The American Promise: A Compact History 3rd Edition Vol 1: To 1877

Introduction.

This chapter begins with a description of Captain John Smith’s capture by the warriors of Powhatan, the chief of about fourteen thousand Algonquian peoples who lived along the coast of Virginia. Smith believed that Powhatan had been ready to kill him by smashing his head with rocks but that he was fortuitously saved by Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas. However, it is far more likely that she was playing a part in a ceremony designed to express Powhatan’s power of life and death over a subordinate chief. Relations broke down between English settlers and the Algonquians though. Captured, Pocahontas eventually married John Rolfe, had a son, and moved to England where she was celebrated with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. Powhatan’s world of hunters and gatherers was gradually replaced by one of settlers with weapons, tools, and ideas foreign to the Native Americans. As a thriving tobacco trade grew between the Chesapeake Bay colony and Europe, Native American lands were usurped and their ways of life irreparably challenged.

An English Colony on the Chesapeake, pp. 71-80.

In 1603, King James I of England, impressed by Spain’s successes in the New World, was eager to establish colonies of his own in North America. England’s success in defending itself from the Spanish Armada suggested that England might now succeed in defending new colonies in North America on land claimed by Spain. Thus, in 1606, the king granted a charter to the Virginia Company of London, a joint stock company of adventurers, authorizing their occupation of over six million acres in North America. These men and other proponents of colonization hoped settlements would benefit the empire, both by yielding goods and by providing a convenient destination for masses of unemployed English people. Virginia Company investors dreamed about the quick and easy profits they could reap, but they failed to appreciate the difficulties of adapting European desires and expectations to the New World environment, particularly in regard to Native American peoples. Within twenty years the Jamestown settlement somehow managed to survive, but the English government replaced the private Virginia Company, which was never profitable.

The Fragile Jamestown Settlement.

In December 1606, 144 Englishmen sailed for Virginia aboard three ships. In May 1607, the survivors of the journey put ashore on a small peninsula in the James River in the heart of Powhatan’s chiefdom. They hastily built a fort as protection from the Indians and Spanish and named the settlement Jamestown, but skirmishes with the Indians were frequent. The settlers soon discovered that disease and famine were greater threats than the Indians’ spears and arrows or attacks by the Spanish. Despite Powhatan’s eventual overtures of peace and delivery of much needed foodstuffs and John Smith’s forays to trade with the Indians, by January 1608, only 38 of the original settlers remained alive to welcome the Virginia Company’s supply ships and 120 new colonists. Although the Virginia Company sent hundreds of new settlers each year to Jamestown, few survived these early years.

Cooperation and Conflict between Natives and Newcomers.

Given the colonists’ vulnerability, it is surprising perhaps that Powhatan did not attack Jamestown and drive the English out of the Chesapeake. Several factors probably contributed to his hesitation. The Indians were impressed by the English God, whom they felt must be very powerful, and even more by English goods. They were eager to trade corn to get these valuable items. Moreover, Powhatan and his werowances probably concluded that such powerful strangers would make better allies than enemies, especially in regard to other Native American tribes. Notwithstanding, more than once the Indians refused to trade their corn to the settlers, but the English brutally broke that boycott by attacking the uncooperative Indians, pillaging their villages, and confiscating their corn. Despite receiving or taking food from the Indians, Jamestown failed to thrive not only because of the settlers’ weakened physical condition, but also because the majority were gentlemen and their servants, who considered cultivating the land beneath them. Nevertheless, over time, the colony slowly expanded. Its continued existence changed Indian society, introducing new tensions over resources as well as European diseases that decimated Indians in epidemic proportions. In 1622, after fifteen years of an uneasy truce, Opechancanough, Powhatan’s brother and successor after his death, launched an all-out assault on the colony, killing 347 settlers— nearly one-third of the English population. The attack failed to drive the English out. From this point on, the colonists no longer deemed the Indians necessary for their survival; instead, they concluded that their settlement’s existence depended on the destruction of all Indians in the vicinity.

 From Private Company to Royal Government.

The shocking mortality rate and evidence of mismanagement led to the Virginia Company’s dissolution in 1624; Virginia became a royal colony governed directly by the crown. The king now appointed the governor, but most features of local government established under the company remained in effect, such as the House of Burgesses, first convened in 1619. By 1624, it was evident that English settlers were in Virginia to stay: New settlers were still arriving, the crown was committed to the colony, and steady progress was being made in the cultivation of tobacco. 

A Tobacco Society, pp. 80-87.

