CHAPTER 1 Alien Encounters: Europe in the Americas The American Nation, 12e Mark. C. Carnes John A. Garraty COLUMBUS • TIERRA!—Christopher Columbus made landfall at the West Indian island he called San Salvador (natives called it Guanahani) on October 12, 1492 • Columbus was looking for a shortcut to the lands of Japan and China (visited by Marco Polo) so he did not realize he had discovered a New World APPEAL OF ASIA • Columbus was searching for a route to Asia for reasons of trade • Spices: pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves helped cover the taste of spoiled meat • Tropical foods: rice, figs, oranges • Other goods: perfumes, silk & cotton, rugs, textiles, dyestuffs, fine steel products, precious stones, various drugs • If he could cut out the many middlemen, there was a large profit to be made PRINCE HENRY the NAVIGATOR • The third son of John I of Portugal, Henry became interested in navigation and exploration • Ships were clumsy, instruments for reckoning latitude were inaccurate at best, and there were no instruments for figuring longitude • Henry attempted to improve and codify navigational knowledge PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES • Henry’s captains sailed westward to the Madeiras, the Canaries and south along the coast of Africa • In 1445, Dinis Dias reached Cape Verde • In the 1480s King John II undertook systematic new explorations focusing on reaching India COLUMBUS • A weaver’s son from Genoa, Christopher Columbus was committed to the westward route to India and when the Portuguese showed no interest, he went to Spain • There he received the funds to equip the Pinta, Niña, and Santa Maria, the title Admiral of the Ocean Sea, political control over all lands discovered, and 10% of the profits from trade • Even after three additional voyages, continued to believe he had found a route to Asia SPAIN’S AMERICAN EMPIRE • In 1493, Pope Alexander VI divided the nonChristian world between Spain and Portugal and the terms of exploitation were worked out in the Treaty of Tordesillas • The line that was drawn intended to leave Africa to Portugal and the New World to Spain but the South American continent protruded and, as a result, Brazil became Portuguese territory • The Spanish spread out from their base on Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) Voyages of Discovery SPANISH DISCOVERIES • 1513: Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean • 1519: Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs • 1519: Ferdinand Magellan started 3 year voyage around world • 1530s Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas SPANISH DISCOVERIES • 1513: Juan Ponce de Léon explored the east coast of Florida • 1520s Pánfilo de Narváez explored the Gulf Coast of North America westward from Florida • His lieutenant, Alvar Nuñez de Vaca, and three companions (including a black slave named Esteban) wandered for years until they made their way across New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico City SPANISH DISCOVERIES • 1539-1543 Hernando de Soto traveled north from Florida to the Carolinas, then westward to the Mississippi River • At the same time Francisco Vásquez de Coronado ventured as far north as Kansas and as far west as the Grand Canyon SPANISH CIVILIZATION • Within 50 years of Columbus’ landfall, Spain controlled a huge empire • By the early 1600s Spanish explorers had reached Virginia and there were small Spanish settlements at Saint Augustine in Florida and at Santa Fe in New Mexico • By 1570s the Spanish had founded 200 cities and towns, set up printing presses, published pamphlets and books, and established universities in Mexico City and Lima SPANISH MOTIVES • Greed for gold and power • Sense of adventure • Wish to improve their lives • Desire to Christianize Indians • Vision of the New World as a reincarnation of the Garden of Eden, even expecting to find the Fountain of Youth INDIANS & EUROPEANS • The Requiermento, read in Spanish upon landing, promised the natives would be welcome if they did not resist, but that any struggle would result in the enslavement of both the natives and their families • Laid the blame for enslavement on the victims • Spanish were not alone, wherever Europeans landed they mistreated and sometimes slaughtered the people they encountered • Even in New England, where relations were initially amicable and somewhat fair, conditions deteriorated within a few years RELATIVITY OF CULTURAL VALUES—Religion • Indians worshipped a variety of gods but Europeans saw them as non-religious • Worse, viewed them as heathens or even minions of Satan • Some saw them as unworthy of conversion while others, such as the Spanish friars, believed in the value of