European
Migration
Columbus to the 13
Colonies
Today’s Lecture
• The Colonists
• European
Exploration
• Columbus
• Early settlements
• Roanoke (1585)
• Jamestown
(1607)
• Settlement in the
New World
• Reasons for
Immigration
• Plymouth (1620)
• Maryland (1634)
• Massachusetts Bay
Colony (1630)
• Rhode Island
(1636)
• Freedom
• Democracy
• Manifest Destiny
The Colonists
• Spain
• Florida; Southwest US; Central
America; South America;
Caribbean
• Portugal
• Brazil
• The Netherlands
• New York; New Jersey;
Pennsylvania
• France
• Louisiana; Canada
• England
• Canada; New England; Virginia
French Territory
The Colonists
• Spain
• Florida; Southwest US; Central
America; South America;
Caribbean
• Portugal
• Brazil
• The Netherlands
• New York; New Jersey;
Pennsylvania
• France
• Louisiana; Canada
• England
• Canada; New England; Virginia
European Exploration
• The Renaissance
• Shipping/ Technological
advancements/ Navigation
• Global trade opportunities
• Market economy
• Rejection of ‘just prices’
• Shorter trade routes across
the Atlantic
• Protestant Reformation/ English Reformation
• Spread of Christianity
• Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1605)/ Spanish Armada (1588)
Columbus’s Expeditions
• 1492: Sailed the ocean blue
• Probably landed on San
Salvador
• Visited modern day Haiti, the
Dominican Republic (known as
Hispaniola) and Cuba
• Returned the following year
with 17 ships and 1000 men
• Died believing that he had
discovered a Westward route to
Asia
Early Settlements
• St Augustine (1565)
• Spanish/ Florida
• Roanoke (1585)
• Raleigh/ Chesapeake Bay
• Jamestown (1607)
• London Co./ Virginia
• Plymouth Rock (1620)
• Mayflower/ Massachusetts
• New Amsterdam (1625)
• Dutch East India Co./ New York
Jamestown (1607)
• Founded by the Virginia Company of London
• Crew of 105, mostly gentlemen
• Unrealistic ideas of wealth
• Unaccustomed to manual labour
• Failure to plant crops
• Powhatan Tribe/Captain John Smith/ Pocahontas
• Changes in leadership (1608)
• 38 settlers remained by 1608; only 12/200 settlers
died 1608-09; 400/500 died 1609-10
• Powhatan Wars, 1610-1614
• Tobacco plantations; John Rolfe
• Headrights, profit, bankruptcy and death
Settlement in the New World
• Religious persecution
• Protestant Reformation
• Lutherans/ Calvinists/
Anabaptists
• English Reformation, 1533 –
1635
• Pilgrims/ Puritans
• Catholic Persecution
• Political persecution
• English Civil War
Settlement in the New World
Plymouth (1620)
• 1616-1618, local Native populations devastated by
disease brought by fisherman or traders
• The Mayflower
• Pilgrims/ 102 settlers/ separatist puritans/ Mayflower
Compact
• Around 50 died before spring
• Owed their eventual success to Native
Americans
• Squanto (Wampanoag)
• Samoset (Abenaki)
• First Thanksgiving
• Self sufficient Colony
• Spurred mass migration to New
England
Maryland (1634)
• First Proprietary Colony
• Established by George Calvert, the
1st Lord Baltimore
• Converted to Catholicism (1625)
• Founded by Cecilius Calvert, the
2nd Lord Baltimore
• Intended as an overseas refuge for Catholics (2% English pop.)
• Mostly populated by Catholic landowners and Protestant indentured
servants
• Protestants outnumbered Catholics from the outset
• Passed the ‘Religious Toleration Act’ in 1649, the 2nd colony to do so.
