UNIT ONE: THE COLONIZATION
OF AMERICA
PART ONE: THE AMERICAN
COLONIES TO 1763
ADAM SMITH

“The discovery of
America,” the British
writer Adam smith
announced in his
celebrated book The
Wealth of Nations, was
one of “the two greatest
and most important
events recorded in the
history of mankind.”
ADAM SMITH


Historians no longer use the word “discovery” to
describe the European exploration, conquest, and
colonization of a hemisphere already home to
millions of people.
But there can be no doubt that when Christopher
Columbus made landfall in the West Indian islands
in 1492, he set in motion some of the most pivotal
developments in human history.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS


Immense changes soon
followed in both the Old and
New Worlds; the
consequences of these
changes are still with us
today.
The peoples of the
American continents and
Europe were thrown into
continuous interaction.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE


The Columbian
Exchange introduced to
Europe products from
America like corn,
tobacco and cotton.
While the New World
received wheat, rice,
sugarcane, horses,
cattle, pigs and sheep.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE


The inhabitants of North
and South America had
developed no immunity to
the germs that
accompanied the colonists.
As a result, they suffered a
series of devastating
epidemics, the greatest
population catastrophe in
human history.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

Within a decade of
Columbus’ voyage, a
fourth continent – Africa
– found itself drawn into
the new Atlantic system
of trade and population
movement.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE


In Africa, Europeans found
a supply of unfree labor that
enabled them to exploit the
fertile lands of the Western
Hemisphere.
1492-1820: Approx 10
million people came to the
New World – 7.7 million
were African slaves.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE


From the vantage point of 1776, the year the
USA declared its independence, it seemed to
Adam Smith that the “discovery of America”
had produced both great “benefits” and great
“misfortunes.”
To nations of Western Europe, the
development of American colonies brought
an era of “splendor and glory.”
A: THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE


It is fitting that the second epochal event that Adam
Smith linked to Columbus’s voyage of 1492 was the
discovery by Portuguese navigators of a sea route
from Europe to Asia around the southern tip of Africa
The European conquest of America began as an
offshoot of the quest for a sea route to India, China,
and the islands of the East Indies – the source of
the silk, tea, spices, porcelain, and other luxury
items on which international trade in the early
modern era centered.
THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE


For centuries, this commerce had been
conducted across land, from China and
South Asia to the Middle East and the
Mediterranean region.
Profit and piety – the desire to eliminate
Islamic middlemen and win control of the
lucrative trade for Christian Western Europe
– combined to inspire the quest for a direct
route to Asia.
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA



In the 15th century, Portugal
took advantaged of new
techniques of sailing and
navigation to begin exploring
the Atlantic.
Caravel= a ship capable of
long-distance travel.
Compass and quadrant =
enabled sailors to
determine their location and
direction with greater
accuracy than in the past.
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA



Portuguese seafarers initially hoped to locate the
source of gold that for centuries had been
transported in caravans across the Sahara Desert to
No. Africa and Europe.
This commerce, which passed through the African
kingdom of Mali provided Europe with most of its
gold.
1400: It rivaled trade in the East in economic
importance. And like trade with Asia, it was
controlled by Muslims merchants.
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA

Mansa Musa, the ruler
of Mali, had literally put
his realm on the map in
1324 when he led a
great pilgrimage to
Mecca distributing so
much gold along the
way that its price was
depressed for a
decade.
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA


Until 1434, however, no European sailor had
seen the coast of Africa below the Sahara, or
the forest kingdom south of Mali that
contained the actual gold fields.
But in that year, a Portuguese ship brought a
ship of rosemary from West Africa, proof that
one could sail beyond the desert and return.
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA


1485: The Portuguese
reached Benin, an
imposing city whose
craftsmen produced
bronze sculptures.
The Portuguese
established fortified
trading posts on the
western coast of Africa.
PORTUGAL AND WEST AFRICA



Sugar plantations worked by Muslim captives and
slaves from Slavic areas of Europe had flourished in
the Middle Ages on Mediterranean islands such as
Cyprus, Malta and Crete.
Now, the Portuguese established plantations on the
Atlantic islands (Madeira, the Azores and Cape
Verde) with the labor supplied by thousands of
slaves shipped from Africa.
Soon the center of sugar production would shift to
the New World.
SLAVERY AND AFRICA
SLAVERY AND AFRICA




