Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Age of Discovery
The Vikings Discover America, ca. 1000
The Hell's Angels motorcycle gang on steroids - an appropriate description of the Viking raiders who ventured from their
Scandinavian homeland to pillage the coasts of northern Europe beginning in the 8th century. Booty was their prize and
the defenseless monasteries that thrived in splendid isolation on desolate shore lines often their target.
The raiders used savage hit-and-run tactics. They would attack their victim, pillage as much treasure as possible and then
demand a ransom to insure that they would not return again - a promise that was invariably broken. By the 10th century
these raids had become a seasonal event and the Vikings feared as the "Scourge of Europe." Over time, the raiders
settled in, rather than plundered some of the territories they visited such as Iceland, Ireland (where they founded the
city of Dublin), Normandy in France (its name referring to the land of the "Norsemen") and central Russia (its name
derived from the Nordic term Rothsmenn, meaning seafarer and shortened to "Rus").
The Viking's reliance on the sea as their avenue of attack and escape motivated them to develop seaworthy ships and
reliable navigational techniques with which they could travel vast distances over open water. These advantages enabled
them to travel the cold, treacherous ocean to the west and reach the shore of America almost five hundred years before
Columbus.
Eric the Red was the first to venture into the distant waters when - having been banished from the island for a series
murders - he sailed west from Iceland in 985 or 986 to an island he dubbed "Greenland". His son, Leif Ericsson,
continued his father's explorations and in the year 1000 or 1001 sailed southwest from Greenland to the islands off the
coast of northern Canada and finally to the shores of Newfoundland. The Norseman found the land so inviting that they
stayed through the winter before returning to Greenland.
Voyage to a new land
The story of the Viking exploration is contained in the sagas that passed by word-of-mouth from one generation to
another before being committed to paper. Modern archeological evidence has substantiated much of the saga's story.
We join Leif Ericsson as he leads his crew from Labrador - which he named "Woodland" - to Newfoundland.
"Now sailed they thence into the open sea with a northeast wind, and were two days at sea before they saw land, and
they sailed thither and came to an island which lay to the eastward of the land, and went up there and looked round
them in good weather, and observed that there was dew upon the grass. And it so happened that they touched the dew
with their hands, and raised the fingers to the mouth, and they thought that they had never before tasted anything so
sweet.
After that they went to the ship and sailed into a sound which lay between the island and a promontory which ran out to
the eastward of the land, and then steered westward past the promontory.
It was very shallow at ebb tide, and their ship stood up so that it was far to see from the ship to the water. But so much
did they desire to land that they did not give themselves time to wait until the water again rose under their ship, but ran
at once on shore at a place where a river flows out of a lake. But so soon as the waters rose up under the ship, then took
they boats, and rowed to the ship, and floated it up the river, and thence into the lake, and there cast anchor, and
brought up from the ship their skin cots, and made their booths.
After this they took counsel and formed the resolution of remaining there for the winter, and built there large houses.
There was no want of salmon either in the river or in the lake, and larger salmon than they had before seen. The nature
of the country was, as they thought, so good that cattle would not require house feeding in winter, for there came no
frost in winter, and little did the grass wither there.
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Day and night were more equal than in Greenland or Iceland, for on the shortest day the sun was above the horizon
from half past seven in the forenoon till half past four in the afternoon..."
The discovery of grapes gives the new land a name
"It happened one evening that a man of the party was missing, and this was Tyrker the German. This Leif took much to
heart, for Tyrker had been long with his father and him, and loved Leif much in his childhood. Leif now took his people
severely to task, and prepared to seek for Tyrker, and took twelve men with him. But when they had got a short way
from the house, then came Tyrker towards them and was joyfully received.
Leif soon saw that his foster father was not in his right senses. Then said Leif to him: 'Why were thou so late, my fosterer,
and separated from the party?' He now spoke first for a long time in German, and rolled his eyes about to different sides,
and twisted his mouth, but they did not understand what he said. After a time he spoke Norsk. 'I have not been much
farther off, but still I have something new to tell of; I found vines and grapes.'
'But is that true, my fosterer?' quoth Leif.
'Surely is it true,' replied he, 'for I was bred up in a land where there is no want of either vines or grapes.'
They slept for the night, but in the morning Leif said to his sailors: 'We will now set about two things, in that the one day
we gather grapes, and the other day cut vines and fell trees, so from thence will be a loading for my ship.' And that was
the counsel taken, and it is said their longboat was filled with grapes. Now was a cargo cut down for the ship, and when
the spring came they got ready and sailed away; and Leif gave the land a name after its qualities, and called it Vineland.
They sailed now into the open sea, and had a fair wind until they saw Greenland, and the mountains below the
glaciers..."
