The American Colonies
Emerge
Chapter 2
Thanks, Cortes…
• Conquistadors: explorers
• Hernando Cortes-Spanish Explorer
• Landed in Mexico, in the Aztec Empire.
• Convinced the Nahua Indians to join him
• Tenochtitlan: Capital of the Aztec civilization.
• The Spanish eventually were the downfall of the Aztec
• Disease
• Superior Weapons
• Death of Montezuma
Mexico City
• Cortes burned Tenochtitlan to the ground and claimed it for Spain
• He named the new capital Mexico City.
• Within three years churches, homes, and a university had been
formed there.
• Mestizo: Spanish and Native children
• Encomienda: Natives farmed, ranched, or labored for Spanish
landlords, who had received the rights for their labor from Spanish
authorities.
Spanish Exploration
• Juan Ponce de Leon: Spanish Explorer
• Florida
• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado: Spanish Explorer
• New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas
• Pope’s Rebellion
Jamestown
• Joint-stock companies: allowed several companies to pool their
wealth in support of a colony that would, hopefully, yield a profit.
Once they got a charter they were responsible for maintaining the
colony and entitled to all of the profit the colony might yield.
• England wanted to explore Virginia for gold and silver.
The Virginia Company
• 3 boats and 150 passengers:
• Susan Constant, Discovery, and
Godspeed
• Jamestown was established in
1607
• John Smith: English Explorer
• John Smith warned of disaster,
but few took the arrogant
captain seriously.
Jamestown
• In 1609, 600 new colonists arrived in Jamestown.
• Starving Time
• Tobacco- “Brown Gold”
• Slave Trade Begins
• Headright system: Anyone who paid for their own passage or
someone else’s passage to Virginia received 50 acres of land.
• Indentured Servants: in exchange for a free trip to the New World the
servant agreed to a term of servitude to pay off their debt.
Native Americans
• Pocahontas
• Virginia Company goes bankrupt
• Royal Colony: one under the Kings control
Bacon’s Rebellion
• Nathaniel Bacon