1.1: Cultural Diversity in the Americas When Columbus reached the Americas, the existing cultures varied greatly, partially because of differences i

1.1: Cultural Diversity in the Americas When Columbus reached the 

Americas, the existing cultures varied greatly, partially because of differences 

in geography and climate. Each culture developed distinctive traits in response 

to its environment, from tropical islands where sugar grew to forests rich in 

animal life to land with fertile soil for growing corn (maize). Native Americans 

also transformed their environments. For example, people in dry regions 

created irrigation systems, while those in forested regions used fire to clear 

land for agriculture. 

Motives for Exploration The European explorers in the Americas—

first the Spanish and Portuguese, then the French and Dutch, and later the 

English—competed for land in the Americas. Some were motivated by desires 

to spread Christianity. Others hoped to become wealthy by finding an all-water 

route to Asia, establishing fur-trading posts, operating gold and silver mines, 

or developing plantations. Europeans often relied on violence to subdue or 

drive away native inhabitants.

Transatlantic Exchange Contact between Europeans and the natives of 

America touched off a transatlantic trade in animals, plants, and germs known 

as the Columbian Exchange that altered life for people around the globe.

Crops originally from America such as corn (maize), potatoes, and tomatoes 

revolutionized the diet of Europeans. However, germs that had developed in 

Europe caused epidemics in the Americas. Typically, the native population of 

a region declined by 90 percent within a century after the arrival of Europeans. 

Addition of Enslaved Africans Adding to the diversity of people in the 

Americas were enslaved Africans. They were brought to the Americas by 

Europeans who desired low-cost labor to work in mines and on plantations. 

Africans, like Native Americans, resisted European domination by maintaining 

elements of their cultures. The three groups influenced the others’ ideas and 

ways of life.

European Colonies Within a century of the arrival of Columbus, Spanish 

and Portuguese explorers and settlers developed colonies that depended on 

natives and enslaved Africans for labor in agriculture and mining precious 

metals. In particular, mines in Mexico and South America produced vast 

amounts of silver that made Spain the wealthiest European empire in the 16th 

and 17th centuries. 

1.2: Native American Societies Before European Contact:

 First Settlement - 10,000 to 40,000 years ago 

Land bridge - once connected Siberia and Alaska (allowed Asian migrants to Cross)

Cultures of Central and South America:

Mayas: (300 - 800)

• built cities on the Yucantán Peninsula

• Food supply = Maize

• Present-day Guatemala, Belize, a Southern Mexico

Aztecs:

• Capital - Tenochtitlán

• Food Supply - Maize

population of 200,000

Dominated Mexico and Central America

Incas

• food supply - potatoes

• Peru

• Strong control in Western Central America

Cultures of North America:

• Fewer People because of low spread of maize

• families - Algonquian (Northeast), Siovan (Plains), Athabaskan (Southwest)

• American Indian Languages - 20+ language families and 400+ distinct languages

Southwest settlements (Hohokam, Anasazi, Pueblos)

• maize Cultivation = economic growth = irrigation systems

• Current day New Mexico and Arizona

• Housing - caves, Under Cliffs, multifaceted buildings

• arid climate = Preserve cider stone and masonry dwellings

NorthWest Settlements: 

• Alaska to N. California:

• Housing - longhouses or Plank houses

• Diet - fishing, hunting, gathering

• Carved totem Poles → Preserve Stories

• high mountain ranges → isolated tribes → barriers of development

Great Basin and Great Plains:

• Dry Climate/grasslands → nomadic tribes & hunting

• lived in tepees

• 17th century → horses →> easily follow buffalo herds

→ Migration

Mississipp: River Valley

• Woodland American Indians → Permanent settlements in Mississippi and Ohio River Valley

• Cahokia: Largest settlements in the Midwest

Northeast settlements:

• Descendants Of Adena-Hopwell (Ohio) to New york

• Iroquois Confederation- Sereca, Cayuga, onondaya, Oneida, Mohawk, Tuscaroras together

Atlantic seaboard settlements:

• New Jersey south to Florida

• Cherokee & Lumbee

• Descendents of the woodland Mound builders → built timber and lodgings along rivers

1.3: Until the late 1400s, the people of the Americas carried on extensive trade 

with each other but had no connection to the people of Europe, Africa, and 

Asia. Similarly, Europeans, Africans, and Asians traded among themselves 

without knowing of the Americas. However, starting in the 1400s, religious and 

economic motives prompted Europeans to explore more widely than before. As 

a result, they brought the two parts of the world into contact with each other.

