Planting Colonies in North America

1588 – 1701

Spain in North America

• Encomienda system: Indians were forced into plantation labor in exchange for protection from Spanish lords; turned into slave system

• Wealth drove colonization• Frontier of Inclusion: native peoples

incorporated into colonial society– Population was racially mixed (mestizos)– Mission system converted natives to Christianity

New Mexico

• Spanish came to Rio Grande valley in 1598 to find gold and convert Indians– Violent submission of Indians at Acoma

• Santa Fe founded in 1609• Spanish depended on forced Indian labor for

modest farming and sheep raising—interest in this colony waned: population was merely 3000 (mostly mixed-race)

Pueblo Revolt 1680

• Pueblos of Santa Fe clashed with Spanish authorities over religious practices– Spanish had trouble accepting the natives’ “flexible”

interpretation of Christianity• Spanish atrocities, drought, famine, and disease led to

the revolt of 1680: Spain loses control of New Mexico• 1692: Spain regains control of region, loosening

restrictions and tolerating Pueblo practices• Pueblos and Spanish lived autonomously, fending off

rival tribes (Navajo and Apaches)

New France• 1605: Samuel de Champlain establishes Port Royal to monopolize fur trade;

then Quebec in 1608— becomes the administrative capital of region • Champlain allied with the Hurons against the Iroquois as French establish

outposts along the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes• French decided that New France will be exclusively Catholic—upsetting

Huguenot dissenters; slow population growth• Most French went to America as engages hoping to capitalize on the fur and

fish trade; most failed• Frontier of Inclusion different than Spanish

– Traders lived within native communities, learning the language and customs, intermarriage

– Made alliances with Indians rather than conquering; establishing commercial relations

– Missionaries attempted to learn more about Indian customs, learned their languages, and introduced Christianity as a part of their existing life

New Netherland

• Dutch East India and West India Companies, two trading monopolies, establish the Dutch as most powerful global commercial empire

• Establish first settlements in present-day New York (Fort Orange, New Amsterdam) along the Hudson River

• Dutch allied with and armed the Iroquois, who took out the Huron, giving the Dutch command of the Fur Trade in 1640

Jamestown

• Jamestown founded by the Virginia Company in 1607• Colonists saw themselves as adventurers seeking riches; unable

to do so, they became idle• Powhatan initially aided the colonists, giving them food with

hopes of establishing trade• Abandoned the policy after seeing they were only after land

with intent to conquer• Starving Time: only 60 colonists survived the winter of 1609-10• War between English and colonists ends when Powhatan’s

daughter Pocahontas is used as bargaining tool for peace: she married John Rolfe but dies in England

Tobacco!• Saved Virginia from extinction. This cash crop stimulated migration • Tobacco plantations needed a lot of land and labor leading England to

send families to Virginia• This led to England’s policy of exclusion, as English pushed Indians

further off their land• Though disease decimated the colonists, more kept coming• By 1670 the colonial population was over 40,000 to the Indian’s 2,000• The House of Burgesses created in 1619 (First representative

government in the colonies)• War with Powhatans continued until their defeat in 1644• War bankrupted the Virginia Company, forcing it to become a royal

colony

Maryland

• Charles I gave 10 million acres to the Calvert Family (the Lords Baltimore)

• Proprietary colony: meaning a sole owner (the Calverts owned all the land)

• Catholic colony• Economy based on tobacco plantations,

eventually granting land similar to what was done in Virginia

Indentured Servants

• ¾ of English migrants were indentured servants, who exchanged passage in return for 2-7 years of labor

• Though African slaves were introduced into the Chesapeake, they were more expensive than indentured servants

• In terms of treatment, there was little difference between indentured and slave labor

Life in the Chesapeake

• Maintained close ties to England, unlike the French who mixed with the Indians

• Wealthy planters lived in crude homes• High mortality rates, small families, weak

familial bonds• Community life did not fully develop in

contrast to the major cities and institutions of the Spanish

The Puritans

• Puritans: English Calvinists who wished to purify the English Church of its Catholic traditions

• Puritanism appealed mostly to merchants, entrepreneurs, and commercial farmers

• Political turmoil and persecution led Puritans to migrate to New England

Plymouth

• First English colony in New England founded in 1620 by the Separatists, aka the Pilgrims

