Period 2: Colonization of North America

The English were among the last major European powers to establish colonies in the New World.

Focuses on English colonization and its differences compared to Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization.
Covers the 13 colonies, their regional characteristics, and interactions between the British, colonists, and French.

Key Idea: Spanish, British, French, and Dutch utilized different methods for colonizing the New World

Main Goal: Spreading Christianity (though they also sought gold and glory)
Key Events/Systems:
- Columbus's voyages.
- Columbian Exchange.
- Treaty of Tordesillas: Divided the world into hemispheres between Portugal and Spain.
- Encomienda system.
- Mercantilism: Colonies provide raw materials to the mother country, which then produces goods and sells them back to the colonies.
- Spanish missionary system: Focused on converting Native Americans to Christianity.
- Caste system.
- Pueblo Revolt: Modified Spanish practices within their empire.
Location: Mexico, Central America, and the Southwest (modern-day New Mexico, Arizona).
Primary Resources: Rice, sugar, gold, and silver.

Main Goal: Trade, especially the fur trade.
Dutch:
- Established New York (New Amsterdam).
- Dutch West and East India Companies: Focused on increasing trade in fur, raw materials, gold, and silver.
French:
- Established trade posts in the Ohio River Valley (Midwest America).
- Low population in New France.
- Fur Trade: Focused on beaver pelts.
- Positive trading relationships with Native Americans, including intermarriage.
- This relationship led Native Americans to side with the French during the French and Indian War.
Primary Trading Material: Beaver fur

Emergence: After the decline of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England began to build its navy and compete for North American resources.
Main Goal: Creating neo-European societies, transplanting English society to the New World.
Objectives: Farming (cash crops in the South), shipbuilding, and establishing permanent settlements.
Relationships with Native Americans: Hostile.
Settlement Patterns: Large numbers of permanent settlers, including both men and women, though the gender ratio varied by region.
Southern colonies: Initially, mostly men seeking profit (e.g., Virginia).
Massachusetts: More balanced gender distribution with whole families seeking religious freedom.
First permanent English settlement: Jamestown (1607).

Settled by Puritans (Pilgrims and Separatists) seeking to purify the English Church.
Key Aspects:
- Mayflower Compact (1620): An early agreement for self-government, establishing a relationship between the people and the government.
  - An early form of democracy in America.
- City Upon a Hill: John Winthrop's vision (1630) of creating an ideal moral society, an example for others to follow.
  - An early expression of American exceptionalism.
- Town Hall Meetings: Direct democracy where citizens debated issues and made community rules. Participation was broad, not limited to landowners.
- Religious Intolerance: Initially, they were not religiously tolerant (e.g., expulsion of Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams).
- Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson: Expelled and founded Rhode Island (1636), which had religious toleration.

Chesapeake Colonies: Virginia and Maryland
Virginia:
- Established for economic growth by the Virginia Joint Stock Company.
- Key Figures:
  - John Smith: Saved the colony from collapse.
  - John Rolfe: Perfected tobacco growing (1612), providing an economic base for the colony.
- Labor Force: Initially indentured servants, but later transitioned to enslaved Africans.
- Indentured Servants: People who contracted to work for 4-7 years in exchange for passage to the New World and eventual freedom.
- Bacon's Rebellion (1676): Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against the Virginia government due to mistreatment of the poor.
  - Led to a shift from indentured servitude to race-based slavery.
- Virginia House of Burgesses (1619): A representative democracy, though initially dominated by land owners.
Southern Colonies (South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina):
- Plantation economies focused on tobacco, rice, and indigo.
- Involvement in the West Indies slave trade.
- Strict social hierarchy based on land ownership.
- Headright System: Plantation owners received more land (up to 50 acres) for each indentured servant they sponsored, leading to the expansion of plantations and slavery.

Expansion into Native American Lands: Europeans, mainly the English, sought land, leading to violent confrontations with Native Americans.
- Pequot War (1636): War between the Pequot tribe and the English in the Connecticut River Valley. Ended with the Treaty of Hartford (1638).
  - The treaty resulted in the distribution of Pequot land to the English and the destruction of Pequot identity.
- King Philip's War (1675-1676)
- Anglo-Powhatan Wars
Rebellions Against Slavery
- Stono Rebellion (1739): A major slave uprising in South Carolina.
  - Led to stricter slave codes that further restricted the rights of enslaved people.
- Barbados Slave Code (1661)
Slavery in the Colonies
- Slavery existed in all English colonies, though it was concentrated in the Southern colonies.

Strict racial hierarchy in all colonies, especially in the South.
Chattel slavery: Enslaved people were treated as property, with slave codes defining the rights of owners and the lack of rights for the enslaved.
- Created in 1619 and expanded throughout this time period over to 1754.
White supremacy and racial/cultural superiority were integral to the system.
Even free African Americans faced discrimination and were treated as second-class citizens.
Resistance to Slavery:
- Overt resistance: Slave rebellions.
- Covert resistance: Slowing down work, breaking tools, running away.
The Middle Passage: The transatlantic journey from West Africa to the Americas, marked by dehumanizing conditions, disease, and death.

The First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s):
- A religious revival aimed at renewing religious engagement.
- Led to new Christian sects, such as Baptists and Methodists.
- Differed from later awakenings by lacking an age of reform, focusing more on religious change rather than addressing social and economic problems.
The Enlightenment:
- European philosophical movement emphasizing reason and individualism.
- Key Philosophers: John Locke (natural rights), Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire.
- Spread via print culture (printing press).
- Impacted ideas about government, natural rights, and social contracts in both Europe and the Americas.