Slavery in Africa long predated the coming of
Europeans.
Traditionally African slaves tended to be criminals,
debtors and captives of war.
They worked within the households of their owners
and had well-defined rights such as possessing
property and marrying free persons.
It was not uncommon for African slaves to acquire
their freedom.
SLAVERY AND AFRICA


Slavery in Africa was
one of several forms of
labor, not the basis of
the economy as it
would become in large
parts of the New World.
The coming of the
Europeans accelerated
the slave trade within
Africa.
SLAVERY AND AFRICA


At least 100,000 African
slaves were transported
to Spain and Portugal
between 1450 and
1502.
1502: The first African
slaves were transported
to islands in the
Caribbean.
SLAVERY AND AFRICA


A few African societies, like
Benin for a time, opted out
of the Atlantic slave trade,
hoping to avoid the
disruptions it inevitable
caused.
But most rulers took part
playing the Europeans
against one another,
collecting taxes from foreign
merchants and keeping the
capture and sale of slaves
under their control.
SLAVERY AND AFRICA




The transatlantic slave trade
made Africa a major market for
European goods – especially
textiles and guns.
Both disrupted relationships
within and between African
societies.
Cheap imported textiles
undermined traditional craft
production.
Guns encouraged the further
growth of slavery, since the
only way to acquire guns was
to supply slaves.
SLAVERY AND AFRICA

From a minor institution, slavery grew to become
more and more central to West African society, a
source of wealth for African merchants and of power
for newly emerging African kingdoms.

The loss every year of tens of thousands of men
and women in the prime of their lives to the slave
trade weakened and distorted West Africa’s society
and economy.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS

A seasoned mariner
and fearless explorer
from Genoa, a major
port in Italy, Columbus
had for years sailed the
Mediterranean and
North Atlantic, studying
ocean currents and
wind patterns.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS



Like all navigators of his time, Columbus
knew that the earth was round.
He believed by sailing westward he could
quickly cross the Atlantic and reach Asia.
No one knew that two giant continents
existed 3,000 miles to the west.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS



Most of his contemporaries knew that he had
underestimated the earth’s size.
This helps explain why he had difficulty
getting the needed financial support.
Columbus’ brother even visited Henry VII of
England seeking financial support to no avail.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS


King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella of
Spain agreed to
become sponsors.
Along with the crown,
most of Columbus’s
financing came from
bankers and merchants
of Spain and the Italian
city-states.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS


10/12/1492: After only 33
days of sailing, Columbus
and his expedition arrived at
the Bahamas.
His exact landing spot
remains in dispute, but it
was probably San Salvador,
a tiny spot of a land known
today as Watling Island.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS


Soon afterwards, he
encountered the far larger
islands of Hispaniola (Haiti
and Dominican Republic)
and Cuba.
He left 38 men behind and
returned to Spain with 10
inhabitants of the island for
conversion to Christianity.
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS





1493: European colonization of the New World began.
Columbus returned with 17 ships and over a 1,000 men to
explore the area and establish a Spanish outpost.
Columbus’s settlement on Hispaniola, which he named La
Isabella, failed.
Before he died in 1506, Columbus made two more voyages to
the New World in 1498 and 1502.
He went to his grave believing he had discovered a westward
route to Asia.
B: THE PEOPLES OF THE
AMERICAS
THE SETTLING OF AMERICA



The residents of the
Americas were no more a
single group than
Europeans.
They spoke different
languages and lived in
numerous kinds of society.
All are descended from a
band of hunters who
crossed the Bering Strait
via a land bridge between
15,000 and 40,000 years
ago.
THE SETTLING OF AMERICA

History in North and South America did not
begin with the coming of Europeans.

The New World was new to Europeans but
old to those who already lived here.
CONQUERING THE AMERICAS
CONQUERING THE AMERICAS


No one knows exactly how many people lived
in No. and So. America at the time of
Columbus’s voyages – estimates vary widely,
from 10 million to as high as 75 million.
Most natives of the New World lived in
Central and South America.
CONQUERING THE AMERICAS



Current estimates of the Indian population
within the present borders of the USA in 1492
range from 2 million to 10 million.
Whatever their numbers, the Indian
population suffered a catastrophic decline
because of contact with Europeans and their
wars, enslavement and diseases.
The result was devastating.
CONQUERING THE AMERICAS




Many West Indian islands were all but depleted.
On Hispaniola, the native population, estimated
between 30,000 and 1 million in 1492, had nearly
disappeared 50 years later.
As for the area now known as the USA, its Native
American population fell continuously.
It reached its lowest point around 1900, at only
250,000.
JOHANNES GUTENBERG AND
THE PRINTING PRESS


The speed of European
exploration of the New
World was remarkable.
The technique of printing
with moveable type
invented by Johannes
Gutenberg made possible
the rapid spread of
information at least among
the educated elite.
JOHN CABOT



News of Columbus’s
achievement traveled
fast and inspired others
to follow.
John Cabot reached
Newfoundland in 1497.
Soon fishing boats from
FR, SP, and England
were active in the area.
PEDRO CABRAL

1500: Pedro Cabral
claimed Brazil for
Portugal.

