Summer Reading APUSH
A New World of Many Cultures, 1491-1607
Christopher Columbus's Arrival (1493):
Columbus reached the Indian Sea 33 days after departing from the Canary Islands.
He discovered many densely populated islands and claimed them for the Spanish monarch.
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First Americans
Early Settlement:
The Americas were initially discovered, explored, and settled at least 10,000 years before Columbus.
Some archeologists estimate initial settlement as far back as 40,000 years ago.
Migration:
Migrants from Asia may have crossed a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska (now submerged under the Bering Sea).
They migrated southward from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America.
Adaptation and Diversity:
The first Americans adapted to various environments, evolving into hundreds of tribes with different languages and cultures.
The native population in the 1490s is estimated to be between 50 million and 100 million.
Cultures of Central and South America
Advanced Civilizations:
The native population was concentrated in three highly developed civilizations.
Mayas:
Between A.D. 300 and 800, the Mayas built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatan Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico).
Aztecs:
Several centuries after the decline of the Mayas, the Aztecs from central Mexico developed a powerful empire.
The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, had a population of about 200,000, equivalent to the largest cities in Europe.
Incas:
While the Aztecs dominated Mexico and Central America, the Incas in Peru developed a vast empire in South America.
Common Traits:
All three civilizations developed highly organized societies.
They carried on extensive trade.
They created calendars based on accurate scientific observations.
They cultivated crops providing a stable food supply like corn (maize) for Mayas and Aztecs and potatoes for the Incas.
Cultures of North America
Population:
The population north of Mexico (present-day United States and Canada) in the 1490s may have ranged from under 1 million to over 10 million.
Characteristics:
Native societies in this region were generally smaller and less sophisticated than those in Mexico and South America.
This was partly due to the slow northward spread of corn (maize) cultivation from Mexico.
Settlements:
Some populous and complex North American societies had disappeared by the 15th century for unclear reasons.
By Columbus's time, most people in the present-day United States and Canada lived in semi-permanent settlements, seldom exceeding 300 people.
Division of Labor:
Men made tools and hunted.
Women gathered plants and nuts or grew crops like corn (maize), beans, and tobacco.
Language Diversity
Language Families:
American Indian languages comprised more than 20 language families.
European languages mostly belonged to the Indo-European family.
Examples:
Algonquian in the Northeast.
Siouan on the Great Plains.
Athabaskan in the Southwest.
Diversity:
These 20 families included over 400 distinct languages.
Southwest Settlements
Region:
Dry region including New Mexico and Arizona.
Groups:
Hokokam, Anasazi, and Pueblos.
Societies:
They developed multifaceted societies supported by farming with irrigation systems.
They lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings.
Decline:
By the time Europeans arrived, drought and hostile natives had taken their toll.
Legacy:
Much of their way of life was preserved in the arid land and their dwellings.
Northwest Settlements
Region:
Pacific coast from Alaska to northern California.
Housing:
People lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses.
Diet:
Their diet was rich, based on hunting, fishing, and gathering nuts, berries, and roots.
Culture:
They carved large totem poles to save stories, legends, and myths.
Isolation:
High mountain ranges isolated tribes, creating barriers to development.
Great Plains
Lifestyle:
Most people were either nomadic hunters or sedentary farmers and traders.
Nomadic Tribes:
They survived by hunting, mainly buffalo.
Buffalo provided food, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing.
They lived in tepees, easily disassembled and transported.
Farming Tribes:
They also hunted buffalo but lived permanently in earthen lodges along rivers.
They raised corn (maize), beans, and squash, and traded with other tribes.
Horses:
American Indians acquired horses in the 17th century by trading or stealing them from Spanish settlers.
Tribes like the Lakota Sioux shifted from farming to hunting, following the buffalo across the plains.
Migration:
The Apaches gradually migrated southward from Canada to Texas.
Midwest Settlements
Region:
East of the Mississippi River.
Lifestyle:
Woodland American Indians prospered with a rich food supply.
Supported by hunting, fishing, and agriculture, many permanent settlements developed in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.
