos) and begin to extend their authority across the Hawaiian Islands, as the population grows. EME Land and WaterREGION Northeast AD 1400: Tahitians control trade routesTahitians, sailing double-hulled canoes, take over the oceanic trade routes between Hawai‘i and Tahiti. THEME Land and WaterREGION Hawai‘i AD 1492: Taíno meet Columbus; “New World” gets new diseasesIn the Bahamas, the Taíno are 125,000 strong in 1492 when they encounter the crew and the Italian captain of three Spanish ships. Christopher Columbus seeks a shorter sea route to India to help Spain get a foothold in the profitable spice trade. Instead, he lands in what Europeans will call the “New World.” His arrival sets off a fierce rivalry among European powers for colonies and riches, which lasts for centuries and unleashes deadly epidemics on the 30 million Native peoples living in the Americas, who lack any immunity to “Old World” diseases. THEME EpidemicsREGION Southeast AD 1493: Cattle carry influenza to the TaínoOn a second voyage to the Caribbean island Hispaniola, the fleet of Christopher Columbus carries domestic cattle infected with an influenza virus that sweeps through the Taíno. Epidemics kill countless numbers and spread to Cuba and Florida along Taíno trade routes. THEME EpidemicsREGION Caribbean, Southeast AD 1493: Spanish settlers enslave the Taíno of HispaniolaSpain founds Santo Domingo, the first of many towns on the Caribbean island Hispaniola (now the location of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Spanish colonists force the Native Taíno people, on pain of death, to perform almost all labor on the island. Christopher Columbus, who needs to demonstrate the wealth of the New World after finding no gold, loads his ship with enslaved Taíno people. During the next four decades, slavery contributes to the deaths of 7 million Taíno. By 1535, the Taíno culture on Hispaniola is gone. THEME Native RightsREGION Caribbean, Southeast AD 1493: The Pope asserts rights to colonize, convert, and enslavePope Alexander VI issues a papal bull or decree, “Inter Caetera," in which he authorizes Spain and Portugal to colonize the Americas and its Native peoples as subjects. The decree asserts the rights of Spain and Portugal to colonize, convert, and enslave. It also justifies the enslavement of Africans. “... Out of our own sole largess and certain knowledge and out of the fullness of our apostolic power, by the authority of Almighty God conferred upon us in blessed Peter and of the vicarship of Jesus Christ, which we hold on earth, do by tenor of these presents, should any of said islands have been found by your envoys and captains, give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon, forever, together with all their dominions, cities, camps, places, and villages, and all rights, jurisdictions, and appurtenances, all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from the Arctic pole, namely the north, to the Antarctic pole, namely the south, no matter whether the said mainlands and islands are found and to be found in the direction of India or towards any other quarter, the said line to be distant one hundred leagues towards the west and south from any of the islands commonly known as the Azores and Cape Verde. With this proviso however that none of the islands and mainlands, found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, beyond that said line towards the west and south, be in the actual possession of any Christian king or prince up to the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ just past from which the present year one thousand four hundred ninety-three begins. And we make, appoint, and depute you and your said heirs and successors lords of them with full and free power, authority, and jurisdiction of every kind…” —Pope Alexander VI, “Inter Caetera” THEME Native RightsREGION Caribbean, Southeast, Southwest AD 1493–155,?Native peoples begin dying from European diseasesDiseases unknown to them spread rapidly among Native peoples, who lack immunity to viruses and bacteria carried by Europeans. As Native peoples travel waterways by canoe to trade and share news, they unknowingly take the germs to neighboring tribes. Measles, mumps, chickenpox, smallpox, diphtheria, influenza, pneumonia, typhoid, and the common cold reach Florida and Cuba and begin their deadly march through populations across the hemisphere. THEME EpidemicsREGION California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest AD 1501: Portuguese explorer kidnaps northeastern Native peoplesPortuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real abducts two shiploads of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and other peoples from what is now known as Newfoundland and New England, and sells them into slavery. He is not alone. Other explorers, seeking to make a profit on expensive journ eys to the Atlantic coast, kidnap and sell Native peoples into slavery. THEME Native RightsREGION Northeast, Southeast, Southwest AD 1503: Foreigners come for cod; carry disease to New EnglandFor generations, teeming schools of codfish support Native peoples along the North Atlantic coast. After the explorer John Cabot lands in Newfoundland in 1497, his reports lure English fishermen and other Europeans to the region. Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, Mi’kmaq, Penobscot, and Maliseet peoples begin trading with them, with terrible consequences. Overfishing cuts the rich food supply, while contagious diseases carried by Europeans spread among Native peoples THEME EpidemicsREGION Northeast AD 1506–18: Viruses move inland along with French tradersThe Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Huron begin exchanging goods with French traders pushing inland from the Atlantic coast along the St. Lawrence River. For Native peoples, every contact holds the risk of exposure to a virus or infection to which they have no immunity. THEME EpidemicsREGION Northeast AD 1513: El Requierimento: Spain demands subservienceThe “Laws of Burgos” are the first legal code regarding Spanish actions in the Americas. They direct Spaniards to read aloud a religious justification and demand for obedience—El Requierimento—supposedly to give Native peoples a chance to submit before being attacked or enslaved. But for Native peoples who do not speak Spanish, “the requirement” to obey is baffling. The Spanish continue to enslave them and seize their lands and resources. The English translation of the Spanish El Requierimento(Requirement) of 1513 reads: “On the part of the King, Don Fernando, and of Doña Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castille and León, subduers of the barbarous nations, we their servants notify and make known to you, as best we can, that the Lord our God, living and eternal, created the heaven and the earth, and one man and one woman, of whom you and we, and all the men of the world, were and are all descendants, and all those who come after us. Of all these nations God our Lord gave charge to one man, called St. Peter, that he should be lord and superior of all the men in the world, that all should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole human race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. One of these pontiffs, who succeeded St. Peter as lord of the world in the dignity and seat which I have before mentioned, made donation of these isles and Terra Firma to the aforesaid King and Queen and to their successors, our lords, with all that there are in these territories, Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world, But if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him: and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us.” THEME Native RightsREGION Caribbean, Southeast, Southwest AD 1518: Mayans report smallpox spread to Yucatan PeninsulaMayan writings record that tribal trade expeditions traveling by canoe have spread smallpox to the Yucatan Peninsula from Hispaniola. Spanish invaders, including Hernán Cortés, who will wage war against the Aztecs, will carry the smallpox inland. THEME EpidemicsREGION Caribbean AD 1520–62: ‘Virgin-soil’ epidemics devastate Native populations“Virgin-soil” epidemics sweep through populations with no prior exposure to a particular infectious disease and consequently no immunity to it. Almost every disease that Europeans carry to the Americas in the 1500s causes a virgin-soil epidemic because every Native American exposed to it is susceptible. Even if a Native person survives a smallpox epidemic, immunity to that disease does not extend to other diseases. Entire families perish when all members are stricken, leaving no one able to care for the ill. “The diseases crossing the ocean during the sixteenth century usually caused so-called virgin-soil epidemics, because every Native American with whom they came in contact was susceptible. Those Natives who survived the 1520 smallpox epidemic became immune to that virus, and it seems not to have recurred until 1562. Smallpox immunity protected no one against measles, plague, or influenza, however. Often entire families perished during virgin-soil epidemics because all members were stricken simultaneously, leaving no one capable of fetching water or preparing food.” —Henry Dobyns, “Diseases,”Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life from Paleo-Indians to the Present, 1996 THEME EpidemicsREGION California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest AD 1520–24: Mid-Atlantic coast peoples meet foreign explorerOn the Atlantic coast, Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Lenape (Delaware) peoples encounter Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian explorer in the service of the French crown. THEME Land and WaterREGION Northeast, Southeast AD 1521: Calusas attack and kill Ponce de LeónThe Spanish explorer Ponce de León, who named Florida after visiting there in 1513, is attacked by the indigenous Calusas of the region when he returns to attempt to settle there. He dies from his wounds. THEME Native RightsREGION Southeast AD 1531–33: Mesoamericans succumb to deadly measles epidemicMaya, Toltec, Quechua, and many other peoples in Mesoamerica die in great numbers from measles wherever they encounter Europeans. Spaniards report that the measles epidemic spreads north, reaching from southern Mexico to the state of Sonora in the north. THEME EpidemicsREGION Southwest AD 1535: Huron healers cure French invaders’ scurvyHuron healers have medicines to treat many ailments, including a concoction made from white cedar to treat scurvy. In 1534, the French explorer Jacques Cartier had laid France’s claim to what is now Canada and enslaved two Iroquois men to serve as his interpreters and guides. The following year, when Cartier and his crew fall ill with scurvy on their second voyage to North America, Agaya, one of the enslaved interpreters, convinces Huron healers to use the salve to treat the Frenchmen. THEME Medicine WaysREGION Northeast AD 1537: Pope Paul III opposes enslaving Native peoplesPope Paul III issues a decree, “Sublimus Deus,” opposing the enslavement of indigenous peoples and calling them “true men.” This papal bull becomes the policy of Spain’s leaders—but conquistadors and colonists break with it. In the Americas, the Spanish use various official means to subjugate Native peoples: the Royal Encomienda (tribute paid to the Spanish crown from profits from forced labor),Repartimiento (forced labor), and Hacienda and Rancho (land grants). “The said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect.” —Pope