Transcript American History I - The Official Site - Varsity.com

American History I
Unit One
European Exploration and Expansion
EQ: Who were the first inhabitants of
the Americas?
• Nomadic hunters from northeast Asia
• Crossed the land bridge (Beringia) during the Ice Age
(15,000 to 30,000 years ago)
• Land bridge connected Asia and present day Alaska
• Descendants of early settlers moved south and east
across the Americas
• Agricultural revolution in Mesoamerica (southern
Mexico and Central America) 9,000-10,000 years ago
• Learned to cultivate crops
Olmec
• Believed to be the first to create a civilization in Mesoamerica, 1500 to
1200 B.C.
• Located in the area of present day Vera Cruz, Mexico
• Olmec society had large villages, temple complexes, pyramids, large
sculpted monuments, standing 8 feet high, weighing 20 tons
• Olmec culture lasted until 300 B.C.
• Olmec ideas spread across Mesoamerica
• Peoples influenced by the Olmec constructed the city of Teotihuacan just
northeast of present day Mexico City, near a volcano
• Large deposits of obsidian, volcanic glass- valuable material, sharp strong
edges used to make tools and weapons
• Peoples of Teotihuacan established large network of trade based on
obsidian
• City lasted from 300 B.C. to A.D. 650- influenced the development of
Mesoamerica
Maya
• A.D. 200 Yucatan Peninsula
• Maya civilization expanded into Central America and southern
Mexico
• Skilled in engineering and mathematics
• Complex and accurate calendars based on stellar positions
• Temple pyramids- center of Maya cities (Tikal and Chichen Itza)
• Some pyramids 200 feet tall
• At the top of each pyramid was a temple, used by priests to
perform ceremonies to the Maya gods (polytheism)
• Maya linked by common culture and trade, not truly united
• City-states controlled own territory
• Different city-states often went to war
• A.D. 900 Maya left cities in the Yucatanbelieved that the exodus occurred due to lack
of food from overuse of the land- led to
famine, riots and collapse of cities or they
Maya fell victim to invaders from the north
• Maya cities in Guatemala lasted for several
hundred years, by the 1500s in a state of
decline
Toltec and Aztec
• Toltec people constructed the city of Tula north of the Maya
civilization
• master architects; large pyramids, palaces with pillared halls
• First Americans to use gold and copper in art and jewelry
• A.D. 1200 fell to northern invaders (Chichimec)
• Mexica (Chichimec peoples), constructed the city of Tenochititlan
1325 where Mexico City sits today
• Mexica took the name Aztec, created an empire
• Conquered neighboring cities- used military to control trade and
force the payment of tribute from the conquered cities
• Used conquered people in religious ceremonies as human sacrifices
• 1500s estimated 5 million people under Aztec rule
Inca
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Andes Mountains, Peru in South America
Civilization lasted 300 years
Oral tradition, no written language
Polytheistic
gods attached to natural objects; sun, moon, and earth
Believed emperors were descended from the Sun god Inti- similar to the
Egyptian Pharaohs
Greatest achievement was architecture
1438, Emperor Pachacutec engaged in aggressive military expansioncreated the most powerful nation in South America
Empire split into two factions after the death of Pachacutec, each faction
led by one of his sons
Division led to civil war, ended 1532, same year that the Spanish
conquistadors arrived, defeated the Inca, melted down gold and silver Inca
metalwork
Hohokam
• North of Mesoamerica agricultural technology spread into the
American southwest and up the Mississippi River
• A.D. 300 south central Arizona the Hohokam constructed irrigation
canals using the Gila and Salt Rivers as a water supply
• Irrigation canals moved water hundreds of miles to Hohokam farms
• Grew corn, cotton, beans, and squash
• Made pottery decorated with turquoise, used cactus juices to etch
shells
• Hohokam culture lasted for over 1,000 years
• 1300s began to abandon irrigation systems, most likely due to
floods and more competition for farmland
• Hohokam had left the region by 1500
Anasazi
• A.D. 700-900 people living in the Four Corners (Utah, Colorado, Arizona,
and New Mexico meet) developed a culture
• Navajo called them the Anasazi or ancient ones- called “ancestral
Puebloan” today
• Dry desert area, gathered water by constructing a series of basins and
ditches to channel rain into stone-lined depressions
• A.D. 850 – 1100 Anasazi lived in Chaco Canyon in present day
northwestern New Mexico- built multistory structures of adobe and cut
stone
• The buildings had connecting passageways and circular ceremonial roomskivas
• Spanish explorers called the structures pueblos- Spanish for village
• People who built them called Pueblo people
• Anasazi built pueblos where streams and rainwater ran together
• Pueblo Bonito had 600 rooms- housed a minimum of 1,000 people
• At Mesa Verde the Anasazi built cliff dwellings
• A.D. 1130 Chaco Canyon endured a 50+ year
drought
• Drought most likely made the Anasazi leave
the pueblos
• Mesa Verde pueblos lasted another 200 years,
abandoned in 1270s due to drought
Peoples of the American Southwest
• European contact with the Americas, 50 + groups resided in
the arid Southwest
• Zuni, Hopi, and other Pueblo peoples
• Corn vital to survival in arid climate- long taproot, corn
could reach moisture deeper in the soil
• Squash and beans also staple crops
• Division of labor by gender, men: farmed, ceremonies,
moccasins, wove clothing and blankets, women: meals,
pottery and baskets, carried water
• Men and women shared the task of harvesting crops and
building housing
• A.D. 1200-1500 Apache and Navajo arrived in the area from
the northwest
• Arrival may have led to the migration of the
Chichimec into Mexico where they formed the
Aztec empire
• Apache remained nomadic hunters
• Navajo learned agricultural skills from the
Pueblo and lived in dispersed settlements
Mississippian Culture
• A.D. 700-900, agricultural advancement: technology and new
strains of maize and beans spread north from Mexico up the
Mississippi River
• Led to emergence of the Mississippian culture
• Mississippi River Valley- floodplain contained rich soil suited to
intensive cultivation of maize and beans
• Skilled builders, city of Cahokia (near St. Louis, Missouri) at its peak
A.D. 1050-1250 covered 5 square miles, 100 flat topped pyramids
and mounds- estimated 16,000 people
• Pole and thatch houses spread over 2,000 acres
• Monks Mound, largest pyramid 100 feet high, four levels, covered
16 acres, more than any pyramid in Egypt or Mexico
• Wall of logs, watchtowers, gates surrounded central plaza and
larger pyramids
• Mississippian culture spread across the
American South- gave rise to at least three
flat-topped mounds: Spiro, Oklahoma,
Moundville, Alabama, Etowah, Georgia
• Mississippian culture spread north and west
along the Ohio, Missouri, Red, and Arkansas
Rivers
Southeast Peoples
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A.D. 1300 the population of Cahokia declined
Reasons:
-attack by other Native Americans
-population too large to support, famine and emigration
-city hit by epidemic
Mississippian Culture survived in the Southeast until the arrival of the
Europeans
Southeast peoples lived in towns, buildings around a central plaza,
stockades surrounded towns, moats and earthen walls also used
Houses made of poles covered with grass, mud, thatch
Women farmed, men hunted
Cherokee largest group, located western North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee , 20,000 lived in 60 towns at the time of European arrival
Other Southeastern peoples: Choctaw, Chickasaw, Natchez, Creek
(largestgroup in 50 villages spread across Georgia and Alabama)
Great Plains
• European arrival Great Plains peoples nomadic
• Recently gave up farming
• Until 1500s Great Plains influenced by Mississippian Culture- lived near
rivers, planted corn, found wood to build homes
• Around 1500 western Plains peoples left homes, became nomads
• Reasons:
• -war, drought,
• Eastern Plains peoples, Pawnee, Kansas, Iowa continued to farm and hunt
• Nomadic western Plains Sioux hunted migrating herds of buffalo on foot,
lived in conical tents- tepees
• Great Plains life changed with the domestication of horses
• Horses brought to Americas by the Spanish in 1500s, horses escaped or
were stolen, spread northward, reached Great Plains
• Sioux mastered the horses, became the great mounted hunters and
warriors
Algonquian Peoples
• 1500s, one million square miles of woodlands east of the Mississippi River
and south of the Great Lakes
• Supported a large diverse plant and animal population
• Woodlands peoples hunted, fished, farmed
• Deer in large numbers = regular supply of meat in addition to corn, beans,
and squash, deer hides used for clothing
• Most peoples of the Northeast belonged to either the people of the
Algonquian language or the Iroquois language
• Algonquian lived in New England: Wampanoag in Massachusetts,
Narragansett in Rhode Island, Pequot in Connecticut, Powhatten
Confederacy of Viriginia
• New England Native Americans among the first to encounter English
settlers
• Delaware lived near the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania and New
Jersey
• Shawnee of the Ohio River Valley
• Algonquian words in use today: succotash, hominy,
moccasin, papoose
• Peoples of the Northeast practiced slash and
• burn agriculture- cut forest, burned wood, left
• nitrogen rich ashes- ashes worked into soil, soil farmed,
exhausted the soil, moved to new area
• Housing consisted of rectangular longhouses, barrel
roofs made of bark or wigwams (conical shaped or
dome-shaped) formed by using bent poles covered
with hides or bark
Iroquois Confederacy
• New York, southern Ontario, north to Georgian Bay- Iroquois
speaking peoples
• Huron, Neutral Erie, Wenro, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida,
Mohawk
• Similar cultures, longhouses in large towns, stockades for protection
• Women: planted and harvested crops
• Men: hunted
• Lived in large kinship groups, extended families, headed by elder
female of each kinship group
• As many as 10 related families lived in one longhouse
• Women held positions of power and importance
• All 50 chiefs of the Iroquois ruling council were men, women who
headed kinship groups selected the council members, appointed for
life, could be removed by women if they disagreed with actions
• Women had political influence
• War occurred often among Iroquois
• Late 1500s five nations in western New York, Seneca, Cayuga,
Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk formed an alliance to keep peace
and oppose common enemy the Huron living across the Niagara
River
• Alliance known as the Iroquois Confederacy-Europeans called five
nations the Iroquois
• Iroquois tradition Dekanawidah (shaman or tribal elder) and
Hiawatha, chief of the Mohawk founded the
confederacy , feared war was destroying the five nations when the
Huron threatened all five nations
Five nations agreed to Great Binding Law- oral constitution that
outlined how the confederacy would work
The Spice Trade And The Age of
Exploration
• Video clip
EQ: Why did many of the nations of
Europe engage in exploration?