References:
This account was originally published in Slafter, Edmund F., The Voyages of the Northmen to America (1877) reprinted
in The Heritage of America, Commager, Henry Steele and Allan Nevins eds. (1939); Boorstin, Daniel J., The Discoverers
(1983).
How To Cite This Article:
"The Vikings Discover America, ca. 1000," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005).
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pfvikings.htm
Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492
Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3,
1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited.
His first stop was the Canary Islands where the lack of wind left his expedition becalmed until September 6.
Once underway, Columbus benefited from calm seas and steady winds that pushed him steadily westward (Columbus
had discovered the southern "Trades" that in the future would fuel the sailing ships carrying goods to the New World).
However, the trip was long, longer than anticipated by either Columbus or his crew. In order to mollify his crew's
apprehensions, Columbus kept two sets of logs: one showing the true distance traveled each day and one showing a
lesser distance. The first log was kept secret. The latter log quieted the crew's anxiety by under-reporting the true
distance they had traveled from their homeland.
This deception had only a temporary effect; by October 10 the crew's apprehension had increased to the point of near
mutiny. Columbus headed off disaster by promising his crew that if land was not sighted in two days, they would return
home. The next day land was discovered.
A New World is Revealed
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Columbus's journal of his first voyage to America has been lost. However, we do have an accurate abstract of the journal
written by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. Las Casas was an historian and Columbus's biographer who had access
to the original journal of the voyage. We join Columbus's account as his expedition approaches the islands of the
Bahamas. Throughout the account, Columbus refers to himself in the third person as the "Admiral":
"Thursday October 11
The course was W.S.W., and there was more sea than there had been during the whole of the voyage. They saw sandpipers, and a green reed near the ship. Those of the caravel Pinta saw a cane and a pole, and they took up another small
pole which appeared to have been worked with iron; also another bit of cane, a land-plant, and a small board. The crew
of the caravel Niña also saw signs of land, and a small branch covered with berries. Everyone breathed afresh and
rejoiced at these signs. The run until sunset was 27 leagues.
After sunset the Admiral returned to his original west course, and they went along at the rate of 12 miles an hour. Up to
two hours after midnight they had gone 90 miles, equal to 22 1/2 leagues. As the caravel Pinta was a better sailer, and
went ahead of the Admiral, she found the land, and made the signals ordered by the Admiral. The land was first seen by
a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana. But the Admiral, at ten o'clock, being on the castle of the poop, saw a light, though it
was so uncertain that he could not affirm it was land. He called Pero Gutierrez, a gentleman of the King's bedchamber,
and said that there seemed to be a light, and that he should look at it. He did so, and saw it. The Admiral said the same
to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the fleet as inspector, but he could see nothing,
because he was not in a place whence anything could be seen.
After the Admiral had spoken he saw the light once or twice, and it was like a wax candle rising and failing. It seemed to
few to be an indication of land; but the Admiral made certain that land was close. When they said the Salve, (Salve
Regina) which all the sailors were accustomed to sing in their way, the Admiral asked and admonished the men to keep
a good look-out on the forecastle, and to watch well for land; and to him who should first cry out that he saw land, he
would give a silk doublet, besides the other rewards promised by the Sovereigns, which were 10,000 maravedis to him
who should first saw it. At two hours after midnight the land was sighted at a distance of two leagues."
Columbus ordered the three ships to halt and wait for daylight before venturing further. His journal continues:
"Friday October 12
The vessels were hove to, waiting for daylight; and on Friday they arrived at a small island of the Lucayos, called, in the
language of the Indians, Guanahani. Presently they saw naked people. The Admiral went on shore in the armed boat,
and Martin Alonso Pinzon, and Vicente Yanez, his brother, who was captain of the Niña. The Admiral took the royal
standard, and the captains went with two banners of the green cross, which the Admiral took in all the ships as a sign,
with an F and a Y and a crown over each letter, one on one side of the cross and the other on the other.
Having landed, they saw trees very green, and much water, and fruits of diverse kinds. The Admiral called to the two
captains, and to the others who leaped on shore, and to Rodrigo Escovedo, secretary of the whole fleet, and to Rodrigo
Sanchez of Segovia, and said that they should bear faithful testimony that he, in presence of all, had taken, as he now
took, possession of the said island for the King and for the Queen his Lords, making the declarations that are required, as
is now largely set forth in the testimonies which were then made in writing."
Shortly after landing, many of the island's inhabitants assembled on the beach and Columbus gave them gifts of red hats
and beads. The natives reciprocated with gifts of parrots, cotton and other goods. In describing the natives, Columbus
wrote: "They go as naked as when their mothers bore them, and so do the women, although I did not see more than one
girl. They are very well made, with very handsome bodies, and very good countenances."