conversion • As late as 1569, when Spain introduced the Inquisition in the colonies, natives were exempt because they were viewed as incapable of rational judgment RELATIVITY OF CULTURAL VALUES—Environment • Indians cleared fields, burned underbrush in the forests, diverted rivers and streams, built roads and settlements, and built huge earthen mounds • Yet due to metal plows and axes, the European imprint was deeper and more devastating RELATIVITY OF CULTURAL VALUES—Property • Generally, Indians did not value private property • Europeans saw this lack of concern for material things as an indication that Indians were childlike creatures, not to be treated as equals • Also saw as justification to take the land and use it “properly” RELATIVITY OF CULTURAL VALUES—Government • Europeans assumed Indian chiefs ruled with the same authority as their own kings • Instead Indian loyalties were shaped by complex kinship relations • As a result, Europeans often accused Indians of treachery when some failed to honor commitments made by their chiefs • Indians, for their part, did not understand such European customs as child rulers RELATIVITY OF CULTURAL VALUES—Land • Indians held land communally • Tribal boundaries were traditional and not marked by treaties or fences • Agricultural products were often stored communally and drawn on by all as needed • Indians resented the intensity of European cultivation RELATIVITY OF CULTURAL VALUES—Warfare • Indians did not seek to possess land and as a result did not seek to destroy their enemies but – to prove their own valor – to avenge an insult or perceived wrong – to acquire captives who could take the place of missing family members • Preferred ambush to confrontation with a superior force • Europeans preferred to fight in heavily armed masses that aimed to obliterate the enemy DISEASE & POPULATION LOSS • Issue of terms: genocide and holocaust • While clearly there was a drastic reduction in the Indian population after the arrival of Europeans, it lacked the purposeful intention implied by the above words • In fact, Europeans often needed the Indians help; for example: – Spanish needed natives to work in mines and fields and to build roads and buildings – French needed them for trade – English depended on them for additional food and knowledge DISEASE & POPULATION LOSS • Certainly the Europeans practiced barbarity in dealing with the natives – De Las Casas and condemnation of Spanish – Percy and example of English misbehavior • But biggest killer was the many diseases (smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, yellow fever, and typhoid) Europeans brought with them • Indians had no immunity, resulting in several million deaths SPAIN’S EUROPEAN RIVALS • 1497 & 1498: John Cabot explored Newfoundland and the northeastern coast of the continent for England • 1524: Giovanni da Verrazano explored from Carolina to Nova Scotia for France • 1534: Jacques Cartier, also exploring for France, sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as present day Montreal • Fishermen from France, Spain, Portugal and England exploited the cod and other fish off the coast of Newfoundland WHY SPAIN FIRST? • Spain had a large measure of internal tranquility by the 16th century while France and England were suffering from religious and political strife • Spanish seized those areas of the Americas which were best suited for producing quick returns • First half of 16th century, under Charles V, Spain dominated Europe as well as Americas, controlling the Low Countries, most of central Europe, and part of Italy DECLINE OF SPAIN • Under Charles’ successor, Philip II, Spain seemed at its peak • Added Portugal in 1580 • But there were a number of problems: – Corruption of Spanish court – Overdependence on gold and silver of colonies undermined local economy – Disruption of Catholic Church caused by Protestant Reformation PROTESTANT REFORMATION • Catholic Church suffering from a variety of problems in the early 1500s: – Sale of indulgences – Luxurious lifestyle of Pope and papal court • Why were protests so successful this time? • Charismatic Leaders – Martin Luther, who started the movement in 1517 – John Calvin, who helped carry it forward PROTESTANT REFORMATION— Political Support • German princes stopped payments to Rome and seized church property • Swiss cities established political independence from Catholic kings • Francis I of France, although remaining Catholic, exerted authority over clergy • Efforts of Spain to suppress Protestantism in Low Countries fueled nationalist movements • Henry VIII of England broke from Rome in 1534 when, in search of a male heir, he tried to get his marriage annulled but the Pope refused PROTESTANT