• Europe controlled and unified socially and politically by
the Roman Empire
• A.D. 500 Roman political and economic system
collapsed
• Western Europe no longer connected to the rest of the
world
• Western Europe saw a decline in trade
• No unifying political system in place, people lived in
manors/villages ruled by local lords
• Lords kept the peace on lands they controlled
• A.D. 500-1500 = the Middle Ages
Religious Factors
• Europe was politically fragmented but religiously
unified under the Roman Catholic Church, led by
the Pope in Rome, Italy
• The Church persecuted heretics, nonbelievers,
and followers of older “pagan” religions
• 1095, Pope Urban II called for the freeing of
Christian Holy sites in the Middle East from
Muslim control = the Crusades
• Crusades brought Europeans into contact with
Arabs in the Middle East
Social Factors
• Most Europeans lived under harsh conditions
• Rural people survived on bread and porridge, seasonal
vegetables, and on occasion meat or fish
• Disease was a problem, 1/3rd of all children died before
their fifth birthday, about 50% of the population
reached adulthood
• Famines hit the countryside
• Bubonic plague = The Black Death arrived from Asia
1347-1353 wiped out a third of the European
population
• Disease led to famine and violence, groups fought for
shares of a shrinking economy
Economic Factors
• Labor costs, interest rates, government policy,
taxes, and management
• Europeans began to trade with Middle Eastern
Arabs
• Europeans bought luxury goods; spices, melons,
sugar, tapestries, and silk
• Demand for East Asian goods increased
• The Italian city states of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa
became wealthy moving goods from the Middle
East to Western Europe
• 1400s; rise of towns, merchant classes provided monarchs a new
source of wealth they could tax
• Monarchs used militaries to open up and protect trade routes,
enforce uniform trade laws, and created a common currency for
kingdoms
• Trade revenue allowed monarchs to escape dependency on nobles
• Monarchs unified kingdoms, creation of strong central governments
• Middle 1400s; Portugal, Spain, England, and France were strong
states
• The Arab traders had a monopoly on the spice trade with India
• Starting with Portugal in early 1400s, all four states financed
exploration, goal was to expand trade, find new route to Asia
Scientific Factors
• Political and economic changes prompted
exploration- needed technology to launch
successful expeditions
• To find water route to Asia, needed:
– Navigational instruments
– Ships able to travel long distances
• As monarchs were unifying kingdoms in Western Europe an
intellectual movement (The Renaissance 1350-1600) began
• Renaissance led to new scientific and technological advances,
artistic flowering, rebirth of interest in ancient Greece and Rome
• European scholars rediscovered the works of ancient poets,
philosophers, geographers, and mathematicians- also read the
teachings of Arab scholars
• Renewed interest in the past- led to renewed commitment to
reason which led to a scientific revolution
• Study of Arab texts led to knowledge of the astrolabe, invented by
ancient Greeks, improved by the Arab navigators- used the position
of the sun to determine direction, latitude, and local time
• Europeans also acquired the compass from the Arab traders,
invented in China- compass reliably shows the direction of magnetic
north
• Navigational tools critical to exploration
• Most important requirement = a ship able to travel
long distances
• Late 1400s, European shipwrights outfitted ships with
triangular-shaped lateen sails, perfected by the Arab
traders
• These new sails made it possible for ships to sail
against the wind
• Shipwrights used multiple masts with smaller sails
mounted one above the other = faster ships, moved
the rudder from the side of the ship to the stern, ships
easier to steer
• 1400s, Portuguese ship the caravel used all of
the improvements in ship construction
• Small ship able to carry 130 tons of cargo
• Needed little water in order sail, allowed
exploration into shallow inlets and to beach
the vessel to make repairs
Portuguese
• Portuguese first to explore sea route to Asia
• 1419- Prince Henry the Navigator established a center for
astronomical and geographical studies at Sagres, Portugal
• Had mapmakers, astronomers, shipbuilders from the
Mediterranean region come to study and plan expeditions
• 1420, Portuguese mapped Africa’s west coast
• 1488, Bartholomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa
• 1498 Vasco da Gama led an expedition of four ships from
Portugal and reached the southwest coast of India- sea
route to India established
Slaves and Sugar
• The institution of slavery existed in Africa as well
as other areas worldwide
• African slaves captured in war, ransomed back or
absorbed into captors societies
• West African slavery changed with the arrival of
Arab traders, exchanged horses, cotton, other
goods for slaves
• 1400s Portuguese and Spanish sugar plantations
on the Canary and Madeira Islands needed labor
source for the labor intensive production of
sugarcane
EQ: Why did Europeans come to the
Americas ?
• The mapped world in the 1400s consisted of Europe, the
Mediterranean, Middle East, and the north coast of Africa
• Did believe the world was round
• The work of Claudius Ptolemy (Geography, A.D. 100s)
influenced European geographers, his system of latitude
and longitude still in use today
• Arab geographer al-Idrisi, 1154 published a geographical
survey of the world known to Europeans and Arabs at that
time
• Studying maps of Ptolemy and al-Idrisi gave western
European explorers an idea of the geography of eastern
African coast and the Indian Ocean
Columbus
• Ptolemy did underestimate the size of the
circumference of the earth
• Italian mariner, Christopher Columbus based his
calculations on those of Ptolemy and felt Spain
and India were not far apart
• Columbus needed financing for his expedition
across the Atlantic to Asia- searched for six
unsuccessful years for financial backing
• 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
backed his venture
• Columbus set sail west for Asia with the Nina, Pinta, and
the Santa Maria August, 1492
• Reached the Bahamas in October- probable around present
day San Salvador Island
• Columbus encountered the Taino peoples
• Called them “Indians” thought he had reached the Indies
• Moved into the Caribbean searching for gold
• Discovered the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola
• Returned to Spain March, 1493
• Carried gold, parrots, spices, and Native Americans
• Ferdinand and Isabella pleased with Columbus’ success and
ready to finance additional expeditions
• Spain involved in a competition with Portugal which
had claimed control over the Atlantic route to Asia
• Both nations appealed to Pope Alexander VI to settle
the dispute
• 1493 the Pope devised a line of demarcation to divide
control of the Atlantic, Spain control west of the line,
Portugal control east of the line
• 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas approved by both
nations- Portugal controlled route around Africa to
India- upheld Spain’s claim to most of the Americas
• Columbus headed back to the Americas with 17 ships
and 1,200 Spanish colonists- had been promised gold
• Columbus explored Hispaniola, found loose gold to
make mining viable
• Enslaved local Taino people, forced them to mine gold
and plant crops
• 1496, Columbus returned to Spain, his brother founded
the town of Santo Domingo on the south coast of
Hispaniola, close to gold mines
• Santo Domingo, first capital of the Spanish American
empire
• Columbus made two more trips, mapped coastline of
Central and South America- died without the riches he
had hoped to find
Vespucci
• 1499, Italian, Amerigo Vespucci sailed under the
Spanish flag, repeated the western voyage of
Columbus looking for Asia
• Explored coast of South America- thought he had
reached the outer edge of Asia
• 1501, sailed for Portugal along the coast of South
America, realized the land was not part of Asia
• 1507, German mapmaker proposed the continent
be named America after Amerigo the discoverer
Ponce de Leon
• 1513, Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Juan
Ponce de Leon sailed north
• Legend was he searched for the fountain of
youth, never found the fountain of youth, did
find land of wildflowers and plants
• Claimed land for Spain, named it Florida =
land of flowers
Balboa
• 1510 Vasco de Balboa, Hispaniola planter
founded a colony on the Isthmus of Panama
• Heard that the “south sea” led to an empire of
gold
• Mounted an overland expedition through
jungle and swamp until he reached the Pacific
coast in 1513- first European to reach the
Pacific coast of America
Magellan
• Ferdinand Magellan- Portuguese mariner sailing
for Spain discovered the strait at the southern tip
of South America (named after him)
• Navigated the stormy narrow Strait of Magellan
• Found calm seas, named the waters Mare
Pacificum = “peaceful seas”
• Magellan killed in the Philippine Islands- his crew
continued west, arrived in Spain in 1522, first to
successfully circumnavigate the world
EQ: What role did religion play in
exploration and colonization?