References:
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Columbus's journal appears in Olson, Julius, The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 (1926); Dyson, John,
Columbus: for Gold, God, and Glory (1991); Morrison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942);
How To Cite This Article:
"Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2004).
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pfcolumbus.htm
Colonization
Document 1: Columbus's diary
Saturday, 13 October. [1492] At daybreak great multitudes of men came to the shore, all young and of fine shapes, very
handsome; their hair not curled but straight and coarse like horse-hair, and all with foreheads and heads much broader
than any people I had seen; They came loaded with balls of cotton, parrots, javelins, and other things too numerous to
mention; these they exchanged for whatever we chose to give them.
1. What did Columbus observe about the Natives?
2. What did the Spanish and Native Americans do together?
Document 2: Description of Aztec reaction to Cortez
Cortez was coming. Montezuma [leader of the Aztecs] had already sent wizards, magicians, and seers to cast spells that
would destroy or at least deter the Spaniards from continuing towards the Capital. Their failure had re-confirmed the
[Aztec] emporer's opinion that these indeed, were the gods of legend
1. What did Montezuma send to Cortez?
2. Why might the Aztecs believe the Spaniards were gods?
Document 3: Journal entry of Bartolome de Las Casas
The [the Americans] do not have weapons, nor do they know about them because when we showed them a sword, they
cut themselves from grabbing the [blade].
1. How did the Native Americans show that they did not know about weapons?
Document 4: Farming and Food calories
North America
Europe
Chief Crops
Maize
Calories
per Hectare
7.3
Calories
per Hectare
Potato
7.5
Rice
7.3
Yams (Sweet Potato) 7.1
Wheat
4.2
Cassava
Barley
5.1
Oats
5.5
Chief Crops
9.9
1. Which area had a higher calorie average?
2. Of the 4 European crops listed, which one was the most important?
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document 5: Columbian Exchange
Pathogens Animals
Effects
Small Pox Horse Native population falls
Measles
Cattle Guns kill many Natives
1. What was one animal brought to America?
Document 6: " Loss of hand because gold quota not met"
Commissioned by B. De Las Casas
1. Based on the document, did the Spanish treat the Natives kindly?
2. According to the title of document 6, the penalty for missing the Gold quota was a loss of a hand. Why would the
Spanish cut off workers hands?
Sources:
Document 1: Columbus' Diary
www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus1.html
Document 2: Aztec Reaction to Cortez
www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/slenchek/slaztec3.html
Document 3: Journal of Bartolome de Las Casas
John E. Kicza, Resilient cultures : America's native peoples confront European colonizaton, 1500-1800.Upper Saddle
River, NJ : Prentice Hall, 2003.
Document 4: Farming and Food Calories
www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Psci/Inst21/columbian_exchange.htm
Document 5: The Columbian Exchange
Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, Westport, CT: Greenwood,
1972.
Document 6: "Loss of a hand because gold quota not met"
www.lamp.ac.uk/tairona/Images/bw/hands.gif
http://ctah.binghamton.edu/student/jaku/caseyprint.html
Colonization
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document A:
Source: Magna Carta, June 15, 1215. As quoted by C. Stephenson, Sources of English Constitutional History.
(New York: Harper and Row, 1937), pp 115-26.
Editorial comment [Stephenson],
While these nobles wanted to protect their own feudal rights, the document is considered the first
major step toward democracy in England. It established the principle that the king is not above the law.
1.
…We have. . .granted to God and by this. . .confirmed, for us
and our heirs forever, that the English Church shall be free
and shall have its rights entire and its liberties inviolate…
12.
Scutage [military tax] or aid [feudal tax] shall be levied in our
common council of our kingdom..
21.
Earls and barons shall be amerced [fined] only by their peers
kingdom only by the
and only according to the degree of the misdeed.
39.
No freeman shall be captured or imprisoned or [dispossessed] or outlawed, or exiled or in any
way destroyed…except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the will of the land.
40
To no one will we sell, to one will we deny or delay right and
justice.
Document B:
Source: John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government. Old South Leaflets, No. 208. Boston. Old South
Association, n.d.
The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone; and reason which is that
law, teaches all mankind. . .that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life,
liberty, or possessions . . . Men being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one
can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent…
The supreme power cannot take from any man any part of his property without his own consent . . .
These are the bounds which. . .society, and the law of God and Nature, have set to the legislative
power of every commonwealth…
First, they are to govern by. . . established laws, not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one
rule for the rich and poor. . .
Secondly, these laws ought to be designed for no other end. . . but the good of the people.
Thirdly, they must not raise taxes on the property of the people without the consent of the people. . .
Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce
them to slavery. . .they put themselves in a state of war with the people. . .
