Period 2: 1607 - 1754

Spanish colonization

• Spain develops an empire in Central and South America, as well as the American Southwest up to present day California.• Spain’s primary purpose is to exploit their

colonies for wealth in the form of gold.• They will enslave and/or convert most of

the Native populations under their control.• Consider Hernan Cortes, Bartolomeo de

las Casas, and the encomienda system.

English Colonization

•Begins under the reign of Elizabeth I.• Two failed attempts:• Sir Humphrey Gilbert fails to

colonize Newfoundland off the coast of Canada in 1583.• Sir Walter Raleigh, Gilbert’s

half brother, plants Roanoke in the new Virginia colony in 1585.• Colony disappears leaving

only the word CROATOAN carved into a nearby tree.

England’s “Granada”

• In 1588, Spain will use the wealth from the New World to build a fleet to invade England, its Protestant neighbor.• These 130 ships will “miss” its landing in

England and be forced to sail around the British Isles.• A storm known as the “Protestant Wind”

will destroy much of the fleet off the coast of Ireland.• This will weaken the Spanish, and

energize the English.

England’s First Success

• In 1607, the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company, will found the settlement of Jamestown• This will become the first permanent

English settlement in America• Searching for a quick profit, the

colonists brought mining equipment and chemical tests for gold

Jamestown is surrounded by a

disease filled marsh.

Many colonists spend time hunting for gold instead of

food.

Failed to bring livestock and other essential tools for

survival.

Winter of 1609 is known as the “starving time”

Problems at home

• Food crops acquired from the Columbian Exchange helped to fuel a population explosion in England.•At the same time, the enclosure movement had

driven many small English farmers from their land.• This created large groups of young, unemployed

people that would help to fuel England’s colonial expansion in the New World.

Powhatan’s Confederacy

• Jamestown’s settlers landed in an area that was dominated by the Algonquin Native Americans.• Some 10,000 natives had banded together under Chief

Powhatan, forming Powhatan’s Confederacy. • They lived in fortified settlements along rivers and depended

primarily on the cultivation of corn.• They initially help the English colonists at Jamestown in

hopes that they will help defeat Powhatan’s enemies.• Relationship eventually sours when colonists steal food.

The Starving Time

• Many colonists refused to work, or lacked the skills to survive in the wilderness.• After nine months, only 38 of the original 105 settlers remained in

Jamestown.• The winter of 1609-1610 is the worst, killing most of the colonists

through starvation. It is known as “The Starving Time”• John Smith, an English soldier, will lead the colony through this time.• Smith makes the rule, “Those who will not work, will not eat.”

Conflict with Powhatan

• In 1610, a new governor arrives from England, De La Warr. • Strengthens the colony at the expense of Native

relations. • Through a series of wars, Powhatan’s Confederacy is

defeated and driven from the lands near the coast.• This creates more land for settlers to expand and gives

the English a solid hold in the area.

The “bewitching weed”

• Jamestown will struggles as a colony until 1612.• That year, John Rolfe, who was married to Chief Powhatan’s daughter

Pocahontas, introduces tobacco production in the colony.• The tobacco industry makes Virginia extremely profitable.• Raising tobacco requires tremendous amounts of labor and is very

draining to the land.• This will drive the need for more labor and for more land in Virginia,

expanding into the newly captured Powhatan lands and creating the indentured servant system.

Indentured Servants

• Pulling from the mass of unemployed in England, colonists offered to pay the expense of the voyage to the New World for anyone who agreed to work for four to seven years as an indentured servant.• They will be the primary source of labor in the English colonies until

1700.• In the beginning, those people who finished their terms were given

land and tools.• As land became scarce, the land grants were taken away and they

were left to survive in the New World on their own.

Unhealthy Chesapeake

• Even with help from the Great English Migration, populations in Virginia and the surrounding colonies were decimated by disease, hard work, and malnutrition.• By the time William Berkeley becomes governor in Virginia, 14,000

people at immigrated to that colony. Only 1,132 remained.• By far, the largest portion of colonial society was made up of landless

indentured servants and small farmers who had establish small farms on the frontier.• This put much of the population in conflict with the remaining

Powhatan’s.

The Plantation Class

• The smallest section of society were those families who dominated tobacco production.• They owned plantations, or large farms dedicated to the production

of a cash crop. • They controlled the majority of the “good” land, near the rivers and

coasts. Their land tended to be farther from the frontier.• This class of plantation owners dominated society and government,

using their wealth to buy county offices.• They also dominated Virginia’s House of Burgesses, the first

legislative, or law-making body, in America.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• In 1676, ¼ of the population in Virginia were free white indentured servants who had no land and worked odd jobs or stole to survive.• Nathaniel Bacon organizes this group of dissenters into an open rebellion

against colonial officials. They demand that the colony help to secure more land from the Native Americans and defend the colonists next to the frontier.• They burn Jamestown to the ground. It will end when Bacon dies a year

after it began.• It worsens the relationship between colonists and Native Americans.

Also increases the desire from lower classes for more participation in government.

New England Colonies

Earliest colonies are settled by religious groups

The colonies in this region are united by religion

Settling these colonies will ignite the Great Migration

Massachusetts, the Bible Commonwealth

• Separatists (Pilgrims) establish Plymouth Colony in 1621.• They are called Separatists because they wanted to separate

from the Church of England because it was too Catholic• They came to America, via Holland, to escape persecution in

England.•Agree to establish a government based on majority rule

when they land, known as the Mayflower Compact.• This is the first attempt at self-government in America.

Puritans establish Massachusetts Bay

Colony in 1630

Called Puritans because they wanted to purify the Church

of England

Puritans will form the

Congregationalist Church.