The European Context for Exploration

While Vikings from Scandinavia had visited Greenland and North America 

around the year 1000, these voyages had no lasting impact. Columbus’s voyages 

of exploration finally brought people into ongoing contact across the Atlantic. 

Several factors made sailing across the ocean and exploring distant regions 

possible and desirable in the late 15th century.

Changes in Thought and Technology

In Europe, a rebirth of classical learning prompted an outburst of artistic and 

scientific activity in the 15th and 16th centuries known as the Renaissance. 

Several of the technological advances during the Renaissance resulted from 

Europeans making improvements in the inventions of others. For example, 

Europeans began to use gunpowder (invented by the Chinese) and the 

sailing compass (adopted from Arab merchants who learned about it from 

the Chinese). Europeans also made major improvements in shipbuilding and 

mapmaking. In addition, the invention of the printing press in the 1450s aided 

the spread of knowledge across Europe. 

Religious Conflict

The later years of the Renaissance were a time of intense religious zeal and 

conflict. The Roman Catholic Church and its leader, known as the pope, had 

dominated most of Western Europe for centuries. However, in the 15th and 

16th centuries, their power was threatened by both Ottoman Turks, who were 

Muslims, and rebellious Christians who challenged the pope’s authority.

Catholic Victory in Spain In the 8th century, Islamic invaders from North 

Africa, known as Moors, rapidly conquered most of what is now Spain. Over 

the next several centuries, Spanish Christians reconquered much of the land 

and set up several independent kingdoms. Two of the largest of these kingdoms 

united when Isabella, queen of Castile, and Ferdinand, king of Aragon, 

married in 1469. In 1492, under the leadership of Isabella and Ferdinand, the 

Spanish conquered the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, the city of Granada. 

In that year, the monarchs also funded Christopher Columbus on his historic 

first voyage. The uniting of Spain under Isabella and Ferdinand, the conquest 

of Granada, and the launching of Columbus’s voyage signaled new leadership, 

hope, and power for Europeans who followed the Roman Catholic faith.

Protestant Revolt in Northern Europe In the early 1500s, certain 

Christians in Germany, England, France, Holland, and other northern 

European countries revolted against the authority of the pope in Rome. Their 

revolt was known as the Protestant Reformation. Conflict between Catholics 

and Protestants led to a series of religious wars that resulted in many millions 

of deaths in the 16th and 17th centuries. The conflict also caused the Roman 

Catholics of Spain and Portugal and the Protestants of England and Holland to 

want to spread their own versions of Christianity to people in Africa, Asia, and 

the Americas. Thus, a religious motive for exploration and colonization was 

added to political and economic motives.

Expanding Trade

Economic motives for exploration grew out of a fierce competition among 

European kingdoms for increased trade with Africa, India, and China. In 

the past, merchants had traveled from the Italian city-state of Venice and the 

Byzantine city of Constantinople on a long, slow, expensive overland route all 

the way to eastern China. This land route to Asia had become blocked in 1453 

when the Ottoman Turks seized control of Constantinople.

New Routes So the challenge to finding a new way to the rich Asian 

trade appeared to be by sailing either south along the West African coast and 

then east to China, or sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese 

realized the route south and east was the shortest path. Voyages of exploration 

sponsored by Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator eventually succeeded 

in opening up a long sea route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. 

In 1498, the Portuguese sea captain Vasco da Gama was the first European 

to reach India via this route. By this time, Columbus had attempted what he 

mistakenly believed would be a shorter route to Asia.

