Lecture 7: Early English, French, and Dutch Exploration

Early English, French, and Dutch Exploration

News of Columbus' voyages quickly reached European courts.
John II of Portugal even hosted Columbus before he reached Ferdinand and Isabella in 1493.
European monarchs soon followed Columbus' lead, sending explorers of their own.

English Exploration

Within four years of Columbus' first voyage, King Henry VII sent John Cabot (a Venetian navigator) to explore North America's northern regions.
Cabot aimed to find an English route to the eastern spices.
England's northern location made spices expensive due to its position at the "end of the spice line."
Spices like peppercorns, cloves, and nutmeg were essential for masking the taste of spoiled meat.
Cabot's expedition held the promise of direct English access to the Asian spice trade.
Henry VII promised Cabot political and economic powers over discovered lands but didn't fund the voyage.
Cabot bore the costs, resulting in a smaller ship (the Matthew) and a crew of only 18.
Despite its size, the Matthew was fast, holding the Atlantic speed record for over a century (11 weeks for crossing and re-crossing).
In June 1497, Cabot landed in Newfoundland.
Historians speculate he landed near L'Anse aux Meadows, which Leif Ericsson settled centuries earlier.
Few of Cabot's maps or papers remain.
Cabot's second voyage in 1498, with five ships and a Spanish priest (a former Columbus sailor) in the crew, ended in his disappearance with his entire crew.
Historian Polydore Vergil wrote that Cabot "found his new lands only in the ocean’s bottom".
In 1501 and 1509, the English returned to Newfoundland.
The 1501 voyage brought back three Natives, described as being “clothed in beast’s skin.”
Sebastian Cabot, John Cabot's son, likely led the 1509 expedition to find a Northwest Passage to Asia.
The belief was that a northern water route to the Pacific Ocean existed.
The search wasn't limited to the English.
Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, first transited the Northwest Passage by boat and dogsled in 1906.
The nuclear submarine Nautilus made the journey via water in 1959.
English exploration slowed after 1509, as Henry VIII prioritized continental affairs.
The English Reformation also contributed to the slowdown. Only John Rut (1527) and Richard Hore (1536) led major expeditions.
Richard Hore’s 1536 voyage intended to combine cod fishing with a transatlantic pleasure cruise.
Two ships carried gentlemen seeking a glimpse of the New World.
One ship was lost, while the other cruised Newfoundland, where passengers hunted bears.
Food shortages led to cannibalism.
The Englishmen were saved by capturing a French ship.
Hore, a "rascal", later extorted money from passengers he was meant to transport.
Transatlantic exploration resumed under Elizabeth I.
Instead of colonizing, the English aimed to weaken the Spanish empire via attacks by sea dogs (legalized pirates) on Spanish treasure fleets.
The sea dogs seized cargos and sank ships, disrupting Spanish power.
Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in 1577, plundering Spanish ships along the way.
He sailed up the Pacific coast, terrorized the Spanish in the Philippines and Moluccas, and returned to England with spices and silver.
Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, angering the Spanish.
John Hawkins forced his way into the Spanish slave trade, stealing Africans and forcing Spanish settlers to buy them.
Sea dog activities reflected England's economic condition—a small, ill-equipped merchant marine and a financially unprepared crown.
Spain retaliated by sending the Spanish Armada (130 ships) to invade England in 1588.
A storm scattered the Armada, an event the English attributed to divine intervention (“Protestant Wind”).