REFORMATION— Economic Issues • It was originally theorized that because of the Catholic Church’s idea of “just price” and the fact that dislike of capital accumulation stifled merchant acquisitiveness, the merchant class supported the Protestant Reformation • However, many merchants, especially some of the most successful (such as Italians and the wool merchants of Flanders), remained Catholic • In some places merchants backed new Protestant sects because made less financial demands than Catholic Church PROTESTANT REFORMATION— Economic Issues • As commercial classes rose to positions of influence, England, France and United Provinces of the Netherlands, experienced a flowering of trade and industry • DUTCH: built the largest merchant fleet in the world, captured most of the Far Eastern trade from the Portuguese, infiltrated Spain’s Caribbean stronghold • ENGLISH: merchant companies began to play vital role as colonizers forming joint stock companies that were predecessors to modern corporation ENGLISH BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA • Muscovy Company spent large sums looking for a passage to China around Scandanavia • In the 1570s, backed by Queen Elizabeth I of England, Martin Frobisher made three voyages across the Atlantic looking for a northwest passage to Asia or new sources of gold • The queen also supported privateers such as Sir Francis Drake, who preyed on Spanish shipping BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH SETTLEMENT • Elizabeth also backed settlement efforts such as the unsuccessful efforts of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578, 1570, and 1583 • The first settlement, on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1585, was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh • Ships due to arrive in 1588 to re-supply did not come due to the attack of the Spanish Armada and when ships did arrive in 1590, not a trace of the colonists could be found MOTIVES FOR ENGLISH SETTLEMENT • Settlement efforts were costly and in 1584 Richard Hakluyt urged crown support • Stressed – Military advantages – The spread of Protestantism – The possible enrichment of the parent country through expanding markets, increasing tax revenues, and the provision of employment and raw materials • Elizabeth, however, did not pursue Hakluyt’s suggestions and the settlement that started in earnest after her death in 1603 was backed mainly by merchant capitalists not the crown SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA • James I chartered two companies (one based in London; the other of Bristol & Plymouth merchants) to settle Virginia (the name for all area controlled by England at the time) • In 1607 the first 100 settlers arrived and settled Jamestown in the Chesapeake Bay area • Unfortunately, 1/3 of settlers were gentlemen, many of the rest were gentlemen’s servants • With few wilderness skills and more spent time hunting gold than planting crops, over half died the first winter Portrait of Pocahontas, from painting by Wm. Sheppard Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection JAMESTOWN • While company directors stressed futile pursuits, Captain John Smith urged his fellow colonists to build houses and raise food and asked for the company to send more settlers with useful skills • Recognizing the weakness of the colonists, Smith tried to maintain good relations with the local Indians though he had few compunctions about cheating them and little respect for them • Between 1606 and 1622, the London Company invested more than £160,000 and sent over 6000 colonists • No dividends were ever paid and by 1622 only 2,000 colonists were alive and that number was down to 1,300 two years later JAMESTOWN • BAD NEWS: While the colonists were dependent on aid from the Powhatan Indians, they treated them badly and soon were engaged in warfare with them • GOOD NEWS: Colonists began to prosper when started raising their own food and cattle and especially when they began tobacco cultivation TOBACCO • In 1612, John Rolfe introduced West Indian tobacco. • While the advent of tobacco allowed colonists to buy manufactured goods, by then they had served their seven years of indenture; since the London Company had made it easy for settlers to obtain their own land, no profit went to the London Company SELF-GOVERNMENT • In the same year Rolfe revolutionized tobacco, a revised charter extended the London Company’s control over affairs in Virginia – Appointed a single resident governor with sufficient authority – Made it easier for settlers to obtain land • In 1619 created rudimentary selfgovernment with the creation of a House of Burgesses consisting of delegates chosen in each district ROYAL COLONY • In 1622 a bloody