Initial Colonization of North America
and Treatment of Native Americans
Social Studies 7
WYWLA.2014
K.GLODEN
Colonial Population Estimates
 40,000 French in entire
colonial region.
 50,000 Spanish spread
throughout Latin America
and the Southwest.
 1 to 2 million British in the
tiny strip along the
Atlantic.
Compare and
contrast the
settlement patterns
of the Spanish,
French and British.
Colonial America before 1763.
New Spain’s Treatment of the Native Peoples
 New Spain was larger, richer and lasted ¼ century longer than British Empire.
 Suppress Native religion and Christianize.
 Requerimiento—Spanish requirement for native people to receive the Church
or face war—It was read in Spanish when they entered a village.
 Rationalized servitude as education—Slavery was banned in the 1630s and
replaced with the Encomienda (forced labor) system.
 Repartimiento—Tax system through mining and farming labor seen as more
humane.
 Spanish gave a “cane” to the Native American they wished to give sovereignty
to—Then they dealt with that person.
 1598 to 1680—Spanish conquest of the Southwest—Native ceremonies pushed
into the night until the successful Pueblo Revolt (Pope’s Rebellion) in 1680 which
gave Pueblo freedom for the next 12 years.
 Dominican priests argued against enslavement of Native Americans—Opened
dialogue on the issue.
Missionaries spread Christianity to
the native peoples.
Early Images of the Native Peoples
 Illustrators made their visual representations
based upon fantastic descriptions sent back to
Europe—They used cultural differences, such
as feathers in braided hair to depict natives.
 Early images
showed
handsome
insatiable
cannibals, grilling
limbs and
distributing boiled
human parts to
women and
children.
New France and the Native Peoples
 French population had grown slowly with no representative assemblies—Only
Catholics were allowed to settle the “New World.”
 Set out to find gold—Forts became the backbone of a thriving fur trade—Meant
overkill for the environment.
 Searched for Northwest Passage to the Pacific.
 Cartier and Champlain, father of New France who established the fur trade.
 La Salle sailed down the Mississippi and claimed everything that flowed into it.
 Resource based—Craze for fur in Europe (beaver hats)—Enslavement wouldn’t
work—Introduced brandy before dealing—Used coercion as last resort.
 Recognized Native Sovereignty using diplomacy rather than force—Didn’t force
new language or relocate the people—Established posts and forts with Native
permission.
 Made alliances (Huron and Montagnais) with enemies of those who opposed them
(Iroquois and Algonquian)
 Jesuits accompanied to establish missions to Christianize the natives.
 Encouraged intermarriage.
The British Colonies and the Native Peoples
 England partially modeled its North American colonization, including its
harsh treatment of the native population, on its prior imperial experience in
Ireland.
 Just prior to Pilgrim arrival at Plymouth in 1620, more than ¾ of
native population of the coastal tribes wiped out by epidemic—More
intertribal rivalries especially between smaller tribes and the Pequot.
 Viewed them as
unfortunate heathens—
Initially expected
coexistence and forced
Christianity.
 Missionary zeal never
equaled the Spanish and
French Catholics
 Culture Clash—Powhatan
Wars, Pequot War, King
Philip’s War.
Initial English Efforts
 1585—English set up Roanoke—Make
settlement, go for supplies.
 1587—Go for supplies again—When
return, no settlers left—Complete
setback seen as total disaster!
 English were about 50 years behind
the Spanish—No large navy, no standing
army—Converting to the Church of
England and dealing with religious
diversity—Distracted with colonizing
Ireland.
Sir Walter Raleigh funded and
authorized expeditions to
Roanoke Island.
First landing at Roanoke Island.
Initial English Efforts in the Chesapeake
 Early 1600s—New interest.
 Growing number of homeless—Colonize the New World with them.
 Crown wanted to get rid of religious dissidents.
 Merchant class wants exploration.
 Nobility supports exploration for younger sons who don’t get
inheritance.
 1606—Joint Stock Company—To find silver/gold—Colonists weren’t
ready to be farmers—They didn’t want to be “uncivilized” and plant
corn as the native peoples did.
 1607—The Chesapeake
 Jamestown founded—Out of 200, 35 survive to spring—John Smith
institutes military structure—Still, during the “Starving Time” from
1609-1610, only about 60 out of 400 survive—They were reduced to
eating “Dogges, Catts, Ratts, and Myce.”
 1610—Dictatorship set up—Specific jobs, death penalty for most
everything—10 years later, colony in same condition.
Initial English Efforts in the Chesapeake
 By 1625, Virginia only had 1200 survivors of the nearly 8000 in what the
Governor described as a “slum in the wilderness.”
 Effort of planting went into tobacco, creating a boom-bust economy.
 John Rolfe became the father of the tobacco industry and the
economic savior of the Virginia colony.
 Tobacco was ruinous to the soil and it made the prosperity of
Virginia dependant on the fluctuating price of a sing cash crop.
 This very labor-intensive crop led to the exploration of labor
beginning with indentured servitude and leading to the
development of the American slave system.
 In 1619, the colonists assembled the House of Burgesses, the first of
many miniature parliaments in America.
 In 1624, King James I, distrustful of the House of Burgesses, revoked
Virginia Company charter and made it a royal colony.