Adena-Hopewell Culture:
Centered in present-day Ohio, famous for large earthen mounds, some as large as 300 feet long.
Cahokia:
One of the largest settlements in the Midwest, near present-day East St. Louis, Illinois, with as many as 30,000 inhabitants.
Northeast Settlements
Culture:
Some descendants of the Adena-Hopewell culture spread from the Ohio Valley into New York.
Their culture combined hunting and farming.
Farming Limitations:
Farming techniques exhausted the soil quickly, so people had to move to fresh land frequently.
Iroquois Confederation:
A political union of five independent tribes in the Mohawk Valley of New York: Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk.
Multiple families related through a mother lived in longhouses, up to 200 feet long.
From the 16th century through the American Revolution, the Iroquois were a powerful force, battling rival American Indians as well as Europeans.
Atlantic Seaboard Settlements
Region:
From New Jersey south to Florida.
People:
People of the Coastal Plains, many descendants of the Woodland mound builders.
Housing:
They built timber and bark lodgings along rivers.
Food Source:
Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean provided a rich source of food.
Europe Moves Toward Exploration
Limited Knowledge:
Until the late 1400s, Americans and the people of Europe, Africa, and Asia had no knowledge of each other.
Vikings:
Vikings from Scandinavia had visited Greenland and North America around the year 1000, but their voyages had no lasting impact.
Columbus:
Columbus's voyages of exploration finally brought people into contact across the Atlantic.
Enabling Factors:
Several factors made oceanic crossing and exploration possible in the late 15th century.
Improvements in Technology
Renaissance:
In Europe, a rebirth of classical learning prompted artistic and scientific activity in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Inventions:
Europeans improved inventions of others.
They began to use gunpowder (invented by the Chinese) and the sailing compass (adopted from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese).
Major improvements were made in shipbuilding and mapmaking.
Printing Press:
The invention of the printing press in the 1450s aided the spread of knowledge across Europe.
Religious Conflict
Religious Zeal:
The later years of the Renaissance were a time of intense religious zeal and conflict.
Catholic Church:
The Roman Catholic Church was threatened from without by Ottoman Turks (followers of Islam) and from within by revolt against the pope's authority.
Catholic Victory in Spain
Moors:
In the 8th century, Islamic invaders from North Africa, known as Moors, rapidly conquered most of what is now Spain.
Reconquista:
Over the next several centuries, Spanish Christians reconquered much of the land and set up several independent kingdoms.
Unification:
Two of the largest kingdoms united when Isabella, queen of Castile, and Ferdinand, king of Aragon, married in 1469.
Granada:
In 1492, under Isabella and Ferdinand, the Spanish conquered the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, the city of Granada.
Columbus's Voyage:
In that year, the monarchs also funded Christopher Columbus on his historic first voyage.
Significance:
The uniting of Spain, the conquest of Granada, and the launching of Columbus signaled new leadership, hope, and power for European Catholics.
Protestant Revolt in Northern Europe
Protestant Reformation:
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.
Religious Wars:
Conflict between Catholics and Protestants led to a series of religious wars.
Motives for Exploration:
The Catholics of Spain and Portugal and the Protestants of England and Holland wanted to spread their own versions of Christianity to people in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, adding a religious motive to political and economic ones.
Expanding Trade
Economic Motives:
Economic motives for exploration grew out of fierce competition among European kingdoms for increased trade with Africa, India, and China.
Overland Route Blocked:
The land route to Asia became blocked in 1453 when the Ottoman Turks seized control of Constantinople.
New Routes
Challenge:
Finding a new way to the rich Asian trade, either south along the West African coast or west across the Atlantic Ocean.
Portuguese Route:
The Portuguese, led by Prince Henry the Navigator, explored south along the West African coast.
In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India via this route around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
Columbus's Attempt:
Columbus attempted what he mistakenly believed would be a shorter route to Asia.
Slave Trading
Historical Context:
Since ancient times, people in Europe, Africa, and Asia had enslaved people captured in wars.
Portuguese Involvement:
In the 15th century, the Portuguese began trading for slaves from West Africa.
The slaves worked on sugar plantations on the Madeira and Azores islands off the African coast.
