Timeline: Asian-American History, 1600s-1854

Spanish bring Chinese and Filipinos to Mexico.

Filipinos desert Spanish ship in New Orleans, establish first Filipino community in U.S. in Louisiana bayou.

Chinese laborers brought to work in Hawaiian sugar cane fields. Chinese peddlers recorded in New York City.

California gold rush attracts Chinese prospectors.

California imposes tax on foreign miners, targeting Chinese.

Presbyterian mission begins working with Chinese in San Francisco.

Chinese in Hawaii begin to organize. In The People v. Hall, California Supreme Court rules that a Chinese man could not give testimony in court since Chinese were "inferior, and . . . incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point . . ." Yung Wing graduates from Yale University, becomes first Chinese to graduate from a U.S. college. Commodore Perry signs first commercial treaty with Japan since 1638.