But the Spanish took
the lead in conquest
and exploration.
SPANISH CONQUISTADORES

Inspired by a search for
wealth, national glory and
the desire to spread
Christianity, Spanish
conquistadores, often
accompanied by religious
missionaries and carrying
flags emblazoned with the
cross, radiated outward
from Hispaniola.
VASCO NUNEZ de BALBOA

1513:Vasco Nunez
Balboa trekked across
the isthmus of Panama
and became the first
European to gaze upon
the Pacific Ocean.
FERDINAND MAGELLAN


Between 1519 and 1522,
Ferdinand Magellan led the
first expedition to sail
around the world,
encountering Pacific islands
and peoples previously
unknown to Europeans.
He was killed in the
Philippines but his fleet
completed the journey,
correcting once and for all
Columbus’s erroneous
assessment of the earth’s
size.
HERMAN CORTES


The first explorer to
encounter a major
American civilization
was Herman Cortes.
1519: He arrived at
Tenochtitlan, a ctiy of
20,000 or more people
in central Mexico.
TENOCHTITLAN

With its great temple,
splendid royal palace,
and a central market
comparable to
European markets, the
city seemed “like an
enchanted vision” as
one of Cortes’s men
later recalled.
TENOCHTITLAN


This was the nerve center of the Aztec
empire, whose wealth and power rested on
domination of numerous subordinate people
nearby.
The Aztecs were violent warriors who
engaged in the ritual sacrifice of captives and
others, sometimes thousands at a time.
TENOCHTITLAN


This practice reinforced the Spanish view of
America’s native inhabitants as barbarians,
even though in Europe at this time,
thousands of men and women were burned
at the stake as witches or religious heretics.
Criminals, in Europe, were executed in public
spectacles that attracted throngs of
onlookers.
THE CONQUEST OF
TENOCHTITLAN
THE CONQUEST OF
TENOCHTITLAN




The daring Cortes conquered the city.
Relying on superior military technology
including iron weapons and gunpowder.
He also relied on the aid of some of the
Aztecs’ subject peoples, who provided him
with thousands of warriors.
But his most powerful ally was disease – a
smallpox epidemic that devastated Aztec
society.
THE CONQUEST OF THE INCAS



A few years later, Francisco
Pizarro conquered the great
Inca kingdom centered in
modern-day Peru.
With a population of perhaps
12 million, the Inca empire
extended 2,000 miles along
the Andes Mts.
A complex system of
bridges and roads united it.
PIZARRO CAPTURES INCA KING



Pizarro’s tactics were typical of
the conquistadors.
He captured the Incan king,
demanded and received a
ransom, and then proceeded
to kill the king anyway.
Soon treasure fleets carrying
cargoes of gold and silver from
the mines of Mexico and Peru
crossed the Atlantic to enrich
the Spanish crown.
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR CONQUEST

Key question: Posed by
Dutch legal thinker
Hugo Grotius:

What allowed one nation
to claim possession of
lands that belonged to
someone else?
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR CONQUEST

Europeans had several justifications for
conquest:



They had immense confidence in the superiority
of their own culture to those they encountered in
America.
They expected these societies to abandon their
own beliefs and traditions and embrace those of
the newcomers.
Failure to do so reinforced the conviction that
here people were uncivilized “heathens.”
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR CONQUEST

Europeans brought with them not only a long
history of using violence to subdue their foes
but also missionary zeal to spread the
benefits of their own civilization to others,
while reaping the rewards of empire.
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR CONQUEST


Spain was no exception.
The establishment of its American empire
took place in the wake’s of Spain’s own
territorial unification, the rise of a powerful
royal govt., and the enforcement of religious
orthodoxy by the expulsion of Muslims and
Jews in 1492.
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR CONQUEST


To further legitimize Spain’s
claim to rule the New World,
in 1493, Pope Alexander VI
divided the Western
Hemisphere between Spain
and Portugal.
The line was subsequently
adjusted to give Portugal
control of Brazil, with the
remainder falling under
Spanish authority.
JUSTIFICATIONS FOR CONQUEST


