Units 1 and 2: 1491-1754

Before Christopher Columbus hast stumbled upon New World: Pre-Columbian Era 

Native Amerians 

• Pueblo people

  • Desert southwest 

  • Stone houses

• Chinook people 

  • Pacific northwest 

  • Hunting and forging 

• Plains tribes

  • Nomadic 

• First native americans to encounter Europeans were the Iroquois and Algonquian 

  • Agriculture 

  • Lived along the Atlantic ocean 

  • Columbus thought they were Indians when he first landed 

Spain colonization 

• Columbian exchange 

  • Europe and America exchanged plants, animals, foods, communicable diseases, ideas 

• Colonies were established

• Columbus went to Spain and told them “look at the goodies I hath seen!”

  • Conquistadors went to colonies to collect goodies in the US 

    • With encomienda system, the crown granted colonists authority over natives 

      • Must convert them to catholicism and protect them 

• Mestizos - native and european, zambos - native and african american, and full blooded african americans bottom social ladder 

• Spanish Armada kept European powers away from the New World

Global dominance competition 

• Many countries wanted to be in the New World 

  • Had different motivations 

    • Resources 

    • Wealth

    • New Christian converts 

    • Dominant role in geopolitics 

• Invention of te sextant made sailing across the Atlantic safer and easier 

  • So easier access to new world

• Creation of joint-stock companies made intercontinental trade more organized 

  • British East India COmpany

  • Dutch East India Company 

  • Virgina Company (settled in Jamestown) 

• Increased trade/developments made more conflict in the New World 

  • Europeans debated about how they should treat the natives 

    • Juan de Sepulveda and Bartolome de Las Casas (Spanish and Portuguese thinkers) both have different visions 

      • One thought peace and tolerance, and the other wanted enslavement 

    • Some Natives accepted European resistance, but others didn’t 

      • Spanish mission system 

        • Converting mesoamerica to catholicism 

      • Juan de Onate —> converting those into christianity by ANY means necessary 

        • Includes violence (suprise!)

THE ENGLISH R COMING!!!

• Many settled in large numbers around the East (cuz of agriculture)

  • Natives and English didn’t really interact 

• First colony

  • Sir Walter Raleigh —> first attempt to settle in North America

    • Colony disappeared though and is called Lost Colony 

  • Next attempt was Jamestown

    • Funded by a joint-stock company 

      • A group of investors who bought rights to establish New World plantations

    • Company was called Virginia Company 

    • Many who settled in Jamestown were English men 

      • Not suited for New World life 

      • More interested in seeking gold than planting crops 

        • But Captain John Smith told them starve or work so they worked 

    • After John Smith was injured the Natives from Powhatan Confederacy stopped providing food for them (Known as Starving Time)

  • John Rolfe 

    • Married Pochahontas (WE NEED TO PAINT WITH ALL THE COLORS OF THE WINDDDDDDDD)

    • Pioneered practice of growing tobacco (very good for economy cuz people got addicted fast)

      • Farming also required soil and with soil being use so constantly it depletes it fast

        • Tobacco was a better way so they can preserve it 

      • Also leads to slavery 

      • Entire area known as Chesapeake Bay 

        • Many went their for financial reasons

          • overpopulation in England led to famine, disease, and poverty 

        • Many attracted due to indentured servitude 

          • Return for free passge indentured servveants promised 7 years of work before they get freedom 

            • Receievd a bit of property so they can survive and vote 

  • Virginia company also introduced the headright system 

    • Attracting new settlers to an aera and to address labor shortage created by tobacco farming (needed a lot of workers)

      • Headright was a bit of land granted to colonists and potential settlers (trying to attract them)

  • Virginia made House of Burgessess

    • Property-holding white males can vote 

      • All decisions made by the house which also had to be approved by Virginia Company 

    • Marked introduction to slavery 

French colonization 

• Very similar to Spanish and English colonization 

  • Colonized today’s Quebec City 

  • French trying to convert the Natives to roman catholicism 

    • Spread a lot of dieseases 

• Cuz of the Edict of Nantes the french couldnt do much in British North America 

Four main coloinzation 

• Spain

  • Tended to conquer and enslave natives 

  • Convert Natives to catholicism 

  • Mostly male and tended to have children with Natives 

    • Led to settlements populated by mestizos 

• France 

  • Friendlier relations with Natives 

  • Tended to ally with them and adopt native practices 

  • Couldn’t ido much and were sparely populated 

• Netherlands 

  • Attempted to build a trading empire and achieve success elsewhere 

  • Tradeposts soon fell to the English 

  • Settled in New Amsterdam (aka NYC) 

• England 

  • Excluded natives (unlike other 3 where they tried to work/depended on them)

