War in Europe
England and Spain were rival powers in Europe in the 1500s
Spain had the most wealth and greatest navy because of
exploration
After the British defeated the Spanish Armada it opened
exploration of the Americas to other Europeans
Early Settlements
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for England
1585 – Sir Walter Raleigh settled Roanoke Island off North Carolina
- they returned after a difficult winter
1587 – John White brought new settlers to the
island and returned to England for
supplies
By the time he returned the settlers had
disappeared
Left a gatepost carving “Croatoan”
Jamestown (1607)
Established by the Virginia Company (joint-stock company)
Faced many hardships in the early years
1608 – Capt. John Smith was sent to govern the colonies
along with others
Didn’t find the gold they were searching for
Winter of 1609-1610 known as “The Starving Time”
Tobacco became the cash crop for the colony
Trouble with Native Americans
Improved some after Pocahontas married John Rolfe
Governing the colony
House of Burgesses
2 representatives from
each of the 10 towns
made local laws
King James eventually
cancels the charter and VA
becomes a royal colony
Plymouth (1620)
Two factions formed in the Anglican church
Puritans – wanted to reform the church
Separatists – wanted to form a new church
-Became known as the Pilgrims
-Fled from England to Netherlands because of harsh
treatments
Asked the VA Co. for safe passage to settle in VA
The Mayflower landed farther north–Cape Cod, MA
Pilgrims made a contract to establish law & order
Mayflower Compact – beginning of rep.
government
Native Americans teach them to survive
in America
Types of Colonies
Charter Colony – CT, RI
-Est. by groups of settlers receiving a charter from the king
-Elected governors and representatives for both houses of the
legislature
-Britain approved the Governors who couldn’t veto acts of
legislation
Proprietary Colony – DE, MD, PA
-Land given to proprietors by the King
-Proprietor ran government; appointed Gov. and Upper house
of legislature
-Colonists elected lower house representatives
Royal Colony – GA, MA, NH, NJ, NC, SC, VA
-Ruled by King; appointed Gov. and council
-Colonists elected assembly who usually did what king asked
New England Colonies
Began in 1629 as a royal charter to the Massachusetts Bay Co.
John Winthrop was Gov. – main city was Boston
The key to success in the colonies was settlement
Between 1607 and 1775 almost 1 million settlers moved
to the Americas from Britain
1630’s Great Migration
15,000 Puritans leave Europe
to escape religious intolerance
and economic hardship
Improvements in living
conditions helped boost pop.
Larger families, healthier
children, longer life spans
Life in New England
Soil was difficult to farm – mostly subsistence farming
Shipbuilding, fishing industries became the main economic sources
Small businesses, craftspeople, etc. flourished in this environment
Most people settled in towns
Greens or common areas for livestock and military training
Meetinghouses for town meetings and church services
Colonial Government
Mass. Bay Colony created a colonial legislature (General Court)
Adult male church members who owned property voted for
representatives to the Court
Problems within the Mass. Bay Colony
While many settlers to the area came looking for religious
freedom they were intolerant of others religious beliefs
New Colonies form
Connecticut – 1636 – Thomas Hooker
Settlers moved to the fertile Conn. River
Adopted 1st written constitution in America
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Rhode Island – Roger Williams
Allowed religious tolerance of all faiths
New Hampshire – 1638 – John Wheelwright
Didn’t gain independence from MA until 1679
New England becomes a center for Trade
Manufactured goods were sent to New England in exchange for
fish, furs, fruit, etc. from American colonies
Triangular Trade forms
1. Sugar, molasses from the West Indies was shipped to
New England
2. Molasses was made into rum and sent to England
3. Rum and manufactured goods from England and the
colonies were shipped to West Africa
4. Goods were traded for enslaved Africans who were
taken to the W. Indies to work on the sugar
plantations
The most inhumane part of the journey was the Middle
Passage when slaves were brought to the America
Middle Colonies
1621 – Dutch West India Co. settles along the Hudson River
Colony is called New Netherlands
Main settlement is New Amsterdam (Manhattan Island, NY)
Because of excellent harbors it becomes the trade center
Colonies land was controlled by patroons
Ruled like kings with their own courts/laws
Populated by colonists from Netherlands, Germany, Sweden
