Early American
History
Rise in Seafaring Technology
• Competition among European Nations
Portugal vs. Spain / England vs. France
• Asia/Africa trade controlled by Muslim trading
empires and Italian city states
• Nations-states looking for an all sea-route to
avoid high costs
Columbus’ Four Voyages
Columbus’ Voyages
Spanish Conquests Generally
Religious
Political
The Three
Reasons
G’s
Economic
Personal
Positive and Negative Effects
of Columbus’ Voyages
• Columbian Exchange
• Eastern and Western
Hemisphere
• Increased
colonization
• Changes in gov’t,
science, religion
• Enslavement of
people
• Disregard for culture
• Destruction of Native
American civilizations
• Diseases like small
pox, typhus, measles
• De Las Casas
Spanish Conquest & Colonization
Conquistadores
Presidios
• Fortified bases created by
the Spanish to protect
against pirates and other
invaders
Missions
• Catholic church played central rol
in Spanish exploration and settlements
• Missionaries labored to convert
American Indians to christianity
The Encomienda System
• System in Spanish America
• Indian slaves were forced to
work on huge plantation estates
• Treatment was extremely harsh
The Middle Passage
8-12 million involved during its time
Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade
European Empires in the
Americas
The Scramble for Empire
What are England and France
doing at the time?
• Northwest Passage – Western route
above the North American continent in the
Artic Sea area to get to Asia
• The French and Dutch only set up
temporary colonies as trading posts
• Only setting up temporary colonies at this
time because own country is in political
turmoil, not permanent ones.
England Takes Over
• Spanish Armada --- poor leadership, too big,
less maneuverable
• English ships – smaller, faster
• Massive storms wrecked Armada
• Victory by England broke Spain’s sea power
• Long Term Issues: Inflation, Piracy, Mercantilism
Population
• English dominance over the seas = more
freedom, more colonization
England’s Reasons
• Military: set up military bases, establish political
dominance, Elizabeth I, #1 Navy
• Economic: need for trading posts if
found the Northwest Passage, new
trading markets with N.A., piracy
• Population: Overcrowding, Chance at Profit,
Religious freedom
Roanoke – The Lost Colony
• 1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh – New Foundland to
Florida - Virginia
• 1585-87 – Raleigh’s 2 attempts
– 2nd attempt: John White established colony, returns
to England to get more supplies
– Return delayed – War with Spain
• 1590, White returns to Roanoke –
Vanished w/o trace - Croatoan
England tries Again
• 25 years passed before England
attempted colonization again
• The Charter of 1606, issued by King
James I – Jamestown settlement
– Joint stock company- How does it work?
– 100 men recruited by London company
– Many difficulties – Survival is uncertain
Virginia
English Colonization
The Charter of the Virginia Company:
 Guaranteed to
colonists the same
rights as Englishmen
as if they had stayed
in England.
 This provision was
incorporated into
future colonists’
documents.
 Colonists felt that, even in the Americas,
they had the rights of Englishmen!
England Plants the
Jamestown “Seedling”
Late 1606  VA Co. sends out 3 ships
Spring 1607  land at mouth of
Chesapeake Bay.
 Attacked by Indians and move on.
May 24, 1607  about 100 colonists [all
men] land at Jamestown, along banks of
James River
 Easily defended, but swarming with
disease-causing mosquitoes.
The Jamestown Nightmare
1606-1607  40 people died on the
voyage to the New World.
1609  another ship from England lost
its leaders and supplies in a shipwreck
off Bermuda.
Settlers died by the dozens!
“Gentlemen” colonists would not work
themselves.
 Game in forests & fish in river uncaught.
Settlers wasted time looking for gold
instead of hunting or farming.
Captain John Smith:
The Right Man for the Job??
There was no talk…but dig gold, wash
gold, refine gold, load gold…
Pocahontas
Pocahontas “saves”
Captain John Smith
A 1616
engraving
English Migration: 1610-1660
High Mortality Rates
The “Starving Time”:
1607: 104 colonists
By spring, 1608: 38 survived
1609: 300 more immigrants
By spring, 1610: 60 survived
1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants
1624 population: 1,200
Adult life expectancy: 40 years
Death of children before age 5: 80%
John Rolfe
What finally made the colony prosperous??
Tobacco Plant
Virginia’s gold and silver.
-- John Rolfe, 1612
Indentured
Servitude
Headright
System
Indentured Servitude
Headright System:
 Each Virginian got 50 acres for
each person whose passage they
paid.
Indenture Contract:
 5-7 years.
 Promised “freedom dues” [land, £]
 Forbidden to marry.
 1610-1614: only 1 in 10 outlived their
indentured contracts!
Virginia: “Child of Tobacco”
Tobacco’s effect on Virginia’s
economy:
 Vital role in putting VA on a firm
economic footing.
 Ruinous to soil when continuously
planted.
 Chained VA’s economy to a single crop.
Tobacco promoted the use of the
plantation system.
 Need for cheap, abundant labor.
The Atlantic Slave Trade
Why was 1619 a
pivotal year for
the Chesapeake
settlement?
1. Virginia
House of Burgesses
English Tobacco Label
2. First Africans arrived in Jamestown in
1619.
 Their status was not clear  perhaps
slaves, perhaps indentured servants.
 Slavery not that important until the end of
the 17c.