Humphrey Gilbert proposed fortified outposts to confine the Spanish and convert Native Americans to Protestantism.
He received a royal patent but disappeared at sea in 1583.
English strategies in Ireland served as a model for their actions in the New World.
The English offered the Old Irish subjugation under the English or violent removal from their lands.
The English believed it was their religious duty to convert the Irish to Protestantism and that the Irish had forfeited their land rights.
Walter Raleigh, active in the Irish conquest, secured Gilbert's patent to explore and colonize the New World.
In 1584, Raleigh sent an expedition led by Thomas Harriot and John White that landed in Puerto Rico then explored the Carolina coast and Roanoke Island.
The English traded with the local Roanoke peoples and were impressed by the land's potential.
Chief Wingina sent Manteo and Wanchese back to England with the English.
Back in England, Richard Hakluyt the Elder promoted colonization in his Discourse of Western Planting, echoing arguments used for the settlement of Ireland.
Hakluyt argued that colonization would convert Native Americans, generate wealth, and thwart Spanish ambitions.
Raleigh sought royal support, naming the colony Virginia after Queen Elizabeth, but she declined to fund the mission.
A second expedition in 1585, led by Sir Richard Grenville, sought Spanish plunder in the Caribbean en route to Roanoke.
Grenville left 100 men, led by Captain Ralph Lane, on Roanoke Island, including John White and Thomas Harriot.
Metallurgists accompanied to certify precious metals.
Manteo assisted as an interpreter, while Wanchese discouraged cooperation.
John White created watercolor drawings of Native Americans, showcasing their humanity and culture.
Theodor de Bry later made engravings based on White’s drawings to illustrate Harriot's account.
These depictions fostered a positive view of Native Americans, later reversed when the English needed to justify dispossession.
White’s watercolors are now widely accessible and used in historical recreations.
Tensions arose between the English and Roanoke natives due to food shortages.
Chief Wingina changed his name to Pemisapan, signaling wariness. Ralph Lane attacked the natives and killed Pemisapan.
The natives retaliated by withdrawing and taking their food supplies.
Sir Francis Drake’s arrival led Lane and his men to abandon the colony.
In 1587, Raleigh sent another group of settlers, led by John White, to establish the City of Raleigh on Roanoke Island.
They built posthole houses with earth floors and thatched roofs.
Food shortages persisted. John White’s daughter gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in North America.
In August 1527, John White’s daughter gave birth to the first English child born in North America named Virginia.
John White returned to England for supplies, but the Spanish Armada delayed his return until 1591.
He found no trace of the settlers. The letters "CRO" carved into a tree and the word "Croatan" suggested they had moved south to the Croatan peoples.
White lacked the resources to search and returned to England. Raleigh, out of favor with the Queen, couldn’t fund a rescue mission.
The fate of the Roanoke settlers remains a mystery.
A drought may have strained resources, or the natives may have killed the colonists.
The lack of distress sign suggests the settlers moved south and were absorbed into native groups.
Reports of fair-skinned, blue-eyed Native Americans in Chesapeake Bay surfaced when the English landed at Jamestown in 1607, but no Roanoke settlers were found.
Roanoke Island is now a tourist destination, with a musical drama called The Lost Colony recreating the settlers' story.

