The Diversity of American Colonial Societies, 1530 – 1770

Chapter 19

I. The Columbian Exchange A. This term refers to the transfer of peoples, animals, plants, an diseases between the New and Old Worlds. B. Old World diseases devastated indigenous populations to a point that resistance was almost futile.

The “Columbian Exchange” Squash Avocado Peppers Sweet

Potatoes Turkey Pumpkin Tobacco Quinine Cocoa

Pineapple Cassava POTATO

Peanut TOMATO Vanilla MAIZE Syphilis

Olive COFFEE BEAN Banana Rice Onion Turnip Honeybee Barley Grape Peach SUGAR

CANE Oats

Citrus Fruits Pear Wheat HORSE Cattle Sheep Pigs

Smallpox Flu Typhus Measles Malaria Diptheria Whooping

Cough

Trinkets Liquor GUNS

C. The New and Old Worlds were participating in an exchange of plants and animals which significantly alters diet and lifestyle changes D. Historians believe that the rapid growth of population after 1700 was attributed in large part from the spreading of useful crops.

Cycle of Conquest & Colonization

Explorers Conquistadores

Mission

aries

PermanentSettlers

OfficialEuropeanColony!

II. Spanish America and Brazil A. Initially, when Spanish and Portuguese colonies were established, the Council of Indies ruled these colonies directly. B. However, the great distance between the colonies and their respective mother countries created difficulties in communication. C. Viceroyalties were established to rule their colonies more directly than before.

Spanish and Portuguese Colonies

III. State and Church A. The Catholic Church became the primary agent for the introduction and transmission of Christian belief as well as European language and culture. B. The Church was responsible for the conversion of Amerindians, ministering to Europeans in the colonies, and for formal education.

IV. Colonial Economies A. Since the time of Columbus, Amerindians were used to provide labor for Europeans. B. Amerindians were forced into labor through a system known as encomienda. C. Epidemics as well as mistreatment led to a decline in the Amerindian population.

V. Society in Colonial Latin America A. Few noble families from Spain came to the New World allowing for lesser nobles, called Hidalgos, to be well represented within the Colonial system. B. Spanish settlers were always a tiny majority compared to the numerically superior Amerindians. C. This led to interbreeding and a systemized class stratification within the colonies.

D. The class system of Latin America: 1. Peninsulares – top of the social hierarchy they were people born within the Iberian peninsula. 2. Creoles – Whites who were born in the Americas to European parents. 3. Mestizos – Offspring of European men and Amerindian women. 4. Mulattoes – Offspring of mixed European and African descent.

The Colonial Class System

Peninsulares Creoles

Mestizos

Mulattos

Native Indians Black Slaves

VI. English and French Colonies in North America

A. Hopes for profitable investments led to increased interest in colonization. B. Early English colonies failed and included Newfoundland (1583) and Roanoke Island (1587). C. Successful colonization of Ireland provided a blueprint for establishing colonies in the New World.

English and French Colonies

VII.The South A. The privately funded Virginia Company established the colony of Jamestown in 1606. B. The English Crown took over management by 1624 and primarily developed the Chesapeake Bay area as a tobacco plantation economy. C. Initially, they relied on labor from indentured servants until they switched to slaves. D. The slave population in Virginia increased from 950 in 1660 to 120,000 by 1756.

E. Virginia became administered by a Crown-appointed governor and a legislative body known as the House of Burgesses. F. The House of Burgesses developed into the first form of democratic assembly in North America.

G. The southern part of the Carolinas was settled by planters from Barbados and developed primary into a slave-labor plantation economy. H. Their primary commodities were rice and indigo. I. Colonial South Carolina was the most hierarchical society with a wealthy planter class dominating small farmers, merchants, cattlemen, artisans, and fur-traders.

VIII. New England A. New England was primarily settled by two groups of people known as Pilgrims and Puritans. B. Pilgrims wanted a complete break from the Church of England and established Plymouth colony in 1620. C. Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

D. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was less hierarchical than the southern colonies and experienced a rapid increase in population. E. The political institutions of the colony were derived from the terms of its charter and provided for an elected governor in 1650 and a lower legislative house. F. Massachusetts evolved into an economy of commerce and shipping.

IX. The Mid Atlantic Region A. Manhattan Island was first colonized by the Dutch but then taken over by the English in 1664. B. James, duke of York and later King James II of England, became proprietor of the colony, which was renamed New York. C. This colonies success was due in large part in connecting the region’s grain farmers to booming markets in the Caribbean and southern Europe.

D. Pennsylvania was first developed as a proprietary colony for Quakers but soon developed into a wealthy grain-exporting colony. E. Pennsylvania’s grain was produced by free family farmers.

Early Colonial America

X. French America A. France was committed to missionary work and the fur trade. B. French expansion was driven by the fur trade and resulted in the depletion of beaver and deer populations.

C. The fur trade provided Amerindians with firearms which inevitably increased the violence of the wars they fought with each other over hunting grounds. D. As firearms reached the horse frontier in the early 18th century, European settlement became slowed due to increased military power.

E. One of the first French colonies was New France at Quebec in 1608. F. The French expanded aggressively to the west and South eventually establishing a second fur-trading colony in Louisiana in 1699. G. This expansion led to a war with England known as the Seven Years War from 1756 – 1763 (aka French and Indian War). France lost Canada to the English and Louisiana to Spain.

French-American Colonies