• The Separatists were looking to found independent congregations away from the corrupt Church of England

• Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact, the first document of self-government in America

• Established a community of self-sufficient farms

Massachusetts Bay Colony• Royal charter granted in 1629; Puritans left to escape persecution• The Great Migration (1629-1643): 20,000 people emigrated into

Mass.• Unlike the French and Dutch, the English were interested

primarily in acquiring land– The English felt they had a God-given right to take land that was

“unused” – Forced Indians to sign away land– Waged war and defeated resisting Indian tribes

• Boston built in 1630; colony was governed locally by a governor and elected reps in two legislative houses.– This is the origin of democratic suffrage and bicameral division of

legislation

New England Communities

• Merchant economy: based on sale of land and supplies to migrants

• Merchants developed diversified trading of fish, farm products, and lumber

• Society was centered around well-ordered families and communities, ordained by God, and male-dominated

• Public education• Women were mistrusted: could not make contracts,

own property, vote, or hold office; independent women, or childless women were held under suspicion

Dissent and New Communities

• Though they emigrated for religious freedom, they were NOT tolerant of other religious points of view– Thomas Hooker: founded Connecticut in 1636

after disagreeing about exclusive male suffrage– Roger Williams banished because he believed in

religious toleration; founded Rhode Island– Anne Hutchinson: banished for “popish” thinking

and settled in Rhode Island

Salem Witch Trials

• The cultural mistrust and suspicions of free-thinking women manifested into witch scares

• 1692-1693: 20 people condemned and executed as witches

• Crisis exposed the dark side of Puritan ideas about women as most women accused were old, lived alone, childless, or from different religious sects

The Proprietary Colonies

The Carolinas

• Charles II took an active role in North America establishing proprietary colonies on the Maryland model

• 1663: Carolinas founded, and divided into North and South

• NC was home to 5000 small farmers and large tobacco planters

• SC was mainly settled by Barbadians giving the colony a West Indies “flair”; population 6000 (2500 African slaves)

New York

• Competition between the English and the Dutch for dominance of Atlantic trade led to wars that bankrupted and exhausted the Dutch

• Surrendered New Amsterdam to the English in 1664; the Duke of York received it as a gift and renamed it New York

• New York was the most culturally diverse colony in America

• New Jersey split from NY in 1665

Pennsylvania

• Estbl. 1681; Charles II granted lands west of the Delaware River to William Penn

• Penn was a Quaker and saw his colony as a “holy experiment:” religious freedom, civil liberties, and elected representation; fair treatment of the Indians

• Oversaw the organization of Philadelphia• Formed separate colony of Delaware in 1704 (formerly

Dutch and Scandinavian) • Penn. Became the breadbasket colony and Philadelphia

became the most important port in North America

Early Indian Wars

• Pequot War: fight between English and Pequots over land and trade in Conn.

• Beaver Wars (1640s-1680s): Iroquois extend their authority in the Dutch and English trade system

• King Phillip’s War (1676): New England wars over land; Indians lose, Iroquois gain supremacy; extensive loss of life

• Wars in the South: Carolinians incite tribes to attack French and Spanish Indian allies and sell them into slavery (1670s-1720s)

Bacon’s Rebellion (1675-1676)

• Nathaniel Bacon demands the death or removal of all Indians from the colony

• Virginian governor suppresses unauthorized military expeditions against Indians

• Bacon and his followers rebelled against the royal governor, and attack the capital

• English authority feared the ability of citizens to overthrow the established government and began supporting armed excursions into the frontier

• Planters feared uprising of their indentured servants and began to turn towards African slave labor

The Glorious Revolution

• 1685: James II attempted to increase royal control over the colonies by disbanding colonial governments and created the Dominion of New England

• The Glorious Rev. of 1688 overthrew the king and Parliament installed William and Mary as King and Queen (a constitutional monarchy)

• Abolished the Dominion and revived assemblies and self-government to colonies

King William’s War

• 1689: England and France begin 75 years of warfare over control of North America

• War ends in 1697 in an uneasy peace• England now tightens their reign over their

colonies replacing proprietary rule with royal rule