American History Lesson 2

European Settlement: 1492-1765

European Settlement: 1492-1765

Native population (from 20.000 BC)

• Conquistadores, Spanish presence, French presence

• British settlement: Virginia and New England, Orthodoxy and Heresy

• Crisis: relation England- colonies

• Religion and the Great Awakening

Revolution and Nation Building: 1765-1825

Towards separation

• War and Independence, Constitution

• A New Nation

• Republicans and Federalists

• War of 1812 with England

• Expansion

• Economic growth

• Freedom, Religion and Culture

• Slavery

Expansion and Crisis: 1825-1865

Westward expansion, confrontation with Indians

• Industry and cities

• Slavery and abolitionism

• Civil War

Cities and Industries: 1865-1917

Reconstruction and white supremacy

• Western frontier and conflict with Indians

• Industrialisation, Class conflict ‘Labour and Capital)

• Progress and Reaction

1606

king granted a charter to a # of English merchants and aristocrats, the Virginia Company of London, a joint stock company with investors, hoping to find gold. Wanted to get rich!

First Immigrants

Not used to farm, gentlemen expected to lead, most members were servants and craftsworkers

1607

Founded Jamestown

Jamestown

thickly forested site, inland peninsula, along the James River, ideal breeding ground for malaria.

Immigrants to Virginia

Free men, Indentured servants.

Indentured servants

kind of slaves, worked to pay their debt. 40% never gained freedom because they didn’t survive

What saved the immigrants?

Introduction to slavery, tips & tricks from the Natives, Tobacco

Tobacco

by 1700 made up to four-fifths of the value of exports from British North America to the South. Tobacco meant plantations.

1619

First slave importation. Constant shortage of white labor, solution was slaves

1670

40,0000 Virginians 2000 black slaves

1700

275,000 British Americans 10,000 – 20,000 black slaves

1700-1790

On average about 3000 slaves were imported each year

New England

small, self-sufficient, farming villages. The soil was not prosperous, so it was hard to farm there. Husbands migrated with their wives and family, more healthful climate than that of Virginia.

New England Immigrants

came for religious reasons

Virginia Immigrants

came for economic reasons

Plantations

• Houses far apart, surrounded by smaller houses

• Confronts a river (tobacco needs to be transported)

• Indentured service

• Slavery

• Self-assured stance (of the gentry)

Plymouth

Pilgrims; separatists

Massachusetts bay

Puritans; tried to purify the English church from within

Northern Parts of New England:

poor agricultural soil but superb timberlands. Rich opportunities for fishing, whaling, and commercial shipping. Boston

Southern New England and New York

Better soils and substantial trade along the Hudson River. New York and Philadelphia.

Chesapeake region

tobacco economy and Piedmont region of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, large scale commercial production of wheat. Baltimore.

Carolinas and Georgia

tobacco rice and indigo. Charleston and Savannah

Epsicopalians

Immigrants who stayed in the Anglican Church

Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed, Prebysterian

Protestant outside the Anglican Church

Predestination

before you are born God has already decided if you go to Heaven or Hell.

Catholicism

Catholic Church mediates between man and God: sacraments like baptism, Eucharist and confession are signs of the grace of God, therefore necessary for salvation. You need a priest, the Church for this. Without the Church, no salvation. Good works help you to be saved.

Calvinists

: Grace is a gift given directly by God at the time of the Creation, beginning of time.

So you are either saved or damned, their is nothing you can do about it