Summary: There were several reasons why Europeans became interested in the Americas from 1450 to 1500. Economic and political factors were dominant. The French settled in Canada and eventually turned to trapping and fur trading. Overcrowding in England and religious persecution were both factors in driving some Englishmen toward America. In the Jamestown colony indentured servants and the first slaves brought to the Americas made up a majority of the workforce. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1629 by the Puritans; Governor John Winthrop envisioned the colony as a "city upon a hill." Religious dissent led to the founding of several more New England colonies. The ecosystem of the Americas was drastically altered by the Europeans.
Keywords
Puritans: group of religious dissidents who came to the New World so they would have a location to establish a "purer" church than the one that existed in England
Separatists: religious group that also opposed the Church of England; this group first went to Holland, and then some went on to the Americas
Indentured servants: individuals who exchanged compulsory service for free passage to the American colonies
NATIVE AMERICANS AND EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
European Exploration of the Americas
There are several important reasons why Europeans were interested in the Americas in the period 1450 to 1500. Some historians emphasize that only limited economic growth appeared possible in Europe itself. European monarchs and entrepreneurs therefore had to look abroad for future profits. Europeans could now travel faster and farther, because of better shipbuilding techniques and the perfection of the astrolabe and the compass. The Crusades had whetted the appetites of Europeans for the luxury goods provided by Asia, further encouraging exploration. In addition, the growth of nation-states (governed by kings) during this period increased the competition between European powers for both wealth and territory.
THE FRENCH IN CANADA
The French didn't have any permanent settlements in Canada until 1608, when Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec. Few colonists ever came to the French territory in Canada: the climate was considered undesirable, and the French government provided few incentives for them to leave France. In addition, the dissident Huguenots were legally forbidden from emigrating. It should be noted that over 65 percent of all those who did come to Quebec ended up returning to France.
The French also desired to convert Native Americans to Catholicism but used much less coercive tactics than the Spanish had in Central and South America. Samuel de Champlain actually entered into alliances with the Huron and other Native-American tribes, largely for protection for his somewhat unstable settlement. The French joined with the Hurons and the Algonquins in a battle against the Iroquois tribe in 1608.
Those settlers who did stay in Quebec turned from farming to trapping and fur trading. French explorers ventured into the interior of North America to develop the fur-trading industry. Jesuit Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet reached the Mississippi River, Wisconsin, and Arkansas; Robert La Salle continued to explore along the Mississippi River and named the territory Louisiana (after Louis XIV).
The impact of the French on Native Americans they came into contact with was profound. The diseases they brought wiped out an estimated 30 percent of all tribes they encountered. Many Native-American tribes desired to dominate the fur trade desired by the French; this created a series of very bloody wars between these tribes. Jesuit priests were effective in converting thousands of Native Americans to Christianity. Jesuits were more successful than the Spanish Franciscans in converting natives, largely because natives were also asked to become forced laborers in Spanish territories. When the French fought the British and British colonists in the French and Indian wars in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, most Native-American tribes sided with the French.
In short, the French territories were successful as a fur-trading enterprise and a place where natives were converted to Christianity; the territories were a failure in the sense that large numbers of settlers never took root there.
It should also be noted that during this period the Dutch made their initial entry into the Americas. The Dutch were largely interested in the commercial possibilities that the Americas offered them. In 1609, Henry Hudson discovered and named the Hudson River, and proceeded to establish trading settlements on the island of Manhattan, at Fort Nassau (soon renamed Albany), and in present-day Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Like the French, the Dutch were unable to attract large numbers of settlers to Dutch territories, and were successful in fur trading. However, the aggression of the Dutch in expanding their territory brought them into bloody conflict with several Native-American tribes, thus limiting the success of Dutch economic endeavors.
THE ENGLISH IN THE AMERICAS
Several factors encouraged English entrepreneurs and settlers to come to America. After 1550, there was huge population growth in England, with high inflation and a decline in wages for many workers. The number of landless laborers increased dramatically; thousands entered London and other English cities. Many observers noted that England appeared to be dangerously overcrowded, and leaders became increasingly convinced that settlements in America could help relieve the population problem. Many English people became increasingly attracted to the possibility of resettlement in the Americas.