French Exploration

France also sought colonies and wealth.
King Francois I sent Giovanni da Verranzano in 1524 to explore the Atlantic coast.
Verranzano sailed from the Carolinas to Nova Scotia, comparing a beautiful hill to Arcadia.
Historian Samuel Eliot Morrison believed that Verranzano’s Arcadia was Kill Devil Hill but it was discovered by the Wright brothers.
Verranzano abducted a Native child to take back to France.
He sailed into New York harbor and named an island in Narragansett Bay Rhode Island.
Native Americans traded with Verranzano, except in Maine, where they resisted with arrows (Land of Bad People).
Verranzano’s voyages suggested a new continent, not Asia.
He sought a Northwest Passage and heard of a city, Norumbega.
Verranzano was killed and eaten by Natives on Guadaloupe in 1528.
Jacques Cartier, in 1534, explored the St. Lawrence River seeking a Northwest Passage.
His impression of the rocky coasts of Labrador led him to remark, “I am rather inclined to believe that this is the land God gave to Cain.”
In 1535-36, he wintered at Quebec, enduring harsh conditions.
Cartier relied on relations with the Native leader Donnaconna.
Cartier abducted Donnaconna and others to take back to France as gifts to the French king.
None of them ever returned to Canada.
Cartier established a French outpost at Quebec, which was abandoned due to harsh winters.
French privateers (corsairs) harassed Spanish shipping, capturing Aztec treasures as early as 1522.
They plundered the Spanish in the Caribbean and Portuguese Brazil.
The French Wars of Religion slowed French exploration.
In 1562, Jean Ribault led Huguenot refugees to Parris Island, South Carolina.
In 1564, they relocated to Fort Caroline, Florida.
The Spanish, led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles destroyed Fort Caroline and killed over 130 French residents.
De Aviles established St. Augustine, a permanent Spanish settlement.
The French established strong presence in seasonal fishing camps along Canada’s Grand Banks.
French fur trappers established intercultural negotiation, often living among Native groups. The fur trade became the basis for French success.
From 1550s to 1840s, beaver felt remained a staple in men's hats.
By the 1570s, these unofficial fishing and trading communities were producing healthy profits for French merchants.
Beginning in 1604, Samuel de Champlain attempted to establish a permanent French settlement.
In 1608, Champlain established a settlement at Quebec City.
Champlain allied with the Huron near Quebec extending into the Great Lakes region. At the time of Champlain’s arrival, historians estimate Huron population at 40,000 people.
The French profited from this alliance, gaining access to high-quality furs.
The French-Huron alliance transformed Native American approaches to beaver hunting. Beavers were hunted to near extinction.
Native hunters received European trade goods, including muskets, textiles, and alcohol.
Textile shirts were readily accepted whereas pants were not.
The French alliance with the Huron pledged to defend the Huron from their enemies, the Iroquois.
Champlain fought alongside the Huron against the Mohawk (Iroquois) introducing European weapons into Native warfare.
This evolved fur trade warfare after the French arrived. Fur trade rivalries intensified warfare.
The Iroquois allied with the Dutch and later the English.
The fur trade influenced the French exploration of New France. French traders followed the rivers and lakes deep into the interior in search of new and cheaper pelts.
Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette gained French claim to the entire Mississippi River Valley from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico from their 1673 expedition.
In contrast to the thirteen English colonies clinging to the Atlantic Coast, New France was massive.
The population of New France remained small and largely centered in the area between Quebec and Montreal. At a time when the population of British North America hovered around 1.5 million, only 80,000 people lived in New France.
French missionaries went to convert Native Americans to the Catholic faith. They wanted to present Christian teachings from within the cultural context of indigenous societies.
The French sent Jesuit missionaries far into the interior of New France reaching remote Native groups.
New France extended to the Caribbean, whose economic engines were major sugar producing islands. These islands were Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Domingue, St. Lucia, and others.