Slave Trading Since ancient times people in Europe, Africa, and Asia had 

enslaved people captured in wars. In the 15th century, the Portuguese began 

trading for enslaved people from West Africa. They used the enslaved workers 

on newly established sugar plantations on the Madeira and Azores islands off 

the African coast. Producing sugar with enslaved labor was so profitable that 

when Europeans later established colonies in the Americas, they used a similar 

system there. 

Developing Nation-States

Europe was also changing politically in the 15th century. 

• Small kingdoms were uniting into larger ones. For example, Castile and 

Aragon united to form the core of the modern country of Spain.

• Enormous multiethnic empires, such as the sprawling Holy Roman 

Empire in central Europe, were beginning to break up. For example, 

most of the small states that united to form the modern country of 

Germany in 1871 were once part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Replacing the small kingdoms and the multiethnic empires were nation-states, 

countries in which the majority of people shared both a common culture and 

common loyalty toward a central government. The monarchs of the emerging 

nation-states, such as Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain; Prince Henry the 

Navigator of Portugal; and similar monarchs of France, England, and the 

Netherlands depended on trade to bring in needed revenues and on the church 

to justify their right to rule. 

Dividing the Americas

The Western European monarchs used their power to search for riches abroad 

and to spread the influence of their version of Christianity to new overseas 

dominions. This led to competition for control of land in the Americas.

Spanish and Portuguese Claims Spain and Portugal were the first 

European kingdoms to claim territories in the Americas. Their claims 

overlapped, leading to disputes. The Catholic monarchs of the two countries 

turned to the pope to resolve their differences. In 1493, the pope drew a 

vertical, north-south line on a world map, called the line of demarcation. The 

pope granted Spain all lands to the west of the line and Portugal all lands to the 

east. 

In 1494, Spain and Portugal moved the pope’s line a few degrees to the 

west and signed an agreement called the Treaty of Tordesillas. The line passed 

through what is now the country of Brazil. This treaty, together with Portuguese 

explorations, established Portugal’s claim to Brazil. Spain claimed the rest of the 

Americas. However, other European countries soon challenged these claims.

English Claims England’s earliest claims to territory in the Americas rested 

on the voyages of John Cabot, an Italian sea captain who sailed under contract to 

England’s King Henry VII. Cabot explored the coast of Newfoundland in 1497.

England, however, did not immediately follow up Cabot’s discoveries with 

other expeditions of exploration and settlement. Other issues preoccupied 

England’s monarchy in the 1500s, most importantly the religious conflict that 

followed Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church. 

Later in the 16th century, England took more interest in distant affairs. In 

the 1570s and 1580s, under Queen Elizabeth I, England challenged Spanish 

shipping in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Sir Francis Drake, for 

example, attacked Spanish ships, seized the gold and silver that they carried, 

and even attacked Spanish settlements on the coast of Peru. Another English 

adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh, attempted to establish a colonial settlement at 

Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast in 1587, but the venture failed.

French Claims The French monarchy first showed interest in exploration 

in 1524 when it sponsored a voyage by an Italian navigator, Giovanni da 

Verrazzano. Hoping to find a northwest passage leading through the Americas 

to Asia, Verrazzano explored part of North America’s eastern coast, including 

the New York harbor. French claims to American territory were also based on 

the voyages of Jacques Cartier (1534–1542), who explored the St. Lawrence 

River extensively.

Like the English, the French were slow to develop colonies across the 

Atlantic. During the 1500s, the French monarchy was preoccupied with 

European wars as well as with internal religious conflict between Roman 

Catholics and French Protestants known as Huguenots. Only in the next 

century did France develop a strong interest in following up its claims to North 

American land.