Tobacco grew wild in the New World where Native Americans had been using it for thousands of years. During the sixteenth century, Spanish colonists in the New World sent tobacco to Europe where it was an expensive luxury but, during the following century, English colonists in North America sent so much tobacco to European markets that it became quite affordable and was used widely. In 1612, John Rolfe’s experiments with West Indian tobacco seeds showed that the plant could be cultivated successfully in Virginia. The first shipment of Virginia-grown tobacco arrived in England in 1617 and sold for a handsome price. Ironically, the same Virginia colonists who could not or would not grow food for themselves quickly learned how to harvest as much tobacco as possible. Tobacco cultivation proved a crucial turning point for the Virginia colony, as the crop changed the aimless settlers into a community of dedicated planters.

Tobacco Agriculture.

A demanding crop, tobacco required close attention and a great deal of hand labor year-round. Primitive tools and planting methods made this intensive cycle of labor more taxing. Fields were cleared by girdling trees, and the tree-stump-studded fields were hoed instead of plowed. Colonists also had to grow food crops in the midst of the tobacco production cycle, leaving little time for idleness. But in spare moments, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor. English settlers, however, were willing to work hard because they could expect to do much better in the Chesapeake than in England. A hired laborer in a Virginia tobacco field earned in one year what it took his counterpart in England to earn in two to three years. More important, land was so plentiful in Virginia that even laborers could hope to obtain it. New settlers to the area who paid their own passage received fifty acres of free land known as a headright. This policy, begun by the Virginia Company, was continued by the royal government to attract settlers.

A Servant Labor System.

The seventeenth-century Chesapeake was fundamentally a servant society, with about 80 percent of new arrivals working as indentured servants. As indentured servants, English workers contracted their labor for a period of four to seven years in return for passage to Virginia and the chance to acquire land and wealth. The planter paid the cost of transportation and provided the servant with food and shelter. As many as half of the indentured servants died before their servitude ended, but those who survived were likely to acquire their own farms. More than two-thirds of the servants were young, unskilled males between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. Only about one servant in four was a woman because employers preferred men for fieldwork. Servant life was very harsh by the standards of England and the Chesapeake. Servants who ran away or female servants who became pregnant had additional time added on to their contract. For some servant women, premarital pregnancy was a path out of servitude: The father of an unborn child sometimes purchased the indenture of the servant mother-to-be, freed, and married her. Notwithstanding, indentured servitude was not an easy road for those who chose to work it.

Cultivating Land and Faith.

Dispersments of the Chesapeake settlements were determined by the demands of tobacco. Because tobacco exhausted the land of its nutrients quickly, farms consisted of cultivated land surrounded by virgin forest. Moreover, planters preferred land on navigable rivers to ease transporting the tobacco onto ships. Most Chesapeake settlers nominally were Protestants, but few were very observant. Even the colony of Maryland, which was founded by Lord Baltimore and intended as a haven for persecuted English Catholics, devoted more attention to tobacco cultivation than to religion.

The Evolution of Chesapeake Society, pp. 87-93.

Tobacco cultivation propelled the evolution of Chesapeake society. The varying degrees of success among tobacco growers created a hierarchical society, in which wealth and status among colonists were quite disparate. Social stratification led to political polarization that climaxed in 1676 with Bacon’s Rebellion. Amid this political and social change, tobacco cultivation remained a constant.

Social and Economic Polarization.

Until mid-century, societal divisions in the Chesapeake were less between rich and poor planters than between free farmers and indentured servants, and a rough frontier equality characterized free families. After 1650, however, three developments contributed to a growing social polarization. First, tobacco prices declined as production increased, making it more difficult for freed servants to save enough to become landowners. Second, as the mortality rate of freed servants decreased, the number of freed men seeking land increased. Finally, the drop in mortality also contributed to a rising planter elite class whose members were living longer, acquiring more land, and making more money. By the 1670s, Chesapeake society had become polarized: Landowners-the planter elite and the more numerous yeoman farmers-made up one group; landless settlers, mostly freed servants, made up another group. Each looked upon the other with mistrust.

Government Policies and Political Conflict.