& Finland
They paid the patroons in labor & crops
1642 – The Glorious Revolution
Puritan Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell overthrew King
Puritans return to England and those loyal to the king left
for America
1658 – The Restoration
Cromwell dies and Parliament returns the throne to Charles II
in 1660
1664 – English sent a fleet to attack New Amsterdam because
they wanted the port city
Peter Stuyvesant was Gov. of the colony
He had strict laws & high taxes-disliked by colonists
Was forced to surrender because he was unprepared
King Charles II gives colony to his brother the Duke of York
Proprietary colony – renames it New York
Owned all the land and controlled the government
Most settlers lived along the Hudson River (8,000)
various nationalities (Dutch, Swedish, German,
Native Am., Puritans, African slaves)
The Duke promised they could keep their religions
1683 – Population of New York grew to over 12,000
The Duke appointed a Gov. and Council but the colonists
wanted representation
1691 - Received the right to elected a legislature
New Jersey Separates
The southern part of New York b/w the Hudson and Delaware R.
was given away
Lord John Berkley and George Carteret became the
proprietors
- Named the new colony New Jersey
after the Isle of Jersey
- Offered large tracts of land,
freedom of religion,
trial by jury, and
representative government
to attract settlers
Because of its lack of harbors it
didn’t make the profits
Carteret and Berkley had both
sold out & by 1702 it was a
royal colony
Pennsylvania
1680-The King owed William Penn a large sum of money for a loan
Penn asked if he could have land in America as payment
The Quakers (Society of Friends)
Penn was part of this religious group
Believed all people had an inner light guiding them to
salvations
Allowed everyone to experience God in their own way
Quakers were tolerant of others beliefs
Many feared this because they didn’t use traditional
church ceremonies
Wouldn’t bow to lords because they believed all were
equal
Pacifists who refused to fight for political reasons
Were often persecuted for their beliefs
Pennsylvania was a “holy experiment”–put ideas into practice
1682-Began building Philadelphia-called the “City of Brotherly Love”
Penn was the first town planner – designing the city himself
Wrote the first Constitution for the colony
Negotiated the first treaties w/ Native Americans for selling land
Advertised for settlers in pamphlets all over Europe
1683 – 3,000 English, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, Germans arrived
1701-Charter of Liberties
gave colonists the right to elect representatives to the legislature
1704-Charter of Privileges
allowed the lower 3 counties to form own government
became the colony of Delaware (Swedes, Dutch & English)
Southern Colonies
A labor intensive land
The Southern land required a lot of work to maintain the
profits of cash crops
By 1660 tobacco prices were falling so plantation
owners needed more land and labor to continue to make
the profits
They Used:
1. Scotch/English criminals and
prisoners of war from Ireland
came to earn release after 7 yrs
2. Indentured servants
worked for a certain time to pay
for passage to America
3. African slaves were also used on
plantations
Maryland (1632)
King gave to Sir George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) – proprietary
colony
1634-Two sons went to America to run the colony-had 200 settlers
The land was fertile – didn’t plant just tobacco
Diversified with corn, wheat, fruit, vegetables & livestock
1729-Baltimore was the largest settlement in the colony
Lord Baltimore gave large tracts of land to relatives, English
aristocrats and promised 100 acres to each settler, 100 to their
wife, 100 for each servant, & 50 for children
Aristocrats owned huge plantations that had to be farmed
Introduced indentured servants and slave labor
1760s – hire astronomers Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon to map it
lay out the entire boundary using stones with both families crests
Religious Freedom
Meant as a safe place for Catholics – Calvert’s sons had also
allowed Protestants and they soon outnumbered the Catholics
1649 – Act of Toleration – gave both religions the right to worship
1692 – Protestants controlled assembly and made Anglican Church
the official church for the colony
Virginia
Virginia continued to grow from 1607 (Jamestown)
Plantations took all the tidewater land-new settlers moved west
Native Americans were unhappy with being forced off land
1640’s–Gov. William Berkeley–keeps settlers from moving west
Western settlers like Nathaniel Bacon were unhappy
felt they weren’t represented in the colonial gov’t.