Dutch Exploration

Dutch exploration came later than Spanish, English, or French efforts.
Because of the Netherlands was locked in an eighty-year war of independence with Spain, its exploratory efforts started a century after France, England, and Spain.
In 1609, the Dutch East India Company sent Henry Hudson to explore the east coast of North America. Hudson sailed up the Hudson River and claimed the territory for the Dutch.
In 1610, Hudson went back to the New World on an English ship after being arrested for sailing for the Dutch.
Hudson spent the winter in Hudson Bay in northern Canada. When his boat finally broke free from the ice in the Spring, his men mutinied and set Hudson, his young son, and a few other loyal members of the crew adrift in an open boat. They were never seen again.
Henry Hudson's crew were imagined to be gathering to play nine pins in a remote valley in Washington Irving's story, Rip Van Winkle.
Hudson's voyages gave the Dutch a claim to the Hudson River Valley and the English a claim to Hudson Bay.
The East India Company established a trading post at Fort Orange and forts on the Delaware and Connecticut Rivers.
The trading post became New Netherland.
The East India Company split in two in 1621, with its American operations going under the name the West India Company.
They invested heavily in the African slave trade.
The Dutch West India Company established a fort at New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
In 1626, Peter Minuit “bought” Manhattan from a local Native group for 60 guilders. Now the equivalent of $24.
In 1629, the Company offered land grants to patroons, who pledged to settle the land with at least 50 tenant workers. The patroon system was unpopular. Only five patroons attempted to employ the system and four of them failed.
The failure of the patroon system demonstrated that few Dutch people were willing to come to the New World.
By 1643, New Amsterdam had sizeable populations of Catholics, Puritans, Lutherans, and Anabaptists. In 1650’s, Quakers and Jews arrived in the colony. By 1664, 1/10 of the population of New Netherland was enslaved.
Early on, it was insisted that all settlers be Calvinists. A lack of settlers made them embrace religious toleration.
Dutch law made manumission more accessible.
Many slaves achieved a state of “half-freedom” where they worked part-time for the West India Company. Manumission laws were more accessible under Dutch laws, but marriage laws were also more equitable.
Married women in New Netherland could own property and engage in business in their own names. This legal standard was far different from English concept of coverture in which women’s legal and economic identities were “covered” by their husband.
The government of the colony was highly autocratic while residents of New Netherland certainly enjoyed greater religious toleration, access to manumission, and women’s rights than their English neighbors.
The Dutch West India Company gave complete control of the colony to an appointed governor.
After Governor Peter Stuyvesant proved to be too autocratic even for the company, the West India Company agreed to moderate the governor’s power with an appointed city council.
Stuyvesant promptly appointed his friends to the council.
Stuyvesant specified the price and ingredients of every loaf of bread and tried to block Dutch Jews from settling in New Amsterdam.
Throughout his time as governor, Stuyvesant focused on colonial defense.
Stuyvesant rightly appreciated New Netherland’s precarious geographic position between imperial powers.
In 1638, Dutch merchants backed a the founding of New Sweden, a small colony of Swedish and Finish settlers on the west bank of the Delaware River.
New Netherlands also had competition from English Puritans moving onto Long Island and settlers in the Delaware River Valley.
A colony of Swedish settlers also threatened New Netherland.
The first leader of New Sweden was the former governor of New Netherland, Peter Minuit.
The Swedish and Finnish immigrants to New Sweden brought their Lutheran faith and enough rye and hops to open several breweries.
They also brought the log cabin that was built by Finish immigrants. The earliest surviving log cabin in the United States can still be seen in Gibbstown, New Jersey and was built between 1638 and 1643.
The Nothnagle Cabin was put on the market in 2018 for 2.8
million dollars.
Peter Stuyvesant marched on New Sweden in 1655 and annexed it.
Like New France, New Netherland participated in the fur trade.
After 1639, the West India Company opened the fur trade to any resident in the colony between the Dutch and their Iroquois allies that flowed up the Hudson River.
The West India Company opened the fur trade to any resident in the colony. The Mohawk, a member of the Iroquois Confederacy, were the primary trading partners with the Dutch.
The quest for beaver pelts drew the Mohawk further west. The loss of Mohawk warriors in these conflictys led to an intensification of Mourning Wars from the 1620s through the 1640s in which the Mohawks sought captives to replace their depleted ranks.
The effects of smallpox, and other European diseases, only exacerbated the mourning wars.
The Mohawk alliance with the Dutch threatened to sever the Iroquois Confederacy.
Other Iroquois groups, including the Onondagas, were making signs of joining the French.
The Onondaga leader Garacontie was a master diplomat and saved 88 French captives from death over the course of his life.
Garacontie invited Jesuit [French] missionaries to his villages, and used them as hostages and go-betweens with the French.
The Iroquois remained united to each other and with the Dutch.
In 1664, English ships sailed into the harbor at New Amsterdam and claimed New Netherland as an English province. Dutch names remained on the landscape.