Pope Alexander VI justified the Line of
Demarcation by requiring Spain and Portugal
to spread Catholicism among the native
inhabitants of the Americas.
The missionary element of colonization was
powerfully reinforced in the 16th century when
the Protestant Reformation divided the
Catholic Church.
MARTIN LUTHER


1517: Martin Luther, a
German priest, posted
his Ninety-Five Theses,
which accused the
church of worldliness
and corruption.
He wanted to cleanse
the church of abuses
such as the sale of
indulgences.
MARTIN LUTHER


Luther insisted that all believers read the
Bible for themselves, rather than relying of
priests to interpret it for them.
His call for reform led to the rise of new
Protestant churches independent of Rome
and plunged Europe into more than a century
of religious and political strife.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS



Spain, the most powerful bastion of orthodox
Catholicism, redoubled its efforts to convert
the Indians to the “true faith.”
National glory and religious mission went
hand in hand.
Spain insisted that the primary goal of
colonization was to save the Indians from
heathenism and prevent them from falling
under the sway of Protestantism.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS



The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove
the Indians, but to transform them into obedient,
Christian subjects of the crown.
Lacking the later concept of “race” as an
unchanging, inborn set of qualities and abilities,
many Spanish writers insisted that Indians could in
time be “brought up” to the level of European
civilization.
This meant not only the destruction of existing
Indian political structures, but a transformation of
their economic and spiritual lives.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS


To the Spanish colonizers, the large native
population of the Americas were not only
souls to be saved but also a labor force to be
organized to extract gold and silver that
would enrich the mother country.
The tension between these two outlooks
would mark Spanish rule in America for three
centuries.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS

On the one hand, Spanish rulers proclaimed the
goal of bringing true “freedom” to the Indians by
instructing them in Christianity.

On the other hand, Spanish rule witnessed a
disastrous fall in Indian population, not only because
of epidemics but also because of the brutal
conditions of labor to which Indians were subjected.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS


The conquistadores and subsequent
governors, who required conquered people to
acknowledge the Catholic Church and
provide silver and gold, saw no contradiction
between serving God and enriching
themselves.
Others, however, did.
POPE PAUL III


1537: Pope Paul III, who
hoped to see Indians
become devout subjects of
Catholic monarchs,
outlawed their enslavement
(an edict never extended to
apply to Africans).
His edict declared Indians
to be “truly men” who must
not be “treated as dumb
beasts.”
BARTOLOME de LAS CASAS


1552: Bartolome de
Las Casas published A
Very Brief Account of
the Destruction of the
Indies, an account of
the decimation of the
Indian population.
He denounced Spain
for causing the death of
millions of innocent
people.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS

He narrated in great
shocking detail the
“strange cruelties”
carried out by “the
Christians,” including
the burning alive of
men, women and
children and the
imposition of forced
labor.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS




The Indians, he wrote, had been “totally deprived of
their freedom and were put in the harshest, fiercest,
and most terrible of servitude and captivity.”
He insisted that Indians were rational beings, not
barbarians, and that Spain had no grounds on which
to deprive them of their lands and liberty.
The entire human race is one he insisted.
Yet he suggested that importing slaves from Africa
would help protect the Indians from exploitation.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS





1542: Largely because of Las Casas’s efforts, Spain promulgated the
New Laws, commanding that Indians no longer be enslaved.
1550: Spain abolished the encomienda system, under which the first
settlers had been given authority over conquered Indian lands with the
right to extract forced labor from the native inhabitants.
Spain then instituted the repartimiento system, whereby residents of
Indian villages remained legally free and entitled to wages, but were still
required to perform a fixed amount of labor each year.
Indians were no slaves – they had access to land, were paid wages and
could not be bought or sold.
But the system still allowed for many abuses by Spanish landlords and
by priests who required Indians to toil on mission lands as part of the
conversion process.
SPAIN AND THE INDIANS


By the end of the 16th century, work in the
Spanish empire consisted largely of forced
wage labor by native inhabitants and slave
labor by Africans on the West Indian islands
and a few parts of the mainland.
Over time the brutal treatment of Indians
improved somewhat.
THE BLACK LEGEND


But Las Casas’s writings
and the abuses they
exposed contributed to the
spread of the Black Legend
– the image of Spain as a
uniquely brutal and
exploitative colonizer.
This would prove to be a
potent justification for other
European powers to
challenge Spain’s
predominance in the New
World.
SPAIN IN NORTH AMERICA
JUAN PONCE de LEON


While the Spanish empire
centered on Mexico, Peru and
the West Indies, the hope of
finding a new kingdom of gold
led Spanish explorers to
territory that now forms the
USA.
1513: Ponce de Leon entered
Florida in search of slaves,
wealth, and the fabled fountain
of youth, only to be repelled by
Indians.
SPAIN IN NORTH AMERICA

1536: Alvar Nunez Cabrillo wrote an account
of his adventures including tales told by
native inhabitants of 7 golden cities of Cibola.