Expansion to Americas:
Producing sugar with slave labor was so profitable that when Europeans later established colonies in the Americas, they used the slave system there.
African Resistance
Forms of Resistance:
Enslaved Africans resisted slavery in various ways, including running away, sabotaging work, or revolting.
Cultural Preservation:
They maintained aspects of their African culture, particularly in music, religion, and folkways.
Developing Nation-States
Political Changes:
Europe was changing politically in the 15th century.
Small kingdoms, such as Castile and Aragon, were uniting into larger ones.
Multiethnic empires, such as the Holy Roman Empire, were breaking up.
Nation-States:
Replacing them were nation-states, countries where the majority of people shared a common culture and loyalty to a central government.
Role of Monarchs:
Monarchs, 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 for revenue and the church to justify their rule.
They used their power to search for riches abroad and spread their version of Christianity.
Early Explorations
Christopher Columbus:
Changing economic, political, and social conditions in Europe shaped the ambitions of Columbus.
Christopher Columbus
Seeking Support:
Columbus spent eight years seeking financial support for his plan to sail west to the "Indies."
Spanish Backing:
In 1492, he gained the support of Isabella and Ferdinand, who had just defeated the Moors in Granada.
They outfitted three ships and made Columbus governor, admiral, and viceroy of all lands he would claim for Spain.
Voyages:
After sailing from the Canary Islands on September 6, Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas on October 12.
His success brought him glory in Spain, but three subsequent voyages were disappointing as he found little gold, few spices, and no simple path to China and India.
Death:
Columbus died in 1506, believing he had found a western route to Asia.
Legacy:
Many Spaniards viewed Columbus as a failure because he had found a "New World" rather than a valuable trade route.
He erroneously named the people he encountered "Indians."
The land he explored was named for Amerigo Vespucci.
Critics point out the problems and injustices suffered by natives after Europeans arrived.
Historians recognize his skills as a navigator and his commitment.
Columbus's voyages brought about permanent interaction between people from all over the globe.
Exchanges
Columbian Exchange:
Europeans and the original inhabitants of the Americas had developed vastly different cultures.
Contact between them resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a transfer of plants, animals, and germs from one side of the Atlantic to the other.
European Gains:
Europeans learned about new plants and foods, including beans, corn, sweet and white potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco.
They also contracted a new disease, syphilis.
American Gains:
Europeans introduced sugar cane, bluegrasses, pigs, and horses, as well as the wheel, iron implements, and guns.
Devastating Impact of Disease:
European germs and diseases, such as smallpox and measles, to which the natives had no immunity, caused millions of deaths (mortality rate of over 90 percent), including entire tribal communities.
Transformation:
These exchanges, biological and cultural, permanently changed the entire world.
Dividing the Americas
Claims and Disputes:
Spain and Portugal were the first European kingdoms to claim territories in the Americas, leading to overlapping claims.
Papal Intervention:
The Catholic monarchs turned to the pope in Rome to resolve their differences.
Line of Demarcation (1493):
The pope drew a vertical, north-south line on a world map, granting Spain all lands to the west and Portugal all lands to the east.
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494):
Spain and Portugal moved the pope's line a few degrees to the west and signed an agreement.
The line passed through what is now Brazil, establishing Portugal's claim to Brazil, while Spain claimed the rest of the Americas.
Challenges:
Other European countries soon challenged these claims.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
Basis of Power:
Spanish dominance in the Americas was based on explorers and conquerors (conquistadores).
Key Accomplishments:
Vasco Nunez de Balboa's journey across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean.
The circumnavigation of the world by one of Ferdinand Magellan's ships.
Heman Cortes's conquests of the Aztecs in Mexico.
Francisco Pizzaro's conquest of the Incas in Peru.
Economic Impact:
The conquistadores sent ships loaded with gold and silver back to Spain from Mexico and Peru, increasing the gold supply by more than 500 percent, making Spain the richest and most powerful nation in Europe.
Spain’s success encouraged other nations to turn to the Americas in search of gold and power.
Encomienda System:
After seizing the wealth of the Indian empires, the Spanish instituted an encomienda system.
