European Nations Settle North America

Diverse Empire Building

Big Idea

• European nations lay claim to large parts of North America, but England drives the French and Dutch out and creates the thirteen colonies.

Competing Claims in North America

• France, the Netherlands, and England will each…– Attempt to find a

Northwest Passage– Establish colonies in the

Americas

French Explorers

• Giovanni da Verrazzano– Italian who sailed for

France– Explored New York Harbor

• Jacques Cartier (pictured)– Explored what is today

Canada– Explored the St. Lawrence

River– Founded Montreal

Cartier’s Exploration

More French Explorers

• Samuel de Champlain– Established Quebec with

32 colonists– Became the base for the

French colonial empire– New France

• Jacques Marquette – Explored Great Lakes

regions and…– Upper Mississippi River

Sieur de La Salle

• Sieur de La Salle– Explored the lower

Mississippi– Claimed large land mass

of Louisiana

The La Salle Explorers

A Trading Empire

• Immense landed trading empire

• Sparsely populated• Why?– More interested in the

fur trade than settlement

The English Arrive in North America

• 1607: Jamestown established

• Disastrous Start• More interested in

finding gold• Starving Times• Tobacco: “Savior of

Jamestown”

Puritans Create a “New England”

Pilgrims• Separatists from the Church

of England• Founded Plymouth

Plantation in 1620• Famous Leader: William

Bradford• Sought total religious

freedom

Puritans• Reformers of the Church of

England• Founded Massachusetts Bay

in 1630• Famous Leader: John

Winthrop• Sought religious freedom

AND PROFITS

Pilgrims

John Winthrop

• “City on a Hill”• Famous governor and

leader of Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Dutch (Netherlands)

• Henry Hudson explored three waterways

• Later all named after him– Hudson River– Hudson Bay– Hudson Strait

The Dutch

• Formed the Dutch West India Company (1621)

• Colonized the region• Included present day

Manhattan• Became New

Netherland

The Struggle for North America

• The British easily defeated the Dutch

• Opened up the Atlantic coast of North America

England vs. France

• French and Indian War (1754)

• Caused by a dispute over the Ohio Valley

• Part of a larger European War (Seven Years’ War)

• British win war by 1763

Before and After

Native Americans Respond

• While some peaceful trade existed, Natives fought against…– Dutch– French– BRITISH (ESPECIALLY)

British View Towards Natives

• British pushed the Natives off of land• Wanted Natives isolated• Saw Natives as heathens (little attempts to

convert)• How does this view compare to the Spanish?

War

• English battled Powhatan around Jamestown

• King Philip’s War– Native leader Metacom

and his warriors defeated by British

– Massacres on both sides

• Why do you think the fighting was so ferocious?

Disease (Artist Representation)

• Natives decimated by diseases

• Smallpox ravaged whole tribes

• Led to a severe labor shortage in colonies

• Who would fill the void?

British Treatment of Natives

• Would foreshadow future cruel actions of the United States towards native populations

• Taking away of land, forced migrations, and war

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Oppressive Cultural Interactions

Big Idea

• The slave trade decimates African social and family life, and millions of slaves are brought to the Americas to work.

Agency

• Purposeful, goal-oriented activities of individuals or groups of people

• Think about the agency of Europeans and Africans in this story

Slavery

• A 10,000 year old system

• Existed around the world

• Usually conquered prisoners of war

• However, race would play a key role in the Americas

• Hereditary

Causes of Slavery

• Existed in Africa for hundreds of years

• Slave trade spread through Muslim slave trade

• Slaves had some avenues to advance

Demand for Africans

• Needed to replace native slaves

• Why Africans?

• Africans had built up immunity to Euro. Diseases

• Experience in farming• Ignorance of landscape• Easily identifiable by

skin color

Atlantic Slave Trade (The Numbers)

• Between 1500-1600• 300,000 slaves brought• Between 1600-1700• 1.3 million slaves

brought• By 1870• 9.5 million slaves

brought to Americas

Atlantic Slave Trade

Slavery Spreads Throughout the Americas

• England would be a leader in the slave trade

• Transported 1.7 million slaves

• Transported 400,000 to what would become USA

• By 1830: Grew to 2 million

African Cooperation and Resistance

• Local African rulers directly participated in the slave trade

• Traded for gold, guns, and other goods

• Africans enslaved did not go willingly

• Agency of Africans– Would resist

enslavement by various means

African Resistance

A Forced Journey

• Triangular Trade System• Europe: Manufactured

goods• Africa: Slaves• Americas: Raw

Materials• Note: There were

various ways for these goods to travel

The Middle Passage

• Voyage that brought Africans to West Indies

• Later transported to Americas

• Appalling Conditions• 20% of slaves died each

trip• Disease and suicide

(agency)

The Middle Passage

Crammed Into the Holds of Ships

Olaudah Equiano• “the air soon became unfit for

respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.”

African Agency

• Africans kept their culture alive

• Musical and oral traditions

African Agency

• Africans privately and openly opposed slavery

• Private: Broke tools, uprooted plants, and worked slowly

• Public: Led slave rebellions (Stono Rebellion of 1739)

African Resistance

African Resistance

Consequences of Slavery

• Broke apart African families

• Africans added distinct labor and culture in Americas

• Many American nations have significant African-American peoples

The Columbian Exchange and Global Trade

Capitalism! Mercantilism! Communism…..! (Not Yet)

Big Idea

• The colonization of the Americas leads to global exchange of food, plants, animals, and diseases. These goods enrich the diets and economies of Europe and further shatters the native civilizations of the New World.

The Columbian Exchange

• Global transfer of foods, plants, and animals during colonization of the Americas

• Americas sent back items never seen before in Asia, Africa, and Europe

• Including– Tomatoes, squash,

pineapples, tobacco, cacao beans, turkey

– CORN AND POTATOES

The Columbian Exchange

• Europe/Africa/Asia introduced new things as well

• Including– Horses, cattle, sheep,

and pigs– Bananas, black-eyed

peas, yams– Grains: wheat, rice,

barley, and oats– Disease: smallpox,

measles, influenza, malaria

Global Trade

• Colonial empires influenced nations of Europe• New wealth + overseas trade = new business

and trade practices

The Rise of Capitalism

• Economic system based on private ownership and investment of resources (money)

• Businesses across Europe grew and Flourished

• Why?• Overseas colonization

and trade

One Effect: Inflation

• Steady rise in the price of goods

• Increased money supply increased demand for goods

• Supply often could not keep up

• Thus goods were scarce and valuable

Joint-Stock Companies

• Investors bought shares of stock in a company

• Paid for establishment of overseas colonies

• Examples: Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay

The Growth of Mercantilism

• Economic policy that emphasized the importance of wealth and a good balance of trade

Mercantilism

Mercantilism (Two Important Steps)

Step 1: Gold!• Obtain lots of gold and

silver

Step 2: Favorable Balance of Trade

• Sell more goods than you buy

• Exports out value imports

What role did colonies play in mercantilism?

• Provided silver and gold• Provided raw materials• Was a sizeable market

for manufactured goods

Economic Revolution Changes European Society

• Great changes in European society

• Growth of towns• Rise of merchants• Increased wealth of

nations• Strengthening of

national identities

• Yet……• Europe still a largely

rural society• Most Europeans did not

enjoy social mobility like merchants

• Communism?• Not Yet.