• New Spain
• 1519, Hernan Cortes sailed from Cuba to explore the
Yucatan Peninsula, 11 ships, 550 men, 16 horses
• Cortes attacked when landing in the Yucatan
• Spanish outnumbered, had superior military power;
swords and crossbows, guns, and cannons- easily killed
over 200 native warriors
• Peace offering; natives gave Cortes 20 women, among
them Malinche, helped Cortes with translation, Cortes
had her baptized; called her Dona Maria
• Cortes heard how the Aztecs had conquered many peoples
and were at war with other peoples including the Tlaxcalan
• Cortes proposed an alliance with the Tlaxcalan against the
Aztecs
• His military helped Cortes gain the support of the Tlaxcalan,
who had never seen horses, nor Spanish cannon
• Aztec emperor Montezuma believed in the prophecy that
Quetzalcoatl a fair skinned bearded deity would return to
conquer the Aztec
• Montezuma did not know if Cortes was Quetzalcoatl, did
send representatives promising a yearly payment to the
Spanish if Cortes stopped his advance
• Cortes refused, the Spanish and Tlaxaclan advancedMontezuma attempted an ambush at the city of
Cholula
• Cortes had advance warning, struck first, killed over
6,000 Cholulans
• Montezuma saw Cortes as unstoppable, allowed
Spanish troops to enter Tenochtitlan peacefully
• City sat on an island in the middle of the lake
• Larger than most cities in Europe, over 200,000
residents, systems of canals, center of city a large
double pyramid and a rack displaying thousands of
human skulls
• Cortes surrounded by thousands of Aztec, took Montezuma
hostage
• Upon Cortes’ orders human sacrifices halted and the
statues of Aztec gods replaced with Christian crosses and
images of the Virgin Mary
• Aztec priests angry, organized a rebellion in 1520, battle
lasted days; Spanish retreated to Tlaxcala- over 450
Spaniards and over 4,000 Aztec died- including Montezuma
• Smallpox outbreak occurred, disease ran rampant in
Tenochtitlan
• Cortes returned in 1521, destroyed the city, upon the ruins
the Spanish built Mexico City the capital of the colony of
New Spain
Three “Gs”
• Cortes sent out several expeditions to conquer the rest of Central
America
• Leaders of the expeditions were conquistadors
• Looked for Gold
• Converted natives to God
• Sought Glory
• 1526, Francisco Pizarro reached Peru
• 1532, Pizarro returned to Peru with small group of infantrysuperior weapons- plundered the Inca Empire
• 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado looked north of New Spain
for the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola
• Explored the region between the Colorado River and the Great
Plains- no cities of gold, found windswept plains and “shaggy cows”
(buffalo)
• Hernando de Soto explored north of Florida
into present day North Carolina, Tennessee,
Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas
• Crossed the region killed local people, raided
villages for food
• De Soto fell ill, died- his men abandoned the
mission, went home
EQ: How did colonization efforts vary
among the Spanish, the French, and
the English in the New World?
• No gold or wealth in the regions north of New Spain- Spanish
settlement of the region was slow
• 1598, settlers led by Juan de Onate pushed north of the Rio Grande
River
• When they reached the Rio Grande, survivors gave thanks to God in
the form of a feast- “Spanish Thanksgiving” still celebrated in April
in El Paso, Texas
• Area north of New Spain called New Mexico- built presidios (forts)
to protect settlers and serve as trading posts
• Few Spaniards settled in the region
• The Catholic Church began to colonize the Southwest
• 1600s and 1700s Spanish priests built missions to spread Christian
faith to Navajo and Pueblo peoples of the Southwest
• 1769, Franciscan missionaries led by father Junipero Serra took
control of California- string of missions from San Diego to north of
San Francisco
• California priests and missionaries forced the native populations to
live in villages near the missions
• New Mexico; priests and missionaries adapted to attempt to fit in
with lifestyle of the Pueblo
• Built churches near where the Pueblo lived/farmed
• Spanish priest attempted to end traditional Pueblo religious
practice in conflict with Catholic beliefs
• Whipped/beat Pueblo who defied them
• Pueblo religious leader, Pope’ organized an uprising in 1680
• 17,000 warriors destroyed most of the missions in New Mexico
• Took the Spanish over 10 years to regain control
Spanish American Society
• Cortes gave his men control over some of the towns
within the Aztec Empire
• This started the econmienda system
• Each deserving Spaniard was made a (encomendero)
commissioner- control over a group of villages
• Villages paid a share of their harvest and worked parttime for free for the encomendero, who was to provide
protection and convert them to Christianity
• Many encomenderos abused power, worked natives to
death
• New Spain structured society based on birth, income,
and education
• Peninsulares, born in Spain- top government/church positions
• Criollos- born in colonies to Spanish parents- wealthy but held
lesser positions
• Mestizos- people of Spanish and Native American parents (frontier
of inclusion)- social status varied, most poor- lowest class with
other people of mixed ancestry, Native Americans, and Africans
• People of the lowest class provided most of the labor for the farms,
mines, ranches of New Spain
• 1540s Spanish discovered silver in northern Mexico- mining camps
used Native American labor- dark, damp mineshafts- explosions,
cave-ins killed many miners- others died from exhaustion- many
mothers killed children at birth rather than have them face the
harsh life
• To feed miners, Spanish established large cattle ranches = haciendas
Columbian Exchange
• From America to Europe:
• -corn, peppers, cocoa, beans, disease
(syphilis), tobacco, squash and pumpkins,
tomatoes, peanuts, and potatoes
• From Europe to America:
• -horses, pigs, cattle, disease (small pox, flu,
measles), honeybees, bananas, coffee, citrus
fruit, grains, sugarcane, and West African
slaves
New France
• 1524; King Francis I sent Giovanni da Verrazano to find a Northwest
Passage- northern route thru North America to the Pacific
• Verrazano explored the Atlantic Coast, NC to Newfoundland- no passage
• 1534; Jacques Cartier made three trips- explored and mapped the St.