1530s-1540s: Juan Rodriquez explored the
Pacific coast as far north as Oregon.
SPAIN IN NORTH AMERICA


Expeditions led by Hernando de Soto, Cabeza de
Vaca, and Franciso de Coronado marched through
the Gulf region and Southwest fruitlessly searching
for another Mexico or Peru.
Coronado explored much of the interior of the
continent, reaching as far north as the Great Plains,
and became the first European to encounter the
immense herds of buffalo that roamed the West.
SPAIN IN NORTH AMERICA

These explorations established Spain’s claim
to a large part of what is now the American
South and Southwest.

The first region within the present-day USA to
be colonized was Florida.
SPAIN IN NORTH AMERICA



1565: Phillip II authorized Pedro Menendez de
Aviles to lead a colonizing expedition to Florida.
He destroyed a small outpost at Fort Caroline, which
a group of Huguenots had established.
Menendez and his men massacred the 500
colonists and went on to establish forts on St.
Simons Island, Georgia, and at Saint Augustine, FL.
SAINT AUGUSTINE

Saint Augustine
remains the oldest site
in the USA continuously
inhabited by European
settlers and their
descendants.
D: THE FIRST NORTH
AMERICANS
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES



Indian civilizations in No. America had not
developed the scale, grandeur, or centralized
organization of the Aztec and Inca to the south.
No. American Indians lacked the technologies
Europeans had mastered, such as metal tools and
machines, gunpowder, written languages, and the
scientific knowledge necessary for long-distance
navigation.
They also lacked wheeled vehicles, since they had
no domestic animals like horses or oxen to pull
them.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES


Their “backwardness” became a central
justification for European conquest.
But over time, Indian societies had perfected
techniques of farming, hunting, and fishing,
developed structures of political power and
religious belief, and engaged in far-reaching
networks of trade and communication.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES

As in other parts of the world, civilizations
rose and then fell in preconquest North
America.

Many areas suffered population declines due
to warfare and climate changes.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIEITES



In the Southwest, the Hopi
and Zuni engaged in settled
village life for over 3,000
years.
1200: These peoples built
great towns with large
multiple-family dwellings.
They conducted trade with
groups as far away as
central Mexico and the
Mississippi Valley.
NATIVE AMERICANS SOCITIES


After the decline of these
communities, survivors
moved the south and east,
where they established
villages, and perfected the
techniques of desert
farming, complete with
irrigation systems.
These were the people the
Spanish called the Pueblo
Indians.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES

Over a thousand years
before Columbus
sailed, Indians of the
Ohio River valley called
“moundbuilders” had
traded across half the
continent.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES –
THE GREAT PLAINS
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES –
THE GREAT PLAINS

On the Great Plains, with its herds of buffalo,
many Indians were hunters who tracked
animals on foot before the arrival of horses
with the Spanish.

Others lived in agricultural communities.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES –
EASTERN NORTH AMERICAN
INDIANS
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCITIES –
EASTERN NORTH AMERICAN
INDIANS


In eastern North America, hundreds of tribes
inhabited towns and villages scattered from
the Gulf of Mexico to present day Canada.
Little in the way of centralized authority
existed until, in the 15th century, various
leagues or confederation emerged in an effort
to bring peace to local regions.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES



In the Southeast, the Choctaw, Cherokee,
Chickasaw, and Creek each united to dozens
of towns in loose alliances.
In present day NY and PA, the Mohawk,
Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga,
formed a Great League of Peace, bringing a
period of stability to the area.
Each year the Great Council met to
coordinate behavior toward outsiders.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES



The most striking feature of Native American
society at the time Europeans arrived was its
sheer diversity.
Each group had its own political system and
set of religious beliefs.
No. America was home to literally hundreds
of mutually unintelligible languages.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES



Indians had no sense of “America” as a
continent or hemisphere.
They did not think of themselves as a single
people.
Indian identity centered on the immediate
social group: a tribe, village, chiefdom or
confederacy.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES:
RELIGION, LAND AND GENDER