1.4: Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration and Conquest 

Plans to reach Asia→ Columbus set Sail in August 1492 → reached the Bahamas in October → thought he found a new route to Asia

Voyages = 4 in total, explored parts of the Carribean,

Central America, and North Coast Of South America

Columbian Exchange:

• New Plants, animals a germs

• New technology - Wheel, iron implements, and guns

• New diseases- smallpox and Measles → native population declined from 22 million in 1492 to 4 million by Mid- l6th Century 

Capitalism-  economic system in Which Controls Capital (money and machinery)

• Commerce became more important

• Political power shifted from large landowners  to wealthy merchants

Joint stock Company: business owned  by a large number of investors

If a voyage failed → investors lost only what they invested → JSC encouraged investment → promoting economic growth

Impact on natives - led to loss of Culture, land, and even lives

Columbus: viewed as a Controversial figure with several arguing about his celebrations

1.5:Labor slavery  and Caste in the Spanish Colonial system:

• Hernán Cortes- Conquered the Aztecs in Mexico

• Francisco Pizarro- Conquered the Incas in peru

• Vasco Núñez de Balboa→ journey across the Isthmus of panama to th pacific Ocean- first European to see it

• Wealth- Gold & silver from Mexico and Peru made Spain the most powerful European kingdom (encouraged other states to look in the Americas)

Encomienda-surviving Indians controlled by this system (Spain's king granted natives  who lived on a tract of land to individual Spaniards.  Forced labor

Enslaved African labor → Enslaved Africans Shown to grow profitable Crops (seen by Portuguese) and replaced by Indians that died

Asiento system: required colonists to pay a tax to Spanish king on each enslaved person they imported to The Americas

Slave trade:

• ended in the late 188os

• 10 million - 15 million enslaved were sent from Africa

• 10 - 15% died during the Voyage across Atlantic Clean Called the Middle passage

African Resistance - resisted slavers by running away, revolting, or sabotaging work

Spanish Cate System: 

• Defined status by heritage 

• Top: pure-blooded Spaniards

• Middle: mixture of European, Native American, and African heritage

• Bottom: pure Indian or Black heritage

1.6: Cultural interaction in the Americas

European Treatment Of Native Americans

• Natives Viewed as inferior → exploited for economic gain → converted to Christianity → used as military allies

Bartolomó de Las Casas: Spanish Priest who owned Slaves → then advocated for better treatment → Persuaded the king to institute New Laws of 1542i

New Laws  Of 1542- ended Indian slavery → halted forced Indian labor → began to end the encomienda system

Valladolid Debate - debate over the role of Indians in Spanish Colonies

• in 1550-1551

• in valladold, spain

• Las Casas argued Indians are morally equal to europeans

• Juan Ginés de sepulveda argued Indians are less

• Neither Side Persuaded the entire audience

English policy:

• Arrived in the 1600s

• Came in families and diseases killing natives → Marriage with natives was lower

- Massachusetts → English and Natives Coexisted (trading Ideas) 

• Viewed natives as "savage" → Seized land → forced tribes to move

French policy:

• Viewed Natives as possible economic and military allies

• Maintained good relations unlike Spain and English groups

Fur trade: (St. Lawrence Valley → The Great Lakes → The Mississippi River).

• trading Posts built

• Traded With Natives for fur

Assistance:

• helped the Huron People to fight the Iroquois (Haudenosauree)

Survival Strategies by Native Americans:

• Ally With European Powers:

• Several Mexican tribes allied with the spanish to have freedom from the Aztecs (I6tn Century)

the

• Ohio River → Delawares and Shawnees allied with the

French against English encroachment

• Migrated west away from settlers

The Role of Africans in Americas:

• Contributed 1/3 of Cultural tradition

• brought musical rhythms and  styles

• experience growing rice → became an important Crop in South Carolina and Louisiana 

• Introduced the banjo → associated with Southeastern US Culture by the 19th century

Justification of slavery

• Cited from the Bible

• Believed they were biologically inferior

• Similar argument by Sepúlveda about Natives

1.7: The reasoning skill of “causation” is the suggested focus for evaluating the 

content of this period. As explained in the contextualization introduction to 

Period 1, there are many factors to consider in the broad topic of European 

encounters in the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. One needs to be 

able to describe what caused the Native Americans to develop diverse societies 

across the enormous and varied lands of North America. This appreciation 

of the status of Native Americans during this period will help to explain the 

specific developments when the Europeans came to explore what they saw as a 

“new world.” 

