A-Push Unit 2: Colonial America (1607–1754) Summary

Spain: Primary goal was extracting wealth through minerals ( $gold$ and $silver$ ) and later cash crops ( $sugar$ and $tobacco$ ). * Social Systems: Utilized the encomienda system to subjugate native populations for labor, later replaced by the hacienda system, which tied laborers to the land via debt. * Religion and Culture: Established missions to convert indigenous people to Catholicism. This led to syncretism and resistance, most notably the Pueblo Revolt of $1680$ . * Social Hierarchy: Imposed the casta system, ranking individuals based on the amount of Spanish blood in their veins.
French and Dutch: Focused on trade rather than permanent settlement. * The French established profit-sharing partnerships with indigenous groups, primarily for the beaver fur trade. * The Dutch established New Amsterdam as a significant trading port and had little interest in religious conversion.
Great Britain: Sent the largest number of colonists to North America for social mobility, economic prosperity (Jamestown, $1607$ ), religious freedom (Puritans and Pilgrims), and improved living conditions. * British settlers sought to remain separate from indigenous populations rather than incorporate them.

New England: Settled by family groups seeking a religious society. * Plymouth Colony ( $1620$ ) established the Mayflower Compact, a democratic agreement for majority rule. * Economy: Based on furs, timber, and fish due to rocky soil and long winters.
Middle Colonies: Including New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. * Characteristics: High diversity and religious tolerance. Pennsylvania, founded by Quaker William Penn, was a refuge for dissenters. * Economy: Focused on the export of grain due to fertile soil and excellent seaports.
Chesapeake and North Carolina: * Jamestown ( $1607$ ) was initially populated by single men seeking gold but shifted to tobacco cultivation under John Rolfe. * Labor: Relied on indentured servitude initially, which was gradually replaced by African slavery starting in $1619$ . * Governance: Established the Virginia House of Burgesses as a representative government.
Southern Atlantic and British West Indies: * West Indies: Specialized in sugarcane using large plantations and a heavy reliance on enslaved labor, where the black population outnumbered the white population $4$ to $1$ . * South Carolina: Mirrored the West Indies, focusing on rice and indigo and adopting strict slave codes like the Barbados Slave Code.

Triangular Trade: A network involving the shipment of rum from New England to Africa, enslaved people to the West Indies via the Middle Passage, and sugar/molasses back to New England.
Mercantilism: A state-driven economic ideology aiming for a favorable balance of trade (maximizing exports while minimizing imports) to accumulate gold and silver.
Navigation Acts: British laws requiring colonial economies to trade exclusively with England to serve the mother country's interests.
Salutary Neglect: A period where Britain laxly enforced trade laws, allowing colonists to develop economic autonomy and engage in smuggling.

Conflict and Alliances: Major powers allied with indigenous groups to facilitate trade or war, such as during the Beaver Wars, where the Iroquois Confederacy (allied with the Dutch and British) fought French-allied groups.
Pueblo Revolt ( $1680$ ): Indigenous people in Santa Fe rebelled against Spanish cultural suppression. Although the Spanish returned $12$ years later, they adopted a policy of accommodation regarding indigenous land and beliefs.
Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War): A conflict between New England settlers and a Wampanoag-led alliance under Metacom. The British victory resulted in the near-total destruction of indigenous resistance in the region.

Transition: Following Bacon’s Rebellion in $1676$ , where landless former indentured servants rebelled against Governor William Berkeley, wealthy planters shifted from indentured servants to enslaved Africans for a more controllable labor force.
Chattel Slavery: A system where enslaved people were legally considered property. Laws in Virginia and Maryland made slavery perpetual and hereditary through the mother and prohibited interracial marriage.
Resistance: * Covert: Included working slowly, breaking tools, and maintaining traditional family and cultural practices (e.g., cowry shells). * Overt: The Stono Rebellion of $1739$ in South Carolina, where enslaved people killed white settlers and burned property, leading to even harsher slave codes.

Diversity: Colonies were home to German ( $6\%$ ), Scots-Irish ( $7\%$ ), and African ( $20\%$ ) populations, contributing to a unique American identity.
Great Awakening ( $1730s$ ): A religious revival led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield that emphasized individual emotional experience over elite authority.
Enlightenment: An intellectual movement involving John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, spreading ideas of natural rights and the social contract via a transatlantic print culture.
Anglicization: Despite growing diversity, the colonies increasingly mirrored British society through the emergence of a wealthy merchant/planter class and shared government structures (governor and two-house legislature).

Question: Was there a European economic ideology that dictated the rules of this growing and globalized trade system?
Response: Yes, the ideology was mercantilism, which aimed to maintain a favorable balance of trade by maximizing exports and minimizing imports to measure wealth in gold and silver.
Question: Is there a connection between European attitudes toward indigenous groups and their alliance systems during wars?
Response: Yes; the French and Dutch followed a trade-based "handshake" approach, leading to numerous alliances, while the British "shoved away" indigenous groups, seeking territorial separation, which shaped the specific alliances formed during conflicts like the Beaver Wars.
Question: Did the rioting against British policies like impressment indicate the development of new beliefs?
Response: Yes, riots like the one in Boston in $1747$ against King George’s War impressment showed that colonists had developed their own sense of natural rights and were unwilling to let imperial powers infringe upon them.