  • Flooded New World in large numbers 

  • Intermixing settlers were rare 

  • Launched wars of extermination 

    • For ex) Powhatan Confederacy was destroyed by English “Indian fighters”

Pilgrims + Massachusetts Bay Company 

• Calvinists led the Protestent movement called Puritanism 

  • Desire to purify the Anglican church of Roman Catholic practices 

  • However they were being prosecuted 

• A puritan group called separatists 

  • Thought the Church of ENgland was so incapable of being reformed so they left 

  • Set sail on the Mayflower and settlement called Plymouth 

    • Called Pilgrims and led by William Bradford 

    • Made Mayflower Compact 

      • Created legal authority and an assembly 

      • Asserted that gov’s power derives from consent of governed not god (which some monarchists and absolutists believed)

  • Pilgrims receieved help from Natives and they met Squanto 

• Massachusetts Bay 

  • Established by the Congregationalists 

    • Aka puritans who wanted to reform the Anglican Church 

    • Also known as the Great Puritan Migration (led by John  Winthrop) 

      • When Wintrop was on Arabella, he urged the colonists to be a city upon a hill (a model to look up to)

    • Puritans thought they had a covenant with god 

  • Those at MB were Calvinists (principles dictate their lives) 

  • Events demonstrating Puritan religious intolerance 

    • Roger Williams taught controversial principles 

      • Church and state would be separate 

      • Moved to modern-day Rhode Island 

        • Allowed free religion 

    • Anne Hutchison 

      • Antinomianism —> believed faith and god’s grace suffice to earn a place among elect (idk what this means)

      • Teachings challenged Puritan beliefs 

  • Oliver Cromwell 

    • Ruled England and reigned over the English Civil Wars (Puritans won)

  • During the interregnum (between kings) Puritans didn't have much move to the New World 

    • Everything they wanted, like religious freedom, was there in England 

      • But then Stuarts, they moved back to the  New World

  • Life in England vs Chesapeake 

    • England usually lived in families, but in Chesapeake was usually one person 

    • But there was a stronger community and blooming businesses (tobacco) so many were enticed to move to New World

    • New England didn’t use as many slaves cuz their farms didn’t need as much manepower but farms in the South in the New World huge 

Other early colonies 

• Connecticut —> produced the Fundamental Orders 

  • Considered the first written constitution

• Maryland made by Calvert used as a sanction for Catholics

  • Act of toleration → protect the religious freedom of most Chirstians 

    • Was made after protestant uprising

• NY

  • Dutch 

  • But then England tried to come yada yada 

• Pennslyvania 

  • Made by William Penn 

    • Was a Quaker 

  • Sanction for quakers 

• Carolina 

  • Proprietary colony 

    • Split into North and South 

• Georgia 

  • Banned slavery at first but then 

• Most properity were turned into royal colonies 

• Reason for founding of colonies 

  • Virginia → economic gain

  • Plymouth → religious freedom (seperalist puritans) 

  • Massachusetts → religious freedom (nonseparatist puritans); merged with Plymouth 

  • Maryland —> religious freedom (catholics) 

  • Connecticut —> religious indfferences with puritans in Mass

  • Rhode island → religious freedom from puritans in mass 

  • NY → seized from dutch 

  • NJ —> seized from dutch 

  • Delware → seized from dutch who took it from swedes 

  • Penn → religious freedom (quakers)

  • Georgia → buffer colony and altenrtive to debtors prison 

Conflicts with North Americans 

• Powhatan Wars

  • Earliest conflicts between English Settlers 

  • Powhatan confederacy with Virginia 

  • Mostly over territorial disputes 

  • Resolution was natives were granted reservation land 

• Pequot War 

  • Massachusetts grew settlers need new place to live 

    • So they decided to move to Connecticut Valley (fertile region which access to sea)

  • Area had Pequots and resisted the English coming 

    • They attacked and English burned down their village, almost removing their whole existence 

• Beaver Wars 

  • Iroquois Confederacy 

    • Fought frequently with the French backed Algonquinan tribes 

  • Called Beaver wars cuz beavers were important animal hunted by natives and europeans 

  • Beaver numbers declined and territorial conflicts increased 

• Decline of the Huron Confederacy 

  • Hurons numbered to 40k 

    • Smallpox affected them where numbers declined to 12k

    • Allied with the french in the 7 year war

• King Philip’s War

  • Metacomet leader of the Wampanog tribe 

    • Were surrounded by white settlements 

    • English were trying to convert them to english culture/religion 

  • Praying towns were created to convert them to christianity 

  • Metacomet attacked the english and formed alliance with 2 others (but it soon broke) 

  • The war ended many of the natives presence in the New World

• The Pueblo Revolt 

  • Spanish sought to get control in the South West 

  • The Pueblo people led a successful revolt against Spanish and got them out of their region 

