British Colonization

• Jamestown was the first successful English Town in the United States

• Roanoke was the first settlement that failed

The Virginia Company

• Joint Stock Company - funded by money of investors (stocks)

• Mercantilism was the main driver of colonization

• Funded a trip to create a colony in North America (3 ships which founded Jamestown) → Expected to receive gold, silver, and wealth

Jamestown

• Was considered a failure, due to disease and starvation (The Starving Time 1609-1610)

• Mining for gold, due to company demands

• Began growing tobacco → Cash crops were the main source of income for the British empire

• English and Native Americans were in constant conflict

  • Jamestown Massacre: Native Americans raided the Jamestown settlements, killing many colonists

• Indentured servants made up the majority of settlers

  • Wealthy investors would pay for passage and expected labour in return

• Headright System

  • Any person who moved to Virginia received 50 acres

  • Plus 50 more paying a person’s passage

• Chesapeake Region: Virginia and Maryland

• Primogeniture: Only first-born sons receive land in England

• Many people came to the New World for many reasons

• Chesapeake: Wealthy landowners

• New England: Pilgrims, puritans escaping religious persecution

Pilgrims and Puritans

• Pilgrims and Puritans are not the same

  • Both:

    • Protestant sects

    • Travel to America to escape religious persecution

    • Believe in predestination

    • Originally settled in Massachusetts

    • Anglican Church has too many remnants of Catholicism

• Pilgrims: Separated from the Anglican Church, settled at Plymouth

• Puritans: Remained within the Church of England → believed in reforms of the church

  • Settled at the City Upon a Hill (Massachusetts)

Mayflower Compact

• Agreement signed by the males on the Mayflower in 1620

  • One should follow the community’s rules and show allegiance to the king

  • Made by the people → Common men created and signed the compact

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• 1000 Puritans came to settle in Massachusetts Bay

• Came with money and resources → Did not struggle like the Plymouth colony

• 1640: 20,000 Puritans, 2,600 Pilgrims in Plymouth, Puritans dominated society in Massachusetts

City Upon A Hill (Boston)

• Created in 1630 by John Winthrop: A model city, a “beacon of hope”

• Families settled in New England

• Puritans were literate → Protestants believed in reading the Bible

• Puritans were extremely religious → attending church, strict religious laws

The Representation

• Usually contained a lower and upper house

• Most participants were wealthy white men

House of Burgesses

• Created in 1619

• The HoB met with the Governor and the Council of State

• The HoB created/approved taxes and planned how the colony’s taxes would be spent

Mercantilism

• Goal: Benefit the mother country

• The world’s wealth is fixed in material wealth, gold and silver

• Decreasing imports and increasing exports

• Raw materials are taken to Europe and turned into manufactured goods

• Manufactured goods are sold back to the colonies or Africa

• Colonies do not trade with each other

• Trade is restricted between colonies, the mother country gets to impose their taxes

Navigation Acts of 1651

1. All goods shipped to or from the colonies had to travel on English ships

2. Most colonial resources could only be exported to England

   1. Then they would be re-exported to other European nations at the profit of the Mother country

Effects:

1. Restricted the profits colonists could receive

2. Hindered the development of large-scale manufacturing

3. Forced colonists to pay high prices for goods

4. Led to an increase in smuggling

Salutary Neglect

• British policy of relaxed the enforcement of laws

• Menat to keep British colonies obedient to the mother country

• Practised until the end of the French and Indian War in 1763

• As long the colonies are paying up, we are not going to be as hard on them