The king of Spain gave grants of land and natives to individual Spaniards.
The Indians had to farm or work in the mines, with the fruits of their labors going to the Spanish masters, who were supposed to "care" for them.
Asiento System:
As Europeans' diseases and brutality reduced the native population, the Spanish brought enslaved people from West Africa under the asiento system.
This required the Spanish to pay a tax to their king on each slave they imported to the Americas.
Early Settlements in North America (1600s)
English Claims:
England's earliest claims to territory in the Americas rested on the voyages of John Cabot, who explored the coast of Newfoundland in 1497.
England did not follow up Cabot's discoveries with other expeditions of exploration and settlement.
English Challenges:
In the 1570s and 1580s, under Queen Elizabeth I, England challenged Spanish shipping in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Sir Francis Drake attacked Spanish ships and settlements.
Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to establish a settlement at Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast in 1587, but the venture failed.
French Claims
Early Exploration:
The French monarchy first showed interest in exploration in 1524 when it sponsored a voyage by Giovanni da Verrazano, who explored part of North America's eastern coast, including the New York harbor, hoping to find a northwest passage to Asia.
Later Exploration:
French claims to American territory were also based on the voyages of Jacques Cartier (1534-1542), who explored the St. Lawrence River extensively.
Slow Development:
Like the English, the French were slow to develop colonies across the Atlantic.
During the 1500s, the French monarchy was preoccupied with European wars and internal religious conflict between Roman Catholics and French Protestants (Huguenots).
First Permanent Settlement:
The first permanent French settlement in America was established by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 at Quebec, a fortified village on the St. Lawrence River.
Champlain's strong leadership won him the nickname "Father of New France."
Expansion:
Other explorers extended French claims across a vast territory.
In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette explored the upper Mississippi River.
In 1682, Robert de La Salle explored the Mississippi basin, which he named Louisiana (after the French king, Louis XIV).
Dutch Claims
Exploration:
During the 1600s, the Netherlands also began to sponsor voyages of exploration.
Henry Hudson:
The Dutch government hired Henry Hudson, an experienced English sailor, to seek westward passage to Asia through northern America.
In 1609, Hudson sailed up a broad river that was later named for him, the Hudson River.
New Amsterdam:
This expedition established Dutch claims to the surrounding area that would become New Amsterdam (later New York).
Dutch West India Company:
The Dutch government granted a private company, the Dutch West India Company, the right to control the region for economic gain.
Spanish Settlements in North America
Slow Development:
Spanish settlements developed slowly in North America due to limited mineral resources and strong opposition from American Indians.
Florida:
After a number of failed attempts, the Spanish established a permanent settlement at St. Augustine in 1565, the oldest city in North America founded by Europeans.
New Mexico:
Santa Fe was established as the capital of New Mexico in 1610.
Harsh efforts to Christianize the American Indians caused the Pueblo people to revolt in 1680, driving the Spanish from the area until 1692.
Texas:
The Spanish established settlements in Texas in between Florida and New Mexico.
These communities grew in the early 1700s as Spain attempted to resist French efforts to explore the lower Mississippi River.
California:
In response to Russian exploration from Alaska, the Spanish established permanent settlements at San Diego in 1769 and San Francisco in 1776.
By 1784, a series of missions or settlements had been established along the California coast by members of the Franciscan order, with Father Junfpero Serra founding nine of these missions.
European Treatment of Native Americans
General View:
Most Europeans looked down upon Native Americans and viewed them as inferior people who could be exploited for economic gain, converted to Christianity, and used as military allies.
Europeans used various approaches for controlling Native Americans and operating their colonies.
Spanish Policy
Aztec and Inca Empires:
The Spanish who settled in Mexico and Peru encountered the highly organized Aztec and Inca empires.
Even after diseases killed most natives, millions remained that the Spanish could incorporate as laborers in their own empire.
Many natives died from forced labor.
Intermarriage:
Because few families came from Spain to settle the empire, the explorers and soldiers intermarried with natives as well as with Africans, who were captured in Africa and forced to travel across the ocean to provide slave labor.
