Chapter 2
The Challenge to Spain and the
Settlement of North America
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Protestant Reformation Affected
European Exploration Context
 Calvinist ideas posed challenge to
Catholicism
 French Huguenot movement, Dutch
Reformed Church, and Presbyterian church
of Scotland all embraced Calvinist principles
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Gave rise to Puritanism in England
 France, the Netherlands, and England, all
powerful Protestant countries, challenged
Spanish power in Europe – and abroad
French Exploration
 Giovanni da Verrazano explored Atlantic
coast from Carolinas to Nova Scotia in 1534
 Jacques Cartier explored St.;Lawrence Valley
between 1534 and 1543Samuel de
Champlain led eleven voyages to Canada by
1645
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Established colony at Acadia (Nova Scotia)
Founded Quebec in 1608
Sought friendly relations with Native
Americans
Early New France
 Catholicism declared only acceptable religion
in 1625
 Important role of Jesuit Missionaries
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Totally opposed to presence of Protestants in colony
Believed the Indians could retain their traditions while still
accepting Catholicism
Concentrated attention on five confederated Huron nations
Mastered Indian languages and cultures’
Only Europeans who measured up to Indian standards of
bravery
Lost ground after 1640s and especially after the crown
assumed control of New Frances after 1663
New France and the Jesuit Missions
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New France under Crown
Control
 Tried to transform colony into model
absolutist society
 Professional soldiers to provide defense
 Concerted measures to increase the colony’s
population
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Population increased from 3,000 to about 14,000
between 1664 and 1700
 Largest cities were Quebec, Three Rivers and
Montreal
New France Under Crown
Control (cont.)
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Wheat farming took hold
Fur trade also important
 Several hundred settled in the Mississippi
valley in what became the Illinois country
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Imported slaves from Louisiana for wheat farming
 Frenchmen also settled in the Caribbean
 Founded sugar colonies on Saint-Domingue,
Guadeloupe, and Martinique
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Sugar Islands worth far more than Canada
Dutch Overseas Empire
 Became leaders in spread of personal
liberties and religious toleration
 Political power was decentralized
 Local leaders favored free trade and
resisted monarchical control
 Dutch East India Company chartered in
1602
 Replaced
Portuguese in Spice Islands
Dutch Overseas Empire (cont.)
 Dutch West India Company chartered in 1621
 Controlled African slave trade, Brazil, the
Caribbean, and North America
 New Netherland established in 1624 on
present/day Manhattan
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Depended on goodwill of nearby Indians
Traded furs from urban centers; dud not venture
inland
Established large estates (“patroonships”)
North America’s first experiment in ethnic and
religious toleration
Population rose markedly after 1647
New Sweden
 Founded in 1638 at present-day Wilmington
near the mouth of the Delaware River on land
claimed by New Netherland
 Primarily Swedish and Lutheran in orientation
 Conflict with New Netherland
 Threatened by English expansion from
Virginia and New England
Early English Exploration
 Interest in Exploration emerged slowly
 Role of English Reformation
 Rise of Puritans and Separatists and their role in overseas
expansion
 Example of Ireland
 English formed their preconceptions about American Indians
largely from contact with the Irish
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert efforts to subdue the Irish in the 1560s
 Use as springboard for colonizing America
 Claimed Newfoundland in 1583
 Colonization efforts of Sir Walter Raleigh (or Raleigh)
 Roanoke Island founded in 1585
 No sign of colony left in 1590
The Early Virginia Colony
 London Company launched expedition in 1607
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Settled on James River and founded Jamestown
 Jamestown settlement
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No obvious source of wealth; colonists focused on sheer
survival
Settlers survived only because of friendly Indians
Colony almost abandoned in 1610
Tide turned thereafter
Role of Tobacco in colony’s early survival
Economic diversification attempts failed
Permitted to select own assembly, the house of Burgesses
Conflict with Indians decimated colony in 1622
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Crown assumed control of the colony in 1624, making Virginia a
royal colony
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Virginia Company
Charter, 1606
Royal Virginia
 Colony thrived between 1622 and the 1640s
 Indian wars almost continuous until 1632
 Tobacco exports financed purchase of
indentured servants
 Social mobility allowed former servants to
purchase own land until prices dropped in
1660
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Thereafter, richest 15 percent of population
dominated society
Maryland
 Established in 1632 as haven for persecuted
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English and Irish Catholics
Proprietary colony, as were most new
colonies after 12630
Most settlers ended up being Protestant
Toleration Act of 1649 granted freedom of
religion to all Christians