This will be the dominant religion in New England.

Massachusetts Bay Company

• This is the company that will establish and govern Massachusetts until it becomes a royal colony.•Most joint stock companies, like the Virginia company,

had their main office in London.• The Massachusetts Bay Company moved its head

office to the colony itself.•Massachusetts will essentially rule itself without a lot

if influence from England.

Southern Colonies New England Colonies

Established for profit by investors Established for religious freedom

Good Soil, Flat Land, Long Growing Season Poor Soil, Rocky, Short Growing Season

Economy dominated by plantations growing cash crops• Chesapeake colonies = Tobacco• South Carolina/Georgia = Indigo, Rice, Silk

Economy dominated by large forests• Lumber• Shipbuilding• Fishing and Trading

Immigration mostly single males seeking wealth, indentured servants

Immigration mostly families seeking religious freedom

Society dominated by plantations with few towns. Land too important for crops.

Society dominated by small towns centered on Congregationalist Churches

Government controlled by planters who can purchase offices; voting restricted by land ownership

Government controlled through town meetings held in churches; voting open to most “free” men, church members

New Netherlands

• Holland (Dutch) and France will also acquire North American colonies.

• The Dutch will be controlled by the Spanish until 1648.

• They will concentrate most of their colonies in the East Indies, controlling the spice trade with Europe through the Dutch East India Company.• The Dutch West India Company

will establish colonies in Brazil, Africa, and eventually the Hudson River in North America. • Their colony along the Hudson

River (present day New York) will be called New Netherlands.

New Amsterdam

• The Dutch will purchase Manhattan Island from the Native Americans and establish New Amsterdam as an outpost to collect furs from farther inland to ship to Europe.• They were under

constant attack by Native Americans.

Dutch colonies in North America took a back seat to its colonies in

the East Indies.

Because of this, they were never very large.

They offered patroonships, large

tracts of land, to anyone who would settle 50 people on that land.

New Amsterdam would later be conquered by the Duke of York, and

become an English colony called New York

• France will establish its first colony, Quebec, in Nova Scotia and Canada along the St. Lawrence River.• Samuel de Champlain

will settle Montreal and create a vast North American empire for France called New France.

• Due to climate and internal problems in Europe, New France did not have many colonists from Europe and remained very small compared to English colonies.• Couriers de bois were French trappers who

travelled far inland in search of furs, especially beaver. This was the main export of France’s colonies.

New France

•Unlike the Spanish, Dutch, and English, France will ally with the powerful Huron and Algonquin tribes.• They will use these tribes to trap and hunt for furs.• France will eventually expand down the Mississippi

River with the help of explore La Salle.• They will create New Orleans to hold back the

Spanish, and Detroit to prevent English settlement of the Ohio Valley.

The “Atlantic World”

• The American Colonies became part of a larger region centered around the Atlantic Ocean.• This region included England (Europe), Africa, and the West Indies.• A unique American culture begins to develop:• Economy• Government• Society• Religion

Economy

• Agriculture is the dominant industry in the American Colonies• Cash crops in the Southern colonies• Grains in the Middle, or “Bread

Colonies”

• Trade with the “Atlantic World” made the American colonies extremely wealthy.• It was known as triangular trade.• One example, Rum to Africa, Slaves to

West Indies, Molasses to New England

Economy

• American colonies had limited manufacturing, that was further limited by England’s mercantilist policies.• Largest and most important manufacturing

was centered on lumber and later shipbuilding.• At its height, New England was producing 400

ships a year• One third of England’s merchant fleet was

American built.• England also selected and marked the best

trees for their navy.

Economy

• Travel depended greatly on using navigable rivers and sailing along the coast.• Roads were made of dirt and connected

only major cities.• Taverns emerge on these roads to provide

food for travelers and their horses, drinks, and a place to stay.• These taverns are centers of

communication, and will eventually become the birthplace of America’s democratic spirit.

Government

• Eight of the colonies will eventually have royal governors appointed by the English king.• Three of the colonies will have a governor appointed by the

proprietor, or owner, of the colony.• Only two colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, will democratically

elect their own governors.• Every colony had a bi-cameral legislature, with a upper house

appointed by the king or proprietor and a lower house elected by white, male, property owners.

Government

• Colonial Legislatures controlled the governors salary and voted to raise the taxes necessary to fund the colonial government. • This is known as the “power of the purse”.• Self-taxation was one of the most precious privileges for the

American colonists.• It is a power that has been passed on to our Congress and

state legislatures in modern times.

Other notable contributions in Government• Mayflower Compact – First attempt at self-government in America• Virginia’s House of Burgesses – First legislative, or law-making body in

America• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut – First constitution in America.

Society

• The English colonies in American were composed of numerous races and nationalities:• Germans, Scots-Irish (Paxton Boys), French, Dutch, Africans

• American colonies were considered a “land of opportunity” because hard work granted some degree of social mobility.• A class structure did emerge, dominated by merchants and clergy in

New England and the Middle colonies. • Class differences were much more pronounced in the Southern

colonies, which were dominated by plantation owners.• Slaves and unemployed existed at the bottom of society.

Religion

• The American colonies were dominated by two “established”, or tax supported, churches• Congregationalists will come from the Puritans who settled Massachusetts.• Anglicans are the official religion in England.

• Congregationalist colonies: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut• Anglican colonies: Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, New

York• Mixed bag: Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey

Religion

•Despite state run churches, only 74% of the population of the colonies were connected to the church.• The Anglican Church was far more tolerant of

irreligious activities than the Congregationalists• Drunkenness was a major problem in the Southern

colonies.• Clergy were poorly trained