TIMELINE

1695

  • Licensing Act lapses in England, triggering the print revolution

1710s–1730s

  • Enlightenment ideas spread from Europe to America

  • Germans and Scots-Irish settle in Middle colonies

  • Theodore Jacob Frelinghuysen preaches Pietism to German migrants

1720s–1730s

  • William and Gilbert Tennent lead Presbyterian revivals among Scots-Irish

  • Jonathan Edwards preaches in New England

1729

  • Benjamin Franklin founds the Pennsylvania Gazette

1739

  • George Whitefield sparks Great Awakening

1740s–1760s

  • Conflict between Old Lights and New Lights

  • Shortage of farmland in New England threatens freehold ideal

  • Growing ethnic and religious pluralism in Middle Atlantic colonies

  • Religious denominations establish colleges

1743

  • Benjamin Franklin founds American Philosophical Society

  • Samuel Morris starts Presbyterian revivals in Virginia

1748

  • Ohio Company receives grant of 200,000 acres from the crown

1749

  • Connecticut farmers form Susquehanna Companym

1750s

  • Industrial Revolution begins in England

  • British shipping dominates North Atlantic

  • Consumer purchases increase American imports and debt

1754

  • French and Indian War begins

  • Iroquois and colonists meet at Albany Congress

  • Franklin’s Plan of Union

1756

  • Britain begins Great War for Empire

1759–1760

  • Britain completes conquest of Canada

1760s

  • Land conflict along New York and New England border

  • Baptist revivals win converts in Virginia

1763

  • Pontiac’s Rebellion leads to Proclamation of 1763

  • Treaty of Paris ends Great War for Empire

  • Scots-Irish Paxton Boys massacre Indians in Pennsylvania

1771

  • Royal governor puts down Regulator revolt in North Carolina