In general, government and politics intensified rather than reduced socioeconomic distinctions. Discrepant laws governed masters and servants. Moreover, the planter elite dominated the government, from membership in the House of Burgesses to the governor’s council. In the late seventeenth century, the franchise became more restricted, with voting limited to landowners and householders. Colonial officials not only administered government but profited from it as well, especially through revenue collecting. Beginning in 1660, the Navigation Act allowed the crown to extract revenue from the Chesapeake, and subsequent acts would be applied to other colonies. These measures were designed to give English merchants, shippers, and even seamen a monopoly on the colonial import trade. The acts reflected English mercantilist assumptions— the idea that the colonies existed to benefit the mother country. Hierarchy and stratification defined not only the relationship between king and colonies but also that between the planter and the lower classes.

Bacon’s Rebellion.

In 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion erupted as a dispute over Indian policy. As the Chesapeake population grew, the land-hungry poor whites encroached on Indian land and violence between settlers and Indians erupted. The government tried to maintain the peace, but frontier settlers, led by the ambitious Nathaniel Bacon, wanted revenge. They saw the colonial government, headed by William Berkeley, as run by corrupt officials who were as much their enemies as the Indians.

Governor Berkeley pronounced Bacon a rebel, threatened to punish him for treason, and called for new elections of burgesses, which Bacon and his supporters swept. They passed Bacon’s Laws, which gave local settlers a greater voice in the government and cracked down on corruption. When the king learned of the turmoil in the Chesapeake and its devastating effect on tobacco exports and customs duties, he ordered an investigation. The royal officials replaced Berkeley with a governor more attentive to the king’s interests, nullified Bacon’s Laws, and instituted an export tax on every hogshead of tobacco as a way of paying the expenses of government without having to obtain the consent of the tightfisted House of Burgesses. After Bacon’s Rebellion, political stability slowly returned to the Chesapeake.

Religion and Revolt in the Spanish Borderland, pp. 93-94.

Compared to the English colonies on the Atlantic coast or the Spanish colonies of Central and South Americas?, the Spanish settlements in Florida and New Mexico were failures. Florida and New Mexico lacked both Indian gold and an obvious export crop, and therefore attracted few Spanish settlers other than missionaries and soldiers. Spanish colonists coerced Indians into building churches, paying taxes, and performing labor. Angry at this harsh treatment, native peoples set aside their own disputes to fight Spain. In 1680, Popé led the Pueblo Indians in a revolt against the Spanish colony in New Mexico. The Pueblo Revolt temporarily ended Spanish rule. When Spain returned to New Mexico late in the seventeenth century, its agents decreased missionary work and cut back on labor exploitation. Although Florida witnessed no uprising comparable to the Pueblo Revolt, Spain’s colony there also had limited success attracting settlers or converting Indians. 

 Toward a Slave Labor System, pp. 94-98.

African slavery was introduced to the New World by the Spanish and Portuguese during the sixteenth century when European diseases decimated Native American populations. In the seventeenth century, West Indian English planters followed the Iberian example and developed sugar plantations with slave labor. However, in English North America, African slavery was not adopted until the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Beginning in the 1670s, slavery slowly made its way out of the English Caribbean and, by the end of the century, slave labor systems were found in the Chesapeake as well as in the Carolinas.

The West Indies: Sugar and Slavery.

England’s most profitable seventeenth-century colonies were established not on the North American mainland but in the Caribbean. English planters developed a profitable sugarcane industry that, by the end of that century, had exported nearly 50 million pounds a year to the mother country. Sugar plantations demanded a large initial investment; poor farmers could not afford the expensive machinery. The successful planters’ immense profits came from the sweat and toil of African slaves. By 1700, the island of Barbados was literally a slave society controlled by white men. The plantation regime was extremely brutal for slaves, who were often worked to death. Although sugar plantations never developed on the North American mainland, the West Indies nonetheless exerted a powerful influence on the introduction of slavery in North America.

Carolina: A West Indian Frontier.

In 1663, a Barbadian planter named John Colleton and seven other men obtained a charter from King Charles II to colonize the region south of Virginia. The proprietors planned to siphon settlers from Barbados and other colonies and encourage them to develop an export crop. They established a permanent English beachhead in the southern part of the colony at Charles Towne (later Charleston) in 1670. The Barbadian immigrants brought their slaves with them, thus establishing African slaves in South Carolina. During the first generation of the colony, Carolina served primarily as an economic colony of Barbados, exporting everything from livestock to timber back to the island. In the mid-1690s, the colonists hit upon a hardy strain of rice that thrived in the region; thereafter, rice became the industry that dominated Carolina.

Slave Labor Emerges in the Chesapeake.

