Three examples of historical chaos patterns during the years from 1608 to 1819 might include the American Revolution, the Salem witch trials, and the arrival of the pilgrims.

A chaos pattern in history refers to an historical event that seems to come out of nowhere but really arises from an underlying pattern that starts with a very small occurrence or occurrences and builds up over time. The old saying “for want of a nail the battle was lost” is an example of how this works. Let's look more closely at some possible examples from the period of American history in question.

We could conceivably argue that the American Revolution itself seems to have arisen out of chaos. Really, it was the result of a number of quite small incidents and events that didn't necessarily seem all that important in themselves. The Stamp Act, for instance, was about mere pennies, but it held a far larger ideological consequence. These little factors built up until they exploded into the Declaration of Independence and full-scale rebellion against Britain.

We might also contend that seemingly sudden events like the Salem witch hysteria could illustrate a chaos pattern. The hysteria seemed to come out of nowhere but was really the result of a build-up of resentments and conflicts within the community over many years. People held grudges and wanted something their neighbors had, and eventually these small incidents and conflicts burst out into accusations that got out of hand until more than twenty people were dead.

Finally, we could see the very colonization of America by Europeans as, in some ways, part of a chaos pattern. The pilgrims came searching for religious freedom after many years of being persecuted in both small and large ways. These incidents added up to the decision to risk the passage over the Atlantic to start a new life.