Paul III, “Sublimus Deus” THEME Native RightsREGION Caribbean, Southeast, Southwest AD 1539: Spain wages war against southeastern Native peoplesA Spanish military expedition begins four years of marauding large Native settlements, ranging across the region now known as peninsular Florida to northern Arkansas and eastern Texas. Hernando de Soto (one of the conquerors of the South American Inka Empire) commands, inflicting significant casualties. Near what is now known as Columbia, South Carolina, Hernando de Soto captures the Lady of Cofitachequi, the leader of the powerful Cofitachequi tribe. He loots her tribe’s pearls, and holds her hostage to ward off retaliatory attacks. She escapes, taking the best pearls from the looted stash. THEME Native RightsREGION Southeast AD 1540: The Zuni resist a conquistador but retreat from Spanish gunsThe Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado seeks the “Seven Cities of Gold.” At Hawikuh, a Zuni pueblo in what is now known as Arizona, his expedition interrupts summer ceremonies. The Zuni have already killed a conquistador, Cabeza de Vaca, for abusing Zuni women. They shoot arrows at Coronado as he recites theRequierimento, the Spanish demand for submission—but Coronado’s guns overpower the Zuni. Coronado and his expedition of 300 Spanish soldiers, 1,000 Tlaxcalan Indian slaves, and herds of livestock move through the Southwest from what is now known as Arizona to what is now known as Kansas. The conquistador’s livestock, notably the horses, first serve as an unfamiliar threat to intimidate Native peoples. Yet the horses, sheep, and cattle make a lasting impression on Native peoples, who incorporate the animals into Native cultures. THEME Land and Water, Native RightsREGION Great Basin, Great Plains, Southwest AD 1560: A conquistador finds Coosa villages abandonedTristán de Luna is ordered to establish a Spanish settlement on the Gulf Coast and an overland trade route to what is now South Carolina. In what is now Georgia, he expects to find villages of the powerful Coosa people, which Hernando de Soto described 20 years earlier. Instead, he finds villages almost abandoned. An ailing slave left behind by de Soto had spread an epidemic that swept through Coosa towns. Historians believe that a series of epidemics nearly wiped out southeastern tribes in only decades. One of them—possibly a combination of pneumonic and bubonic plagues, or typhus— killed millions of Mesoamericans from 1545 to 1548. Colonists also transmitted the influenza virus to Native peoples. The virus became epidemic in the Caribbean and Mesoamerica in 1559, following its sweep across Europe two years earlier. THEME EpidemicsREGION Southeast AD 1564: Epidemic decimates Timuacan in FloridaOnce 50,000 strong, the Timuacan living between the barrier islands of what is now Georgia and the area now known as Jacksonville, Florida, are decimated by an unidentified pathogen. Spain abducts the few hundred survivors and enslaves them in Mexico and Cuba. THEME EpidemicsREGION Southeast AD 1566: The Calusa battle Spain over conversionThe Calusa Indians, who live in southwest Florida, are weakened by epidemics. They are attacked by Spain, which in 1566 had established St. Augustine in the north. The Calusa leader, Calus (called Carlos II by the Spaniards), agrees to accept a Jesuit missionary among his people, but the Calusa refuse to convert. Spain beheads Calus and 20 of his warriors. The Calusa retaliate by burning the fort that the Spanish had established in their capital. THEME Epidemics, Native RightsREGION Southeast AD 1585 : English scouts infect Lumbee on Roanoke IslandSir Walter Raleigh sponsors colonists who try establish the first English settlement in Virginia. An English reconnaissance party on Roanoke Island (in present-day North Carolina) spreads an unknown pathogen that kills Lumbee people on Roanoke and Croatan Islands and the mainland. THEME EpidemicsREGION Southeast |
1776
U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaims that “all men are created equal” and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 1783 Massachusetts becomes the first state to outlaw slavery. The Massachusetts State Supreme Court relies upon the state’s bill of rights to in its judgment. 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom declares that religion cannot be established or explicitly supported by the government, and that all people have the right to freedom of belief. 1787 The U.S. Constitution is written and ratified by nine states in the following year. 1791 The first ten amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified. 1808 The Slave Trade Act (adopted in 1807) makes the import and export of slaves illegal in the United States. However, the domestic slave trade continues. 1848 Women’s rights activists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and others meet in Seneca Falls, New York, to draft a “bill of rights,” outlining the social, civil, and political rights of women. 1861 Start of the American Civil War. 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. 1865 On April 7, 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War. In December, Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States. 1868 Congress passes the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits limitation of citizenship rights and affirms the principles of due process and equal protection of the law. 1870 Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibits the use or race, color or previous status as a slave to limit voting rights. 1918 President Woodrow Wilson introduces his Fourteen Points. 1919 The International Labour Organization (ILO) is established. 