APUSH Chap 1

Utopia

* book by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516
* described mythical and perfect society
* commentary on current England - losing money due to frequent wars, religious strife, harsh economic changes to countryside (enclosure movement)

Enclosure Movement

Land owners converted crop fiends to sheep *enclosures* due to increased demand for wool. This caused mass layoffs of agricultural serfs and rent paying farmer tenants. These evicted tenants roamed in gangs begging and robbing householders. There was less food to go around due to less farmland and unrest was high. The government passed ineffective laws to stop illegal activity

Evicted tenants

Those removed from the land they rented to farm when the Enclosure Movement cased a mass conversion of farmland to sheep pastures

Richard Hakluyt

* english propogandist in favor of colonialism
* argued colonies would:
* create new markets for english goods
* reduce poverty and unemployment by relocating the excess population
* create new jobs in england due to increased wealth
* allow england to import less
* ideas driven by mercantilism

Mercantilism

* prevalent in 17th - 19th centuries
* assumed that the nation as a whole (not individuals) was the main driver of the economy
* the goal of economic activity should be to increase the nation’s total wealth
* wealth is finite - a nation can only grow rich at the expense of another
* nations should do mainly export, not import

Merchant Capitalist

17th century

During the enclosure movement, they grew rich due to foreign trade (wool cloth). They formed chartered companies (charter - order from monarch giving selling monopoly to one company in a region).

ex. Muscovy comp, Levant comp

Martin Luther

* 1517 Germany
* started Protestant branch
* Roman Catholic church (Pope) sold “get out of purgatory free cards” to fund the Sistine Chapel
* ML disagreed with the idea that salvation could be bought
* ML said that:
* salvation could only be achieved through faith
* God doesn’t speak through the Pope or clergy, only the Bible


* gained following and tried to change church from within
* was excommunicated and started new church

Calvin Puritans

John Calvin rejected the Catholic belief that salvation can be earned. He introduced predestination, the idea that destiny (heaven v. hell) is predetermined

English Reformation

* 1530s
* King Henry VIII was refused a divorce by the Pope
* He broke ties with the Roman Catholic church, and established the Church of England, with himself as the new religious leader

Separatists

* radical Puritans
* they wanted to worship as they pleased
* they defied English law
* gave larger religious roles to women than most branches of Christianity
* resented by Puritans

James I

* 1603
* first king after the Tudors
* Scotsman
* first of the Stuarts
* believed kings ruled by divine right
* antagonized Puritans (many of whom were businessmen) with arbitrary taxes
* favored English Catholics
* bred religious discontent
* made non Catholics look for new places to live

Plantations

“Transplantations” of England society in a foreign land and generally more cut off from natives than Spanish settlements

Coureurs de bois

French word for trappers. They had close trade relationships with northern Natives

Dutch West India Company

Dutch investment company with outposts in North America and Africa. They encouraged settlement of the areas around the Hudson, Delaware, and Connecticut rivers. They granted land to those would would pay for the emigration of paying tenants

Elizabeth I

• developed sense of nationalism/encouraged expansion

• this was especially effective after the defeat of the Spanish Armada (Spain was the most powerful competition in the Americas)

• caused the first successful English settlement

Sir Francis Drake

* “sea dog”
* staged successful raids on Spanish merchant ships
* created confidence in England’s ability to challenge Spain’s navy

Spanish Armada

Spanish and Portuguese fleet of ships (one of the largest in military warfare history). They attacked England from the English channel and lost, giving England more power in the New World

Sea Dogs

English navy commanders who raided Spanish ships

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

• was a governor of Ireland

• very violent towards native Irish - considered them less than human

• led an expedition to Newfoundland in 1583 sanctioned by Elizabeth I and was lost at sea

Sir Walter Raleigh

• got a grant from Elizabeth I to colonize Roanoke (an island off the coast of NC)

• named Virginia after Elizabeth I - the virgin queen

• he did not win her favor and got future funding from private investors

• he was dropped off with others to start a colony, but it failed

• the colony was tried again years later, but when a ship came to check on them, no one could be found

London Group

merchants who got their charter from Walter Raleigh and got the exclusive right to colonize in the South

Virginia Dare

the first American born child to English parents