A number of factors had come together to explain the causes of the 

European explorations during this particular period. For example, both desires 

to spread Christianity and desires for economic gain. However, not all causes 

are equally significant. One task of a historian is to weigh the evidence to decide 

how much emphasis to place on each of these various causes. Among the most 

common differences among historians are debates over whether one cause was 

more important than another.

Note that causation implies that an event or development had an effect. The 

results of the contact are viewed by some as the Columbian Exchange, which 

explain both the short- and long-term impact not only on both sides of the 

Atlantic but on people throughout the world. Given the many factors involved, 

one can argue as to the historically significant effects on the various peoples 

involved on both sides of the Atlantic. 

2.1

 The period in the Americas from 1491 to 1607 was a time of European 

exploration, dominated by the Spanish. In the period from 1607 to 1754, 

exploration began giving way to expanding colonization. In North America, 

the Spanish, French, Dutch, and British established colonies, with the British 

dominating the region from Canada to the Caribbean islands. In particular, 

the British established 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast. Most of these 

provided a profitable trade and a home to a diverse group of Native Americans, 

Europeans, and Africans.

From the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North 

America in 1607 to the start of a decisive war for European control of the 

continent in 1756, the colonies evolved. At first, they struggled for survival. 

Over time, they became a society of permanent farms, plantations, towns, and 

cities. European settlers brought various cultures, economic plans, and ideas 

for governing to the Americas. In particular, with varying approaches, they all 

sought to dominate the native inhabitants.

Early Settlements

The earliest Europeans in the Americas, the Spanish and Portuguese, settled in 

Central and South America. The Spanish slowly migrated into North America. 

Subsequently, the French, Dutch, and British settled along the Atlantic coast of 

North America and gradually migrated westward and developed various types 

of colonial systems and relationships with Native Americans.

The first two successful British colonies along the Atlantic coast of North 

America were Jamestown and Plymouth. They served as the starting points 

that would lead to 13 colonies as far south as Georgia. Depending on the 

environmental conditions and settlement patterns, each colony developed 

its own economic and cultural system. For many, transatlantic trade was 

important, with tobacco, timber, and rice being important products. Trade, 

along with ties of religion and language, created strong bonds between the 

colonies and Great Britain. However, in the mid-1700s, trade also became a 

point of conflict. Colonies increasingly resisted British control over their trade.

Trade was also the mainstay of early contact between the Europeans and 

Native Americans. The colonists wanted a dependable food supply and the 

Native Americans were drawn to the iron tools and guns of the newcomers. But 

the Europeans generally treated the Native Americans as inferiors to be used 

or pushed aside. Trade also led to competition for resources among colonists 

and natives. In particular, the British and the French fought a series of wars for 

control of land. Native Americans such as the Iroquois and the Huron allied 

with Europeans or each other to advance their own interests.

Sources of Labor

As Europeans seized land from Native Americans, they looked for a source of 

labor to make the lands profitable. They first tried to enslave Native Americans. 

This failed because the Native Americans could escape too easily. Europeans 

then tried to employ indentured servants, individuals who agreed to work for 

a master for a set number of years (often seven) in exchange for transportation 

from Europe to the Americas. Indentured servants became common in the 

colonies, but they did not provide sufficient labor for people who owned land. 

The British, following the example of the Spanish and others, soon began 

importing enslaved laborers from Africa. Given the steady flow of support and 

families from Britain, the various 13 colonies gradually developed societies 

that both mirrored and varied from British society. From 1607 to the 1750s, 

the growth of these 13 British colonies would lead them to use trade and war to 

dominate both the Native Americans and the other European colonists.