Class System:
A rigid class system developed in the Spanish colonies, dominated by pure-blooded Spaniards.
Bartolome de Las Casas
Advocacy:
A Spanish priest who dissented from the views of most Europeans toward Native Americans.
He became an advocate for better treatment for Indians.
New Laws of 1542:
He persuaded the king to institute the New Laws of 1542, which ended Indian slavery, halted forced Indian labor, and began to end the encomienda system.
Repeal Efforts:
Conservative Spaniards, eager to keep the encomienda system, responded and successfully pushed the king to repeal parts of the New Laws.
Valladolid Debate
Formal Debate:
The debate over the role for Indians in the Spanish colonies came to a head in a formal debate in 1550-1551 in Valladolid, Spain.
Arguments:
Las Casas argued that the Indians were completely human and morally equal to Europeans, so enslaving them was not justified.
Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that Indians were less than human and benefited from serving the Spaniards in the encomienda system.
Outcome:
Neither side clearly won the debate.
Las Casas established the basic arguments on behalf of justice for Indians.
English Policy
Settlement Patterns:
Unlike the Spanish, the English settled in areas without large native empires that could be controlled as a workforce.
Many English colonists came in families rather than as single young men, so marriage with natives was less common.
Initial Coexistence:
Initially, the English and the American Indians coexisted, traded, and shared ideas.
American Indians taught the settlers how to grow new crops such as corn (maize) and showed them how to hunt in the forests.
They traded various furs for an array of English manufactured goods, including iron tools and weapons.
Conflict and Warfare:
Peaceful relations soon gave way to conflict and open warfare.
The English had no respect for American Indian cultures, which they viewed as primitive or "savage."
American Indians saw their way of life threatened as the English began to take more land to support their ever-increasing population.
Expulsion:
The English occupied the land and forced the small, scattered tribes they encountered to move away from the coast to inland territories.
They expelled the natives rather than subjugating them.
French Policy
Economic and Military Allies:
The French, looking for furs and converts to Catholicism, viewed American Indians as potential economic and military allies.
Good Relations:
Compared to the Spaniards and the English, the French maintained good relations with the tribes they encountered.
Fur Trade:
Seeking to control the fur trade, the French built trading posts throughout the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes region, and along the Mississippi River.
At these posts, they exchanged French goods for beaver pelts and other furs collected by American Indians.
Limited Colonization:
Because the French had few colonists, farms, or towns, they posed less threat to the native population than did other Europeans.
Military Assistance:
French soldiers assisted the Huron people in fighting their traditional enemy, the Iroquois.
Native American Reaction
Tribal Identity:
North American tribes saw themselves as groups distinct from each other, not as part of a larger body of Native Americans.
Lack of Unity:
As a result, European settlers rarely had to be concerned with a unified response from the Native Americans.
Motivation:
Initially, the European goods such as copper pots and guns had motivated the natives to interact with the strangers.
Adaptation:
After the decimation of their peoples from the violence and disease of the Europeans, the Native Americans had to adopt new ways to survive.
Alliances:
Upon observing the Europeans fighting each other, some tribes allied themselves with one European power or another in hopes of gaining support in order to survive.
Migration:
A number of tribes simply migrated to new land to get away from the slowly encroaching settlers.
Transformation:
Regardless of how they dealt with the European invasion, Native Americans would never be able to return to the life they had known prior to 1492.
Historical Perspectives: Was Columbus a Great Hero?
Conflicting Views:
Columbus has received both praise for his role as a "discoverer" and blame for his actions as a "conqueror."
Traditional Heroic View:
In the United States, he has traditionally been viewed as a hero, with Washington Irving writing a popular biography extolling his virtues.
President Franklin Roosevelt declared October 12 a national holiday in 1934.
Revisionist Criticism:
Since the 1990s, revisionist histories have been critical of Columbus, arguing that he was simply at the right place at the right time and was little more than a good navigator and self-promoter.
Conqueror View:
Some revisionists portray him as a religious fanatic who sought to convert the American natives to Christianity and liquidated those who resisted.
Counterarguments:
Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. argues that Columbus's motivation was the challenge of the unknown, not greed for gold or ambition for conquest.
