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

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  • 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.

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