attack by the Powhatans who suffered increasing colonial encroachment on their land resulted in the deaths of 347 colonists • While not enough to stop the growing colony, morale sank and James I revoked the charter in 1624 and placed the colony under direct royal control “PURIFYING” THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND • Henry VIII had broken from the Catholic Church and founded the Anglican Church, though his daughter Mary attempted to reinstate Catholicism during her reign (1553-1558) • It was under his second daughter Elizabeth (1558-1603) that the Anglican Church became the official church for all of England • This church closely resembled the Catholic Church except the King/Queen of England was the head of the church and services were in English not Latin DISSENTERS • On one side were ardent Catholics who chose to leave England or practice their faith in private • On the other were more radical Protestants (Puritans) who felt changes had not gone far enough and insisted the church needed to be “purified” of Roman leftovers • Among their biggest problems with church teachings was the implication that anyone other than God could free one from the mire of sin • While only the heretic Arminians stated that one could absolve oneself through actions on earth, the Anglican Church implied that ones’ good actions might sway God’s view DISSENTERS • Congregationalists—favored decentralized church structure with the members of each church and their chosen ministers beholden only to one another • Presbyterians—favored some organization on local level but one controlled by elected laymen not clergy • Separatists—unlike Puritans did not believe that Church could be saved, instead they believed it was necessary to separate from it, which meant they either had to go into exile or underground PILGRIMS • In 1608, 125 separatists left England for the Low Countries, first to Amsterdam then to Leyden • By 1619 disheartened by the difficulties of making a living, disappointed by failure of others from England to join them, and distressed that their children were being led astray from the path of righteousness, these “Pilgrims” decided to leave in search of a better place TO AMERICA • The Puritans negotiated with the Virginia Company to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River on the upper edge of the company’s territory • The Pilgrims formed a joint stock company to help pay for the trip as well as taking nonPilgrims (of 100 who set out only 35 were Pilgrims) • Left from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower, in September 1620; in December, arrived at Cape Cod Bay, north of their destination and the territory controlled by the London Company A NEW COMPACT • Pilgrims were outside the area controlled by the London Company so in order to establish a government they drew up the Mayflower Compact, thus establishing the early American ideal that a society should be based on a set of rules chosen by its members • The Pilgrims went ashore at Plymouth and suffered through a winter of starvation in which half died TISQUANTUM • The Pilgrims were aided in survival when in March 1621, Samoset, an Algonquian Indian who spoke English, introduced them to Tisquantum (called Squanto by the Pilgrims) who had been in England • Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant and served as an intermediary with Massasoit, chief of the large local Wampanoag tribe WINTHROP & MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY • Before Puritans arrived the Plymouth Company had tried settling on the Kennebec River in 1607 but had not succeeded though fisherman continued to come to the area, christened New England by Captain John Smith in 1614 • In 1620, even as Puritans headed for America, the Plymouth Company reorganized itself as the Council for New England • Group was more interested in real estate deals than in settlement and one of deals was a small grant to a group of Puritans from Dorchester who settled in Salem in 1629 WINTHROP & MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY • These Dorchester Puritans organized the Massachusetts Bay Company and obtained a royal grant in the area between the Charles and Merrimack Rivers • Other Puritans (nearly 1,000 in the summer of 1630) joined in a mass migration as King Charles I cracked down on them • These Puritans carried with them the charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company and by fall they had founded Boston and several other towns MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY • While only a minority of migrating Puritans came to Massachusetts, by 1640 over 10,000 had arrived • They had less difficulty than Jamestown because of the constant