Lawrence River
• 1602; King Henry IV of France allowed a group French merchants to create
a colony
• Merchants hired Samuel de Champlain to aid them
• 1608; Champlain founded Quebec- capital of New France
• Merchants wanted to profit from the fur trade- did not need settlers to
clear land and farm
• New France grew slowly- most fur traders made homes among Native
Americans (frontier of inclusion)
• Jesuit missionaries (Black Robes) lived among local peoples
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1663; King Louis XIV made New France a royal colony- sent 4,000 settlers
1670s; New France almost 7,000 settlers, by 1760 60,000
As New France grew exploration continued in North America
1673 fur trader Louis Joliet and Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette searched
for the waterway called the “Big River” by the Algonquian
Found the Mississippi River- 1682 Rene-Robert Cavelier de la Salle
followed the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico- claimed the region
for France, named the area Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV
Geography of lower Mississippi slowed settlement, heat caused food to
spoil, mosquito filled swamps made climate unhealthy
First permanent French settlement in Louisiana was Biloxi in 1699
Mobile, New Orleans followed
French found sugar, rice, and indigo could be grown in Louisiana- needed
large labor source- imported enslaved Africans to work plantations
• Spanish worried about the French in North
America- founded St. Augustine, Florida in 1565
to stop French attempts to settle the Carolinas
• St. Augustine prospered and became the first
permanent town est. by Europeans in area that
would become the US
• Arrival of French at the mouth of the Mississippi
River made the Spanish build a mission in East
Texas, San Francisco de los Tejas in 1690- Spanish
settlers arrived in 1716 to hold Spain’s claim and
block French expansion into East Texas
• John Cabot- 1479, searched coast of North
America for sea route to China
• 80 years after Cabot’s expedition English
made no attempt to settle in America
• Cabot found no valuable resources to
encourage migration
• Late 1500s religious, economic, and political
change led to England establishing colonies in
North America
Protestant Reformation
• The Roman Catholic Church controlled most of Western Europe
until 1517
• Martin Luther, German monk published an attack on the Church,
accusations of corruption
• Luther called for reform, led to the Protestant Reformation
• Catholic Church excommunicated Luther, his ideas spread
• 1527, England, King Henry VII asked the Pope for an annulment of
his marriage to Catherine of Aragon
• The Pope refused, King Henry broke with the Church and named
himself the head of the Church of England, arranged his own
divorce
• The new church was the Anglican Church- was Protestant, church
organization and practices kept many Catholic elements
• English citizens were divided over the Church of
England, some supported, others wanted additional
reforms
• Puritans wanted to purify the Anglican Church of the
Catholic elements
• Disapproved of the monarch holding the power to
appoint bishops to run the church
• Believed the congregation should elect its own leaders
• Puritan setback, 160s, James I became king, King James
was Protestant, refused any changes to the structure of
the Anglican Church
• This made many Puritans leave England for America
Economic Change
• English nobles owned large estates, rented land to tenant farmers
• 1500s, large market for wool developed
• Landowners made more profit by evicting tenants, enclosing the land,
raising sheep
• Thousands of tenant farmers homeless and poor
• England’s population growing in the 1500s
• English leaders decided colonies were needed to provide land and work
for the growing number of unemployed
• Wool market had a second impact on American colonization- to sell
woolen products merchants joined together and issued stock = some
organized joint stock companies
• By combining and selling stock, raise large amounts of capital to fund
major projects
• Joint stock companies could bear the cost of establishing colonies around
the world
England Turns to America
• Looking to engage in the Asia trade, English merchants
continued to look for a water route through North America
to Asia
• England also looked to North America due to a growing
competition with Spain
• England the strongest Protestant nation
• Spain the strongest Catholic nation
• Spain moved to suppress Protestantism in the Netherlands,
English Queen Elizabeth I authorized English privateers to
attack Spanish shipping
• To attack the Spanish shipping in the Caribbean, England
needed outposts in America- Elizabeth agreed but early
attempts were not good
• 1578 & 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempted and failed to
establish a colony
• Gilbert lost at sea, half-brother Walter Raleigh sent two ships to
survey the coastline of North America
• Coast of present day N.C. found an island the Native Americans
called Roanoke
• Queen Elizabeth granted Raleigh knighthood, he had named the
colony Virginia in honor of Elizabeth “the Virgin Queen”
• Raleigh sent settlers to Roanoke Island in 1585 and again in 1587
• First group went back to England after a hard winter
• The second group had disappeared by the time English ships
returned in 1590
• The cause of the delay in sending ships back to Roanoke was due to
the Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Spanish Armada sailed from Spain July, 1588
The Armada was to overthrow protestant England led by Queen Elizabeth I
Spain controlled the Spanish Netherlands, included present day Holland and
Belgium
Holland wanted independence- did not like having to adopt the Catholic religion
Protestant ideas had taken root in Holland, many were secret Protestants
Lives in danger if they publicly pronounced Protestant beliefs
Spain used secret religious police called the Inquisition to hunt for Protestants
Under Elizabeth England helped the Dutch Protestants in Holland- angered Philip II
of Spain who wanted English aid stopped
Philip for a short time had been married to Elizabeth’s half-sister Mary- married
when England was Catholic
If England was under Philip’s control, he could control the English Channel and his
ships would enjoy and easy safe passage to the Spanish Netherlands
• Spanish troops in the Spanish Netherlands could be easily re-supplied
• English “Sea Dogs” led by Sir Francis Drake were taking/sinking Spanish
silver ships in the Caribbean- Spanish wanted this to stop
• 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was executed under order by Queen ElizabethMary Queen of Scots was Catholic- Philip II a duty to ensure no more
Catholics were arrested in England, no more executed
• Mary Queen of Scots had made clear her intention that if she were to
become Queen of England Philip II would inherit the throne upon her
death
• The Armada was not a secret- Spain purchased an enormous amount of
cannon, gunpowder, swords, weapons of war from whomever they could
• Armada sailed July 19, 1588 – 130 ships, included were 22 fighting
galleons
• Armada faced little opposition as it sailed on Cornwall, England July 29,
1588
• London had warning that the Armada was nearing the
English coastline
• Armada in the English Channel, it was attacked by Sir
Francis Drake, the attack did little damage
• Armada low on ammunition- trapped in the English
Channel- sailed north to Scotland- encountered an epic
storm- lost many ships
• 67 ships returned to Spain out of 130
• English lost no ships and 100 men
• Spain no longer had a naval advantage over the English
Jamestown
• Video clip
Chesapeake Colonies
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1606 Virginia Company received a grant from King James I
Stockholders had permission to start colonies in Virginia
Company sent 3 ships and 144 men to Virginia in late 1606
Hard ocean voyage- ships made it into the Chesapeake Bay, spring 1607
104 men survived the trip- built a settlement on the James River, named
the settlement Jamestown after James I
Most of the colonists knew nothing about survival in the woods
No knowledge of fishing, hunting, or farming
“gentlemen” among the group refused to do manual labor
Lawlessness, sickness, food shortages occurred
Late 1607 winter coming, colony low on food, Captain John Smith bartered
goods for food with the Powhatan Confederacy- trade with the
Confederacy enabled the colony to survive the next two winters
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Attract more settlers, the Virginia Company offered land to any who worked for
the colony for 7 years
400 new settlers came to Jamestown in 1609
Too many settlers for the food supplies- could not grow more before winter
Settlers raided food stores of the Native Americans
Powhatan cut off trade with the colony- warriors attacked settlers
Most of the colonists came for gold or to find Northwest Passage to the Indies
Winter 1609-1610 = “the starving time” settlers went to extremes to survive
Spring 1610- 60 settlers left alive
Survivors abandoned the colony and went downriver
Met three English ships carrying supplies and 150 more settlers and the new
governor Lord De La Warr- convinced remaining settlers to stay
Governor’s deputy Thomas Dale wrote a harsh code of laws
Settlers put into work gangs- work a minimum of 6 hours a day
Death penalty for rape, swearing, desertion, theft, lying, and disrespect of the
Bible
Jamestown and Tobacco
•
•
•
•
•
Jamestown had to make a profit for the Virginia Company
Turned to agriculture- cash crops
Tobacco had become popular in Europe
Jamestown attempted to grow tobacco- local variety was bitter
John Rolfe grew tobacco with seeds from Trinidad, developed new
method to cure tobacco
• 1614 Rolfe sent first shipment to England- sold for a good pricesettlers planted large quantities
• In order to profit tobacco had to be planted on a large scale- first
plantations- required large labor force
• First successful cash crop in the South, Virginia, Maryland, North
Carolina
Indentured Servants
• Early colonial period lots of land not enough workers- England lots
of workers not enough land due to the enclosure movement
• Many left England for America in hopes of acquiring land
• Came to America as indentured servants- not a slave but not
entirely free
• 75% of English migrants to the Chesapeake came as indentured
servants
• A person would buy a servant’s contract- provide the cost of getting
to America, food, clothing, shelter- in return the servant would
work for a set number of years- usually 4-7 years
• Indentured servants could produce 5 times the price of their
contracts in tobacco in the first year of the contract
• Almost 50% of the indentured servants who arrived in Virginia and
Maryland died before earning freedom-(malaria and dysentery)
those that did survive less than 50% got their own land
Virginia House of Burgesses
• 1618, Virginia Company let colonists elect
group to make laws
• Jamestown first general assembly met in
Jamestown church on July 30, 1619
• Governor- six councilors- 20 representativestwo from each of the colonies 10 towns
• Representatives called Burgesses
• First representative democracy in America
Headrights
• To encourage settlement the Virginia
Company put in place a system of headrights
• Settlers who paid own way to Virginia got 50
acres of land for each member of the family
over 15 and for each servant transported to
Virginia
• Headrights allowed planters to benefit from
bringing indentured servants to Virginia
Jamestown and Slaves