Bicameral legislature established
Agricultural products included tobacco, corn
and livestock
Family Life in the Chesapeake
 Population became self-sustaining
around 1680
 Life expectancy lower than in England
 Marriage practices differed from
England
 Importance of extended family
connections
 Weak patriarchal ties
The Rise of Slavery in America
 Arrived in Barbados on sugar plantations in
the 1650s
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By 1700, slaves outnumbered Europeans there
Conditions for slaves were terrible’
Sugar islands far more profitable than mainland
colonies well into the eighteenth century
 First Africans arrived in Virginia before 1619
 Initially were probably indentured servants
 Slave system firmly established in the
Chesapeake after 1680
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Established racial caste system throughout the colonies
Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay
 Pilgrims founded Plymouth in 1620
 Initially intended to settle in Virginia
 Blown off course and ended up well north of
Virginia’s boundaries
 Mayflower Compact bound settlers to accept will
of the majority
 Received extensive help from local Wampanoag
Indians
 Puritans secured charter in 1629 to establish
colony at an unspecified location
Plymouth and Massachusetts
(cont.)
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Settlers arrived in waves thereafter and established numerous
towns
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Colony’s economic success came to rest on shipbuilding
As colony prospered economically, its religious foundation eroded
Environment was healthy and extended life expectancy for
residents
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About 13,000 settlers arrived in New England by 1641, most as
families
Families became intensely patriarchal
Puritan religious life
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Vital force behind Puritanism was quest for conversion
– Proof that one has been saved
– Could take months or years to achieve
Religious Dissent and the
Founding of New Colonies
 Connecticut founded as series of separate
settlements beginning in the mid 1630s
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Founders feared Massachusetts was too strict in
certifying church members
Soon established the most severe requirements
for church membership in New England
 Rhode Island established in 1636, also
originally as series of separate settlements
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Original settlers supported religious toleration and
the separation of church and state
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New England in the
1640s
Religious and Government
Institutions in New England
 Congregation became dominant religious
institution at local level
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Abolished Anglicanism: established own forms
 Established own forms of government and
control
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Town meetings decided local government matters
Bicameral legislature by 1640s decided colonial
wide issues
Body of Liberties in 1541 laid out colonists’ rights
Comprehensive law code in 1648 established
legal system different in many ways from English
system
Religious and Government
Institutions in New England (cont.)
 Half-Way Covenant emerged to deal
with lack of conversions among
colonists
 Allowed
parents who had been baptized
but who had not yet experienced
conversion to have their children baptized
 Took hold after 1670s and 1680s
The First Restoration Colonies
 Carolina founded in 1663
 Former servants from Maryland and Virginia
founded North Carolina
 Former servants from Barbados established South
Carolina
 Proprietors drafted Fundamental Constitutions in
1669
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Sought to establish ideal Aristocratic society
Rejected repeatedly by colonists between 1670 and 1700
Colonists established far more diversified economy
than proprietors has anticipated
The two Carolinas became separate colonies in the
early eighteenth century
The First Restoration Colonies
(cont.)
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South Carolina became leader in rice production
– Triggered massive growth of slavery
 New York established in 1664
 Took over land claimed by New Netherland
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New Jersey became separate proprietary colony in
1665
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Conflict between English and Dutch settlers
Initially, little provision for self-government
Offered greater self-government than New York, which
made it more attractive to English settlers
Continued demands for self-government resulted
in convening of legislatures in 1683
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Adopted a Charter of Liberties that proclaimed
government by consent
Quaker Colonial Settlement in America
 Quakers had experienced persecution at hands of other
Christians in England
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Opposed slavery, disdained formal religious trappings
Supported full equality of the sexes
 Settled in Delaware valley between 1675 and 1690
 Jockeyed with other groups for domination of West and
East New Jersey and Delaware
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Maintained friendly relations with Indian neighbors
First Frame of Government (1682) laid out initial government
plan
Revised in Second Frame, or Pennsylvania Charter of Liberties
in 1683
Became a haven for all religious
Colony quickly became an economic success