APUSH Unit 2: 1607 - 1754

APUSH Unit 2

1607-1754 European colonization ● France ○ In 1524, the French wanted to find a water route that passed through the Americas to get access to trade in Asia and didnt consider colonization for a while because they were occupied with wars and persecution at home ○ In 1608, after they decided the Americas were suitable for colonization, Samuel de Champlain established the first permanent French settlement called Quebec ○ Interest in trade (fish and fur) > conquest ○ Small amount of colonizers compared to Spanish and English ○ Trading settlements > permanent settlements ○ French traders married native women to have kinship ties to vast trading networks ■ French interactions with Ojibwe indians (natives offered beaver pelts, French offered iron cookware and tools) ● Dutch ○ Sent Henry Hudson for water-based passage through the Americas ■ Claimed land on what came to be known as the Hudson River and established colony of New Amsterdam which would later become New York ○ Mainly economic goals; New Amsterdam (later NYC) became trading hub ○ Duth were Protestant but had no interest in conversion ● British ○ Primarily economic motivation for colonization ■ Wealth of nobles was declining and they sought new riches ■ Peasants experienced economic hardship; lost their land due to the enclosure movement (took common lands and sold it to private, wealthy parties) ○ People also sought religious freedom and improved living conditions ○ English colonizers were in family groups to establish homes ○ No large community of natives they could enslave ○ When settlers encroached on native lands, tension and violence arose ■ Spanish subjugated natives vs English expelled them Regions of British colonies ● Chesapeake Colonies ○ Jamestown was the first permanent British North American colony in 1607 ○ Financed by joint-stock company (a group of investors pooled their money together and shared the financial risks/benefits) ○ Purpose of Jamestown was to make profit, searched for gold and silver ○ First few years were difficult, fever and disease killed half the colonists ○ Cultivation of tobacco in 1612 saved the colony ■ Indentured servants (7-year labor contract in exchange for voyage across atlantic and settlement fees) cultivated this crop ■ Needed more land to grow tobacco, invade native land → native raids on colonial settlements ○ Virginia governor William Berkeley called upon to address raids, ignored the issue instead ○ Bacons Rebellion stemmed from resentment of native violence and Berkeleys neglect, led farmers in an attack on Indians and Berkeleys plantations ■ Elite planters grew fearful of uprising from large numbers of indentured servants ■ South a new source of labor → enslaved Africans ● New England colonies ○ Settled by Pilgrims in 1620, led to influx of Puritans (Protestants unhappy with theology of Church of England wanted wanted to live by their own conscience) ■ Puritans first settled and Holland and had religion freedom, but had difficulty making a agricultural living in an urban area and came to America ○ Came in family groups, not primarily for economy but to make a living as farmers and settle with family ○ First few years were difficult, fever and disease killed half the colonists ○ After a few years, established thriving economy and society centered on agriculture and commerce ● British West Indies and Southern Atlantic Coast ○ 1620s, British established first permanent Caribbean colonies ○ Warm climates and long seasons, tobacco → sugarcane as main cash crop → spike in demand for slaves ○ Planter elites enacted harsh slaves codes (regulated slaves behavior and defined them as property or chattel) to prevent uprisings from black-majority population ● Middle Colonies ○ New York and New Jersey were on the sea and had many rivers, developed export colony, and had strict societal structure (wealth urban merchanges, artisans and shopkeepers, unskilled laborers, slaves) ○ Pennsylvania founded by William Penn (Quaker and pacifist), religious freedom and negotiated with Indians to expand land ● Britain allowed the colonies to determine their own systems of governance and all adopted democracies ○ House of Burgesses in VA, representative assembly with taxing and law-making power ○ Mayflower Compact of Pilgrims, organized government on model of self-governing Church concentration, power concentrated in town meetings ○ Government dominated by elite (merchants in North, planters in South) Transatlantic trade ● Triangular trade -merchant ships would start in New England, carry rum to West Africa, trade rum for enslaved laborers, sale the brutal and often fatal middle passage to the West Indies, trade slaves for sugarcane, sale back to New England, trade the sugarcane for rum, and the cycle continued ○ Slave Trade Act in 1778 limited the number of slaves crammed in the hull of a ship, a famous image of the plans for the lower deck of a slave ship demostrates how crowded they still were ● Mercantilism was the dominant economic theory in Europe ○ There is only a fixed amount of wealth (gold and silver) in the world and a favorable balance of trade (more exports than imports) must be maintained ○ Colonies must be established to access raw materials and become markets for manufactured goods ● Navigation Acts required merchants to trade with English colonies only in English ships and pass valuable trade items through British ports so they could be taxed ● Transatlantic trade generated wealth for elites of society and transformed seaports into thriving urban centers → consumer revolution ● With the consumer revolution, affluent families began to buy more goods ○ Tied financial success to societal status and a refined lifestyle Interactions between American Indians and Europeans ● Spanish introduced a caste system, ordering people based on their racial ancestry ○ Natives were placed toward the bottom ● Spanish employed coercive and brutal measures to convert the Pueblo to Christanity, which led to the Pueblo Revolt in 1610 in which