American History timeline generally starts with the arrival of Native Americans in North America around 15,000 B.C. Numerous indigenous cultures then formed, while many such disappeared in the 1500s. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 started the European colonization of the Americas. The American History Timeline diagram can be made using online or offline tools like EdrawMax, which shows most colonies were formed after 1600. By the 1760s, the thirteen British colonies contained 2.5 million people along the Atlantic Coast east of the Appalachian Mountains. After defeating France, the British government imposed a series of taxes, including the Stamp Act of 1765, rejecting the colonists’ constitutional argument that new taxes needed their approval. Resistance to these taxes led to Parliament issuing punitive laws designed to end self-government.