APUSH Chapters 2 and 3: The Colonies

Britain wants to get in on the action

• Protestant Reformation had prevented Britain from exploring New World they get involved when Queen Elizabeth comes to power, starts exploring North America (Spanish hasn't conquered)

• Sir Walter Raleigh tries to est. Roanoke Island; failed British attempt at colonization

• Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, plundering Spanish settlements shows Britain is jealous of Spanish dominance, increases tensions

• Leads to Spanish Armada (1588) → British defeat means new naval dominance and the decline of the Spanish empire

• primogeniture, the law that only the eldest sons could inherit land, sent younger sons in search of wealth in the New World

• Virginia Company was a joint stock company, where investors pooled capital to fund exploration.

  • VA gets charter from King James I for settlement in N. World
  • Jamestown est. in 1607
  • Saved from collapse during the starving time by Captain John Smith.

Conflict with the Native: Anglo-Powhatan Wars

1. Lord de La Warr attacks the natives, raiding and burning villages → ends in a peace settlement, and Pocahontas marries John Rolfe
2. Natives tried to dislodge colonists but fail. Banished natives from ancestral land → no hope for peaceful assimilation/coexistence, precursor.to reservation system

Chesapeake + Southern Colonies

• John Rolfe creates the tobacco industry in Virginia → cash crop stimulated the economy → push for more land (and people to work it) leads to westward expansion and conflict with settlers
• House of Burgesses in VA is the 1st real form of self govt. in the colonies → King James disapproves.
• Maryland's Act of Toleration allowed any person who worshipped Jesus to live there, providing shelter to Roman Catholics
• Georgia, est. by James Oglethorpe is a buffer colony between Spanish F and French Louisiana, who constantly fought. Also haven for debtors.

Britain expands to the West Indies

• hot climate provided perfect conditions for growing sugarcane
• African slaves imported to work the land → Barbados slave codes → used to strip away fundamental rights
• Codes brought to America would lay the foundation for slavery

Cont.

• After internal conflict, British goes on to colonize the Carolinas -South Carolina prospers because of close economic ties with the sugar islands in West Indies
• tried to enslave natives
  • brutal massacre
• rice became cash crop
  • African slaves needed
• North Carolina was filled with squatters, poverty-stricken people with differing religious beliefs that didn't fit in the Virginian plantation elite.
• Tuscarora War and Yamasee Indians encounter show bad native relations in the South

Takeaways:

• plantation elite control colonial politics, wealthy due to cash crop economy based on exporting commercial agricultural products» need to expand westward
• some religious tolerance, but Anglican Church was dominant
• male dominated, defined hierarchy of status → backcountry farmers vs. plantation elite
• labor systems SHIFT from indentured servitude to slavery after Bacon's rebellion

Northern + Middle Colonies

• Many of the first settlers went to the South for wealth, while other emigrated North for religious freedom.
• Prominent ideas: Calvinism: based on the theological teachings on John Calvin, it believed in predestination: said God determineda person's fate, for better or worse.
• Although their fate was irreversible, some Calvinists believed they were destined for salvation and led their lives, literally, with a "holier than thou'attitude.
• Conversion: intense religious experience where a person claimed God told them they were destined to salvation.
• Puritans: wanted to purify the Anglican Church, believed only those who had converted should be given church membership
• Pilgrim/Separatists: wanted to seperate from Church
• led to Mayflower Compact: 1st democratic agreement est. basic self govt settle in the MA Bay Colony.
• Great Migration: thousands of refugees flee religious persecution in England, want to establish a model Christian society
• Massachusetts Bay Colony est, John Winthrop is the 1st governor. Wants "City upon a Hill" holy utopia
• RESISTANCE: Anne Hutchinson challenged the Orthodox ideas of predestination banished
  • Roger Williams wanted separation of church and state denied, created Rhode Island haven for religious dissenters
  • William Penn creates Pennsylvania, haven for Quakers. Maintained friendly relations with natives and women.
  • "Holy Experiment" very liberal
• Connecticut: Fundamental Orders laid the basis for their state constitution. Pequot War led to the brutal massacre of Pequot Indians shows growing tensions due to English expansion.
  • King Philip's War: native chief Metacom creates an intertribal alliance to coordinate assaults on New England settlements slowed expansion but ultimately failed.
• A Dutch colony, New Amsterdam, was taken over by Britain and became present day New York Britain has complete control over the eastern seaboard, no more foreign 'wedge.
• Northern and Middle Colonies developed a mixed, manufacturing economy

New England Confederation: created by northeastern colonies for intercolonial affairs and better defense while England was occupied with its Civil War -first steps at colonial unity

Dominion of New England: run by the British Edmund Andros, made to bolster defense in the event of war and enforce the despised Navigation Laws which restricted colonies trade with countries the British crown → led to smuggling

The Glorious Revolution in England inspired the colonies to Overthrow Edmund Andros → MA becomes a royal colony, but Britain also uses salutary neglect to calm down the colonists.

Takeaways

• Puritan religious motives for colonization facilitated by Great Migration (lohn Winthrop's "City Upon a Hill" utopia).
• Know New England Confederation vs Dominion of New England (Edmund Andros)
• NO RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE; banished Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams for rejecting norms
• Mixed economy: some agriculture (no cash crops), trade, shipbuilding aren't reliant solely on agricultural like the South is.
• White church going males had the most influence in colonial politics because they were the 'elect' and therefore considered the most capable.
• Middle Colonies were more religiously tolerant and remained friendly to natives and women.