• 1619 a Dutch slave ship sailed up the James
River to Jamestown for supplies
• Jamestown residents purchased 20 African
men as “Christian servants” not slaves
• Within a few short years enslaved West
Africans were coming to Jamestown to be
purchased
Frontiers of Exclusion
• Little need to incorporate Native Americans
into the English population as workers or
marriage partners
Settlement and the Powhatans
• The Powhatans were pushed to give up more land to the colonists
for tobacco production
• Chief Opechancanough prepared his people for battle to run the
English out of the area
• Opechancanough received support from Nemattanew, native
shaman- instructed followers to reject English and their way of life
• First of many Native resistance movements led jointly by strong
political and religious figures
• Nemattanew murdered by colonists March 1622
• Native uprising started two weeks later on Good Friday- surprised
English
• 347 people killed- almost 1/3rd of Virginia’s colonial population
• Colonists managed to hold on during a 10 year
war of attrition
• Powhatans sued for peace in 1632
• The war sent the Virginia Company into
bankruptcy, 1624 the King turned Virginia into a
royal colony with civil authorities appointed by
the crown
• Did continue the practice of property-owing
colonists electing representatives to the House of
Burgesses which held the power over taxes and
finances
Maryland
• Catholics subject to persecution in England because
they did not accept the king as the head of the Church
• Seen as traitors who would help Catholic nations
overthrow the English monarch
• Catholics could not practice law or teach school- fined
for not attending Anglican Church services
• George Calvert Lord Baltimore (Catholic) to found a
colony in America as a refuge for Catholics
• 1632 King Charles granted Calvert land northeast of
Virginia- Calvert named the colony Maryland
• Calvert owned Maryland = proprietary colony
• Proprietor had virtually unlimited power over the
colony
• Appointed government officials, established
courts, coined money, imposed taxation, grant
lands, create towns, raise an army
• Could not do anything contrary to established
English law
• Calvert died just before settlers arrived in
Maryland- 1634 20 gentlemen- most Catholic and
200 servants and artisans- mostly Protestant
came from England
• Calvert wanted Maryland for Catholics- most of
the migrants were Protestants
• Government officials, large landowners were
Catholic
• Religious differences led to conflict- to eliminate
conflict the Maryland colonial assembly passed
the Toleration Act 1649, religious toleration for all
Christians, did make the denial of the divinity of
Jesus a crime punishable by death
Pilgrims and Puritans
• Separatists- Anglican Church too corrupt to
reform- formed their own congregations
• 1608 one group left England for the
Netherlands to escape persecution
• These Separatists left the Netherlands
because of the loss of cultural identity of their
children
• Called Pilgrims- set sail for America in 1620
Plymouth Colony
• September 16, 1620- 102 passengers set sail for
America onboard the Mayflower for Virginia
• Ran out of food- many ill- one death
• November saw land on Cape Cod
• Not exactly lost- the area had been mapped by John
Smith in 1614 by request of the Virginia CompanyPilgrims had a copy of Smith’s Map of New Englandsettled in area called Plymouth
• Prior to landing male members of the voyage set up a
civil government- where all male members held the
right to meet, discuss and vote on laws and ordiances
• Established the first direct democracy in the Americasmeet annually in town meetings
• William Bradford- leader of the colony- Pilgrims went to
work constructing a common house
• Settlers built small homes of frame construction and
thatched roofs
• Plague hit the colony- only 50 survived
• The survivors would have died except Squanto
(Wampanoag) showed settlers how to plant corn, where to
find fish, and get commodities
• Next autumn, Pilgrims joined with the Wampanoag- three
day festival to celebrate the good harvest and thanks to
God – basis of Thanksgiving
Massachusetts Bay Colony
• 1625, Charles I on the throne- Puritan
persecution increased
• Economic depression in the wool industry
• High unemployment- most in the southeastern
counties- area with many Puritans
• John Winthrop saw religious and economic
hardship on Puritans
• Winthrop and a group of wealthy Puritans were
stockholders in the Massachusetts Bay Company
• Massachusetts Bay Company had a charter from King
Charles to start a colony in New England
• Winthrop turned business venture into a refuge for Puritans
in America
• 1630 11 ships, 900 settlers
• Winthrop “We shall be like a City upon a Hill; the eyes of all
people are on us”
• End of 1630 additional 1,000 settlers
• Conditions in England worsened, large numbers leftbecame the Great Migration
• 1643, estimated 20,000 settlers had arrived in New England
• Massachusetts Bay Company charter created the
colony’s government
• People who owned stock in the company were
“freemen”
• Upon arrival in New England all male heads of
household became freemen
• Freemen gathered together in the General Court
• General Court made laws and elect governor
• John Winthrop the first governor
• Winthrop ignored the charter, told settlers only he and
his assistants could make laws for the colony
• Winthrop kept charter locked away- settlers did
not know he violated charter
• Freemen elected Winthrop in four consecutive
elections
• 1634 freemen demanded to see the charterWinthrop complied
• Reading charter realized General Court was to
make laws
• General Court assembled- reorganized
government
• General Court became a representative assembly,
freemen from each town elected deputies to go to the
Court each year
• Each congregation controlled its own church
• Only church members could vote and hold office
• Puritans separated governance of the church and state
• General Court made laws regulating moral behavior
and collected taxes to support churches
• Gambling, blasphemy, adultery, and drunkenness were
illegal and had severe punishments
• Puritans intolerant to other religions
• Heretics were considered a threat to the community
• Ideas that contradicted Puritan beliefs cold be charged with
heresy and banished
• -Roger Williams, criticized Puritan leaders, minister in
Salem, moved to Plymouth, returned to Salem in 1632accused Puritan church leaders of not making a complete
break from the Anglican Church
• Wanted more separation of church and state
• Denounced the Massachusetts Bay Company charter- king
had the ability to give away Native lands
• Williams left before he was banished- 1636 founded
Providence- became part of Rhode Island-
• Williams bought land from the Narragansetts
• New colony a haven for Quakers, Separatists, Jews, and peoples of
other religions that were not tolerated in other colonies
• Williams promoted freedom of religion- important American
principle
• -Anne Hutchinson- midwife, wife of a successful merchant, arrived
Boston 1634
• Anne held meetings with other women and later men to discuss
sermons, express her beliefs, evaluate ministers
• Her views on salvation were controversial- heresy to most Puritans
• Massachusetts General Court tried her for sedition
• Hutchinson refused to repent, “God hath let me see which was the
clear ministry and which the wrong”
• Asked how God let her know- “by an immediate revelation”
• Hutchinson was banished
• She and her family and followers created a
settlement in Rhode Island (Portsmouth)
• 1643 moved to Long Island after the death of
her husband
• She, her children, and all but one of her
followers were killed by Native Americans
Salem Witch Trials
• “I am but a wife, and therefore it is sufficient for me to follow my
husband”- Lucy Winthrop
• Women were subordinate to men
• Wives who failed to bear children, widows who were financially
independent brought suspicion upon themselves from their
neighbors
• Mistrust of women surfaced during the witchcraft scares
• 17th century 342 women were accused of being witches
• Most of the accused were unmarried, childless, or widowed, or had
reputations among neighbors of being assertive or independent
• Most of the cases were dismissed
• 1692 Salem, Massachusetts the entire community was in a panic
when a group of girls claimed they had been bewitched by a
number of old women
• Before the colonial governor stopped the persecutions in
1693, 20 people had been tried, condemned, and executed
• Salem witchcraft accusations may have reflected social
tensions that found an outlet through the attack on people
seen as outsiders
• Most of the victims were from the commercial east end of
town, most of the accusers were from the economically
stagnant west end of town
• Most of the accused were Anglican, Quaker, or Baptist
• Majority of victims were old women, suspect because they
lived alone without men
• Salem witch trials illustrated the dark side of Puritan ideas
about women
Rhode Island- Colony for Dissenters
• Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts 1635
• Massachusetts General Court ordered him deported to England
• Williams escaped, along with some followers, bought land from the
Narrangansetts
• Founded Providence in 1636
• Government had no authority over religious matters
• Rhode Island offered religious toleration
• Anne Hutchinson, 1637 General Court charged her with heresy,
banished her
• Founded Portsmouth, Rhode Island
• Other dissenting Puritans were banished founded Newport in 1639
• Warwick in 1643
• Religious freedom important part of the charter of Rhode Island
Expansion of New England
• 1636 Rev. Thomas Hooker asked the General Court of
Massachusetts to let him move his congregation to the
Connecticut River valley
• Hooker did not like the Massachusetts political system
• He did not like that voting was limited to male church
members
• General Court granted request
• Hooker and 100 settlers founded the town of Hartford
• 1638 Hooker drafted the Fundamental Orders of
Connecticut- constitution that allowed all adult men,
not just church members to vote and hold officecreated the colony of Connecticut
• A large area of land north of Massachusetts had been
granted to Sir Fernando Gorges and Captain John Mason
• Mason took the southern part- called it New Hampshire
• Gorges called his area Maine
• Government of Massachusetts claimed both areas
• New Hampshire and Maine challenged the claims of Mason
and Gorges in court- 1677 English court ruled against
Massachusetts
• 1679 New Hampshire became a royal colony
• Massachusetts bought Maine from Gorges’ heirs- Maine
part of Massachusetts until 1820
King Philip’s War
• 1637- English settlers and Pequot peoples of New
England
• Conflict ended- near extermination of the Pequot
peoples
• Led to a period of peace between settlers and Native
Americans
• Fur trade helped with peaceful relationship, allowed
Native Americans to acquire tools, guns, and European
goods- exchanged for furs
• 1670s fur trade in decline, colonial governments
demanded Native Americans follow English law and
custom
• Native American response was anger saw demands as
insulting
• Tension peaked 1675, Plymouth Colony arrested, tried,
executed three Wampanoag men for murder
• Start of King Philip’s War- , named after Wampanoag
leader Metacomet- called King Philip by settlers
• Colonists killed Metacomet, put his head on a pike in
1676- paraded head thru settlements
• King Philip’s War ended in 1678- few Native Americans
left in New England
England’s Civil War and the Colonies
• Power struggle in England- King Charles I vs.