2.2: European Colonization in North America

Settling in the Americase (17th Century)

• desire for wealth

• Spreading Christianity  

• Escape persecution 

Spanish Colonies:

• limited mineral resources and opposition from Natives → slow development of spanish settlements

• Missionary Zeal- important Motivator as Roman

Catholic Spain worked to counter the expanding influence of the Reformation and Protestantism

• largely Populated by Men & Natives a Africans

Florida(1513):

• Juan Ponce de Leon claimed it for spain

• failure and strong native resistance → Spanish established a permanent settlement at

St. Augustine (Oldest city founded by Europeans)

• War and disease a periodic hurricanes → declining Native population → little silver a gold → small Spanish Settlements

New Mexico and Arizona

• Settled by Natives for 700 Years

• Spaniards came in 1598

• Made Santa Fe the New Mexico capital (1610)

Te Xas(Florida to New Mexico):

• Spain resisted the French exploring lower  Mississippi → communities grew in the early 1700s 

California:

• Spanish settlement in San Diego (l769)

• 1784 - Franciscan order and Junipero Serra established missions around the California Coast

trench colonies:

• Mainly Men (few French)

• Many Married American Indian women since they were valuable guides translators, and

negotiators

• Some Were Christian Missionaries or worked in Furtrade

Quebec (located on St. Lawerence River):

• First French settlement in America

• Founded by Samuel de Champlain (1608)

•"Father of New France"

Mississippi Rivera and Basin:

• Louis Jolliet & Father Jacques Marquette explored upper Mississippi

River

• a year later- Robert de La Salle explored the Mississippi Basin

(named Louisiana after King Louis XIV)

• 1718- The French moved down the River & established New Orleans (became a prosperous trade center)

Dutch Colonies:

• The  1600s- Netherland sponsored Voyages of exploration

• 1609- English Explorer Henry Hudson was hired by the Dutch to find a Westward passage to Asia

• Sailed a river (later named for him AKA The Hudson River) 

• Clams were given to the Dutch (New Amsterdam later named New York)

• Dutch West India Company was granted Control for economic gain (Mainly fur trade)

British Colonies

• Early 1600s - England began to colonize the Americas

• John Cabot-explored the Americas for England a Century earlier

Reasons for Colonizing:

• An increase in poor and landless families

• England’s population was Outgrowing the economic growth

Joint-stock companies - financed risky enterprise of Colonization

English Colonists Characteristics:

• Higher Percentage of families & Single females

• More interest in farming

• Attracted more diverse European Settlers

• More likely to Claim Native land, less likely to intermarry

• secreted for better lives (religious freedom)

2.3: The Regions of British Colonies

•1607 (Jamestown, Virginia)

- Founded by the virginia company (a joint-stock company Charted by King James I)

- The first Permanent English Colony in America

Early Problems:

• Swampy location → diseases spread

• Many Settlers did not want to do physical work

• relied on the native for food → conflicts - settlers starved because they stopped trading

Captain John smith: helped Jamestown survive the first five years

John Rolfe and his Indian wife Pocahontas- helped the Colony develop a variety of tobacco that became popular in Europe / profitable

Headright systems: offered 50 acres of land to settlers or anyone who paid for a settler passage  (used in Virginia)

• began using White laborers

Transition to a Royal colony (controlled by the king):

• by 1624 the Colony was close to collapse

• 5,000 → 1,300 People left → Virginia company nearly bankrupt

• The colony became England's first royal colony (now known as Virgina)

Plymouth & Massachusetts Bay:

• English Settlers found two new colonies (became known as New England)

• Motivation to settle: religious & Search for wealth

• settled by English Protestants that dissented from the Anglican Church

• The Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534

• King James I Who reigned (1603 -1625) Viewed the religious

dissenters as a threat to his religious and political authority

(ordered to arrest them)

The Plymouth colony:

• The separatists wanted to have a separate church

• they left England for Holland for religious freedom

• became known as pilgrims,

• economic hardship and cultural difference with the Dutch led Some to seek elsewhere

• Then operated by the Virginia company of London

• 1620: a group of Pilgrims set Sail for Virginia on the Mayflower

• Pilgrims established a new colony in plymouth

• American Indians helped them adapt & held the first Thanksgiving together in 1621

leaders: Captain Miles Standish & Governor William Bradford

 Economy: Fish, fur, lumber

 Massachusetts Bay Colony:

• founded by puritans (believed the Church of England could be reformed or purified)

• persecution of puritans increased in 1625 (Charles I) took throne

• Sought religious freedom → gained royal Charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company (1629)

1630: thousands of Puritans led by John Winthrop Sailed for Massachusetts & found Boston