• First colony not to endure a ‘starving time’: colonisation had succeeded
Settlement in the New World
• Religious persecution
• Protestant Reformation
• Lutherans/ Calvinists/
Anabaptists
• English Reformation, 1533 –
1635
• Pilgrims/ Puritans
• Catholic Persecution
• Political persecution
• English Civil War
Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630)
• Funded by a Joint-Stock Company, lead by John Winthrop
• 700 sailed with the Massachusetts Bay
Company to New England
• Non-separating Congregationalist’ Puritans
• ‘Great Migration: 1,000 settlers in a year
• Self Governing – contractual oversight
• Winthrop Governed the Colony
• ‘City Upon a Hill’
• Enforced strict religious orthodoxy
Rhode Island (1636)
• Founded by Roger Williams
• Expelled by Winthrop from Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Favoured a separation of Church and state, freedom of Religion and individual
conscience – “a most precious and invaluable jewel”
• Banished to England but escaped to the Narragansett Bay
• Founded the town of Providence
• Welcomed all who suffered religious
persecution
• First colony to legislate for freedom
of religion
• Prohibited residents from ‘invading or
molesting Indians
• Outlawed slavery (1652)
Settlement in the New World
• Economy
• Gold and Silver/ Natural resources
• Business interests: East India Company/
Virginia Company
• Tobacco/ sugar/rice plantations
• Opportunity
•
•
Population growth/
inflation/ unemployment
Indentured Servitude
• Forced relocation
•
Convicts/ slaves
Freedom
• Common Motive: An escape
• Religious freedom;
political freedom;
economic freedom;
freedom curtailed
• Expansion
freedom
• Settlersbased
whichondid
not suit existing colonies founded new
colonies
• Rhode Island/ Georgia
• Mary Dyer – a ‘Boston Martyr’
• Quaker supporter of Anne Hutchinson
• Continued to preach against John Winthrop after
Hutchinson’s death
Democracy
• John Winthrop against Democracy
• Self governance: theocracy not democracy
• “Meanest and worst form of government… least
continuance and fullest of troubles”
• No precedent in scripture: “No such government in
Israel”
• General Court – legislature, executive and judiciary all in
one
• Private ownership of land
• Differed from Spanish and French settlements
• “Liberty and Property without Restrictions” –
Manifest Destiny
• Treatment of Native Americans
• Francis Wyatt fought the Powhatans in
Jamestown as if he “had just cause to
destroy them by all means possible” - John
Smith
• John Winthrop – “god hath provided this
place to be a refuge for many whom he
means to save out of the general
destruction”
• Brutal Maryland
treatment/ Tobacco
low life expectancy
• Virginia/
economy for white servants and black
slaves: Beating of Charetie Dallen – “More liken a dogge than a
• Slave Rebellion - “to the honour of the Carolina
Christian”
planters… they did not torture one negro, but
only put them to an easy death” vs “the danger
hanging daily over their heads… we bewailed
our peculiar case, that we could not enjoy the
benefits of peace like the rest of mankind, and
that our own industry should be the means of
Continued Migration
19th Century Migration
• Over 20 million people immigrated into the
USA between 1882 and 1924
• Made up 15% of the population by 1920.
• No limits on immigration from Europe
• No visa requirements or special paperwork
• If foreigners could afford the passage, they could
emigrate
19th Century Migration
• The ‘American Dream’
• “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free” – Emma Lazarus
• Prosperity and opportunity/ higher standard of living/ higher
wages
• Overpopulation/ Famine/ Religious
persecution/ Pogroms
• Italians (pop. growth vs. economic slowdown); Russian
Jews (May Laws)
• Chain Migration/ Reuniting Families
• Opportunity; Increase of transport links;
Adventure
th
20
Century Migration
Restriction
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Expatriation Act (1907)
1917 Immigration Act
Emergency Immigration Act (1921)
Immigration Act (1924)
Immigration and Nationality Act, 1952.
(McCarran-Walter Act)
• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
• Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
• Immigration Act of 1990
•
•
•
•
•
•
21st Century Migration
% of residents born outside USA
in the year 2000
Next Week…
Colonial Society