Nonetheless, the
diverse Indian
societies did
share common
characteristics.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES:
RELIGION



Their lives were steeped in
religious ceremonies.
These ceremonies were
often related to farming and
hunting.
They believed that the world
was suffused with spiritual
power and sacred things
could be found in all kinds
of living and inanimate
things.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES RELIGION


Religious ceremonies
aimed to harness the
aid of powerful
supernatural forces to
serve the interests of
man.
In some tribes, hunters
performed rituals to
placate the spirits of
animals they killed.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES RELIGION


Other ceremonies sought to
engage the spiritual power
of nature to secure
abundant crops or fend off
evil spirits.
Those who seemed to
possess special abilities to
invoke supernatural powers
held positions of respect
and authority.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES:
LAND


The idea of private
property in land in a
European sense did not
exist in Native
American societies.
Indians saw land as a
common resource, not
an economic
commodity to be
owned, bought and
sold.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES LAND



Village leaders
assigned plots to
families to use for a
season or more.
Tribes claimed specific
areas for hunting.
Unclaimed land
remained free for the
taking
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES WEALTH


Nor were Indians as
devoted to the
accumulation of wealth
and material goods as
Europeans.
Chiefs lived more
splendidly but their
reputations often rested
on their willingness to
share goods with
others.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES:
GENDER ROLES
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES:
GENDER ROLES



The system of gender roles in most Indian societies
also differed from that of Europe.
Indian women dressed scantily by European
standards, openly engaged in premarital sexual
relations, and could choose to divorce their
husbands.
Indian societies were matrilineal – that is, society in
which children become members of the mother’s
family, not the father’s.
NATIVE AMERICAN SOCIETIES:
GENDER ROLES


Tribal leaders were almost always men, but
female elders often helped to select village
leaders and took part in tribal meetings.
Indian women owed dwellings and tools, and
a husband generally moved to live with the
family of his wife.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION


It was not until the reign of
Elizabeth I (1558-1603) did
the English turn their
attention to North America.
At first sailors and
adventurers showed more
interest in raiding Spanish
cities and treasure fleets in
the Caribbean than
establishing settlements.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION


The govt., granted charters
to Sir Humphrey Gilbert and
Sir Walter Raleigh,
authorizing them to
establish colonies in North
America at their own
expense.
With little or no support from
the crown, both ventures
failed.
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
ISLAND
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
ISLAND


1585: Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched a fleet of
five ships and some 100 colonists to set up a
base on Roanoke Island, off the coast of NC,
partially to facilitate continuing raids on
Spanish shipping.
But the colonists, mostly young men under
military leadership, abandoned the venture in
1586 and returned to England.
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
ISLAND


A second group of 100
settlers, composed of
families who hoped to
establish a permanent
colony, was dispatched.
Their fate remains a
mystery.
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
ISLAND




1590: A ship bearing
supplies arrived.
The sailors found the colony
abandoned.
The inhabitants evidently
had moved to live among
the Indians.
The word “Croaton”, the
Indian name for a nearby
island or tribe, had been
carved on a tree.
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE
ISLAND


Raleigh, by now nearly
bankrupt, lost his
enthusiasm for
colonization.
To establish a colony, it
seemed clear, would
require more planning
and economic
resources than any
individual could
provide.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION



As in the case of Spain, national glory, profit, and
religious mission merged in early English thinking
about the New World.
The Reformation heightened the English
government’s sense of Catholic Spain as its mortal
enemy.
England expressed its imperial ambitions in terms of
an obligation to liberate the New World from the
tyranny of the pope.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION




By the late 16th century, anti-Catholicism had
become deeply ingrained in English popular culture.
Reports of the atrocities of Spanish rule were widely
circulated.
English translations of de la Casas’s writings
appeared during Elizabeth’s reign.
The idea that the empire of Catholic Spain was
murderous and tyrannical enabled the English to
describe their own imperial ambitions in the
language of freedom.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION

1584: In A Discourse
Concerning Western
Planting, scholar
Richard Hakluyt listed
twenty-three reasons
why Elizabeth I should
support the
establishment of
colonies.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION


Among them was the idea that English
settlements would strike a blow against
Spain’s empire.
English colonization would be a divine
mission to rescue the New World and its
inhabitants from the influence of Catholicism
and tyranny.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION



England would repeat much of Spain’s
behavior in the New World.
But the English always believed that they
were unique.
In their case, empire and freedom would go
hand in hand.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION



But bringing freedom to Indians was hardly
the only argument Hakluyt made.
National glory and power were never far from
the era’s propagandists of empire.
Through colonization, England, a relatively
minor power in Europe at the end of the 16th
century, could come to rival the wealth and
standing of great nations like Spain and
France.
ENGLAND AND NEW WORLD
COLONIZATION


Equally important, America could be a refuge
for England’s “surplus” population, benefiting
the mother country and emigrates.
The late 16th century was a time of crisis for
England, with economic growth unable to
keep pace with the needs of a population that
grew from 3 million in 1550 to about 4 million
in 1600.
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT



Another important motivation for English
colonization was that America could be a
refuge for England’s “surplus” population,
benefiting the mother country and emigrants
alike.
The late 16th century was a time of social and
economic crisis in England.
England’s population had grown from 3
million in 1550 to about 4 million in 1600.
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT


For many years. English
peasants had enjoyed a
secure hold on their plots of
land.
But in the 16th and 17th
centuries, landlords sought
profits by raising sheep for
the expanding trade in wool
and introducing more
modern farming practices
such as crop rotation.
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT


They evicted small farmers
and fenced in “commons”
previously open to all.
While many landlords,
farmers, and town
merchants benefited from
the “enclosure movement”,
thousands of persons were
uprooted from the land.
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT




Many flooded into English cities, where wages fell
dramatically.
Others denounced by authorities as rogues,
vagabonds, and vagrants, wandered the roads in
search of work.
The situation grew worse as prices throughout
Europe rose, buoyed by the influx of gold and silver
from the mines of Latin America and Spain.
The cost of poor relief fell mainly on local
communities.
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT



The govt., struggled to deal with the social
crisis.
Under Henry VIII, those without jobs could be
whipped, branded, forced into the army or
hanged.
During Elizabeth’s reign, a law authorized
justices of the peace to regulate hours and
wages and put the unemployed to work.
THE ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT


“Vagrants” were
required to accept any
job offered to them and
could be punished if
they sought to change
employment.
Another solution was to
encourage the unruly to
leave for the New
World.
MASTERLESS MEN



1516: Thomas More
published a novel entitled
Utopia.
The novel was set on a
imaginary island in the
Western Hemisphere, the
image of America as a
place where settlers could
escape from the economic
inequalities of Europe.
This ideal coincided with the
goals of ordinary
Englishmen.
MASTERLESS MEN



Although authorities saw wandering or unemployed
“masterless men” as a danger to society and tried to
force them to accept jobs, popular attitudes viewed
economic dependence as a form of servitude.
Working for wages was widely associated with
servility and the loss of liberty.
Only those who controlled their own labor could be
regarded as truly free.
MASTERLESS MEN

The image of the New World as a unique
place of economic opportunity, where the
English laboring classes could regain
economic independence by acquiring land
and where criminals would enjoy a second
chance, was deeply rooted from the earliest
days of settlement.
JOHN SMITH

John Smith had
scarcely settled in VA.,
in 1607, when he wrote
that in America “every
man may be the master
and owner of his own
labor and land.”
THE FREEBORN ENGLISHMAN
THE FREEBORN ENGLISHMAN



From the outset, dreams of freedom inspired
and justified English settlement in America.
As English colonization began, however,
“freedom” was not a single idea but a
collection of distinct rights and privileges,
many enjoyed only by a small portion of the
population.
Numerous ideas of freedom coexisted.
CHRISTIAN FREEDOM
CHRISTIAN FREEDOM




One common definition understood freedom less as
a political or social status than as a moral or spiritual
condition.
Freedom meant abandoning the life of sin to
embrace the teachings of Christ.
“Christian liberty” had no connection to later ideas of
religious toleration.
Every nation in Europe had an established church
that decreed what forms of religious worship and
belief were accepted.
CHRISITAN FREEDOM



Dissenters faced persecution by the state as well as
condemnation by church authorities.
Religious uniformity was thought to be essential to
public order.
The religious wars that racked Europe centered on
which religion would predominate in a kingdom, or
region, not the right of individuals to choose which
church in which to worship.
LEGAL FREEDOM
LEGAL FREEDOM



Most Englishmen lacked the freedom that
came from economic independence.
Property qualifications and other restrictions
limited the electorate to minuscule part of the
adult male population.
“Master and servant” laws required strict
obedience of employees, and breaches of
labor contracts carried criminal penalties.
LEGAL FREEDOM