Great migrations: Religious and political Conflict in England (1630s) drove 15,000 Settlers to the Massachusetts Bay colony

Religious issues in Maryland:

• 1632: king Charles I split off part of Virginia to Create a new colony, Maryland

• Gave control to George Calvert (Lord Baltimore)

• George Calvert died & Maryland was passed to his son (Cecil Calvert) who implemented George's Plan in 1634 to provide a haven for Catholics who faced Persecution in Britain

Act of Toleration (1649): Religious freedom to all Christians in Maryland but death to those  denied Jesus' divinity

Protestant Revolt (late (1600s)

• Civil War

• Overthrew Catholic leadership in Maryland

• repealed Act of Toleration

Roger Williams: Founded Rhode Island and later Promoted the religious freedom a fair treatment for natives in the new colony 

• Believed individual’s conscience was beyond the control of the Church →conflict with Puritan leaders→ Ordered his banishment→ fled with a few followers and found the Community of Providence in 1636

• Started one of the first Baptist Churches in America

Anne Hutchinson: questioned the doctrines of the Puritan authorities and believed in antinomianism (the idea that since individuals receive Salvation through their faith they

were not required to follow moral laws)

• Banished from the Bay colony

•  founded Portsmouth in 1638

• Was killed in an American Indian uprising

1644: Royer Williams is granted a Charter from the Parliament that joined providence and

Portsmouth into a single colony (Rhode Island)

Thomas Hooker: Founded Hartford(1636) and wrote Fundamental

Orders of Connecticut (1639) it established a representative government with a legislature elected by popular vote and a governor chosen by it

New Haven (1637)

• Started by John Davenport

• 1655: it joined with Hartford to form connecticut

New Hampshire: The last New England Colony, Separated from Massachusetts in 1679 by king Charles II and then became a royal colony

• Halfway Covenant: Allow Partial Church Membership

Without a confirmed conversation to Maintain Puritan Church influence

• Decline Of Puritanism - Strict Puritan Practices weakened over time

Restoration Colonies: (Post - 1660 after Monarchy restoration under Charles II)

The Carolinas:

• Founded in 1663, granted to 8 nobles, Split into North and South

Іn 1729

• South Carolina: founded in 1670, economy based on trade and

rice plantations using enslaved Africans

• North Carolina: had fewer plantations and harbors, relied on small tobacco farms and had democratic views and resisted British control

Middle Colonies:

• New York: Seized from the Dutch in 1664 renamed from New Amsterdam, initial lack of assembly caused protests→ led to political rights by 1683

New Jersey: Split from New York in 1664, divided into east a west Jersey, reunited ay Royal colony in 1702 due to disputes

Pennsylvania:  Given to William Penn in 1681 as a refuge for Quakers and it offered religious freedom, fair treatment of Natives and a liberal government

Frame of Government (1682-1683)

• guaranteed a representative assembly elected by landowners and a written constitution (Charter of Liberties in 1701) which allowed freedom of Worship

Delaware: formed from 3 lower counties of Penasylvania in 1702 with its own assembly, shared governor with PA Until the Revolution

Georgia: founded in 1732 as a buffer against Spanish Florida and a haven for debtors, had Strict rules (no slavery and rum) → failed → became a royal colony in 1752 & adopted

plantation economy

• James Oglethorpe: founded Savannah in 1733 and was the colony's first governor, Oglethorpe gave up and Georgia was taken over

• The 13th and final British Colony between Canada and the Caribbean

Early Political Institutions:

- Virginia House of Burgesses (1619 was the first representative assembly in America, dominated by elite Planters)

• New England: Mayflower Compact (1620) was an easy form Of Self government, town Meets and a representative assembles were common

Limits to Colonial Democracy: Voting was limited to male property owners or Puritan Members, excluded women, landless men, servants, and enslaved people

colonial governors: often held autocratic powers, Colonial Democracy Coexisted with slavery and mistreatment of Native Americans

2.4: Transatlantic Trade

Triangular Trade: 3 Part route connected North America, Africa, and  Europe in Various Ways (rum from New England to Africa for Slaves, set out to middle Passage and Slaves were traded in West Indies for sugarcane, Suger went back to New England to make rum

