US History
Exploration and
Colonization
Overview
Pequot War
• First Serious armed conflict
between the Native Americans
settlers of New England.
Numerous previous conflicts over
property, damage to Indian fields,
hunting and dishonest trade
dealings.
The Pequot were outgunned, a
smallpox epidemic had also
weakened the tribe.
1637, the Pequot leader Sassacus is
captured, main village destroyed
and the Pequot were finished.
The Causes of European Exploration
•No central government
•Famine
•Foreign invaders
•Black Plague
•Religious intolerance
Rise of England as an Exploration
power
•Spain was the most powerful nation in the
world because of their extensive exploration
which led to their wealth.
• England was the second most powerful
country and knew they needed to explore to
contend with Spain.
•Also, free land was offered to any English
colonists by the Virginia company.
•Anyone who paid for the trip to Virginia would
receive 50 acres of free land.
•England was in turmoil, exploration was
looked at as a new opportunity to wealth and
a better life.
Main differences of the Spanish,
French and English Colonies
Spanish- colonies located in Mexico and
Central America, hostile relationship with
Native Americans, stratified social system,
and they explored for gold, god, glory
English- colonies located on Atlantic Coast,
sometimes hostile relationship with Native
Americans, and they had religious freedom
French-colonies located in Canada and
Louisiana, cooperative relationship with the
Native Americans, and they explored for fur
trade and religious reasons
Main Characteristics of the New
England, Middle and Southern
Colonies
New England: Puritans, no religious
freedom, Plymouth colony, Salem Witch
Trials, discrimination,
Middle: Quakers, more diverse, religious
freedom, accepting, Dutch, appealing
location, good farmland, very little political
order
Southern: House of Burgesses in Virginia,
most slavery, tobacco for cash crop,
business oriented, Roanoke colony, free
land, no religious freedom
Bacon’s Rebellion
As Virginia's population increased settlers
moved into the center of the state.
This made Native Americans angry
because of the intrusion on their land.
Settlers wanted to destroy all natives in
that area.
The uprising was led by Nathaniel Bacon
in a protest against Native American raids.
Some historians say that it was also a
protest against William Berkley, the
governor of Virginia
Headright System
The Headright System was first used in Jamestown
Virginia to make an attempt to solve shortages of labor
in the tobbacco industry.
The Headright System was a system of getting people
to come to Virginia and help with tobbacco growing by
giving them 50 acres of land for their service
The wealthier people benefited most from this because
they could by the most amounts of land
King Philip’s War
In 1675 a large Native American
rebellion erupted which the colonialists
called King Phillips War
Colonialists thought Metacom or King
Phillip planned and led a rebellion
against them, this turned out to be false.
Each native village was led by their own
leader and attacked separately.
The war erupted and eventually the
natives lost to the colonialists due to
starvation and lack of ammunition
1000 english colonists were killed
3000 natives were killed
House of Burgesses
In 1619, the House of Burgesses
was created by planters.
It was the first representative body
in colonial America.
Male land owners over the age of
17 could vote for two Burgesses to
represent their settlement.
The house had the power to create
laws and raise taxes.
Later in the 1700’s two types of
colonial governments were
formed, royal and proprietary.
Joint Stock Company
A joint stock company is a type of business entity that is a
partnership between two or more legal persons.
One of the first joint stock companies was the Virginia
Company in the 1600’s
Another joint stock company is the Plymouth Company
These are the first two of these to be in the Americas
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is a policy that holds
that a nation or an empire could
build wealth and power by
developing its industries and
exporting manufactured goods in
exchange for gold and silver.
It worked well for the colonies
because it offered different
economic strengths to the empire.
In the colonies there was more
land but fewer people and less
money for investment, this favored
agriculture
As a result more than 90 percent
of colonists lived and worked on
farms
Navigation Acts
The navigation acts were a series of trade laws that Parliament created
in the 1600s to get more sailors, ships, and trade
These acts stated that only English ships could trade with English
colonies
Valuable colonial goods could only be shipped to their mother country
Colonies had to import all of their European goods to English ports and
pay custom duties
Triangular Trade
The triangular trade route
was a route that connected
england, its colonies, and
western Africa.
First, British ships loaded
manufactured goods and
traded these in western
Africa for slaves
Then, they took the
enslaved Africans and
traded them for valuable
raw material, like timber,
sugar, and tobbacco
After this long process the
ships would return to
Europe.
Salutary Neglect
Salutary neglect was a English
policy of avoiding strict
enforcement of Parliamentary
laws
They did this to try and keep
American colonies under control
of Great Britain
This policy lasted from 1607 to
1763 and allowed trade relation
laws to be very lenient.
Salutary neglect was a large
contributor of the things that led to
the American Revolutionary War
Great Awakening
The great awakening
was a religious
movement in the mid
1800s that swept
through the colonies
This is when powerful
preachers would travel
from town to town
giving emotional
sermons that deeply
touched and scared
listeners
Thousands of people
would come to be
inspired by these
words of religion
Puritans and Separatists
The majority of New England colonists
were Puritans which are religious
dissidents who disagreed with the
established church
They believed in leading moral lives,
praying devoutly, reading the Bible,
and heeding their minister’s sermons.
Separists are Puritans who started
their own church with their religion in a
rebellion to the Anglican Church
Puritans challenged church of
England. Because of that King Charles
began to persecute the Puritans.
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was
the first governing document of
Plymouth Colony. It was written
by the colonists who crossed the
Atlantic on the Mayflower.
The group who wrote the
compact was largely separatist
that was seeking religious
freedom from the English
Church
The compact was basically a
social contract that settlers
compacted to follow the rules of
the compact for sake of survival.