Chapter 3: Exploration and
Colonization
3.1 - An Era of Exploration
• We came with our ships to Cape Comfort,
where we saw five [Virginia Indians] running
on the shore. . . . [After] rowing ashore, the
captain called to them a sign of friendship, but
they were at first very [fearful] until they saw
the captain lay his hand on his heart. Upon
that they laid down their bows and arrows
and came very boldly to us, making signs to
come ashore to their town, which [they call]
Kecoughtan.
Happy Vikings (not Columbus) Day!
• Real evidence has been hard to find linking the
original “founder” of the Americas
• In the year 1001, Vikings led by Leif Ericson
reached northern tip of N. America
– Vinland (present-day Newfoundland)
Columbus Reaches the Americas
• King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
financed the Italian captain’s voyage
• Travel west across the Atlantic to hit the East
Indies
– Valuable trade market
Columbus Reaches the Americas
• August 1492, set sail with the Santa Maria,
Nina, and the Pinta
• Reached land on October 12, thought to be
the East Indies
• Actually landed on islands in the Caribbean
Sea, found signs of gold
– Named the West Indies
Columbus Reaches the Americas
• Brought back to Europe things unfamiliar to Europeans
(tobacco)
• Believed the Tainos (Indians) could be converted to
Christianity and become slaves
• Eventually made three more voyages
• Founded in 1493, the colony of Hispaniola (Haiti and
Dominican Republic)
• Colony – group of people who settle in a distant land but
are still ruled by the government of their native land
The Impact
• Europeans believed Native Americans were
inferior to their society
• Used Tainos to work in mines, houses, and
ranches
• New age of exploration to the Americas
Ferdinand Magellan
• First to cross the Pacific Ocean
– Journey began in 1519
• Eventually killed himself in a battle with locals
off the Philippine Islands
• One ship returned to Spain in 1522, and the
first to circumnavigate (sail around the world)
The Columbian Exchange
• The exchange of goods and ideas between
hemispheres
To the Americas…
• Horses, bananas, oranges, bluegrass, daisies,
smallpox, influenza
• Diseases killed almost 90% of people in the
Caribbean Islands and Mexico
To Europe…
• Corn, potatoes, beans, peanuts, peppers, use
snowshoes, trapping techniques, political
structures
3.2 – Spain Builds an Empire
• Conquistadors – Spanish conquerors in the
Americas
• Permission to make settlements
• Hernando Cortes, most notorious
conquistador
Conquest of the Aztecs
• Moctezuma – emperor of the Aztecs
• In 1519, the Spanish were warmly welcomed,
but were driven out when Moctezuma was
made prisoner in his own city
• Spanish, with the help of Aztec rivals, killed
the emperor and destroyed the capital
Conquest of the Incas
• Francisco Pizarro sailed down Pacific coast of
S. America in 1532
• Captured and executed the Incan emperor
Atahualpa
– Empire soon collapsed in the control of Pizarro
Why did the Spanish win?