By 1700, more than eight out of ten persons in England’s mainland southern colonies lived in the Chesapeake, and one out of eight was black. In 1650, slavery was still a relatively minor institution in Virginia and Maryland but, beginning in the 1670s, tobacco planters began a transition from servant to slave labor that portended slavery’s full adoption and institutionalization in the American South. Africans were favored over indentured servants as laborers for a number of reasons. First, because they and their descendants would be slaves for life, they constituted a potentially never-ending and self-perpetuating labor supply for planters. Further, unlike indentured servants, African slaves could be controlled politically. Whereas servants came to the Chesapeake with expectations of eventual liberty and ownership of land, slaves had no hope of attaining the privileges of freedom. Unlike the previous labor system divided between landless colonists on the one hand, and planter elites and yeoman planters on the other, this change from a servant to a slave labor system polarized Chesapeake society along lines of race and status. Although there were still large economic differences among whites, the rights enjoyed by poor white farmers made them feel that they too had a stake in the existence of slavery, even if they could not afford to own slaves themselves.

Conclusion: The Growth of English Colonies Based on Export Crops and Slave Labor, p. 98.

By the end of the seventeenth century, the English colonies of Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina were established firmly in North America, producing staples such as tobacco for export. Export crops made a handful of colonists wealthy and provided a livelihood for many. Southern colonial society differed significantly from that of England, yet the colonists considered themselves English subjects, claiming the rights and privileges of English citizens. The English believed themselves superior to Indians and Africans; thus colonists did not hesitate to deny these groups English rights and privileges. The English colonies differed from New Spain as well. The English did not seek to convert the native population to Christianity, the Chesapeake did not harbor gold or silver mines, and the encomienda system did not develop because Indians were too few and too hostile and their communities too small and decentralized to be organized effectively. However, the Chesapeake developed its own system of forced labor and racial distinctions. Only a remnant of Powhatan’s powerful confederation existed by 1700. The English colonists were in North America to stay.

The reason for exploration was born out of simple human desire to pay less for goods and eventually evolved into other rationalizations all of which shared a common objective: the procurement of wealth and opportunity. The Renaissance had a profound effect on exploration and gave Europeans that little extra confidence they needed to embark on voyages into a dangerous ocean. The Reformation also had an effect on exploration and in its beginning was affected to some degree by exploration as well. The Spanish settlement of the New World and their subsequent exploitation of the natives were justified in the minds of Spaniards through the dogmatic belief in their superiority and captured in the well-known aphorism “Gold, Glory, and Gospel.”

The primary reason why Europeans ventured out into the unknown was to find a trade route by sea and establish direct trade with Asia, India, China, and Africa (Roark). Essentially cutting out the middlemen, the Italian bankers and merchants, who dominated the trade in goods carried overland since the twelfth century. The items they sought (satins, silks, spices, and exotic fruits) were expensive and cost much more than the hides, furs, tin, lead, wool, and leather products they had to offer (Reilly). This created a trade imbalance, combined with the fact that much of  their wealth to buy these goods were filling the pockets of middle easterners, did not sit well with them, “Muslims, heathens, and non-Christians were benefiting from this trade, and it bothered them” (Reilly). Europeans were fed up with making the heathens in the east rich and decided to find a route by sea to the Indies.

The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Plague, was the catalyst for another potential reason for exploration. This deadly disease killed many Europeans, causing the surviving two-thirds much misery and hardship. Exploration provided some with an opportunity to escape the death and despair that haunted their recent past and gave them a chance at a better future. In some ways the bubonic plague encouraged some to take risks and so they set out on these voyages and to improve their lot and secure a place within society (Roark).  Their courage was fueled by technological advances and increased navigational knowledge sparked by the revival of classical culture.

The cultural and religious spirit that flourished between the 14^th to 16^th centuries, known as the Renaissance, brought the Middle Ages to an end (”Renaissance”).  This “classical revival” marked the beginning of modern sciences and the expansion of geographic knowledge (”Renaissance”).  This new found understanding catalyzed exploration and inspired Europeans to chase after their dreams. It convinced many to embark on voyages to find alternative routes to the Indies in an attempt to stake out a better future, discover new opportunities, and to procure wealth and security. The Portuguese were the first to make the trip out into the unknown, and would accumulate the knowledge that Christopher Columbus would later use to discover the New World.

