New Spain, New France, and the New Netherlands
New Spain
Spanish empire is flourishing due to god, glory, and gold. The expanding trade paths let Spain make money.
Juan Ponce de Leon -
Wants to find gold and the fountain of youth.
He would go from island to island to find troves of gold
He would find and settle Puerto Rico for the Spanish
He would look around the greater Caribbean for the fountain of youth
He is also known for finding the present day state of Florida - Ultimately, the Spanish keep Florida as their foothold into America as they lose territory in the southwestern part of the US
Florida would become a place where the Spanish would encourage British African slaves to run away to.
The Spanish are able to control Florida through making fortresses, namely St. Augustine’s Fortress.
Hernando de Soto
First European to discover the Mississippi
Was essentially Pizarro’s number two while Conquering Peru and gained a lot of wealth from the battle
Bored for adventure, he would return back to the Americas for glory.
He would first return back to the Caribbean and fight against the French who were trying to settle into the Caribbeans
He attempts to explore the inland part of North America in search of gold, but thing don’t go well for him
He is attacked by indigenous tribes and would contract malaria and would pass away from it - his crew would bury his body in the newly found River.
New France
France is occupied around in the Caribbean, New Orleans region, and in Canada
By 1700, France laid claim to areas ranging from Newfoundland down to the gulf of Mexico, and as west as the rocky mountains
France first settles into what is now Saint Kitts around the early 17th century and would continue to expand, ultimately in the northeastern part of the new world as well as some places in the southeast, like modern day Charleston south Carolina.
Huguenots - Protestant French
They were dissenters from the state religion who were expelled out of France, so they came to the new world in order to escape the Old World’s way of life. (Expelled due to the King being chosen by God - if that religion is wrong, what else about the King isn’t true?)
Louis XIV was a devout Catholic who tolerated no other faiths
They wanted to have freedom of expression of conscience - freedom of religion
Huguenot architecture can be found across the New World, namely in Charleston.
Other groups would also leave for freedom of religion, such as the Puritans, Germanic peoples and the Pilgrims - while some are allowed to practice, it is hard to do publicly, so they come to the new world.
Catholics also came, founding the city of Baltimore.
A note: Huguenots had less economic incentive to leave since land wasn’t an issue to them in Europe, and France’s monarchs did little to sponsor emigration to the Americas. those who would emigrate would be outnumbered by the large British population.
Samuel de Champlain -
Discovers the area for the city of Quebec - why was he in Quebec? He was looking for a route along the top of the world to get to India
He ends up exploring a lot of Canada and makes a lot of friends with the indigenous tribes - France fares far better with their relationship with the American Indians. They then were able to recruit a lot of these Indians into helping them fight wars with their enemies (Ex. British)
Middle Ground -
The Northwest / northeast side of the French Settlements
Both the French and Indians wanted to trade with each other in order to get their goods and stuffs.
Indians wanted guns, pots and pans, metal made items
French wanted furs
Neither side was dominant, and both sides helped each other to help themselves
This led into the fur trade in Europe, which gets popular around the 17th and 18th century (Ex. Top Hats)
These French fur trappers would begin to intermarry with American Indian tribes and a lot would become bilingual, creating this new mixed culture in Canada
This would lead France to work with the Huron tribes and other nations to develop strong alliances
New Netherlands and New Amsterdam (Plus a “little bit” (It’s a whole fucking lot of it) of Britain)
Henry Hudson
A British explorer who is hired b the Dutch who discovered a lot of new York, Long Island area
Hudson tries to find a route into the Pacific and finds Delaware Bay and into the Hudson River
Hudson would disappear on his last voyage - we don’t know what happened to him
The Dutch remained active in the New World to expand their empire, which was based in commerce and trade - they traded coffees, mainly, until trade starts in New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a good place to build a city thanks to the Bay Area being a natural bay for ship parking (this is true for a lot of early cities in America).
These natural bays made it to where you could park a ship it wouldn’t get destroyed from the waves.
New Amsterdam
A melting pot of a city due to it being a main trading hub between French Canada and the Caribbean area.
The city was based on a joint stock company, and those who were given land were based on wealthy investments.
Britain starts to join the race
It’s unclear that Britain even will be a major player in the Americas - A lot of the first attempts to get a foothold in the new world and failures, up until Barbados and Antiqua
Why does Britain enter the New World - Piracy!
They want to raid French, Dutch, and Spanish shipping in the Caribbean.
Many pirates are given monarch sanctioned piracy to plunder ships by the queen
Why do they enter the new World - Trade!
English Investors felt like there was a lot of money to be made, whether from gold rumors, agricultural food growing, exotic foods like coffee, drinking chocolate, and tea
Why do they enter the new world - FUCK THE SPANISH
England wants to stem the growth that the Spanish have over the New World.
Elizabeth I spurs a lot of the settlements into the New World
One such is the colony of Roanoke by Sir Walter Raleigh - while Raleigh doesn’t go to Roanoke himself (because he was thrown into the Tower of London - big prison), Roanoke happens and settlers are sponsored to go to the colony.
Of course, Roanoke does not go well, and ultimately the settlers up and disappeared from the colony all together.
The settlement began to struggle, and some representatives went back to England to get supplies. On return, the only thing they found was croatan on a tree and CRO on a fence post.
We don’t know if they intermarried into the croatan tribe, they died from disease or starvation, or if they died by battle between them and something else - croatan? Spanish?.
Another colony is the Jamestown colony, an actual successful settlement.