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document C:
Source: The Mayflower Compact. November 11, 1620
. . . We whose names are underwritten. . . Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and Advancement of the
Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern
part of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the prescience of God, and one of another,
covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and
furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue here of, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal
laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and
convenient for the general good of the colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In
witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the reign
of our Sovereign Lord King James. . .the fifty-fourth Anno Domini, 1620.
Document D:
Source: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. January 14, 1639. As quoted in Bernard Feder, Viewpoints:
USA. p.6.
. . . we the inhabitants and residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. . . well knowing where a people
are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there
should be an orderly and decent government established according to God. . . do therefore associate . . .
ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth; and do for ourselves and our successors. . . enter into
one combination and confederation together, to maintain and preserved the liberty and purity of the gospel of
our Lord Jesus. . . and also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such laws, rules,
orders, and decrees as shall be made, ordered and decreed, as follows:
1.
2.
It is ordered, sentenced, and decreed that there shall be yearly two general assemblies or courts. . .
It is ordered. . . that no person be chosen governor above once in
two years.
3.
It is ordered. . .that when any general court. . . has agreed upon. . . any sum of money to be levied
upon the several towns with in this jurisdiction. . .a committee be chosen to set out and appoint what
shall be the proportion of every town to pay of the said levy, provided that the committees be made up
of an equal number out of each town.
Document E:
Source: John Winthrop, The History of New England. Boston: 1853, II, p281.
Even so, brethren, it will be between you and your magistrates. If you stand for your natural corrupt
liberties, and will do what is good in your own eyes, you will not endure the least weight of authority, but will
murmur, and oppose, and be always striving to shake off that yoke. But if you will be satisfied to enjoy such
civil and liberties, such as Christ allows you, then will you quietly and cheerfully submit unto that authority
which is set over you, in all the administrations of it, for your good. Wherein if we fail at any time, we hope
we shall be willing (by God’s assistance) to hearken to good advice from any of you, or in any other way of
God. So shall your liberties be preserved, in upholding the honor and power of authority amongst you.
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document F:
Source: “The Bloody Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience.” 1644. By Roger Williams of Rhode Island.
First.
That the blood of so many hundred thousands souls of Protestants and Papists, split in the wars of
present and former ages, for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted by Jesus
Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Sixth. It is the will and command of God that a permission of the most pagan, Jewish, Turkish, or antiChristian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all nations and countries. . .
Eighth: God requires not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state. . .enforced
uniformity. . .is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus
in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of soul.
Twelfth.
Lastly, true civility and Christianity may both flourish in a state or kingdom, not withstanding the
permission of divers and contrary consciences, either of Jew or Gentile. . . . the government of the civil
magistrate extends no further than over the bodies and goods of their subjects, not over their souls,
and therefore they may not undertake to give laws unto the souls and consciences of men. . . .the
Church of Christ does not use the arm of secular power to compel men to the true profession of the
truth, for this is to be done with spiritual weapons, whereby Christians are to be exhorted and not
compelled.
Document H:
Source: Gillon & Matson, The American Experiment: A History of the United States. (New York: Houghton
Mifflin, 2002), pp 92-93.
Spain , the preeminent colonial power in the 1500s, set the model for imperial economic policy that other
nations would follow.
English merchants sought extensive government intervention in the economy to protect now one, now another
rising economic interest. Their thinking known (and criticized) as mercantilism, the term used in 1776 by
the famous Scottish political economist Adam Smith.
. . .Within the nation, mercantilists said, inhabitants needed a wise government to harness production, to
curb the greedy and destructive tendencies of competition, and to promote and channel the exchange of goods
through regulation.
By the late 1600s, many mercantilists believed that wealth was not necessarily finite, but that
expanding commerce with far-flung peoples helped create strong empires. A commercial empire they wrote,
should have one center from which flowed finished goods and many widely distributed satellites that
consumed the center’s manufactures and sent back raw materials for additional production in the “home
country.”
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document I:
Source:
P.19
John D. Hicks, The Federal Union. 3rd ed. Vol. I, (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1957).
The generous charters which trading companies received from the English crown reveal a kind of alliance
between government and business that is not difficult to explain.
. . .According to the mercantilists, the chief measure of a country’s wealth was the amount of gold and silver it
could amass. The trading companies, by exchanging expensive English manufactures for cheap raw
materials, might be counted upon to produce for England a
“favorable balance of trade,” because of which a steady stream of precious metals would flow into the country.
Indeed, economic dependence might easily lead to the loss of political independence
To thoughtful English officials America seemed ideally fitted to become an independent national source of
supply. The Spanish had found abundant wealth [gold and silver] shy should not the English?
Document G:
Records of the Town of Newark, New Jersey Historical Society Collection, Newark. 1864, VI, 3 ff.