The effect in which the Protestant Reformation and had on exploration began on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, published his Ninety-five Theses. Luther introduced two theological ideas that not only outraged the Catholic Church but caused the foundation of Catholicism to crack (Robinson). These two ideas became the reformist battle cry. The first became to be known as sola fide: the belief in justification by faith alone (”Martin Luther”). The second was sola scriptura: the belief that the church should be based on scripture alone (”Martin Luther”).   Luther openly challenged the pope’s authority, condemning the sale of indulgences; and preached that participation in church rituals would not put anyone closer to salvation (”Luther, Martin”).  Charles V, the King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, committed a portion of his new found wealth from the exploration of the New Spain towards the annihilation of Luther’s Protestant heretical doctrine (Roark 47).

However, Lutheran beliefs spread to England by the 1520s and took root in 1534 when King Henry VIII asserted his dominance over the Church of England, essentially breaking away from Catholic ideals. The Reformation strengthened further when Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, sought to end religious disputes in England, “Her Act of Supremacy of 1559 established her status as ‘Supreme Governor’ of the church and mandated the use of the Book of Common Prayer” (Robinson). This led to the Puritanism movement, the aim of which aim was to reform the church and find a common ground between Roman Catholicism and the ideas of the Protestant reformers” (”Puritanism”).  However, the Puritanism movement in England was unsuccessful. In 1620 Puritans separatist immigrated to North America and founded the Plymouth Colony and with desire to separate church and state, cut all ties with the Church of England.

After Christopher Columbus discovered the Bahamian islands, in search of a sea route to Asia, the reasons for exploration began its transformation into a cataclysmic exploitation of the natives (”Voyages of Christopher Columbus”). “Gold, glory and gospel” was their battle cry and their justification for the conquest of the people of the “new world”. In their drive to gather riches, the Spaniards enslaved and decimated the natives in an attempt to quench their insatiable lust for gold (Mancall).  After the Spanish crown got its twenty-percent cut of the swag, known as the “Royal Fifth”, and men like Cortes and his officers took their loot, there was very little left over for rest of the Spanish conquerors.

In order to compensate the conquistadores for their efforts and to encourage settlement the Spanish government established the encomienda systems in New Spain (Frank). Under encomienda conquistadores and later Spanish commoners were given land, by the King, and entrusted with a certain number of Natives to provide labor (Frank).  In return for protection, Christianization, and assimilation into the Spanish way of life, the Indians would provide labor, work the land, and pay tribute to the encomendero the holder of the encomienda (Foster). However, the encomendero was more concerned with what they could get out of the deal and typically exploited and abused the Natives. Overtime the encomienda, and subsequent repartimiento, another system of forced labor, dramatically decimated the Indian population, and for the first time in New Spain’s history Indian laborers were in short supply. Spanish greed and inhumanity, as history shows, eventually caught up with them. Their plan for settlement was workable, if their intentions were to annihilate the natives, corrupt a culture, rape the lands, and transform it into a Christian European society.

Exploration was born from European desires to pay less for the goods they wanted. The reasons then morphed into a way for some to escape the aftermath of the Black plague. In its finality, the reasons for exploration transformed into an insatiable lust for wealth and power, which obliterated a people, replaced their religion, and stole their wealth. Europeans were encouraged to seek out a westward passage as a result of the expansion of geographic knowledge produced by the Renaissance. Reformation did not only effect exploration but was affected by it throughout the colonization and settlement of the Western Hemisphere. This can be surmised from the facts that Charles V used wealth from New Spain in failed attempts to squash Lutheranism; and from the fact that Protestant Reformation ideas spread to England by the 1520s, eventually leading to the Protestant colonization of North America. In the short run, the Spaniards plan worked, but as history tells us, it did not last.

 Works Cited

Foster, Lynn V. “Spanish empire in 16th century Mexico.” Mexico, A Brief History, Updated Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Modern World History Online. Facts On File, Inc.  Union County College Libraries, Cranford, NJ. 8 September 2008. http://www.fofweb.com.

 

Frank, Andrew. “The New World.” The Birth of Black America: The Age of Discovery and the Slave Trade, Milestones in Black American History. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. African-American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. Union County College Libraries, Cranford, NJ. 8 September 2008. http://www.fofweb.com.

 

“Luther, Martin.” Modern World History Online. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. Facts On File, Inc. Union County College Libraries, Cranford, NJ. 8 September 2008. http://www.fofweb.com.

 

Mancall, Peter C. “New World.” In Mancall, Peter C., and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Three Worlds Meet, Beginnings to 1607, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. Union County College Libraries, Cranford, NJ. 8 September 2008. http://www.fofweb.com.