the Pueblo purged the Spanish from their territory, killed 400 Spainards, and burned churches to the ground, but the Spanish returned 12 years later and reconquered Santa Fe ● Spanish vs English interactions with Indians ○ Spanish encountered giant empires and was able to enslave huge amounts of people; subjugated ○ British did not settle near large empires with large labor forces that could be enslaved; forced them out ● English colonists ○ Werent interested in intermarrying with natives and originally existed peacefully with the natives ○ But they expanded and needed more land, thus taking native territory ○ This conflict led to Metacoms War aka King Philips War in 1675 ■ Metacom was the chief of the Wampanoag Indians, called King Philip by the English ■ Felt English encroachment on land would destroy ancestral way of life ■ Allied with other Indian groups to attack the colonists; burned fields, killed men, captured women and children ■ In retaliation, English called on Mohawk allies who killed Metacom ● French colonists ○ Much less invasive; viewed Indians as trade partners and military allies, maintained decent relations by intermarrying ○ Didnt settle but established trading posts to facilitate fur trade ● Since native groups were varied and often at war, Europeans rarely had to worry about a unified resistance Slavery in the British colonies ● Atlantic Slave Trade transported 3 million slaves to British colonies in North America and the Carribean ● Middle Passage across the Atlantic, half a million slaves died in its brutal conditions ● All of the British colonies participated in and benefited from the African slave trade ● Increased demand for colonial agricultural goods + shortage of indentured servants = increased demand for slaves ○ Bacons Rebellion decreased popularity of indentured servants to be used for labor and increased popularity for slaves ● New England had smaller farms and thus fewer slaves ● In middle colonies like New York and New Jersey, slaves work in agricultural estates and as household servants ○ Major port cities has slaves who worked as seamen, dockworkers, and blacksmiths ● Southern colonies held far more enslaved people needed for their plantation system ● Great portion of slaves worked in British West Indies ● Race-based slavery is called chattel slavery; slaves were considered property ● The British West Indies practices in slavery influenced how the institution was carried out elsewhere, especially the South ○ For example, harsh slave laws which legally defined African laborers as chattel, made slavery a perpetual, generational institution, and these laws grew harsher ■ 17th century, VA plantation owners could kill slaves if they defied his authority ■ 1680, a law was added to make it illegal for slaves to own weapons or leave the plantation without permission ■ Slaves made interracial relations illegal ● Slave resistance ○ Covert resistance -practiced cultural customs from homeland, maintained belief systems, spoke native languages, kept naming practices, and slowed work by breaking tools and damaging crops ○ Overt rebellion -mainly a concern when black population greater than white population ■ Stono Rebellion -group of enslaved men stole weapons from store and killed its owners, more enslaved men joined the group as they marched along the Stono River, burning plantations and killing more white people ● These occurrences challenged beliefs of plantation owners who understood themselves as benevolent caretakers of lesser beings, thought it was merciful Colonial society and culture ● Enlightenment was a movement in Europe that emphasized rational thinking over against tradition and religions revelation ○ Took move in the colonies because of a transatlantic print culture ● John Locke exposed Americans to the idea of natural rights (inalienable God-given rights of life, liberty, and property) ○ Influenced Jeffersons belief of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness ● Social contract is an agreement between the government and the people stipulating that the people give up some of their rights to the government for it to protect their natural rights ● Enlightenment also stressed that what is worthy comes to us through our senses and authority comes from scientific inquiry, while the Bible claims that what is worthy comes from God and authority comes from revelation ○ Decreased importance placed on the bible and more importance placed on rational and scientific inquiry ● New Lights accepted the Great Awakening and Old Lights rejected it for Enlightenment ● The Great Awakening, a religious revival which generated an intense Christian devotion and enthusiasm; calvinists who believed eternal salvation was in the hands of God alone ○ Jonathan Edwards was a scholar well-studied in philosophy and natural sciences who preached sermons that combined enlightenment ideas with intense religious fervor → revival ■ "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" ■ More concerned with joy of God and derivative joy of people ■ Lit fire of Great Awakening ○ George Whitfield was a preacher who took the message of Gods salvation by grace in Jesus Christ to all colonies from England ■ People flocked to hear him ● Social consequences of Great Awakening ○ Democratic tendencies of the bible ○ Lack of wealth doesnt diminish Gods favor ○ Biblical theories to resist tyranny of wealth colonial officials ○ Lasting change in colonial attitude to authorities ■ States formed self-governing structures like participatory town meetings that elected members to colonial legislatures ● Colonies were experiencing a gradual anglicanization (becoming more British-like) but also began to grow frustrated with British as well ○ Impressment was the habit of British to seize American men against their will and forcing them to serve in the British navy ○ In 1747, Britain was fighting King Georges War and ordered a general impressment of men from America to help them in their effort and Americans rioted for 3 days in reaction to the news