    • Spanish returned and regain the territory 

  • Compromise 

• The Chicksaw Wars 

  • Chicksaw allied with the British fought Choctaw allied with French for control of the land near Mississippi river 

  • Deadly 

  • Prolonge war halted only when Treaty of Paris was signed (which also ended the 7 year war)

• Decline of the Catawba Nation 

  • Powerful and numerous tribe 

  • Allied with the colonists and fought alongside the Patriots in revolutionary war 

  • Engaged in conststant warefare with other tribes (Iroquois, Algonquinan, Cherokee) 

  • Weakened by smallpox

  • Ultimately population decreased with war and disease 

Slavery 

• Enslaved Africans in American colonies began when colonisys from Caribbean settled in Carolina 

  • Before was indentured servitude and sometimes natives 

• Tobacco and rice growing grew 

• Bacon’s rebellion and other events showed they couldn’t use landowners 

  • Enslaving natives were difficult too 

    • Could easily escape and hard to find 

    • There also weren’t that many cuz of battles and diesases 

  • Africans didn’t know the land well 

• Middle Passage 

  • Shipping route that brought enslaved people to US 

    • Was in the middle of the triangular trade route 

• Conditions were harsh for Africans 

• Slavery flourished in the south

  • Cuz of the nature of the land and short growing season the Chesapeake ad carolinas farmed labor intensive crops (tobacco, rice, and indigo) 

• Slavery wasn’t that big in North if compared to the South 

Age of Salutary Neglect 

• French and Indian War aka Seven Years War

  • Often described as salutary neglect or benign neglect 

• English Regulation of colonial trade

  • Mercantilism 

    • Believed that economic power was rooted in favorable balance of trade and the control of specie (hand currency) 

  • The colonies were seen as a market spot for British and West Indian goods 

  • British government encouraged amnufracturing in England so they made protective tariffs on imports that competed with these goods 

    • Includes the Navigation Acts 

      • Required colonistys to buy goods ONLY from England, to sell certain England goods, to import and non-England goods via English ports and pay for those imports 

      • People could smuggle goods so it wasn’t as successful 

    • Another was Wool Act of 1699

      • Forbade both export of wool from colonists and importation of wool from British 

    • Molasses Act of 1733

      • Imposed a tax upon importation of sugar from the French West indies 

• Colonial governments 

  • Every colony had a governor who was appointed by king or proprietor 

  • King was also dependent on colonial legislatures for money 

  • In colonies, the king relied on the cooperation of colonists 

  • In Pennsylvania they had bicameral legislatures

    • Modeled after British parliament

  • British never tried to have a central government in the colonies 

    • But the colonists did try to do that with the New England Confederation 

      • It had no real power though and all it did was offer advice to northeastern colonies 

• Major events 

  • Bacon’s rebellion 

    • Fronteir farmers began to raid land inhabited by Natives 

      • Government in Jamestown punished them

      • This made class resentment grow and frontier farmers became angry 

    • Famers rallied behind Nathaniel Bacon 

      • Demanded that Gov. William Berkeley grat him authority to raise militia and attack tribes 

      • Berkely said no but Bacon and Co. went to attack Natives anyways 

        • Attacked Susquehannock and Pamunkeys (allies of the British) 

        • Rebels turned attention to Jamestown 

    • Rebellion resolved when Bacon died 

      • Showed an early example of populist uprising 

      • Also led to the development of the Black codes 

  • Stono Uprising 

    • The first and most successful slave uprising 

    • Slaves stole weapons and just killed people 

    • Marched to florida where they hoped they can get freedom but colonial militia caught up to them 

    • The stono uprising made colonies past more stricter restrictive laws to govern the behavior of slaves

  • Salem Witch trials 

    • Burn the witches!!!!

    • Dominion of New England 

      • English government attempt to clamp down illegal trade 

      • Mass became a royal colony and suffrage was extended to Protestents 

      • War against French and Native Americans near Canada border

        • King William’s War and War of the League of Augsburg 

    • Halfway Covenant 

      • Many puritans thought there relgion was the only true one 

    • HC changed the rules governing puritan baptisms 

  • First Great Awakening 

    • Religious revivialism 

    • Johnathan Edwards and George Whitefield 

      • Edwards preached calvinism and whitefield preached christianity 

    • Often described as an enlightenment 

  • Poor Richard’s Almanack 

    • Made by Ben Franklin

    • Was very influential 

• Life in the colonies 

  • Population went up 

  • Colonies began to get non-english europeans 

    • Scotch-Irish, scots, and hermans 

  • Many lived in rural areas 

  • Women did housework while the men worked 

  • Blacks either lived on countryside or in the South; rest enslaved 

  • Conditions in the cities were often worse 

    • But work could be found easier so many immigrants went here 

  • Colonies were hardly a unified whole