 

“Martin Luther.” Microsoft Encarta 2007. 16 ed. CD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation

 

 ”Puritanism.” Microsoft Encarta 2007. 16 ed. CD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation

 

Reilly, Gretchen Ann. “American History before 1870.” Podcast. Dr. Gretchen Ann Reilly.
iTunes.  August 2007. Temple College Temple, TX, 2006. http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=212324657

 

“Renaissance.” Microsoft Encarta 2007. 16 ed. CD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation

 

Roark, James L., et al. The American Promise: A Compact History, Third Edition. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

 

Robinson, Martha K. “Reformation.” In Mancall, Peter C., and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Three Worlds Meet, Beginnings to 1607, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. Union County College Libraries, Cranford, NJ. 8 September 2008. http://www.fofweb.com.

 

“Voyages of Christopher Columbus.” American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. Union County College Libraries, Cranford, NJ. 8 September 2008. http://www.fofweb.com.

 

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1879     FIRST PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY

Wilhelm Wundt opens first experimental laboratory in psychology at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Credited with establishing psychology as an academic discipline, Wundt’s students include Emil Kraepelin, James McKeen Cattell, and G. Stanley Hall.

1883    FIRST AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY

G. Stanley Hall, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, establishes first U.S. experimental psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

1886    FIRST DOCTORATE IN PSYCHOLOGY

The first doctorate in psychology is given to Joseph Jastrow, a student of G. Stanley Hall at Johns Hopkins University. Jastrow later becomes professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin and serves as president of the American Psychological Association in 1900.

1888    FIRST PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

The academic title “professor of psychology” is given to James McKeen Cattell in 1888, the first use of this designation in the United States. A student of Wilhelm Wundt’s, Cattell serves as professor of psychology at University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

1892    APA FOUNDED

G. Stanley Hall founds the American Psychological Association (APA) and serves as its first president. He later establishes two key journals in the field: American Journal of Psychology (1887) and Journal of Applied Psychology (1917).

1896    Functionalism

Functionalism, an early school of psychology, focuses on the acts and functions of the mind rather than its internal contents. Its most prominent American advocates are William James and John Dewey, whose 1896 article “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” promotes functionalism.

1896    Psychoanalysis

The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, introduces the term in a scholarly paper. Freud’s psychoanalytic approach asserts that people are motivated by powerful, unconscious drives and conflicts. He develops an influential therapy based on this assertion, using free association and dream analysis.

1896    STRUCTURALISM

Edward B. Titchener, a leading proponent of structuralism, publishes his Outline of Psychology. Structuralism is the view that all mental experience can be understood as a combination of simple elements or events. This approach focuses on the contents of the mind, contrasting with functionalism.

1896    FIRST PSYCHOLOGY CLINIC

After heading a laboratory at University of Pennsylvania, Lightner Witmer opens world’s first psychological clinic to patients, shifting his focus from experimental work to practical application of his findings.

1900    INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Sigmund Freud introduces his theory of psychoanalysis in The Interpretation of Dreams, the first of 24 books he would write exploring such topics as the unconscious, techniques of free association, and sexuality as a driving force in human psychology.

1901    MANUAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

With publication of the Manual of Experimental Psychology, Edward Bradford Titchener introduces structuralism to the United States. Structuralism, an approach which seeks to identify the basic elements of consciousness, fades after Titchener’s death in 1927.

1904    FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OF THE APA

Mary Calkins is elected president of the APA. Calkins, a professor and researcher at Wellesley College, studied with William James at Harvard University, but Harvard denied her a Ph.D. because of her gender.

1905     IQ TESTS DEVELOPED

Using standardized tests, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon develop a scale of general intelligence on the basis of mental age. Later researchers refine this work into the concept of intelligence quotient; IQ, mental age over physical age. From their beginning, such tests’ accuracy and fairness are challenged.

1908    A MIND THAT FOUND ITSELF

Clifford Beers publishes A Mind That Found Itself, detailing his experiences as a patient in 19th-century mental asylums. Calling for more humane treatment of patients and better education about mental illness for the general population, the book inspires the mental hygiene movement in the United States.

1909    PSYCHOANALYSTS VISIT CLARK UNIVERSITY

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung visit the United States for a Psychoanalysis Symposium at Clark University organized by G. Stanley Hall. At the symposium, Freud gives his only speech in the United States.

1913    BEHAVIORISM

John B. Watson publishes “Psychology as Behavior,” launching behaviorism. In contrast to psychoanalysis, behaviorism focuses on observable and measurable behavior.