• Superior military equipment
• Spanish had horses; mounted soldiers
• Disease
Spanish Explorers
• Juan Ponce de Leon – looked for legendary
fountain of youth
• Hernando De Soto – explored Florida and the
Mississippi River
New Spain
• Set up the Laws of the Indies to govern the
Spanish colonies
• Pueblos – towns where the Spanish lived
• Presidios – forts where the soldiers lived
• Missions – religious settlements run by
Catholic priests
– Convert natives to Christianity
New Spain
• Social classes
– Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, and Natives
• Blend of cultures between Natives and
Spanish
• Encomiendas – land grants that included the
right to demand labor or taxes from Native
Americans
Rise of the Slave Trade
• Natives could not withstand workload
demanded of them
• Bartolome de Las Casas suggested bringing
Africans to the Americas for the labor
• Idea spread and gave rise to the slave trade
2.3 – Colonizing North America
• Desire to find a northwest passage in North
America
– Waterway through or around North America
• Henry Hudson – first to explore present day
New York
Protestant Reformation
• Martin Luther, German monk, believed people
could be saved only by faith in God
• Protested against the church, and supporters
became known as Protestants
• Europe split: Roman Catholics and Protestants
New France
• Samuel de Champlain founded Port Royal in
1605
• The French were coureurs de bois, meaning
they lived and worked in the woods
• Did not attempt to conquer Native Americans
French Explorers
• Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet
explored the Mississippi River
• Robert de La Salle explored the Gulf of Mexico
and founded Louisiana
• Brought African slaves to French colonies
New Netherland (Present Day New
York)
• Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from Native
Americans, called the island New Amsterdam
• Rivaled with the French in the fur trade
– Wanted an alliance with Native Americans
• Alliance – an agreement between nations to
aid and protect one another
– Allied with the Iroquois
The Impact
• European conflicts encouraged warfare between
tribes
• Natives took advantage of European technology
• Conversion to Christianity
• Moved Native Americans west, into the territory
of tribes
– Conflicts would last for decades
2.4 – Building the Jamestown Colony
• England was jealous of Spain gaining riches
from their colonies
• Sir Walter Raleigh gained permission from
Queen Elizabeth to begin a settlement in
North America
• Landed in Roanoke
Roanoke Mystery
• After a year, food shortage challenged the
colonists so they went home
• John White returned with a new group of
settlers, but White soon left for England
• Returning three years later, White found no
traces of the settlers
Jamestown
• King James I gave the Virginia Company a
charter to settle lands in present day Virginia
• Named the settlement Jamestown in 1607
• Swampy lands, government disagreements,
and sickness created trouble for the settlers
Struggling Jamestown
• Captain John Smith organized labor for the
settlers
• Established an agreement with Chief
Powhatan to be supplied with corn
• The corn supply from the Native Americans
created tension
Temporary Peace?
• Tensions settled when John Rolfe married
Pocahontas
• Still, Jamestown settlers suffered daily with
starvation
• By 1612, Jamestown settlers began growing tobacco
• Tobacco was very profitable and allowed the colony
to prosper
Government in Virginia
• Strict laws and regulations took freedoms from the
settlers
• Reform was needed and the Virginia Company set up
a House of Burgesses
– Burgesses – representatives to the government
• The H.O.B. would discuss and decide on laws for the
colony
Government in Virginia
• Voters elected representatives to make these laws
– Representative government
• Only free, white males were allowed to vote
on representatives
Women and Africans in Virginia
• Women were outnumbered by men, but ironically
survived hardships better than men
• Women had to make everything from scratch
• Africans came to Virginia for farming skills
• Africans were eventually sold and used as slave
laborers and could not vote or own property
3.5 – Seeking Religious Freedom
• Pilgrim – anyone who makes a long journey
for religious freedom
• Europeans that sought religious freedom
founded the Plymouth Colony
Why the Pilgrims Left
• Religious wars between Protestants and
Roman Catholics
• English law demanded an established church
(the chosen religion)
– Anglican Church
• Persecution – mistreatment or punishment of
people because of their beliefs
Plans for a New Life
• Separatists of the Church of England won a
charter in 1620 to establish a colony in North
America
• The crew sailed on the Mayflower and landed
in Cape Cod (Massachusetts)
The Mayflower Compact
• Forty-one male passengers signed the
Mayflower Compact
• It promised that the Pilgrims and “strangers”
would unify into a civil government
• Make laws that insured the “general Good of
the Colony”
Hardship of the Plymouth Settlers
• Lack of food sources and harsh winter
• Settlers were stricken with disease and starvation
• Makeshift houses made from the earth
• William Bradford’s leadership helped sustain the
colony
Help from Native Americans
• English speaking Native Americans Samoset
and Squanto helped the Pilgrims plant crops
• Strong harvests led to the tradition of
Thanksgiving in the United States