Columbus to Constitution
By: Rachel Perez, Sara Berryhill,
Gabriel Hillebrand
Sailed the Ocean Blue
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Christopher Columbus was an Italian born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. He
went to the Spanish hoping they would fund his trip to India.
In 1492 Columbus set sail for India to find a direct trade route that cut
out the middle man for trading spices.
He landed in the North American Island of Hispaniola
Effects of the discovery:
o New World Settlements would arise
o Old world diseases infected indigenous peoples
o Crops from the new world fed a population boom
New vs. Old
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The Old World brought new livestock, and disease
o Horses that were brought by the Europeans and escaped were
captured by the Native Americans who learned to ride them and
used them for hunting and migrating
o The immune systems of the Natives could not fight off the diseases
that were brought on by the Europeans
The New World was a place full of new foods, gold and silver, and
indigenous people
o Explorers brought home foods rich with with nutrients and loaded
with sugars. The people of the old world were eating these new
foods and there was a population boom because of it. The trading of
these foods also boosted the economy in Europe.
Empires in America
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English- Settled in the Northeast, and in the Middle colonies.
o Jamestown was for economic trade/ growing tobacco
 Mostly single men colonized it
o Plymouth was a religious settlement
 Puritans settled here. Mostly complete families
Spanish- Colonized southern areas, like Florida and the Carribeans
o St. Augustine is one of the oldest settlements in America
o Treaty of Tordesillas with Portugal
French - Settled much of Canada
o They were traders. They traded furs and skins with the Native
Americans
Early Colonization - Jamestown
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1606: King James I granted a charter to the Virginia Company to establish
an English settlement
1607: Jamestown, Virginia was founded and was the first permanent
English Colony
Their main economic income came from selling Tobacco back to England
Imployed the “headright” system
Whoever paid the passage of a laborer received the right to acquire 50
acres
By 1700, about 100,000 “white slaves” occupied the Chesapeake Bay
“He who does not work, neither shall he eat” - John Smith (Work Ethic)
Early Colonization - Plymouth
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Founded in 1620 by William Bradford and Pilgrims
Based on the idea of a freedom of religion community as
well as keeping the English identity
Corporate - Self-Government
All settlers signed Mayflower Compact; Helped establish the
idea of creating a self-governing body
Early Colonization - Massachusetts
• John Winthrop and Puritans founded the Massachusetts
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Bay Colony in 1630
Their goal was to establish a perfect society based on
Puritan Ideals
This philosophy was later recognized as a “City on a
Hill”
Early Colonization - Pennsylvania
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Founded in the 1682 by William Penn
Based off Quaker Ideals (Open to Everything)
Offered settlers religious and political liberties
Religious Development
Puritans
Anglican Church
Quakers
Catholic Church
Presbyterian
Church
Leaders
John Winthrop
King or Queen of
England
William Penn
Pope in Vatican
Francis Makemie
Areas of
Influence
New England
Virginia and
Maryland
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Frontier and
Backcountry
Beliefs
One is saved or
damned at birth
Kings power
came from God
All people are
equal in God’s
eyes
Salvation can be
earned by good
works, faith,
loyalty to church
Calvinism
Split from
Puritan’s over
church
governance
Notes
“City on a Hill”
Halfway
Covenant
2nd largest
membership in
colonies
“Holy Experiment”
Very unpopular in
other colonies
Scott-Irish
Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion
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Virginia frontiersmen who were seeking new land, clashed
with the Indians
Frontiersmen requested help but government but refused
aid fearing Indian War
Bacon led a group into Jamestown and burned it down
Colonial rebellion against government authority
Revision of indentured servant system, greater reliance on
slave labor
Mercantilism Philosophy
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Believed that wealth was power and a country's
economic wealth was measured in gold and silver
To acquire the gold and silver, country needed to
export more than import
Colonies could supply both raw materials to the
mother country and provide a guaranteed market for
exports
The London government looked on the American
colonies as a pawn in their game for economic success
French and Indian War 1754-1763
Causes
-The English and French settlers had attempted to
colonize land in the Ohio River Valley, near present
day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
-struggle for territory and lands.
-The French settlers in America were predominantly
Effects
-British won.
-great expansion for British in the
New World.
-large number of casualties.
Catholics and they felt threatened by the anticatholic majority of the British. The British were
used to religious freedom and feared being
controlled by the French and the papacy.
-lessened native american
population.
End of Salutary Neglect/Stamp Act
-After the French and Indian War the British government was insistent on
making the colonies help pay for the debt created during the war. This lead
to the Sugar, Currency, and Stamp Act which placed a tax on certain goods.
Taxes in combination with British involvement with colonial affairs angered
the colonists who began to organize action against the British.