influx of new recruits who came with families and worldly possessions in tow • Believing their mission to be divinely inspired, they elected John Winthrop as governor, a position he held for 20 years A CITY ON A HILL • Winthrop declared that the Puritan settlement would be “as a City upon a Hill, the eies of all people are upon us….” • Colonists created an elected legislature, the General Court, and limited the vote and office holding to male members of the church though clergymen were not allowed to hold office PURITAN CHURCHES • After getting permission from the General Court, a group of colonists who wished to form a new church would select a minister and conduct their spiritual matters as they saw fit • Membership was restricted to those who could present satisfactory evidence of having experienced “saving grace” • In the 1630s, the majority of people were members. TROUBLEMAKERS: Roger Williams & Anne Hutchinson • ROGER WILLIAMS: an extreme separatist who arrived in 1631 and was minister in Salem by 1635, quickly offended everyone through his religious libertarianism and his insistence that it was a sin to take land without buying it from the Indians • By the end of 1635, Williams was asked to leave the colony within 6 weeks which he did in January 1636 • He traveled to the head of Narragansett Bay, worked out a deal with the Indians and founded Providence, establishing Rhode Island and Providence Plantations after obtaining a charter from Parliament in 1644 TROUBLEMAKERS: Roger Williams & Anne Hutchinson • ANNE HUTCHINSON: arrived in Boston in 1631 where, as a midwife, she often discussed with women her criticisms of the minister • Debate was over issue of who God’s “Saints” were – Ministers said could not be sure so had to monitor your behavior – Hutchinson said that smacked of Catholicism and Saints should just know; also suggested that those possessed of God’s grace were exempt from the rules of good behavior and even from the laws of the Commonwealth (accused of antinomianism) • After claiming regular communication with God, Hutchinson was banished and left with supporters for Rhode Island in 1637 • In 1642 she moved to the Dutch colony of New Netherland where she and all but her youngest child were killed by Indians OTHER NEW ENGLAND COLONIES • Owners of the Plymouth Company divided their holdings in 1629 with one taking Maine (expanded in 1639) and the other New Hampshire • Massachusetts purchased Maine in 1677 and New Hampshire became a royal colony in 1680 • In 1635, Reverend Thomas Hooker founded Hartford and helped draft the Fundamental Orders that governed the towns of Connecticut valley in 1639 • By 1662 Connecticut had obtained a royal charter FRENCH & DUTCH SETTLEMENTS • French explorers had pushed up the St. Lawrence as far as the site of Montreal in the 1530s and beginning in 1603, Samuel Champlain made several voyages to the region, founding Quebec in 1608 • French also established colonies at St. Christopher, Guadeloupe, Martinique and other islands in the West Indies after 1625 FRENCH & DUTCH SETTLEMENTS • Through their West India Company, the Dutch also established themselves in the islands while on the mainland they founded New Netherland in the Hudson Valley after the 1609 explorations of Henry Hudson • As early as 1624 the Dutch established an outpost at Fort Orange (present day Albany) and two years later founded New Amsterdam at the mouth of the Hudson River while Peter Minuit (director general of the West India Company) bought Manhattan Island from the Indians FRENCH & DUTCH SETTLEMENTS • Raided Spanish, traded with the Indians, and authorized large tracks of land to anyone who would bring over 50 settlers • Removed from his post in 1631, Peter Minuit helped the Swedes found New Sweden on the lower reaches of the Delaware River but after years of conflict it was overrun by the Dutch in 1655 MARYLAND & THE CAROLINAS • After the 1630s, it was increasingly easy to create successful colonies (mostly through royal charters) and many were encouraged to do so as prospects in England and Europe worsened • Proprietors obtained large land grants and then granted land to settlers for a small annual rent while holding on to undeveloped land for speculative purposes MARYLAND • Granted by Charles I to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, and a Catholic who wanted a haven for his co-religionists • First settlers arrived in 1634, founding St. Mary’s which quickly turned to tobacco production similar to nearby Jamestown • The need to attract settlers meant Lord Baltimore had to abandon his feudal privileges and allow settlers to own their farms and have a say in local affairs • While Calvert had wanted a colony of Catholics there