17th Century: English trade in enslaved was first monopolized by the Royal African company, RAC loses monopoly on state trade, New England merchants begin profiting from slave trade due to rising demand

Mercantilism: economic theory that a country's wealth was determined by how much more it exported than it imported 

1651-1673: England passed the Navigation Acts to enforce

Mercantilist Policies:

• Trade allowed only on English colonial ships

• Goods had to pass through English ports

• Certain Colonial goods (ex. tobacco) could only be exported to England

Effects:

• Boosted New England Shipbuilding & gave England Control over Colonial trade, English forces protected colonies from French and Spanish

• side effects - hurt the colonics economy, limited manufacturing and reduced crop profits (ex. low tobacco prices in the 1660s)

1660s: Chesapeake colonies faced economic hardship due to low tobacco prices

• Colonists traded With Native Americans, led lo intermariage 

Cultural exchange (ex. pocahontas John Rolfe)

• Smuggling was common due to lax enforcement also

Known as Salutary neglect 

due to :

• Geographic distances: The Atlantic Ocean made it difficult for Britain to enforce laws in the colonies

• Political instability: 1642-1763, England faced the Civil war (revolution) & had 4 Wars With France, distracting from Colonial enforcement

• Corruption: British Colonial Agents Were Often Bribed. allowing merchants to bypass trade laws

• Natural trade alignment: Colonies and England had strong economic and Cultural ties, trade likely occurred without regulation 

Domination of New England:

1684: England revoked Massachusetts Bays Charter due to smuggling

1685: James II became king and aimed to Centralize Control Over colonies

1686: He combined various New England Colonies to form Dominion Of New England Under Governor Sir Edmund Andros

• Governor Andros became unpopular because he imposed

taxes, limited town meetings, and revoked land titles

1688: James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution, and replaced by William and Mary

post 1688: Dominion of New England dissolved and Colonies resumed Separate governments

Post 1668-1763: Mercantilist Policies remained but enforcement

Was weak due to continued salutary neglect

• Trade regulation remained a major source of tension for England and the Colonies

Contributed to leading to  the American Revolution

2.5: Interactions between American Indians and Europeans

 Relations: Europeans Viewed American Indians as inferior but also potential allies in conflicts With Europeans or tribes

1626:Mahican Mahican Indians Persuaded Dutch Settles to join an attack on the Mohawk Indians in southern New York

Conflicts in New England:

1640s: New England Colonies faced several threats from the American Indians, Dutch, and the French they also had minimal support from England due te the Civil war

New England Confederation:

1643: it was formed by Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticet, & New Haven for mutal defense 

Issues: it had limited Powers (boundary disputes, Indian relations, and runaway Servants)

1684: it ended due to colonial rivalries and increased English royal control

Metacom's war (king Philip’s war)

1675-1676: King Philip the Chief Of Wampanoag, led tribes against settlers in Southern New England

• Mohegans and pequots allied with colonists due to rivalries

• Results: Villages burnt → high casualties → Metacom was

killed and the major Indian resistance in New England ended

Conflict in Virginia:

• Governor William Berkeley (1641-1652); (1660-1677)

Used dictatorial Powers, favored large Planters and ignored frontier farmers pleas for protection from Indian attacks

Bacon's Rebellion:

1676: Nathaniel Bacon, an impoverished farmer led a

rebellion of frontier settlers against Berkeley

• they raided Native Villages including Friendly Ones) burned Jamestown

• Bacon died of dysentery and the rebellion Collapsed

• Berkeley executed 23 rebels

Lasting problems:

• highlighted Class tensions (wealthy and  poor farmers)

• frontier and native conflict

• colonial resistance to royal control

Spanish Rule and the Pueblo Revolt

• Economic policy based on the Encomienda System (forced Native labor and harsh Catholic Conversions)

• led to the Pueblo revolt (1680) Hopi, Zunid, and Other tribes drove out the Spanish and killed hundreds

• 1692- Spanish regained their control and ruled less harshly and found greater stability