APUSH Period 2: 1607-1754 -- Patterns of Empire and Resistance

6-8% of exam

context for period 2

in the 1600s and 1700s, the major European imperial powers and various groups of American Indians fought for control of N. America — native societies experienced dramatic changes and distinctive colonial societies emerged

what shaped different patterns of colonization between European colonial powers?

• economic and social goals

• cultural assumptions

• traditions

• environmental factors in N. America and competition for resources among Europeans and American Indian groups

Spanish colonization

• focused on converting Native Americans to Christianity and exploiting their labor to gain wealth

• encomienda system replaced with the repartimiento system by 1550

  • outright NA slavery banned, mandating wages

  • empire still highly exploitative

• intermarriage was common

• tight control by Spanish Crown — divided into 2 viceroyalties in the 1500s and 1600s

• some Native Americans adapted aspects of Spanish Catholicism and Catholic priests accepted certain adaptations to better reach native peoples

French colonization

• vast empire but thinly populated with French colonists

• focused on the fur trade and exporting to Europe for money

• intermingling with Native Americans occured

  • marriages to promote good relations

  • French accomodations to NA ways

  • Metis (“mixed blood”) communities in frontier areas with few French women — mixed cultures

Dutch colonization

• similar to French; focused on fur trade and exporting to Europe for money, thinly populated

• faced initial struggles because of rival European powers

• colony in Surinam (sugar production with African slave labor)

• New Amsterdam (1624) thrived in NY initially

  • led by Peter Stuyvesant

  • English King Charles II took over in 1664 - New York

Treaty of Breda

treaty following the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) in which Surinam was formally transferred to the Dutch and New Amsterdam was formally transferred to the British

English colonial patterns

• unlike the Spanish, Dutch, or French, colonies had many settlers and sought to transplant purely English societies rather than interact with Native Americans

• population surplus and food crisis in England (enclosure movement) at the same time as English New World exploration

• merchants established joint-stock companies and the Crown granted charters to the companies, guided by mercantilism

• Ireland was brutally subjugated by the English in the 1500s and 1600s — idea of English superiority

colonies of the Chesapeake and the Upper South

• Jamestown, Maryland, North Carolina

• reliance on labor-intensive tobacco with white indentured servants and slaves as workforce

• upper South was most populous part of South

Jamestown

• founded in 1607 by the Virigina Company

• nearly collapsed in its first years — settlers were unprepared male gentlemen

• development of poor relations with local Algonquian-speaking people led by Powhatan

  • English raided NAs when they couldn’t supply enough corn; NAs assaulted Jamestown 1622

• 1612 John Rolfe grew tobacco, which became extremely profitable for the Chesapeake region

impacts of tobacco cultivation

• quickly exhausted soil nutrients — colonists encroached on NA land after only a few years of production

• established Southern pattern of large-scale production of staple crops for the international market — cotton in 1800s

• required a large number of laborers — indentured servitude and slavery

head-right system

new immigrants to the Chesapeake were offered 50 acres upon arrival — method to bring workers to the New World

indentured servitude

system under which a potential immigrant in England agreed to contract to work for a certain number of years in America (4-7) in exchange for free passage

Maryland

• similar to Virginia — tobacco exports, indentured servants and African slaves

• first proprietary colony of England in America — charter granted to George Calvert by King Charles I

• Calvert wanted to make Maryland a refuge for Catholics

North Carolina

• Carolina founded in 1663 by wealthy Barbados plantation owners

• as English settlers arrived in the northern Carolina in the 1670s and 1680s, the area’s economy closely resembled that of the Chesapeake

• tensions led to a split in 1712 and North and South Carolina became distinct colonies

colonies of New England

• first settlers, the Puritans, were driven more by religion rather than economic gain

• Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut

origins of Puritanism

• Protestant Reformation of 1500s

  • Martin Luther and John Calvin broke with Roman Catholic Church

• King Henry VIII’s political “halfway reformation”