At a meeting touching the indented design of many of the inhabitants of Branford, the following was
subscribed:
1st that none shall be admitted freemen or free burgesses within our town upon River in the Province of New
Jersey, but such planters as are members of some or other of the Congregational Churches nor shall any but
such be chosen to magistracy or to carry on any part of civil judicature, or as deputies or assistants, to have
power to vote in establishing laws, and making or repealing them . . . Nor shall any but such church
members have any vote in any such elections; thought all others admitted to be planters have right to their
proper inheritances, and do and shall enjoy all other civil liberties, according to all laws, orders, grants which
are, or hereafter shall be made for this town…
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document J:
De Lamar Jensen, Reformation Europe: Age of Reform and Revolution. pp. 434-5
In the meantime, the first English penetration of the Spanish colonial monopoly launched English
colonization ventures in America. More in spite of James I than through his support. London merchants
organized a colonizing company for settling and trading in Virginia. In 1607 its first exploration planted a
colony upriver from the Chesapeake Bay, naming Jamestown in honor of the king. Difficult weather, lack of
food and little desire to grow their own, harassment by Indians, and rampant disease almost destroyed the
colony. Most of the settlers died within the first two years. Reinforcements from the newly chartered Virginia
Company, the gradual realization that any wealth acquired would have to come from the sweat and toil rather
from picking up gold nuggets, and introduction of tobacco cultivation, combine to salvage the colony and
eventually make it a successful enterprise.
The second permanent English settlement was Plymouth Colony, established in 1620 by the Pilgrims,
a voluntary joint-stock company composed of religious separatists from London, Southampton, and Leiden,
Holland. It was later annexed to the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded a few years later by Puritans
from England. Neither colony produced the economic wealth that it expected to, but they did plant a legacy of
representative self-government in the colony with the Mayflower Compact, by which its signatories agreed to
unite in a political-religious society and obey the Laws that would subsequently by made.
From an economic point of view, other ventures were proving to be more profitable. This period was
one of commercial expansion for England as well as France and the Netherlands. The American colonies were
only a small part of that activity. The Spanish monopoly in the West Indies was penetrated by English
seamen and merchants in the first three decades of the seventeenth century. Saint Kitt was settled in
1624. . .Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua, Trinidad, and Tobago,[sometime later]. Barbados, that hidden jewel of
the Caribbean was claimed in 1625. It also produced quick wealth from the sale of cotton, tobacco, and
sugar.
Document K:
Curitis P. Nettels, (Cornell University) Roots of American Civilization. [New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
1938,] p
The transition from medieval to modern economy introduced a new economic philosophy which the
eighteenth century designated as mercantilism—not a systematic program but a collection of regulations
exhibiting a major trend. Political mercantilism was an expression of the militant nationalism which arose
upon the ruins of feudalism. Its objects were threefold: to achieve an economic self-sufficiency for the
manufacturers, and merchants, and to yield an ample revenue to the Crown.
In the opinion of mercantilists the external trade of a country was similar to the business of private
merchant. Imports were analogous to the merchant’s purchases, and exports to his sales; the nation’s gain
consisted in an excess of exports over imports, or in favorable balance of trade, likened to the merchants’
profit. Such excess value should, in part assume the form of gold or silver money imported to the country
In English mercantilism the role of agriculture was to supply raw materials and foodstuffs for the
country rather than for exportation; to this end the landowners received favors from the government through
high duties [tariffs] on imports of foreign grain (the corn laws) and through acts which restricted the
importation of foreign wool. Manufactured good preferred as exports as exports because they bore high prices
than raw materials and hence to create a more favorable balance of trade.
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document L:
SOURCE: Gerald N. Grob and Robert N. Beck, American Ideas. Vol. I, New York: Free Press, 1963. P.63
Puritanism was largely a middle-class movement that had economic as well as political implications.
There is little doubt that Puritanism was closer to medieval theory than the material goals and values of a
growing middle class that was becoming prominent in England and Western Europe after the fifteenth century.
While the Puritan never thought of his religion in economic terms, he did emphasize the fact that man could
serve God not by withdrawing from the world, but rather by following an occupation or calling that served the
world. The Puritan emphasis on industry and enterprise appealed to the middle class in a way that could not
appeal to the peasantry or nobility. Although it is difficult to show a causal relationship between capitalism and
Puritanism it is probably safe to assert that both movements tended to move closer together because of the
affinity and attraction of each toward the other.
Undoubtedly Puritan and capitalist ideas went into the
formation of the American doctrine of Laissez-faire individualism, a theory that was destined to have momentous
repercussions for subsequent economic and social development.