1917    ARMY INTELLIGENCE TESTS IMPLEMENTED

Standardized intelligence and aptitude tests are administered to two million U. S. soldiers during WWI. Soon after, such tests are used in all U.S. armed forces branches and in many areas of civilian life, including academic and work settings.

1920    FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN DOCTORATE IN PSYCHOLOGY

Francis Cecil Sumner earns a Ph.D. in psychology under G. Stanley Hall at Clark University. Sumner later serves as chair of the Howard University psychology department.

1920    THE CHILD’S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget publishes The Child’s Conception of the World, prompting the study of cognition in the developing child.

1921    RORSCHACH TEST CREATED

Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach devises a personality test based on patients’ interpretations of inkblots.

1925    MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDED

Charles Frederick Menninger and his sons Karl Augustus and William Clair found The Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. They take a compassionate approach to the treatment of mental illness, emphasizing both psychological and psychiatric disciplines.

1927    MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDED

First Nobel Prize for psychological research

1929    ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM INVENTED

Psychiatrist Hans Berger invents the electroencephalogram and tests it on his son. The device graphs the electrical activity of the brain by means of electrodes attached to the head.

1933    NAZI PERSECUTION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS

After the Nazi party gains control of the government in Germany, scholars and researchers in psychology and psychiatry are persecuted. Many, including Freud, whose books are banned and burned in public rallies, move to Britain or the United States.

1935    ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is founded by Bob Smith of Akron, Ohio. AA’s group meetings format and 12-step program become the model for many other mutual-support therapeutic groups.

1935    GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

Kurt Koffka, a founder of the movement, publishes Principles of Gestalt Psychology in 1935. Gestalt (German for “whole” or “essence”) psychology asserts that psychological phenomena must be viewed not as individual elements but as a coherent whole.

1936    FIRST LOBOTOMY IN THE UNITED STATES

Walter Freeman performs first frontal lobotomy in the United States at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. By 1951, more than 18,000 such operations have been performed. The procedure, intended to relieve severe and debilitating psychosis, is controversial.

1937    THE NEUROTIC PERSONALITY OF OUR TIME

Psychologist Karen Horney publishes The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. Horney goes on to challenge many of Freud’s theories, as have many later psychologists and scholars. Specifically, she questions Freud’s theories on the Oedipal Complex and castration anxiety.

1938    THE BEHAVIOR OF ORGANISMS

B.F. Skinner publishes The Behavior of Organisms, introducing the concept of operant conditioning. The work draws widespread attention to behaviorism and inspires laboratory research on conditioning.

1938    ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY BEGUN

Italian psychiatrist and neuropathologist Ugo Cerletti and his associates treat human patients with electrical shocks to alleviate schizophrenia and psychosis. ECT, while controversial, is proven effective in some cases and is still in use in 2001.

1946    THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT OF CHILDREN

Anna Freud publishes The Psychoanalytic Treatment of Children, introducing basic concepts in the theory and practice of child psychoanalysis.

1946     NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH ACT PASSED

U.S. President Harry Truman signs the National Mental Health Act, providing generous funding for psychiatric education and research for the first time in U.S. history. This act leads to the creation in 1949 of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

1951    FIRST DRUG TO TREAT DEPRESSION

Studies are published reporting that the drug imipramine may be able to lessen depression. Eight years later, the FDA approves its use in the United States under the name Tofranil.

1952    THORAZINE TESTED

The anti-psychotic drug chlorpromazine (known as Thorazine) is tested on a patient in a Paris military hospital. Approved for use in the United States in 1954, it becomes widely prescribed.

1953    APA ETHICAL STANDARDS

The American Psychological Association publishes the first edition of Ethical Standards of Psychologists. The document undergoes continuous review and is now known as APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.

1954    EPILEPSY AND THE FUNCTIONAL ANATOMY…

In Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain, neurosurgeon Wilder G. Penfield publishes results from his study of the neurology of epilepsy. His mapping of the brain’s cortex sets a precedent for the brain-imaging techniques that become critical to biopsychology and cognitive neuroscience.

1954    THE NATURE OF PREJUDICE

Social Psychologist Gordon Allport publishes The Nature of Prejudice, which draws on various approaches in psychology to examine prejudice through different lenses. It is widely read by the general public and influential in establishing psychology’s usefulness in understanding social issues.

1954    BIOPSYCHOLOGY

In his studies of epilepsy, neuroscientist Wilder G. Penfield begins to uncover the relationship between chemical activity in the brain and psychological phenomena. His findings set the stage for widespread research on the biological role in psychological phenomena.