Parliament
• 1642 became an armed conflict- King Charles I
sent troops into the Puritan dominated
Parliament to arrest Puritan leaders
• Parliament organized an army- years of battleParliament’s army defeated the army of King
Charles I and had him beheaded in 1649
• Oliver Cromwell took power and title of “Lord
Protector” ruled as a dictator of the new English
Commonwealth
• Cromwell died 1658- his son failed in attempts
to rule in his place
• Parliament asked Charles II to take the throne
• 1660, monarchy restored- English government
started a new round of American colonization
New York and New Jersey
• Between the Chesapeake Colony and the New
England colonies lay a Dutch colony
• 1609, Dutch East India Co. hired English
navigator Henry Hudson to search for a river
that ran thru North America
• Did find a river that would be named for him
• Dutch claimed the region, named it New
Netherland- established a settlement called
New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island
• Colony slow to grow- fur trade was the primary
focus of the colony
• To attract settlers the Dutch allowed anyone from
any nation to buy land
• By 1664 the colony had a population of 10,000
plus
• Immigrants from the Netherlands, Britain,
Scandinavia, Germany, and France- enslaved
Africans in the 1620s
• England and the Netherlands were commercial
rivals
• 1664 Charles II took the New Netherlands from
the Dutch
• Charles II granted his brother James, Duke of York
the land- renamed colony New York
• James also given land between the Delaware Bay
and the Connecticut River
• James granted this land to two of Charles II
advisors- named it New Jersey
• New Jersey, generous land grants, religious
freedom, and right to a legislative assembly
Pennsylvania and Delaware
• Society of Friends (Quakers) faced religious
persecution in England
• Charles II owed a debt to the deceased father of
William Penn
• Penn, a Quaker- radical group- no need for
ministers- Bible less important than each persons
“inner light” from God- Quakers practiced
religious toleration and pacifism
• 1681, to settle debt Charles II granted William
Penn a large tract of land between New York and
Maryland
• Penn’s colony- complete political and religious
freedom
• Attempted to treat Native Americans fairly- led to
years of peaceful relations
• Penn named the capital of the colony
Philadelphia- city of brotherly love
• Colonial government allowed and elected
assembly, religious freedom, right to vote was
limited to Christian men with 50 or more acres of
land
• Religious freedom and land brought
immigrants from diverse faiths- England,
Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Germany
• By 1684 Pennsylvania over 7,000 residents, by
1750 Philadelphia largest city in all of the
colonies
• 1682 Penn bought three counties south of
Pennsylvania from the Duke of York, became
the colony of Delaware
Carolinas
• Charles II awarded land between Virginia and Spanish Florida to
eight Lords Proprietors- named the land Carolina- Latin for Charles
• Not two different colonies until 1729
• NC home to small dispersed population of farmers
• Lack of good harbors slowed NC growth
• Farmers of NC grew tobacco as a cash crop, also harvest naval
stores- pine tar, pitch, turpentine- pine trees used for masts
• Lords Proprietors interested in southern Carolina- cultivate
sugarcane- first settlement Charles Town
• Sugarcane did not grow well, early colonists of SC sold deerskins
obtained from Natives, started a slave trade in Native American
prisoners of war
Tuscarora War
• Early relations between Carolinas colonists and
Native Americans was good
• Problems arose over land, trade, and colonial
treatment of Native Americans
• 1711, Tuscarora attacked N.C. colonists along the
Neuse and Pamlico Rivers- killed 130 colonists
• N.C. governor Edward Hyde drafted all men ages
16-60, asked for aid- two colonels from S.C. led
whites and the Yamasee Indians who won two
battles in 1712, crushed Tuscarora in 1713
Yamasee War
• Dishonest trading practices by colonists led to
war again
• War started on Good Friday in 1715- involved
almost all Native Americans trading with S.C.
• The colonists of S.C. allied themselves with the
Cherokee (largest Native American nation)
• War ended by 1716
Georgia
• Refuge for the “worthy poor” of England
• 1720s, James Oglethorpe, member of Parliamentinvestigated prisons in England
• Found many in prison were debtors, not really
criminals
• Oglethrope asked the George II for a colony so the poor
could start life again
• 1732, George II made Oglethrope and 19 other
philanthropists trustees for the territory between the
Savannah and Altamaha Rivers
• Oglethrope named the colony Georgia to honor George
II- settlers arrived in 1733
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Georgia banned slavery, rum, and brandy
Limited size of land grants
Still attracted settlers from all over Europe
Settlers did not like strict rules- 1740s the restrictions
on brandy, rum, and slavery ended
1750, settlers were allowed to elect own assembly
1751- Georgia became a royal colony
By 1775, 2.5 million lived in England’s thirteen colonies
England successfully built a large, prosperous society
on the east coast of North America
Colonial Life
• video
Southern Colonies
How did the environmental, and
cultural factors influence the
economic, social, and political
development of Colonial America?
• Southern Colonies: Georgia, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland
• Large flat coastal plain
• Rolling piedmont
• Mountains
• Long growing season- warm climate
• Coastal plain suited for the production of cash crops
• Coastal Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina
rice and indigo
• Coastal regions of Virginia and Maryland tobacco
• Piedmont regions of all southern colonies wheat and
corn
• Large deep rivers, good harbors, largest towns located
on the coast
• N.C., naval stores from long leaf pines- pitch,
turpentine, tar, and ship masts
• S.C. tried to grow sugarcane with no success,
turned to rice, introduction of a new variety and
slave labor from Africa familiar with rice
production made rice a major cash crop in S.C.
and Ga.