In spite of the proximity of certain Puritan values to the rising capitalistic ethic, Puritanism was more
medieval than modern in its economic theory and practice. The idea of unrestrained economic individualism
would have seemed a dangerous notion to any self-respecting Puritan. The statue books and court records of
seventeenth-century Massachusetts abound in examples of price and wage controls instituted by the government
of the colony. The Puritans, furthermore, always looked upon wealth as a gift from God given in the form of a
trust; and they emphasized not only the benefits that accrued from work and wealth, but also their duties and
responsibilities. In 1639, for example, one of the richest merchants in the colony was fined by the General Court
(the highest legislative body) for excessive profiteering, despite the fact that there was no statue against the
practice. The Puritans could never separate religion and business, and they often reiterated the medieval
conception of the "just price."
In the long run, however, the Puritan ethic, when divorced from its religious background, did serve to
quicken and stimulate the spirit of capitalism. The limitations placed by the Puritans on the individual and the
freedom of movement within society were subordinated as the time went on in favor of the enterprising and
driving individual who possessed the ability and ambition to rise through his own exertions. Thus it is
paradoxical that seventeenth-century Puritanism, which was diametrically opposed to economic individualism,
should have played a major part in the emergence of a laissez-faire capitalistic ethic.
Document Summary
Document A:
Magna Carta from Medieval England
Document B:
John Locke, 2nd Treatise on Civil Government
Document C:
Mayflower Compact
Document D:
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Document E:
John Winthrop-History of New England
Document F:
“The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience.
Document G:
Records of the Town of Newark
Document H:
The American Experiment
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document I:
J.D. Hicks, The Federal Union
Document J:
Curtis Nettels, Roots of American Civilization
Document K:
Grob and Beck, American Ideas
Document L:
Richard Hakluyt, “On the Panting of English Colonies”
http://www.fengerhighschool.org/ourpages/auto/2009/9/30/47434289/New%20Colonial%20DBQ.doc
Age of Enlightenment
Enlightenment DBQ
Historical Context
The discoveries made in science during the 1500s and 1600s led European thinkers to raise questions about
the conditions of human life itself. Many of the thinkers of the European Enlightenment moved away from
medieval thinking toward more modern thoughts regarding government and the role of women in society.
Document 1
Second Treatise on Government - John Locke
…Political power is that power, which every man having in the state of nature, has given up into the hands of
the society, and therein to the governors, whom the society hath set over itself, with this express or tacit
trust, that it shall be employed for their good and preservation of their property…
… So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man's hands in the state of nature . . . it can
have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the member of that
society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; and so cannot be absolute, arbitrary power over their lives
and fortunes…
1. Based on this document, what is the reason for political power? What does Locke say political
power cannot be? How is this a change from past governments in Europe?
Document 2
The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu
In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive, in respect to things
dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law.
By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates
those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies;
establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or
determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the
other simply the executive power of the state.
The political liberty of the subject is a tranquility of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his
safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be
afraid of` another.
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates,
there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact
tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers.
Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for
the judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all
the violence of an oppressor.
2. How does Montesquieu believe government should be divided? Why does he believe this is
necessary? How is this different than previous ideas?
Document 3
The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau
The social contract's terms, when they are well understood, can be reduced to a single stipulation: the
individual member alienates himself totally to the whole community together with all his rights. This is first
because conditions will be the same for everyone when each individual gives himself totally, and secondly,
because no one will be tempted to make that condition of shared equality worse for other men....
Once this multitude is united this way into a body, an offense against one of its members is an offense
against the body politic. It would be even less possible to injure the body without its members feeling it. Duty
and interest thus equally require the two contracting parties to aid each other mutually. The individual people
should be motivated from their double roles as individuals and members of the body, to combine all the
advantages which mutual aid offers them....
3. According to Rousseau, when individuals agree to the social contract, what happens to their rights?
What is the motivation of the people when they submit to the social contract? Do you believe this
type of setting will benefit people overall?
Document 4
A Treatise on Toleration, Voltaire
It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each
other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my
brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the
same father and creatures of the same God?
4. What is Voltaire advocating in A Treatise on Toleration? How is this a departure from previous
attitudes throughout the world? Do you think we as a world are any closer to his vision today than
we were 500 years ago? Why?
http://www.lakelandschools.us/lh/modonnell/enlightenment.htm
Revolutions
Document #1
"Simón Bolívar sent a joyous letter to a fellow general on January 8, 1822, displaying his belief in a unified America.
He wrote, "America's greatest day has not yet dawned. We have indeed driven out our oppressor, smashed the tablets
of their tyrannical laws, and established legitimate institutions; but we have yet to lay the foundation ... that will make
of this part of the world a nation of republics." Bolívar was confident that this unified America would impress Europe:
"Who shall oppose an America united in heart, subject to one law, and guided by the torch of liberty?"
—adapted from Selected Writings of Bolívar, compiled by Vicente Lecuna and edited by Harold A. Bierck, Jr. (1951)
•What is Bolívar's vision of the Americas?