1954     PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

The development of psychoactive drugs in the 1950s and their approval by the FDA initiates a new form of treatment for mental illness. Among the first such drugs is Doriden, also known as Rorer, an anti-anxiety medication approved in 1954.

1954     HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

In the wake of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology emerges as the “third force” in psychology. Led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who publishes Motivation and Personality in 1954, this approach centers on the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity for self-actualization.

1956    COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Inspired by work in mathematics and other disciplines, psychologists begin to focus on cognitive states and processes. George A. Miller’s 1956 article “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” on information processing is an early application of the cognitive approach.

1957    SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES

Noam Chomsky publishes Syntactic Structures marking a major advancement in the study of linguistics. The book helps spawn the field of psycholinguistics, the psychology of language.

1960    FDA APPROVES LIBRIUM

The FDA approves the use of chlordiazepoxide (known as Librium) for treatment of non-psychotic anxiety in 1960. A similar drug, diazepam (Valium), is approved in 1963.

1963    COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CENTERS ACT PASSED

U.S. President John F. Kennedy calls for and later signs the Community Mental Health Centers Act, which mandates the construction of community facilities instead of large, regional mental hospitals. Congress ends support for the program in 1981, reducing overall funds and folding them into a mental health block-grant program.

1964    FIRST NATIONAL MEDAL OF SCIENCE TO PSYCHOLOGIST

Neal E. Miller receives the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor given in the United States, for his studies of motivation and learning. He is the first psychologist to be awarded this honor.

1964    FDA APPROVES LITHIUM

The FDA approves lithium carbonate to treat patients with bipolar mood disorders. It is marketed under the trade names Eskalith, Lithonate, and Lithane.

1973    HOMOSEXUALITY REMOVED FROM DSM

After intense debate, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The widely used reference manual is revised to state that sexual orientation “does not necessarily constitute a psychiatric disorder.”

1974    PET SCANNER TESTED

A new brain scanning technique, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), is tested. By tracing chemical markers, PET maps brain function in more detail than earlier techniques.

1976    EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene, which begins to popularize the idea of evolutionary psychology. This approach applies principles from evolutionary biology to the structure and function of the human brain. It offers new ways of looking at social phenomena such as aggression and sexual behavior.

1976    THE SELFISH GENE

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene, a work which shifts focus from the individual animal as the unit of evolution to individual genes themselves. The text popularizes the field of evolutionary psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are applied in research on human brain structure.

1979    STANDARDIZED IQ TESTS FOUND DISCRIMINATORY

The U.S. District Court finds the use of standardized IQ tests in California public schools illegal. The decision in the case, Larry P. v. Wilson Riles, upholds the plaintiff’s position that the tests discriminate against African American students.

1981    AIDS AND HIV FIRST DIAGNOSED

The epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection presents mental health professionals with challenges ranging from at-risk patients’ anxiety and depression to AIDS-related dementia.

1984    INSANITY DEFENSE REFORM ACT PASSED

U.S. Congress revises federal law on the insanity defense, partly in response to the acquittal of John Hinckley, Jr. of charges of attempted assassination after he had shot President Ronald Reagan. The act places burden of proof for the insanity defense on the defendant.

1987    HOMELESS ASSISTANCE ACT PASSED

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act provides the first federal funds allocated specifically for the homeless population. The act includes provisions for mental health services, and responds, in part, to psychological studies on homelessness and mental disorders.

1987    PROZAC, PAXIL, AND ZOLOFT MADE AVAILABLE

The FDA approves the new anti-depressant medication fluoxetine, (Prozac). The drug, and other similar medications, acts on neurotransmitters, specifically, serotonin. It is widely prescribed and attracts attention and debate.

1990    CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

In Acts of Meaning, Four Lectures on Mind and Culture, Jerome Bruner helps formulate cultural psychology, an approach drawing on philosophy, linguistics, and anthropology. Refined and expanded by Hazel Markus and other researchers, cultural psychology focuses on the influences and relationship among mind, cultural community and behavior.

2000    SEQUENCING OF THE HUMAN GENOME

Sixteen public research institutions around the world complete a “working draft” mapping of the human genetic code, providing a research basis for a new understanding of human development and disease. A similar, privately funded, project is currently underway.

2000    DSM ON PDA

The latest revision of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published in a version for personal digital assistants (PDAs). The manual, first published in 1954, outlines prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. Only 132 pages on first printing, in 2000 it was 980 pages.