was a large Protestant majority which resulted in a Toleration Act in 1649 that guaranteed freedom of religion to anyone who believed in Jesus Christ CAROLINAS • The proprietors of Carolina tried to exercise their granted powers by drafting the Fundamental Constitutions which created a hereditary nobility and a landed hierarchy that proved unworkable • The first settlers arrived in 1670, mostly from Barbados, where slave labor was driving out small independent farmers • Charles Town (Charleston) was founded in 1680 while another population center formed just south of Virginia in Albemarle with settlers from predominantly from Virginia • Charles Town engaged in a thriving trade in furs and the export of foodstuffs to the West Indies while the Albemarle settlement was poorer and more primitive • The two separated in 1712, becoming North and South Carolina THE MIDDLE COLONIES • English and Dutch trade rivalries resulted in King Charles II granting his brother James, Duke of York, the entire area between Connecticut and Maryland (which included the Dutch colony of New Netherland) • In 1664 English forces captured New Amsterdam and its population of 1500 without a fight and the rest of the colonies soon followed • Life remained much the same under English rule as it had under Dutch, though a local assembly was established in the 1680s NEW JERSEY • In 1664, the Duke of York gave New Jersey (the region between the Hudson and the Delaware) to John, Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret who offered land on easy terms, established freedom of religion, and a democratic system of local government • A considerable number of New England and Long Island Puritans moved to the colony NEW JERSEY • In 1674, Berkeley sold his interest to two Quakers • Quakers believed in the Inner Light (a direct mystical experience of religious truth), refused to take oaths, and were pacifists, which generally made them unwelcome • The Concessions and Agreements of 1677, drafted for the new Quaker colony, created an autonomous legislature and guaranteed settlers freedom of conscience, the right to trial by jury, and other civil rights PENNSYLVANIA • William Penn was responsible for the main Quaker settlement when King Charles II paid off his debt by giving Penn the region north of Maryland and west of the Delaware River in 1681 • In 1682, Penn founded Philadelphia in his new colony of Pennsylvania which had gained Delaware as a gift from the Duke of York PENNSYLVANIA • Penn treated the Indians fairly and opened settlement to anyone who believed in one God • However, in government he was more paternalistic and the assembly could only approve or reject laws proposed by the governor and council • Penn promoted his colony tirelessly and succeeded in attracting settlers including a large number of Germans (Pennsylvania Dutch— derived from deutsch) • By 1685 there were almost 9,000 settlers and by 1700 there were twice that number • The colony produced wheat, corn, rye and other crops EUROPEAN FOOTHOLDS INDIANS & EUROPEANS as “AMERICANIZERS” • Interaction between Indians and Europeans was typical of the settlement years • Colonists learned a great deal from the Indians – Names of plants and animals – What to eat in their new home and how to catch or grow it (especially corn) – What to wear – How to best get from one place to another (birchbark canoes particularly helpful) – How to fight – In some respects, how to think INDIANS & EUROPEANS as “AMERICANIZERS” • Indians adopted European technology, particularly goods made of metal (thought through 17th century bow remained more effective than flintlock) • Indians very active participants in fur trade where each side profited: Indians traded plentiful fur for valuable European objects while Europeans gained valuable furs in exchange for “cheap” European goods FUR TRADE • The fur trade shifted Indian patterns – Hunting parties became larger – Villages shifted nearer trade routes and European forts – Some groups combined into confederations to control larger hunting territories WEBSITES • 1492: An Ongoing Voyage http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html • The Computerized Information Retrieval System on Columbus and the Age of Discovery http://www.millersv.edu/~columbus • The Discoverers’ Web http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/discovery WEBSITES • The Plymouth Colony Archives Project at the University of Virginia http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jfd3a • Jamestown Rediscovery http://www.apva.org • Jamestown http://www.nps.gov/colo • Williamsburg http://www.history.org • William Penn, Visionary Proprietor http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/PENN/pnhome.html