  • Puritans wanted to purify Church of England

Purtain beliefs and practices

• adhered to Calvinist doctrine of predestination

• lived lives of strict piety - living according to every individual’s “calling” under God

• put great value on community

• saw humanity as tainted by “original sin” and viewed God as vengeful and jealous more than loving

the Pilgrims

• English Calvinist separatists who fled England in 1608 to find a more hospitable religious climate (went to Netherlands first)

• sailed to Cape Cod, MA on the Mayflower in 1620; led by William Bradford

• signed the Mayflower Compact

• founded Plymouth, which struggled initially and was not as successful as MA Bay Colony

Mayflower Compact

an agreement signed by the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower that called for orderly government based on the consent of the governed

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• founded by Puritans who landed in Salem, led by John Wintrop, in 1630

• granted charter by King Charles I, who wanted to suppress noncomforming sects in England

• “a city upon a hill” according to John Winthrop

• colony thrived — settlers were families who wanted to build communities, not look for quick riches

New Hampshire

• area settled by Puritans who moved north; already had small fishing villages from 1620s

• owned by MA (1641) until a royal decree separated the two colonies in 1679

Roger Williams and Rhode Island

• Roger Williams was a Puritan minister and dissenter

  • criticized mistreatment of NAs and involvement of church in governance

• fled to Narragansett Bay in 1636 and founded Rhode Island

• RI had separation of church and state

Anne Hutchinson

• Puritan female religious thinker

• held meetings in her house with both men and women

  • challenged gender norms

• argued that God could communicate directly with believers

• banished by Puritan leaders

• moved to RI, then died in New Netherlands

Connecticut

• Rev. Thomas Hooker disagreed with John Winthrop over church membership — thought requirements should be less strict

• left MA Bay and founded Hartford in 1636

• Hartford and other towns along the CT River formed Connecticut

tensions in Puritanism

• Puritan generations after the first did not maintain the same zeal and fire

• decline in church membership by 1650s

• Halfway Covenant (1662) and Salem witch trials (1692)

Halfway Covenant

1662 Congregational Church initiative to allow for partial church membership for children of church members — response to declining membership

Salem witch trials

1692 witch hunt in Salem where 100+ people were accused of witchcraft

• demonstrated the perceived lack of piety in New England and division in Puritan society

the Middle Colonies

• most diverse colonies in British N. America

• had thriving export economy based on cereal crops

• “restoration colonies”, formed after the English monarchy was restored (1660)

• Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York

Pennsylvania

• founded 1681 by William Penn, who was granted land by King Charles II

• Quakerism was highly prevalent in PA

  • friendly relations with local native groups

  • religious toleration

  • slavery frowned upon

• thrived in the 1600s

Quakerism

• developed in religious ferment of 1600s England

• non-hierarchical approach to religion

  • addressing each other as “friend”, “meetings” instead of sermons

• egalitarian values

  • friendly relations with NAs, slavery frowned upon, religious toleration

New Jersey and Delaware

• both initially settled by the Dutch, then taken by the British

• Duke of York gave land away to colony founders

• Delaware was originally part of PA

New York

• originally New Amsterdam (1624)

• came into English hands 1664

• commercial port city with extensive use of slavery

colonies of the Lower South and the West Indies

• had longer growing seasons

• depended on exporting staple crops and slave-labor system

• population was considerably less than upper South

• enslaved Africans made up majority of population

Barbados

• Britain’s most profitable New World colony

• economy based on selling sugar made from sugarcane

  • favored wealthy planters

  • physically demanding for laborers

• no small-scale yeoman-farmer class — sugar planters were 4x wealthier than VA tobacco planters

• much larger slave population

South Carolina

• planters from Barbados wanted to replicate export-oriented plantation economy of Barbados

• made money growing and exporting rice by the late 1600s

• after splitting with North Carolina in 1712, South Carolina continued to operate like Barbados

  • thousands of slaves with few elite planters

Georgia

• last of original 13 colonies to be established

• supposed to be a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida

• charter-holding James Oglethorpe wanted to make a paternalistic colony for Britain’s “deserving poor” but failed — ceded control to the Crown in 1752

