Period 2: Key Concepts and Events (1607-1754)

Period 2 (1607-1754) Overview

  • European powers and American Indians fought for North America: Spanish, Dutch, French, British.
  • Atlantic economy grew, causing colonial expansion, devastation/adaptation of American Indian groups, increased slave labor, and changes in British mercantilist policies.
  • Furs were a major competition point in European colonization.
  • Repartimiento System replaced the encomienda system, banning Indian slavery and demanding wages.
  • Viceroyalty of New Spain: Spain's territory headquartered in Mexico City.
  • Viceroyalty of Peru: Spain's northern territory headquartered in Lima.
  • First permanent French settlement: Port Royal (Nova Scotia).
  • Treaty of Breda: Dutch secured Suriname after the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
  • King Charles II secured New Amsterdam, renaming it New York.

Colonial Regions and Early Settlements

  • Virginia: tobacco cultivation.
  • Headright system: 50 acres promised in the Chesapeake region to encourage immigration.
  • Puritanism: Inspired by Calvinism.
  • The Mayflower arrived on Cape Cod in 1620.
  • England granted charters to joint-stock companies for exclusive trading rights, challenging mercantilism.
  • Jamestown (1607): First successful colony, encountered Algonquian Indians (Pocahontas).
  • Powhatan: Chief of the Algonquian peoples.
  • Indentured servitude: Contract labor to bring agrarian workers to America.
  • Slavery began in 1619 in Virginia.
  • Pilgrims: English Calvinists seeking religious freedom.
  • Mayflower Compact: Legitimized consent of the governed.
  • King Charles I granted a charter to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Conflicts and Trade

  • Slave trade worsened ethnic and societal tensions.
  • Fur trade led to European-Indian agreements.
  • Salem Witch Trials: Reflected Puritan community fractures.
  • Quakers: Believed in equality.
  • Triangle Trade: Manufactured goods from England to Americas/Africa.
  • Mercantilism: Limited wealth exists, nations increase power by increasing wealth share.
  • Navigation Acts: Colonies supplied raw materials and markets to Britain.
  • Glorious Revolution (1688): Ended absolute monarchy in England, led to English Bill of Rights.
  • Beaver Wars: Competition in fur trade = warfare.
  • King William’s War: Manifestation of the 9-year war.
  • King George’s War: French/Indian forces destroyed Saratoga, NY.
  • King Phillip’s War: Deadliest war; killed 40% of Wampanoags.

Social and Intellectual Developments

  • Deism: God as a non-interfering observer.
  • Pueblo Revolt (1860): Pueblo Indians against Spanish rule.

Slavery and Rebellions

  • Bacon’s Rebellion: Farmers' rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon.
  • Stono Rebellion: Slave rebellion in the colonial period where 20 slaves plundered plantations, which increased fear of slaves.

Culture and Society

  • Great Awakening: Religious resurgence.
  • Religious toleration: Freedom of religion.
  • John Locke: Advocated government protection of "natural rights."
  • “Cato’s Letters”: Warned against tyrannical rule.