Introduction
State of Europe
on the verge of
Exploration and Colonization
I. Politically
• Medieval European
Government
--Decentralized and Local
• New View of Politics
during the Renaissance
--Machiavelli, The Prince
• Emergence of Centralized,
Competitive Monarchies
II. Religiously
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Growing Secularism
Protestant Reformation
Division Breeds Dissent
No sense of religious
toleration or separation of
church and state
• Dissenters need places of
refuge = colonies
III. Economically
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Increasing Secularism
--move away from “just price”
theory
Emergence of Long-Distance
Trade
--breaks monopoly of the guild
system
Emergence of Middle-class
capitalists
-- “New rich” = lots of $, wrong
blood
Mercantilism and the role of
colonies
Joint Stock Companies—Source
of capital for colonial ventures
IV. Socially
• Very Hierarchical society
• Emergence of a new
“middle class”
• Increasing Social Tensions
between classes
• Agricultural changes leads
to excess population
heading toward European
towns and American
colonies
V. Technologically
• New Sailing Technology
--New Instruments:
Astrolabe, Compass
--Caravels—Multi-sail
ships
V. Technologically (cont)
• New Military Technology
--Emergence of
gunpowder weaponry
--The Rise of the
“Standing Army”
--Royalized Warfare
• Merged and Used against
colonial populations
• Lots of imperial warfare—
competition for power
VI. Racially
• New notion, type and scope
of slavery
• Colonial populations viewed
as weak due to disease
disaster created by European
contact
• Death of native population
leads to the need of alternate
labor supply = African slave
trade
• Traditional American
problem = abundant land and
capital, but scarcity of labor
Patterns of Discovery
Rival European powers converge on a
“New World” that isn’t really “new”
at all—just “different”
I. European Background to
Exploration
• Myth of the “West” goes
all the way back to the
Greeks—Atlantis
• Vikings discover
Greenland around 1000
A.D.
• Columbus’ Voyage—1492
• Motivations for
Exploration?
II. Native Americans
A. Pre-European Contact
• Mode and timing of arrival on
the continent
• Not a “new world” but rather a
“different” world when the
Europeans arrive
• Great diversity among Native
American tribal units
• Begin to farm as a early as 5000
B.C.
• Most advanced civilizations in
Mexico and Central America
• Tribes of North America = less
technologically accomplished
A. Pre-European Contact (cont.)
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Moved from centralized, coercive
societies (Mississipian centers like
Cahokia) to small villages linked
by reciprocity
Algonquian-speaking people
inhabited the area from Maine to
North Carolina
Significance of Kinship and
Reciprocity
“Manitou” and other Spiritual
Values
Reciprocity as applied to land use
Warfare as ritual to restore order
Incorporated strangers for more
thoroughly and enthusiastically
than Puritans
B. European Contact
• Transitional phase
with periodic contact
during the 15th and
early 16th centuries
• No sudden invasion,
then, but a slow
infiltration of men and
microbes
C. Results of European Contact
• Initial phase of mutual
dependence
• Upsets balance between Native
American tribes
• Epidemiological disaster
--America = “widowed land”
• Inherent differences in value
systems and land use patterns
• The “Columbian Exchange”
• Some inter-marriage, mostly
with Spanish
• Lots of Silver and Gold ruins
the Spanish economy
III. Spanish Pattern of
Exploration and Settlement
• First ranking world power in
the 1400’s and 1500’s
• The Reconquista of Spain—
produces conquistadors
• The voyages of Columbus
• The Treaty of Tordesillas
(1494)
• Cortes’ conquest of the
Aztecs
• Administration of New
Spain
-- “encomienda”
III. Spanish pattern (cont.)
• Brought Catholicism to
the New World
• More fluid racial
categories than with other
European settlement
• No real settlement in New
Mexico and California
until later
• Importation of precious
metals leads to rampant
inflation in Spain and the
rest of Europe—also leads
to piracy
IV. French Pattern of
Exploration and Settlement
• Interest in New World
developed more slowly
• Motivation for exploration
= northwest passage
• No real success at first
--Jacques Cartier
• Developed fur trade with
Hurons and other Native
American enemies of the
Iroquois
--Samuel Champlain
IV. French Pattern (cont)
• Marquette and Joliet
traveled down the
Mississippi River in
1670’s
• Indifference of French
monarchy to
colonization
• Individualistic
trappers carve out
isolated existence
V. Dutch Pattern of Exploration
and Settlement
• Some Dutch settlement
along the Hudson River
Valley in 1624
--Henry Hudson
• Nurtured a fur trade with
the Iroquois confederacy
• Peter Minuet bought
Manhattan Island from the
natives in 1626 creating
New Amsterdam
V. Dutch Pattern (cont)
• Beyond New Netherlands,
no real Dutch presence in
the New World
--No religious turmoil
--Booming commerce =
plenty of jobs
--No surplus agricultural
population
VI. English Pattern of
Exploration and Settlement
• English fishermen explored the
Grand Banks in the 1480’s
• First official visit = John Cabot
in 1497
• English interest wanes for 75
years
• Elizabeth I merges English
nationalism with Protestantism
as she increasingly challenges
the Spanish in Europe and in
America
• Ireland = “Dress Rehearsal” for
treatment of Native Americans
VI. English Pattern (cont.)
• The glorious failures of Sir
Humphrey Gilbert
• The colonial vision of Sir
Walter Raleigh
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke
(1587-1590)
-- “Croatan”
• Propagandist Richard Hakluyt
keeps English fascination with
the New World alive through
his writings
--Voyages, 1589
VII. Settlement Patterns and
Success Depended upon . . .
• Support of Mother Country
• Characteristics and density of
Native American population
where settlement was attempted
• Geography and climate of the
land itself
• The abundance of game, timber,
and/or precious metals
• All of these ingredients were, to
a great extent, beyond the
control of the actual explorers
and colonists