• Carolinians moved into Georgia and brought slavery with them

early forms of self-governance in the colonies

• developed because Britain didn’t make an extensive governing structure in its colonies

• royal governors depended on funding from tax revenue, which was controlled by colonial legislatures — “power of the purse”

• New England town meetings

• Virginia House of Burgesses

New England town meetings

• face-to-face decision-making assemblies open to all free male residents of a town

• “selectmen” were representatives who carried out governing functions until the next town meeting

• allowed for a high degree of citizen participation in decision making

House of Burgesses

• Virginian representative assembly

• first all free adult men, then only wealthy men could vote for representatives

• allowed to continue by the king after VA was transferred to the Crown in 1624

• became less powerful and more exclusive over time

results of the growth of Atlantic economy interactions

• expansion of colonial economies

• devastation and adaptation by NA groups

• increase in use of slave labor

• changes in British mercantlilist policies

the Triangle Trade

a complex trading network in the 1700s that involved Europe, Africa, and the Americas

• manufactured items from Europe

• kidnapped Africans from Africa

• raw materials from America

the Middle Passage

the grueling, often deadly journey of enslaved Africans to the New World in packed boats

raw materials in the colonies

• Virginia = tobacco

• Lower South = indigo and rice

• West Indies = sugar

• the interior = fur

• Middle Colonies = wheat and other cereal crops

• New England = fish and lumber

changes for Native Americans in face of increased contact with Europeans

• trade with Europeans — firearms, alcohol

• disease (smallpox, measles) kills many

  • Huron people in Ontario 1630s

• traditions eroded

• many communities often destroyed or relocated by warfare

salutary neglect

• early 1700s British policy that allowed the colonies to develop without excessive oversight

• after Brtisih attempted and failed to exert greater control over the colonies in the 1680s

mercantilism

• shaped colonial policy for major powers in the early modern world

• holds that a limited amount of wealth exists in the world

• nations should maximize their share of the wealth by accumulating precious metals

• this can be done by maintaining a favorable balance of trade — exports > imports

• colonies should purchase manufacted goods from the mother country rather than develop manufacturing themselves

Navigation Acts

• passed from the 1650s to the Revolution

• goal was to define the colonies as suppliers of raw materials to Britain and as markets for British manufactured items

• list of “enumerated goods” and staple crops that could only be shipped to Britain

• restricted colonial manufacturing

1700s British attempts to take imperial control of colonies

• almost all colonies were taken over and became royal colonies

• Navigation Acts

• Dominion of New England

Dominion of New England

• after King Philip’s War, Charles II’s agents sent to investigate New England found colonists weren’t adhering to mercantilist laws

• 1686 charters of all NE colonies revoked, forming the Dominion of New England

• Sir Edmund Andros was royal appointed governor

• 1689 colonists inspired by the Glorious Revolution (1688) arrest Andros and get rid of the Dominion

the Beaver Wars

• 1640-1701 wars over the fur trade

• Algonquian-speaking peoples allied with the French vs. the Iroquois Confederacy with the Dutch (and British after 1664)

• Iroquois expanded, Huron suffered

• firearms made warfare more intense

• demonstrates destabilizing influence of trade and European firepower on NA relations

French and Indian Wars

• 1688-1763 conflicts for control of N. America

• King William’s War (1688-1697), Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713), King George’s War (1744-1748) — indecisive, grew out of European conflicts

• fourth— the French and Indian War (1754-1763)— was most decisive and originated in N. America

• British vs. French — and their Native American allies

Pequot War

• 1634-1638 New England

• Puritans moved farther inland

• MA Bay and Plymouth with the Narragansett and Mohegan peoples defeated the Pequots

• contributed to virtual elimination of a cohesive native presence in New England

King Philip’s War

• 1675-1678 New England

• Pilgrims with the Mohawks vs. the Wampanoags led by Metacomet

• cause was colonist expansion onto Wampanoag lands and the 1675 execution of 3 Wampanoags who killed a Christianized Wampanoag