-SUGAR ACT 1764 - Enforced a duty on sugar imported into the colonies. Violators were sent to viceadmiralty courts where there was no trial by jury or assumption of innocence.
STAMP ACT 1765 - Required legal documents, publications, and cards to be on taxed paper. Started to
anger important figures such as lawyers etc.
TOWNSHEND REVENUE ACTS 1767 - Duty on tea, lead, paper, and glass.
Proclamation Line of 1763
The Proclamation Line of 1763 stopped American colonists from
colonizing regions west of the Appalachian Mountains. The colonists
would have been limited to live only along the east coast. This law
was created to stop conflict between Native Americans and the
colonists, however, colonists only saw it as an attempt to limit their
expansion. However, the colonists completely ignored the law and
moved westward. This law had no effect on limiting colonial
expansion, it only furthered tensions between the British and the
American colonists and added to the start of the Revolutionary War.
The Great Awakening
What? - Religious revival through British American Colonies.
When? -1730’s to 1755
Effects on established churches- Awakening (new light) preachers
set up their own schools and churches throughout the colonies.
Princetown University was one school. The old ministers refused to
accept this new style of worship. One surprising result was greater
religious toleration. With so many new denominations, it was
apparent that no one religion would dominate any region.
Deism
Rejected the original sin of
man, believed in a supreme
being that Supreme Being
who had created a knowable
universe and endowed
human beings with a
capacity for moral behavior.
Denies Christ's divinity.
The Declaration of Independence Contents
Written by Thomas Jefferson; influenced by the Enlightenment philosophers of his
time.
Provisions:
Part 1 - Explains the necessity of independence for the preservation of basic laws
and rights.
Part 2 - Lists a series of "abuses and usurpations" by the king and his government;
Jefferson claimed that this treatment violated the social contract the British
monarch had with the his colonies, thereby justifying the actions his American
subjects felt compelled to take.
Part 3 - Ends with what is tantamount to a formal declaration of war.
Revolutionary War
Causes
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● Oppressive British Rule
● Taxation without Representation
● Raise in taxes to pay for the French
and Indian War
● Stamp Act
● Intolerable/Coercive Acts
● End of Salutary Neglect
● Boston Massacre
● Lexington and Concord
● Common Sense
Effects
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End of British rule in the colonies
French support during the war
Gained a lot of debt from war
British weren’t going to leave until
British sympathizers gained their
lands back, and their debts were paid
● Articles of Confederation were the
Beta version of the constitution
● Gained land from the Treaty of Paris
French Aid
The French helped the colonists during the
war by providing monetary support, soldiers,
and military trainers.
They helped in order to try and drive their
British competitors out of the Americas.
*Spain eventually joined in the war as well
Treaty of Paris
Countries that fought in the war sent leaders to Paris in order to work out a
treaty.
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America - Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay went to
negotiate for America concerning the treaty
o They got land from the Mississippi, the Great Lakes, and Florida
o Had to Give the Loyalists their land back and pay their debts to
Britain
The British violated the treaty by keeping forts north of the Ohio River, claiming they wouldn’t
leave until the debt of war was paid and the properties of the loyalists were returned to them.
Articles Of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were set in place from
1781 to 1789. They were designed as a reaction to
centralized authority, and so were not very effective in
managing an entire nation. The ultimate political
power was left to the separate states to basically
govern themselves.
*They couldn’t raise an army
Articles of Confederation
Weaknesses
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No chief executive
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Congress worked in Committees
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No uniformity or coordination
Required 9 of 13 states to approve laws
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Required all states to approve amendments
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There was never any agreement between states so no laws were ever amended
No power to levy or collect taxes. Congress had to ask for money from the states.
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There was no reason for states to lend the money
No power to regulate interstate commerce
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Not many states agreed with each other, and delegates were rarely all together at once
Led to disputes between states and inability for Congress to regulate foreign trade and protect American
Businesses
No power to enforce treaties
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Couldn’t force Britain to abide by the Treaty of Paris
Shays’ Rebellion
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Farmers in Massachusetts were disgruntled because of
mortgage foreclosures and high taxes
Daniel Shays, their leader, led a small movement
against the government and demanded cheap paper
money, lighter taxes, and a suspension of property
takeovers
The uprising was diminished after three were killed in
fights with a small army raised by the Massachusetts
state government.
o the army was funded by the wealthy
Land Ordinance of 1785
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Acres of the Old Northwest would be sold and the
proceeds would go to pay national debt
o land gained in the treaty of Paris
Every 16th section of each township would be set aside
for public schools
Squatters would move into the Ohio territory and
Native Americans refused to leave the land
Land Ordinance of 1787
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Townships and settlements in the Northwest would be
territories at first
After the population in a territory reached 60,000
people, it would gain full congressional statehood with
all of the privileges of all the states
Slavery would be forbidden in the old Northwest