1920 The Leagues of Nations holds it first meeting. Congress ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment, which grants women the right to vote 1924 Congress approves The Indian Citizenship Act, which admits all Native Americans born in the United States into full United States citizenship. 1926 The United States is signatory to the Geneva Conference which passes the Slavery Convention. 1929 The Slavery Convention is entered into force for the United States. 1933 Congress begins approving measures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” designed to help the United States recover from the Great Depression. 1934 Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act, which restores tribal ownership of reservation lands. The United States officially joins the International Labor Organization. 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes his “Four Freedoms” speech, where he declares freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear as the birthright of every man and woman. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill draft the Atlantic Charter, which becomes a foundational document for both the Allies war-time goals and the charter of the United Nations. 1945 The United Nations (UN) is established. The United States becomes signatory to its Charter. 1948 The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States is signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention becomes effective in 1951, although the U.S. Senate did not ratify the treaty until 1988. The United States is signatory to the Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women. The U.S. Senate ratifies in 1976. 1949 The United States is signatory to the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The United States is signatory to four Geneva Conventions (known as Geneva I, II, III, and IV), which address providing medical aid to armed forces, the treatment of POWs, and the protection of civilians during wartime. 1953 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers an address titled: “The Chance for Peace,” where he highlights how war robs a nation of resources that otherwise could be used to advance human rights. 1954 In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. 1955 The United States adopts the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (Geneva I); the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick, and Shipwrecked Members of armed Forces at Sea (Geneva II); the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Geneva III); and the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Geneva IV) are ratified by the United States. 1957 The ILO introduces the Convention Concerning the Abolition of Forced Labor. The U.S. ratifies it in 1991. Congress approves the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which sought to protect the voting rights for African-Americans and create a commission to review voting grievances. 1962 The United States signs the Convention on the Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages. 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 1965 The Voting Rights Act authorizes the United States government to appoint examiners to register voters where local officials have made African-American registration difficult. 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are adopted and opened for signature. 1968 The United States ratifies the updated Protocol on the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees. 1975 President Gerald Ford signs the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). 1977 The United States becomes signatory to the American Convention on Human Rights. The Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs is created within the United States Department of State. Its first reports on human rights are issued that year. President Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural Address establishes advancing human rights as an important part of his Administration’s goals. 1980 The United States is signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 1984 Senate ratifies the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages. The United States signs the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 1986 Congress passes the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986: which imposes economic sanctions on South Africa in protest against the government’s apartheid policy. 1988 The Senate ratifies the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed into law, establishing “a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability.” 1991 President George H.W. Bush resubmits the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention to the Senate for ratification. The Senate ratifies the Convention on September 25. 1992 The Senate ratifies the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 1994 The United States becomes party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 1995 First Lady Hillary Clinton leads the United States delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China where she declares, “Women’s rights are human rights.” 1999 President William J. Clinton submits the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour to the Senate for ratification. The Senate ratifies the Convention on August 5, 1999. 2000 The United States leads the UN to adopt the Palermo Protocol, which includes a section that denounces trafficking in persons. Domestically, the U.S. Congress passes the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 2003 The United States becomes party to the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. 2010 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives groundbreaking speech on Internet Freedom. |
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