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document #2
•How was the relationship between population and land ownership one of the causes of the French Revolution?
Document #3
Use this representation of the Third Estate to answer the following question.
•How do the cartoon and graphs above indicate why the First and Second Estate, despite their power, would fear the
Third Estate?
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Document #4
•
According to this diagram, which revolutions were part of the chain reaction set off by Enlightenment ideas?
Document #5
"The pretended power of suspending [ending] of laws. ... by [the king's] authority without consent of Parliament is
illegal. ... It is the right of the subjects to petition the king. ... The levying of money for ... the use of the crown ... without
grant of Parliament ... is illegal. The raising and keeping of a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace unless it
be with the consent of Parliament is against the law. The speech and debates ... in Parliament ought not to be ...
questioned in any court or place out of Parliament. ... Excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted."
—Bill of Rights, England (1689)
"Men are born free and remain equal in rights. ... Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to
participate personally or through his representative in its [the law's] formation. ... All citizens, being equal in the eyes of
the law ... no person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed
by law. No one shall be disquieted [attacked] on account of his opinions, including his religious views. ... Every citizen
may speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by
law."
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
—Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, France (1789)
"Congress shall make no law respecting [having to do with] an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging [taking away] the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the government. ...
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner. ...
... Nor shall [any person] be compelled ... to be a witness against himself ...
... the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury ...; to be confronted with
witnesses against him. ...
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
—Bill of Rights, United States (1791)
•
How do these three documents illustrate cultural diffusion?
Document #6
"The reason men enter into society is to protect their property. And the reason they choose a government is to make
laws to guard that property. ... Certainly society does not want to give the government the power to destroy the very
property which it was chosen to protect. Therefore, whenever government tries to take away and destroy the property
of the people, or reduce the people to slavery, it puts itself in a state of war with the people. The people are freed from
any further obedience to that government ... and have the right to establish a new government."
—John Locke, Two Treatises on Civil Government (1690)
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with
certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to
institute new government."
—Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (1776)
•
What ideas did Thomas Jefferson copy from John Locke?
Directions: Using information from the documents provided and your knowledge of United States
history, write a well-organized essay on looseleaf that includes an introduction, several paragraphs,
and a conclusion.
Historical Context: The idea of revolution spread worldwide during the first global age.
Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of global history and geography,
write an essay in which you answer the following question:
www.sfponline.org/uploads/302/dbq-revolutions.doc
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Industrial Revolution
DOCUMENT ONE:
Document 1A
1.
Document 1B
Based on these pictures, state two changes in how cloth was produced
DOCUMENT TWO:
. . . Passing to manufactures, we find here the all-prominent fact to be the substitution of the factory for the domestic
system, the consequence of the mechanical discoveries of the time. Four great inventions altered [changed] the
character of the cotton manufacture; the spinningjenny, patented by Hargreaves in 1770; the water-frame, invented by
Arkwright the year before; Crompton’s mule [spinning machine] introduced in 1779, and the self-acting mule, first
invented by Kelly in 1792, but not brought into use till Roberts improved it in 1825. None of these by themselves would
have revolutionised the industry. But in 1769—the year in which Napoleon and Wellington were born—James Watt took
out his patent for the steam-engine. Sixteen years later it was applied to the cotton manufacture. In 1785 Boulton and
Watt made an engine for a cotton-mill at Papplewick in Notts, and in the same year Arkwright’s patent expired. These
two facts taken together mark the introduction of the factory system. But the most famous invention of all, and the
most fatal to domestic industry, the power-loom, though also patented by Cartwright in 1785, did not come into use for
several years, and till the powerloom was introduced the workman was hardly injured. At first, in fact, machinery raised
the wages of spinners and weavers owing to the great prosperity it brought to the trade. In fifteen years the cotton
trade trebled [tripled] itself; from 1788 to 1803 has been called “its golden age;” for, before the power-loom but after
the introduction of the mule [spinning machine] and other mechanical improvements by which for the first time yarn
sufficiently fine for muslin [a fabric] and a variety of other fabrics was spun, the demand became such that “old barns,
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
cart-houses, out-buildings of all descriptions were repaired, windows broke through the old blank walls, and all fitted up
for loom-shops; new weavers’ cottages with loom-shops arose in every direction, every family bringing home weekly
from 40 to 120 shillings per week.” At a later date, the condition of the workman was very different. Meanwhile, the
iron industry had been equally revolutionised by the invention of smelting by pit-coal brought into use between 1740
and 1750, and by the application in 1788 of the steam-engine to blast furnaces. In the eight years which
followed this latter date, the amount of iron manufactured nearly doubled itself. . .