In addition, many English Puritans were increasingly disenchanted with the Church of England, feeling that the church was too close to Catholicism. Puritans, who followed the Protestant teaching of John Calvin, had enjoyed some measure of religious freedom under Elizabeth I. After her death in 1603, the position of the Puritans in England became more difficult, with some Puritan clergymen removed from their pulpits. Thus, by the 1630s, many Puritans felt that by moving to the Americas they would be able to practice their religion without interference from either English civil or religious authorities. Another religious group opposed to the Church of England was the Separatists. After several of its leading spokespeople were arrested, this group fled to Holland; from here, a percentage of Separatists decided to go to the Americas.
Settlement in Jamestown
The first permanent English settlement in America was the Jamestown colony, founded in 1607 by Captain John Smith. King James I had granted the London Company a charter permitting them to establish this colony. The swampy site of the Jamestown colony encouraged disease; in addition, several years of poor harvests created severe food shortages. In addition, early conflict with the Powhatan Confederacy of Native Americans placed additional strains on the colony.
Because of a severe shortage of food, John Smith created a trade alliance with the Powhatans; the corn received from the Native Americans kept the colony alive. Pocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan chief married one of the more influential men in the Jamestown colony, John Rolfe. This marriage helped to temporarily prevent further conflict with Native Americans. Rolfe's main contribution, however, was to begin the cultivation of tobacco in Jamestown. Rolfe's system of cultivation ensured that tobacco would become the main cash crop of Virginia; the demand for tobacco in England helped to ensure the economic success of the colony.
Large numbers of workers were needed in Virginia to harvest the tobacco crop. To meet this demand, indentured servants began to arrive in Virginia; many of these men were unemployed, ex-criminals, or both. As an additional measure to meet the demand for labor, the first African slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, the same year that the first white women arrived there. It should be noted that the Virginia colony created the House of Burgesses in 1619; this was the first representative government in any British colony.
Settlement in Massachusetts
Colonization in New England was different. While economic gain was the major motivation for settlement in Virginia, many religious dissenters settled in New England, thus making religious zeal a primary factor in the colonization of that region.
A group of Separatists received a charter to settle southeast of the Hudson River. The purpose of this journey was to spread the "gospel"; these men saw their journey as a "pilgrimage," and thus became known as Pilgrims. This group, led by William Bradford, encountered a storm as they neared America and landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. Before landing, they produced the Mayflower Compact (1620), a document that promised that their settlement would have a government answerable to the will of the governed. As in the case of Jamestown, the first year of settlement proved to be very difficult, and the settlers were forced to rely on help from the Native Americans. However, after the first year, the Pilgrims had some amount of economic success; many of the diseases that ravaged the Virginia colony were absent in the colder New England. By 1691, this group joined with the other major settlement in the region, the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1629 by the Puritans. This colony was established as a location on earth where the will of God could be truly manifested; the colony was established as a commonwealth and was based on the Calvinist view of man's relation to God. By 1640, nearly 25,000 English people had migrated to Massachusetts Bay. Nearly half of these were fleeing bad economic times in England; the remainder were Puritans, who used the Bible as their religious and legal guide.
In 1629, John Winthrop was elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a position he held for 20 years. Winthrop envisioned the colony as a "city upon a hill," away from the corrupting influences of England. Here, he felt, residents could freely live according to the precepts of God. Church, community, and political participation were all emphasized.
Massachusetts Bay did not have the devastating first several years experienced by other colonies. The colony came to be governed by a "General Court," which was an assembly elected by Puritan males in good standing. Thus, in both Virginia and Massachusetts, representative governments (albeit in a limited form) were established. Additional towns were chartered in the years following the initial arrival of the Puritans near Boston.
It should be noted that there were profound differences between the Virginia and Massachusetts Bay colonies. The slave labor of Virginia never existed in Massachusetts; while many families settled in Massachusetts, Virginia was mostly settled by single men. In Massachusetts, religion and political participation went hand in hand, while land ownership was a necessity for political participation in Virginia.