• Planters tried indigo- made a blue dye- was rare
and in high demand- very profitable
• Limited success in growing indigo- Eliza Lucas (17
year old) found indigo grew well on high ground
with sandy soil- not wetlands- indigo became
important cash crop
Southern Society
•
•
•
•
Planters at the top
Small farmers in the middle
African slaves at the bottom
All groups linked by an economy based on the
production of cash crops grown for export
• Immigrants to the southern colonies hoped to get
rich, few did
• Plantation system created a society with distinct
social classes
• Planter elite (southern elite) were few in numberheld great economic and political influence
• Served on governing bodies- commanded the
militia- were county judges
• Plantations were large, few towns or roads
• Plantations were self-sufficient
• Buildings were grouped together- had schools,
chapel, workshops for blacksmiths, carpenters,
weavers, coopers, leatherworkers
• Most landowners were small farmers, lived in the
inland or backcountry region
• Cultivated small plots of land- lived in small
houses
• Grew tobacco, most practiced subsistence
farming- produce enough to feed families
• Landless tenant farmers constituted a large group
• Land easy to get, many settlers and former
indentured servants could not afford the cost of
the deed, land survey, tools, seed, and livestock
• Worked land they rented from the planter
elite
• Tenant farmers had hard lives but higher social
status than indentured servants
Bacon’s Rebellion
• 1660s Virginia- planter elite controlled the colonial
government
• Governor Sir William Berkeley led the planter elite
• Berkeley had majority support in the House of
Burgesses and worked to restrict the right to vote to
people who owned property- cut number of eligible
voters in half
• Berkeley arranged to have himself and his supporters
exempted from taxation
• Berkeley’s actions angered backcountry and tenant
farmers
• Governor’s Native American policies led to a rebellion
• Land was the goal of most colonists
• Indentured servants and tenant farmers wanted to own
land
• Backcountry farmers wanted more land
• 1670s most uncultivated land belonged to the Native
Americans in the Piedmont region
• Planter elite lived in the coastal region (Tidewater)
• No interest in backcountry- did not want to endanger
plantations by going to war with the Native Americans
• Planter elite opposed expanding Virginia territory into
Native American lands
• 1675, war- backcountry settlers and the
Susquehannock people
• Governor Berkeley refused any military action
• Backcountry farmers angered- April, 1676 Nathaniel
Bacon, successful planter on the governor’s council
took action to help the backcountry settlers
• Organized his own militia, attacked the
Susquehannock- won a seat in the House of Burgesses
which approved another attack on the Native
Americans
• Restored the vote to all free white men and took away tax
exemptions for the governor and his supporters
• Bacon did not feel the reforms did enough
• Marched to Jamestown in July, 1676 with several hundred
armed men and charged Berkeley with corruption
• Berkeley raised his own army, civil war ensued
• Two sides fought for control of the colony
• September, 1676 Bacon’s army burned Jamestown to the
ground
• Rebellion ended when Bacon sickened and died- without a
leader the army fell apart- Berkeley returned to power
• Bacon’s Rebellion- planter elite saw a need for
more land for backcountry farmers
• 1680s forward, Virginia government
supported westward expansion regardless of
impact on Native Americans
Slavery
• Bacon’s Rebellion led to the replacement of indentured
servants with West African slaves
• 1680s after the rebellion the number of Africans
brought to Virginia increased
• Planters switched to slaves because:
• -enslaved workers did not have to be freed, never given
own land
• -1680s more cheap land, fewer English settlers wanted
to become indentured servants
• -English government had policies that encouraged
slavery- English law limited trade between colonies
and other countries
• Prior to 1670s slaves had to be bought from
Dutch or Portuguese- difficult to arrange
• 1672, Charles II granted a charter to the Royal
African Co. to engage in the slave trade
• Easier to buy slaves
• Planters found additional advantage to slaveryslaves considered property, indentured servants
were not
• Slaves could be used a collateral to borrow
money and expand plantations
New England Colonies
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Rhode Island
New Hampshire
Poor rocky soil
Colder climate, shorter growing season
Narrow coastal plain
Not suited for the production of cash crops
Small farms, not plantations
Subsistence farming
• Main crop wheat
• Grew other grains, vegetables, apple orchards, dairy
cattle, sheep, and pigs
• Fishing and whaling were the most profitable activities
• Grand Banks, offshore, attracted cod, mackerel,
halibut, herring
• Good harbors, abundant timber for boat construction
• New England colonists found markets for their fish in
colonial America, southern Europe, and Caribbean
• Whale blubber used to make candles, lamp oil, bones
used to make buttons, combs
• Strong lumber industry
• Maine and New Hampshire- waterfalls near coast to
power sawmills
• Lumber used for furniture, buildings, barrels
• Shipbuilding important industry- ships built quickly and
cheaply- 30 to 50% less than in England
• By 1770s one in three English ships built in America
Social Life
• Town was the center of social life
• Puritans- Christians must form groups united by a
church covenant- voluntary agreement to worship
together
• Commitment to church covenant led to development
of small towns surrounded by farms
• Town common or open public area was important to
daily life
• Marketplace, school, meetinghouse or church
bordered the town common
• Families had a lot for a home and storage buildings,
garden
New England Government
• Early colonial period, General Court appointed town
officials to manage town affairs
• Evolved to where the town’s citizens met to discuss issues
at town meetings
• Town meetings became the local governing bodylandowners had the right to vote and pass laws
• Elected selectmen to oversee town matters, appoint clerks,
constables,
• Any resident could attend a town meeting, express opinion
• New England settlers allowed to participate in local
government- strong belief they had the right to govern
themselves- town meetings set the stage for the American
Revolution and democratic government
Puritan Society
•
•
•
•
•
•
Puritans valued
-hard work
-religious devotion
-obedience to strict rules
-card playing, gambling were banned
Stage performance and mixed dancing looked
down upon
• Watching neighbors behavior was a religious duty
• Did not lead a pleasureless life- drank rum,
enjoyed music, wore bright clothes
• Valued education
• 1642- Massachusetts legislature made parents
and ministers teach all children to read so
they could understand the Bible
• 1647- legislature made towns with 50 or more
families establish elementary school and 100
or more families set up secondary school
• Other New England colonies passed similar
mandatory education laws
New England Trade
• New England colonial merchants developed a system of Triangular
Trade- a three way exchange of goods
• Fish, flour, meat to Caribbean- enslaved peoples, money, molasses,
sugar to the colonies
• Rum, cloth, tools to Africa- enslaved peoples to British West Indies
= Middle Passage
• Lumber, fur, fish, whale oil, grain, naval stores, tobacco, indigo to
England – manufactured goods, furniture, clothes, luxuries to
colonial America
• Trade with Caribbean sugar plantations made many New England
merchants wealthy- with wealth built factories to refine raw sugar
and distilleries to make rum from molasses
• Traded with southern colonies- fish, rum, grain, for tobacco and
indigo
Urban Development
• Trade made Northern ports of Boston, New York City, Philadelphia
grow into cities
• South, trade made Charles Town, S.C. the southern regions largest
urban center
• Cities developed a new society with social classes
• Wealthy merchants at the top- controlled city’s trade- were a
minority of the population
• Artisans and families made up almost half of the urban populationskilled workers, carpenters, smiths, coopers, bakers, masons,
shoemakers
• On the same level as the artisans were innkeepers and retailersowned and operated own businesses
• Under the artisans- the unskilled or those without property- loaded
and serviced ships- worked as servants- 30% of the urban
population
• Indentured servants next in line and then
enslaved Africans
• Few enslaved peoples in the North, usually in
the cities (port cities),10-20% of the
population
Middle Colonies
•
•
•
•
•
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Combination of the Southern and New England
economies
• Fertile soil, long growing season- rye, oats, barley,
potatoes, wheat- economy based on exportation of
cash crops- most important cash crop wheat
• Trade led to the growth of cities along the coastal
region
• Merchants from the Middle Colonies sold wheat and flour to
colonies in the Caribbean
• Geography of the Middle Colonies included three large riversHudson, Delaware, Susquehanna- ran into the interior- allowed
farmers to ship crops to coast
• Early to mid 1700s demand for wheat up- population growth in
Europe- wheat prices more than doubled = prosperity
• Wheat boom led to the creation of a new group of wealthy
capitalists- money to invest in business
• Industry did not develop on a large scale- did build large mills near
New York and Philadelphia to produce flour for export
• Glass and pottery works also built
EQ: How did English government
policy impact Colonial America?