English freedom still bore the imprint of an
understanding of liberty derived from the
Middle Ages, when “liberties” meant formal
privileges such as self-govt., exemption from
taxation, or the right to practice a particular
trade.
These “liberties” were granted to individuals
or groups by contract, royal decree, or
purchase.
THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN:
THE MAGNA CARTA
THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN:
THE MAGNA CARTA



Even though people of wealth enjoyed far
more freedom than commoners, certain
“rights of Englishmen” applied to all within the
kingdom.
This tradition rested on the Magna Carta (or
Great Charter) of 1215.
An agreement between King John and a
group of barons, the Magna Carta put an end
to a chronic state of civil unrest.
THE MAGNA CARTA

Rights granted by the Magna Carta:





The right of habeas corpus (a protection against being
imprisoned without a legal charge)
The right to face one’s accuser
The right to a trial by jury
*These rights applied to all free subjects of the English
crown.
*As serfdom disappeared, the number of Englishmen
considered “freeborn” expanded enormously.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS OF
THE 1640s
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR OF THE
1640s



At the beginning of the 17th century, “freedom” still
played only a minor role in England’s political
debates.
But even as England colonized No. America, the
political upheavals of that century elevated the
notion of “English freedom” to a central place.
The struggle for political supremacy between
Parliament and the Stuart monarchs.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR OF THE
1640s



The struggle between
Parliament and James I and
Charles I culminated in the
English Civil Wars of the
1640s.
This long running battle
arose from religious
disputes .
It also developed over the
respective powers of
Parliament and the
Monarchy.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS OF
THE 1640s


The debate between
Parliament and the
Monarchy produced
numerous invocations
of the idea of the
“freeborn Englishmen.”
It also led to a great
expansion of the
concept of English
freedom.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS OF
THE 1640s

1649: Charles I was beheaded, the monarchy
abolished, and England declared a Commonwealth
and Free State – a nation governed by the people,
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS OF
THE 1640s


The Parliament accused the Stuart kings of endangering
liberty by imposing taxes without parliamentary consent,
imprisoning political foes, and leading the nation back toward
Catholicism.
Civil war broke out in 1642, resulting in a victory for the forces
of Parliament.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS OF
THE 1640s


1660: The monarchy was
restored and Charles II
assumed the throne.
But by then, the breakdown
of authority had stimulated
intense discussions of
liberty, authority, and what it
meant to be a “freeborn
Englishman.”
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM



As in all revolutions, the
idea of freedom suddenly
took on new and expanded
meanings between 1640
and 1660.
John Milton called for
freedom of speech and
press.
New religious sects
demanded the end of public
financing and special
privileges for the Anglican
Church and for religious
toleration.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM


The Levellers, history’s first democratic political movement,
proposed a written constitution, the Agreement of the People,
which began by proclaiming, “at how high a rate we value our
just freedom.
The movement’s leader was Thomas Rainsborough.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM



At a time when “democracy” was still widely seen as
the equivalent of anarchy and disorder, the Leveller
constitution proposed abolishing the monarchy and
the House of Lords and greatly expanding the right
to vote.
Rainsborough: “The poorest he that lives in England
hath a life to live as the greatest he,... any man that
is born in England … ought to have his voice in
elections.”
He also condemned African slavery.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM

The Levellers offered a
glimpse of the modern
definition of freedom as
a universal entitlement
in a society based on
equal rights, not a
function of social class.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM


Another new group, the Diggers, went deeper,
hoping to give freedom an economic underpinning
through common ownership of land.
The leader of the Diggers: Gerard Winstanley.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM




The Levellers, Diggers and other radical movements
spawned by the English Civil War were crushed or
driven underground.
But some of the ideas of liberty that flourished
during the 1640s and 1650s would be carried to
America by English emigrants.
These struggles elevated the notion of “English
liberty” to a central place in Anglo-American political
culture.
It became a major building block in the assertive
sense of nationhood then being consolidated in
England.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM

The belief in freedom as the common heritage of all
Englishmen and the conception of the British Empire
as the world’s guardian of liberty would help to
legitimize English colonization of the New World.

It also allowed England to cast its imperial wars
against Spain and France as struggles between
freedom and tyranny.
ENGLAND’S DEBATE OVER
FREEDOM

The idea of freedom was tied to the opportunity for
ownership of land, the pursuit of English liberty
inevitably meant conflict with those already
occupying North America.

Thus, in the midst of two centuries of religious and
political turmoil in which contests over the meaning
of freedom played a central role, England embarked
on the colonization of North America.