Development in Massachusetts Bay was steady, but leaders continued to emphasize that the main purpose of the colony was to be a place where God would be served. Religious dissent was simply not tolerated, obviously alienating some within the colony. As a result, four new colonies were created. Roger Williams believed that Puritans in Massachusetts were still too close to the ways of the Church of England, and he preached on the necessity for the total separation of church and state. (This was obviously not practiced in Massachusetts Bay.) Williams was finally asked to leave Massachusetts, and he settled in Providence, Rhode Island. Thomas Hooker was another dissenter who was hounded out of the colony; he ended up settling near Hartford, Connecticut. Anne Hutchinson claimed to have received special revelations from God; as a result, she was invited to leave and founded Portsmouth near Narragansett Bay. Finally, John Davenport and other Puritans founded a colony in New Haven. In 1662, Hooker's colony combined with Davenport's to create the colony of Connecticut.
Maryland and the Carolinas
By 1640, the English kings began to create proprietary colonies, which were given to a single individual or groups of individuals and not to a stock company. Maryland was settled in 1632 by George Calvert and was designed as a refuge for English Catholics. North Carolina was very similar to Virginia, while planters in South Carolina used slaves from almost the very beginning. Plantation owners found both Native Americans and indentured servants to be good workers; their search for large numbers of workers inevitably made them turn to slavery as a possible solution.
The importation of slaves was to become crucial to the economies of several southern colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is estimated that over 20 million Africans were brought to the Americas before slavery was outlawed. By the late 1600s, laws had been made in several southern colonies regulating the institution of slavery.
EFFECTS OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND BRITISH SETTLEMENT
Many effects, intended and otherwise, were created by European settlement in the Americas. Diseases and agricultural products introduced by Europeans dramatically changed the ecosystem of the Americas. As stated above, new crops introduced by the Europeans soon became the lifeblood of the economy in several southern colonies. Settlement fundamentally altered population patterns in Africa (with the loss of slaves) and in the Americas (with the loss of Native-American populations). Settlements in the Americas gradually introduced representative government and freedom of religion when these concepts were not popular in much of Europe.
CHAPTER REVIEW
To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain the following:
*Economic difficulties in Europe, the desire to acquire raw materials, and religious tensions all caused Europeans to become interested in the Americas.
*Cortes, Pizzaro, and other Spanish conquistadores entered much of Central America, South America, the southeastern section of North America, and the area now known as Florida, conquering the Aztecs, the Incas, and other Native-American tribes. Guns, horses, and diseases brought from Europe all aided the Spanish in their efforts to defeat the native tribes.
*French settlers in Canada were less oppressive than the Spanish. Jesuit priests converted thousands of Native Americans to Christianity. French settlers became increasingly interested in fur trading.
*Puritans and other religious dissidents came to the Americas because they felt the Church of England was too close to Catholicism.
*The first English settlement in America was the Jamestown colony, founded in 1607. Tobacco became the main crop in Jamestown, and the first slaves arrived in 1619.
*A group of religious Separatists arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. The first year of settlement was difficult for these Pilgrims, who had to rely on help from the Native Americans to survive.
*The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1629 by the Puritans. This colony was established as a "city upon a hill," where the will of God could be manifested. A limited representative government was established. Religious dissent was not tolerated in this colony: Dissenters were thrown out, and they founded new colonies in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Portsmouth.
*The ecosystem of the Americas was tremendously altered by European settlement.
Time Line
25,000 BCE: Migration of Asians to the Americas across the Bering Strait begins
1492: Voyage of Columbus to the Americas
1519: Cortes enters Mexico
1520-1530: Smallpox epidemic devastates Native-American populations in many parts of South and Central America, virtually wiping out some tribes
1534-1535: French adventurers explore the St. Lawrence River
1541-1542: Spanish explorers travel through southwestern United States
1607: The English settle in Jamestown
1619: Virginia establishes House of Burgesses (first colonial legislature)
1620: Plymouth colony founded
1629: Massachusetts Bay Colony founded
1634: Maryland colony founded
1636: Roger Williams expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony and settles in Providence, Rhode Island; Connecticut founded by Thomas Hooker
1642: City of Montreal founded by the French