•
•
•
•
•
MERCANTILISM
-economic theory
-turn England into a world power
-a nation should export more than it imports
-result- more gold and silver go into a nation than
goes out
• -had to be self-sufficient in regards to raw
materials- if purchased gold and silver would flow
out in payment
• Self-sufficiency depended on colonies- raw materials were
available
• England buy raw materials from colonies- sell finished
goods to colonies
• Colonies did see some benefit
• -market for raw materials and a supplier of finished goods
• Mercantilism had a down side for the colonies
• -colonies could not sell raw materials to other nations even
if they offered a higher price
• -if a colony did not produce raw materials needed in
England- it could not get gold or silver- serious problem for
New England- one reason for New England engaging in
triangular trade and smuggling
• NAVIGATION ACTS
• -Charles II king in 1660- wanted to generate wealth
from colonial America
• Based government policies on mercantilist theory
• Charles II asked Parliament for a series of laws that
imposed restrictions on colonial trade
• -all goods shipped to and from the colonies be carried
on English ships
• -listed specific products (enumerated commodities)
that could only be sold in England or other English
colonies – sugar, cotton, tobacco, wool, indigo- major
cash crops for the colonies
• Colonial response- break the laws
• New England merchants engaged in smuggling
goods to Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa
• 1686 James II is king- move to stop smuggling
• Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island merged
into a new royal colony- Dominion of New
England- governed by an English governorgeneral appointed by the king
• 1687- New Jersey and Connecticut were added to
the Dominion of New England- early 1688 New
York was added
• King James II appointed Sir Edmund Andros to
be the first governor-general
• Andros unpopular-levied new taxes, enforced
the Navigation Acts
• Andros attempted to undermine the Puritan
congregations
• Declared only marriages performed in
Anglican churches were legal
Limiting the power of the monarch
• Magna Carta- 1215- nobles/barons and King John signed
the great charter
• King agreed to rule subjects according to customs of feudal
law
• Attempt by nobles to prevent King John from abusing
power
• First clauses deal with Catholic Church in England
• Next state that King John will be less harsh on nobles
• Many of the clauses deal with the English legal system
• -laws good and fair
• -citizens access to the legal system
• -no punishment unless first going through legal system
• -last sections outline how to monitor the King- the
nobles responsible to make sure king followed the
Magna Carta- authorized to use force if necessary
• GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
• 1688 Andros losing support in New England, James II
lost support in England by disregarding Parliament
• Revoked town charters, prosecuted Anglican bishops,
practiced Catholicism
• James II had a son in 1688- many had been willing to
wait until he died- thought his Protestant daughter
Mary would take the throne
• Son would be raised Catholic, first in line for the throne
• To stop a Catholic dynasty Parliament asked Mary and her husband
William of Orange to claim the throne
• James fled England = Glorious Revolution
• Colonists kicked out Governor-General Andros
• William and Mary allowed Rhode Island and Connecticut to return
to previous form of government
• 1691 merged Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Maine into royal
colony of Massachusetts
• Headed by a governor appointed by the king- colonists elected an
assembly
• William and Mary had to swear acceptance of the English Bill of
Rights, written 1689
• English Bill of Rights stated that the monarch
could not suspend Parliament’s laws, create their
own courts, impose taxes, raise an army without
the approval of Parliament
• English Bill of Rights provided freedom of speech
within Parliament- no excessive bail, no cruel and
unusual punishments- every English citizen the
right to an impartial jury in legal cases-English Bill
of Rights influenced the American Bill of Rights
EQ: How colonial society address the
increase in population?
• - 18th century population of American colonies
grew quickly
• High birth rate-women married in early 20s –
averaged 7 children- given birth to 12-14
children was not uncommon
• 1640-1700 colonial population went from
25,000 to over 250,000
• 1700s population doubled every 25 years
• By 1776 population approached 2.5 million
• Improvements in sanitation and housing added to increase
in population
• Women died during childbirth- many adults lived into 60s
• Disease- typhoid fever, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria,
scarlet fever killed many in colonial cities
• Epidemic of smallpox hit Boston, 1721, Reverend Cotton
Mather, Puritan leader, promoted new method used by
Africans and Asiatiks to prevent dangers of smallpox
• Inoculation proved successful- of 6,000 people who were
not inoculated and caught smallpox 900 or 15% died
• Only 6 of 241 who received an inoculation died
Immigration
•
•
•
•
Immigration led to population growth
300,000 European immigrants 1700-1775
Most in Middle Colonies- eastern Pennsylvania
Some headed to the frontier- land free- settled in
backcountry of Pennsylvania and colonial south
• Traders brought large number of African slaves to
America- most to Southern colonies
• 1683- German Mennonites came to Pennsylvania to
escape religious wars in Germany
• Early 1700s wave of German immigration had begun
• By 1775 over 100,000 Germans in Pennsylvania- about 1/3rd
of the population, most were farmers
• Scots-Irish- descendants of Scots who helped England
control Northern Ireland
• Starting in 1717- tax increases, poor harvests, religious
persecution, many left Ireland
• 150,000 Scots-Irish came 1717-1776
• Most settled in Western frontier- backcountry Pennsylvania
and the South
• Jews came for religious tolerance- 1654 small group of
Portuguese Jews arrived in New York- (New Amsterdam)
founded first synagogue in North America
• 1776- 1,500 Jews in the colonies
Women
• No equal rights in Colonial America
• Early Colonial period married women could not own
property, enter into contracts, write wills
• Husbands the only guardian of the children
• Men could physically discipline children and wives
• Single women and widows some rights- own property, file
lawsuits, run businesses
• 1700s life for married women improved- husband could not
sell or mortgage his land without wife’s signature
• Many women did work outside the home
Africans in Colonial America
• African experience in America started in Africa
• Captured, forced march to West Africa, traded to
European slave traders, branded, packed on ships
• Chained together, put in ship’s hold, voyage
lasted over a month (Middle Passage), minimal
food and water, the dead or sick thrown
overboard
• 10-12 million Africans enslaved and sent to the
Americas 1450-1870
•
•
•
•
Estimated 2 million died at sea
3.6 million went to Portuguese Brazil
1.5 million to Spanish colonies
British, French, Dutch in Caribbean imported 3.7
million to work plantations
• 500,000 sent to British colonies in North America
• 1619- first slaves in colonial America, English law
did not recognize chattel slavery- one human
owning another
• Slavery slow to develop, slaves in Virginia and
Maryland treated like indentured servants- children
born to African slaves not always enslaved
• African slaves at first could gain freedom by converting
to Christianity
• English settlers no problem enslaving Africans not due
to the fact they were not white, but because they were
not Christians
• Number of Africans increased- status changed- 1660s
laws made slavery a hereditary system based on race
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1705, Virginia- Slave Code
-defined relationship- owner and slave and free people
Other colonies followed
Slaves could not:
-own property
-testify against whites in court
-move about freely
-assemble in large numbers
-by 1775- 20% of the colonial population was of African
descent
• Slaves lowest status and encountered the
most hardships
• Most lived on Southern plantations
• Long days, beaten and branded, planters
threatened to sell them away from families in
order to maintain control
• Family and religion helped slaves keep dignity
• Some escaped to the North, others refused to
work hard, broke or lost tools
Stono Rebellion
• Some slaves revolted
• 1739- group of slaves near the Stono River in
South Carolina rebelled against white
overseers and attempted to escape to Florida
• Militia ended rebellion- 21 whites and 44
Africans dead
How did Old World thinking influence
the New World?
• Enlightenment
• 1700s English Colonies were influenced by the
Enlightenment and the Great Awakening
• Enlightenment thinking- natural laws applied to social,
political, and economic relationships
• People could interpret natural laws using reason
• Emphasis on logic and reasoning = rationalism
• John Locke , natural rights and social contract
• -people are born with the natural rights of life, liberty and
property, rights are unlimited
• Social contract- people give up some rights in exchange for
protection of remaining rights-
• If the government does not protect or abuses
citizen rights the citizens have the right and duty
to replace the government Two Treatises of
Government
• Essay on Human Understanding, Locke argued
that people were not born sinful- contrary to
popular Christian belief- minds were blank slates,
shaped by society and education making a better
person• All people are born with rights and society can be
improved became core beliefs in America
• French thinkers Jean Jaques Rousseau and Baron
Montesquieu took Locke further
• Rousseau- The Social Contract-, government
should be formed by the consent of the governed
who would make own laws- and equality of all
people
• Montesquieu-Spirit of the Laws, three types of
political power- executive, legislative, judicialpowers should be separated into different
branches to protect people’s liberty
• Influenced the creators of the US Constitution
• THE GREAT AWAKENING
• Move to religion, renew Christian faith
• Started in Europe as the pietism movement- stressed individual
devoutness- emotional union with God
• Colonial America, ministers held revivals- the resurgence of religious
fervor = the Great Awakening
• 1734, Massachusetts minister Jonathan Edwards played a role in the Great
Awakening- powerful sermons, a person had to repent and convert
• Emotional appeal, opposite of reason and logic, typical of the Great
Awakening style of preaching
• George Whitfield- Anglican minister from England-attracted many listeners
• Great Awakening peaked around 1740- many churches split into groupsNew Lights and Old Lights
• Those who embraced new ideas- Baptists, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists, and Methodists won many converts and traditional
churches lost members
• South, Baptists gained strong following among poor
farmers
• Baptists welcomed Africans to attend revivals,
condemned slavery
• Planters used violence to break up Baptist meetingsabout 20% of Virginia’s whites and thousands of
African slaves had become Baptists by 1775
• Enlightenment and Great Awakening, different origins,
both affected colonial America
• Enlightenment = arguments against British rule
• Great Awakening = undermined allegiance to
traditional authority