1854 - Opponents of slavery, or abolitionists, set up Republican Party.
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1860 - Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln elected president.
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1860-61 - Eleven pro-slavery southern states secede from Union and form Confederate States of America, triggering civil war with abolitionist northern states.
1863 - Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.
1865 - Confederates defeated; slavery abolished under Thirteenth Amendment. Lincoln is assassinated.
1898 - US gains Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Cuba following the Spanish-American war. US annexes Hawaii.