Source: Arnold Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England, Humboldt (adapted)
1. According to this document, what were two results of the use of machinery?
DOCUMENT THREE
. . . Steam-engines furnish the means not only of their support but of their multiplication. They create a vast demand for
fuel; and, while they lend their powerful arms to drain the pits and to raise the coals, they call into employment
multitudes of miners, engineers, ship-builders, and sailors, and cause the construction of canals and railways: and, while
they enable these rich fields of industry to be cultivated to the utmost, they leave thousands of fine arable fields free for
the production of food to man, which must have been otherwise allotted to the food of horses. Steam-engines
moreover, by the cheapness and steadiness of their action, fabricate [produce] cheap goods, and procure [acquire] in
their exchange a liberal supply of the necessaries and comforts of life, produced in foreign lands. . . .
Source: Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures: or, an Exposition of the Scientific, Moral, and Commercial
Economy of the Factory System of Great Britain, A. M. Kelley
1. According to this document, what are two ways that steam engines helped the economy in Great Britain?
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
DOCUMENT FOUR
1.
Based on these maps, state one change that occurred in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution
DOCUMENT FIVE:
. . . Every great town has one or more slum areas into which the working classes are packed. Sometimes, of course,
poverty is to be found hidden away in alleys close to the stately homes of the wealthy. Generally, however, the workers
are segregated in separate districts where they struggle through life as best they can out of sight of the more fortunate
classes of society. The slums of the English towns have much in common—the worst houses in a town being found in the
worst districts. They are generally unplanned wildernesses of one- or two-storied terrace houses built of brick. Wherever
possible these have cellars which are also used as dwellings. These little houses of three or four rooms and a kitchen are
called cottages, and throughout England, except for some parts of London, are where the working classes normally live.
The streets themselves are usually unpaved and full of holes. They are filthy and strewn with animal and vegetable
refuse. Since they have neither gutters nor drains the refuse accumulates in
stagnant, stinking puddles. Ventilation in the slums is inadequate owing to the hopelessly unplanned nature of these
areas. A great many people live huddled together in a very small area, and so it is easy to imagine the nature of the air in
these workers’ quarters. However, in fine weather the streets are used for the drying of washing and clothes lines are
stretched across the streets from house to house and wet garments are hung out on them. . . .
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Source: Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, W. O. Henderson and W. H. Chaloner, eds.,
Stanford University Press
1. According to the document, what did Friedrich Engels state were two characteristics of working class living
conditions in England?
DOCUMENT SIX
Edwin Chadwick presented a report to Parliament as secretary to a commission that investigated sanitary conditions and
means of improving them.
. . . First, as to the extent and operation of the evils which are the subject of the inquiry: . . .That the formation of all
habits of cleanliness is obstructed by defective supplies of water.That the annual loss of life from filth and bad
ventilation are greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in
modern times.That of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage relieved
from the poor’s rates in England and Wales alone, it appears that the greatest proportion ofdeaths of the heads of
families occurred from the above specified and other removable causes;that their ages were under 45 years; that is to
say, 13 years below the natural probabilities of life as shown by the experience of the whole population of Sweden. . . .
Source: Edwin Chadwick, Report on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain,
W. Clowes and Sons, 1842
1. Based on this document, state one negative effect of industrialization on the workers of Great Britain
DOCUMENT SEVEN
Flora Tristan was a 19th-century French activist and a member of the lower working class. In 1843, she wrote The
Workers’ Union.
1. Consolidation of the working class by means of a tight, solid, and indissoluble [indivisible] Union.
2. Representation of the working class before the nation through a defender chosen and paid by the Workers’ Union, so
that the working class’s need to exist and the other classes’ need to accept it become evident.
3. Recognition of one’s hands as legitimate property. (In France 25,000,000 proletarians have their hands as their only
asset.)
4. Recognition of the legitimacy of the right to work for all men and women.
5. Recognition of the legitimacy of the right to moral, intellectual, and vocational education for all boys and girls.
6. Examination of the possibility of labor organizing in the current social state [social conditions].
7. Construction of Workers’ Union palaces [buildings] in every department, in which working-class children would
receive intellectual and vocational instruction, and to which the infirm and elderly as well as workers injured on the job
would be admitted.
8. Recognition of the urgent necessity of giving moral, intellectual, and vocational education to the women of the
masses so that they can become the moral agents for the men of the masses.
9. Recognition in principle of equal rights for men and women as the sole [only] means of unifying humankind. . . .
Unit 5 and 6 Resource Compilation
Source: Flora Tristan, The Workers’ Union, University of Illinois Press (adapted)
1. Based on this document, state two changes in society that Flora Tristan believed were needed for the working
class?
DOCUMENT EIGHT
1. Which effect of the Industrial Revolution is implied by this cartoon?
http://www.lakelandschools.org/webpages/modonnell/news.cfm?subpage=14433