Stamp Act 1765

Was issued in order to raise revenues to support the new British military force. Mandated the use of stamped paper certifying the payment of taxes. Colonist were angrily aroused and felt that this act was jeopardizing the basic right of the colonists as Englishmen.

Sons of Liberty

A radical political organization for colonial independence which formed in 1765 after the passage of the Stamp Act. They incited riots and burned the customs houses where the stamped British paper was kept. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the local chapters formed the Committees of Correspondence which continued to promote opposition to British policies towards the colonies. The Sons leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Declaratory Act 1766

Act repealed the Stamp Act, but stated that Great Britain can rule the colonies anyway she sees fit (with date)

Boston Massacre

The first bloodshed of the Amercan Revolution, as British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five americans

Tea Act 1773

Allowed East India Company to avoid navigation taxes when exporting tea to colonies and gave them power to monopolize tea trade; this angered colonists and threatened merchants and the colonial economy.

Coercive Acts 1774

Closed Boston port until destroyed tea paid for. 2. stopped town meetings. 3. Appointed a military government for Massachusetts. 4. Trials of government officials will be in England.

First Continental Congress

Delegates from all colonies except Georgia met to discuss problems with Britain and to promote independence

Lexington and Concord

First battle of the American Revolution (April 19, 1775)

Battle of Bunker Hill

First important battle of the American War of Independence (1775)

Battle of Saratoga

Turning point of the American Revolution. It was very important because it convinced the French to give the U.S. military support. It lifted American spirits, ended the British threat in New England by taking control of the Hudson River, and, most importantly, showed the French that the Americans had the potential to beat their enemy, Great Britain.

General Cornwallis

British general who defied an order and was trapped at Yorktown forcing his surrender; he called Washington an old fox

Articles of Confederation

This document, the nation's first constitution, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1781 during the Revolution. The document was limited because states held most of the power, and Congress lacked the power to tax, regulate trade, or control coinage.

Northwest Ordinance

Enacted in 1787, it is considered one of the most significant achievements of the Articles of Confederation. It established a system for setting up governments in the western territories so they could eventually join the Union on an equal footing with the original 13 states

James Madison

Strict constructionist, 4th president, father of the Constitution, leads nation through War of 1812

Anti-federalists

Opponents of a strong central government who campaigned against the ratification of the Constitution in favor of a confederation of independent states