settled west of the territory anyway
Native Americans attacked & government refused aid
1678-Bacon’s Rebellion
Led western settlers to attack Native Americans
Governor condemned these actions
Bacon marched on Jamestown – set fire to it
Berkeley fled into exile but Bacon suddenly dies and
English send troops to restore order
Results of rebellion
Showed England colonies wouldn’t be confined
Colonial government created a militia to fight Indians
Opened up more land for settlement
The Carolinas
Charles II found the colony and gave land to large proprietors
Constitution written by John Locke
Northern part was settled by small farmers, they did not have
any port cities of their own
Southern part had fertile farmland and the harbor city of
Charleston
Cash crops – rice and indigo (blue gold)
Many settlers came from Barbados (English Colony in
Bahamas)
Brought their slaves with them
Rice was also a labor intensive crop and slavery
began to grow
Northern settlers were angry because they weren’t
allowed a part in the government
Seized control from the proprietors and divided
the colony in 1729 into North & South Carolina
Georgia (1733) – James Oglethorpe
1. It was a colony for debtors to make a fresh start
2. A military barrier between the English and the Spanish
3. Religious refugees also came there
Savannah was the main city
Oglethorpe’s laws
Ban slavery, Catholics, and Rum in the colony
Also limited the size of land grants
Settlers complained and Oglethorpe lifted all bans
except slavery
Colonial Culture
Religion – Great Awakening
Strong religious values were established in the colonies from
1720-1740
Family
Men were head of the household
Voting rights only applied to white men who owned property
Women participated in the decision making within the house
In cities and towns they worked outside the home some
Education
Valued in society – Literacy rates were 85% men, 50% women
Many schools were run by women from their homes
Quakers ran schools in the middle colonies
Craftspeople opened trade schools for apprentices
Harvard (1636) was the first college – Puritans
The Enlightenment
Said that knowledge, science and reason could improve society
Spread ideas through newspaper, lectures, and organizations
Held the idea of freedom of speech as a basic right
New France
Founded Quebec in 1608
Interested in fishing & fur trader
Built forts and trading posts to protect their interests
1663 – New France becomes a Royal colony
Jean Talon – royal governor – supported further exploration
Down the Mississippi River
1670s began to explore the Mississippi River
Marquette & Joliet
Searched for gold and a water route to the Pacific
Found the place the Arkansas R. joined the Mississippi &
flowed to the Gulf of Mexico
Robert LaSalle
Followed the Mississippi to the Gulf - Claimed the region
for France
1718 – New Orleans is founded for France
Later explorers went west to the Rockies & Rio Grande
Growth of New France
Seigneuries (estates) – much like patroons
Tenant farmers paid an annual rent & worked for the lord a
certain number of days
Relationships with Native Americans
Better than any other European group
Trappers & missionaries learned the language & respected
their ways
French colonies grew more slowly and didn’t push them off
their land
New Spain
Spanish had control of Mexico, Caribbean, Central & South America,
western & southern N. America (Southwest & Pacific coast)
1610 - Sent soldiers missionaries & settlers to found Santa Fe
to protect borders from other Europeans
Spread into Arizona and later Texas after France claimed New
Orleans
Missions in California
Religious establishments along the Pacific coast
Used as Spanish claims and to convert Native Americans
Often forced Native Americans to labor at the missions also
European conflicts in North America
1. Early 1700s many battles broke out between the English &
Spain
2. Georgia & Spanish Florida were often fighting
3. France and Great Britain eventually become the greatest
rivals