Columbus's apologists admit that millions of Native Americans died as a result of European exploration, but they point out that an unknown number had suffered horrible deaths in Aztec sacrifices.
The mistreatment of Native Americans was perhaps partially offset by such positive results as the gradual development of democratic institutions in the colonies and later the United States.
Conclusion:
Historians will continue to debate Columbus's achievement.
Columbus's voyages established a permanent point of contact between Europeans and the first Americans, and soon between both groups and Africans.
People are still living with the consequences of this interaction.
KEY TERMS BY THEME
PERIOD 2: 1607-1754
Overview:
From the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in North America to the start of a decisive war for European control of the continent, the colonies evolved.
At first, they struggled for survival, but 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.
The British took pride in their tradition of free farmers working the land.
The various colonies developed regional or sectional differences based on many influences including topography, natural resources, climate, and the background of their settlers.
They largely viewed the American Indian as an obstacle to colonial growth.
With their emphasis on agriculture came a demand for labor, and this led to a growing dependence on slavery and the Atlantic slave trade to power the economy.
The start of the Seven Years' War signified the maturity of the British colonies and the influence of European conflicts in the power struggle for control in North America.
Alternate View:
Historians disagree on what date best marks the end of the colonial era.
Some identify the conclusion of the Seven Years' War in 1763 or the start of the American Revolution in 1775 or the signing of a peace treaty in 1783.
Historians who focus on cultural rather than political and military events might choose other dates for both the start and end of the period that emphasize the role of non-English residents, such as the Scotch-Irish, Germans, and enslaved Africans, in the colonies.
Key Concepts
2.1: Europeans developed a variety of colonization and migration patterns, influenced by different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American environments where they settled, and they competed with each other and American Indians for resources.
2.2: The British colonies participated in political, social, cultural, and economic exchanges with Great Britain that encouraged both stronger bonds with Britain and resistance to Britain's control.
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE, 1607-1754
English Colonies:
Starting with Jamestown (Virginia) in 1607 and ending with Georgia in 1733, a total of 13 distinct English colonies developed along the Atlantic Coast of North America.
Every colony received its identity and its authority to operate by means of a charter (a document granting special privileges) from the English monarch.
Charter Types:
Corporate colonies, such as Jamestown, were operated by joint-stock companies, at least during these colonies' early years.
Royal colonies, such as Virginia after 1624, were to be under the direct authority and rule of the king's government.
Proprietary colonies, such as Maryland and Pennsylvania, were under the authority of individuals granted charters of ownership by the king.
Representative Government:
Unlike the French and Spanish colonists, the English brought a tradition of representative government.
They were accustomed to holding elections for representatives who would speak for property owners and decide important measures, such as taxes, proposed by the king's government.
While political and religious conflicts dominated England, feelings for independence grew in the colonies.
Eventually, tensions emerged between the king and his colonial subjects.
Early English Settlements
Colonization Opportunity:
In the early 1600s, England was finally in a position to colonize the lands explored more than a century earlier by John Cabot.
Naval Power:
By defeating a large Spanish fleet-the Spanish Armada-in 1588, England had gained a reputation as a major naval power.
Economic and Social Conditions:
In this period, England's population was growing rapidly while its economy was depressed.
The number of poor and landless people increased, and these people were attracted to opportunities in the Americas.
Joint-Stock Companies:
The English devised a practical method for financing the costly and risky enterprise of founding colonies.
A joint-stock company pooled the savings of many investors, thereby spreading the risk.
Thus, colonies on the North Atlantic Coast were able to attract large numbers of English settlers.
Jamestown
Founding:
England's King James I chartered the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company that founded the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown in 1607.
Early Problems
Mistakes:
The first settlers of Jamestown suffered greatly, mostly from their own mistakes.
Location:
The settlement's location in a swampy area along the James River resulted in fatal outbreaks of dysentery and malaria.
Settler Characteristics:
Many of the settlers were gentlemen unaccustomed to physical work.
Others were gold-seeking adventurers who refused to hunt or farm.
Trade with American Indians:
One key source of goods was from trade with American Indians