1607-1754

5 Things to Know about Period 2

1. Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different goals that impacted the economic, political, and cultural development of their colonies and shaped colonizers’ interactions with American Indian populations.

2. Conflict arose due to competition for resources among European rivals, and between the Europeans and American Indians. Examples of American Indian resistance to colonizers were the Pueblo Revolt, the Pequot War, and King Philip’s War.

3. Early British colonies developed along the Atlantic coast with some regional differences. New England colonies were settled by the Puritans, who lived in small towns. The middle colonies were characterized by the export of cash crops, less social rigidity, and more religious tolerance. The southern colonies developed a plantation-based economy.

4. The African slave trade grew extensively throughout the eighteenth century. The trading of slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between Africa, the Americas, and Europe became known as Triangular Trade.

5. England used its colonies to obtain raw materials for its own manufacturing purposes and wealth creation. There were, consequently, early examples of colonial resentment and resistance. From Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 to the Great Awakening starting in the 1730s, the colonists began to carve out a distinct American identity.