• deadly on both sides

• Metacomet was killed by Mohawks

“praying Indians”

Native Americans who converted to Christianity

• still seen by Puritans as second-class citizens

• Puritan “praying towns” imposed English practices and didn’t accept NA traditions

English idea of racial supremacy

• as colonies grew, colonists wanted to acquire land, not keep peace with Native Americans

• saw NAs as savages

• justified continued exploitation of NA lands

Pueblo Revolt (Pope’s Rebellion)

• 1680 Santa Fe, NM

• Pueblos resentful of Spanish encomienda system and outlawing of Pueblo religious practices

• led to Spain conceded to Pueblos more

  • defender of rights, culture allowed, some land granted

development of British slavery

• slavery developed to meet labor demands of wealthy planters

• more prominent in the Chesapeake, the South, and West Indies

Bacon’s Rebellion

• 1676 Virginia

• caused by governor William Berkeley refusing to help former indentured servants fight the Native Americans on the frontier

• small planter Nathaniel Bacon led fronier farmers into Jamestown to burn elite planters’ homes and the capital building

• caused elite planters to turn increasingly to African slavery

the nature of slavery in British North America

• slavery became a lifelong permanent institution

• children inherit mother’s status — sanctioned rape of black enslaved women by white owners

• white Virginians saw race as indicator of status more

Stono Rebellion

• 1739 South Carolina

• slaves attacked and obtained weapons from a country store, killed slave owners and plundered plantations

• quickly put down — participants’ heads placed on mileposts along the road

forms of resistance to slavery

• overt — violent rebellion

• covert — working slowly, breaking tools, maintaining cultural practices

the Great Awakening

• 1730s-1740s

• religious resurgence in response to declines in church membership and the Enlightenment

• English minister George Whitefield held revival meetings

• Congregationalist minister Jonathan Edwards wrote “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

• core message: anyone can be saved and people can make choices to affect their afterlife

  • contrast with Puritans

  • more egalitarian and democratic

other religious denominations in the colonies

• the Great Awakening led to the creation of the Baptist and Methodist churches

• immigrants brought other denominations in

  • Germans in backcountry of PA, NY, and the South brought Luterhanism, Calvinism, etc.

  • urban centers had diverse populations - Sephardic Jews

deism

• Enlightenment idea

• God created the world but left it to function on its own

• belief of many educated colonists in the 1700s

colonies’ efforts to emulate Britain

• Americans sent boys to British schools

• wanted to acquire British-made goods

• pioneering ways of 1600s —> consumerist culture of 1700s

• connection to Britain elevated colonists’ status

trans-Atlantic print culture

• high literacy rate in colonies

• rise in printers and newspapers in early 1700s

• both European and local affairs covered

Anglicanism and the Enlightenment

• internal strife in the Anglican Church 1600s-1700s

  • conservative High Church vs Enlightenment rationalism reform-minded Low Church

• Low Church spread to the colonies

religious toleration in the colonies

• toleration had European roots

  • French Edict of Nantes (1598) allowed Protestant Huguenots

  • John Locke, Voltaire advocated toleration

• Maryland Act of Religious Toleration in 1649 granted rights to most Christian denominations

colonial dissatisfaction

• late 1600s - early/mid 1700s

• upset because of Dominion of New England (1686-88)

• rebellious governments established (briefly) in NY and MD

• colonists didn’t like losing the autonomy they were used to as Britain tried to reaffirm control

John Locke

• English political theorist during Enlightenment

• insisted that government should protect “natural rights” (life, liberty, property)

• influenced colonists’ idea of the legitimacy of self government

the Country Party

British writers and reformers who criticized the British government

• “Cato’s Letters” were read by colonists

• ideas became popular among colonists — gave framework for grievances against imperial system

Zenger libel trial

• 1735 NYC newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger was charged with libel for printing articles critical of the royal governor

• Zenger acquitted by jury based on him having the right to print such articles because they were truthful

• resulted in more newspapers being willing to criticize royal authorities — colonies valued free press