England's Imperial Stirrings

•  1500's- England took little interest in establishing oversea colonies
• 1530's- King Henry VIII breaks with the Roman Catholic Church
• 1558- Protestant Queen Elizabeth ascends the throne
• Protestantism becomes dominant religion in England, causing rivalry with Catholic Spain to intensify
• Catholic Ireland plans to break free of England with Spain's help
• Ireland fails to break away from England
• English soldiers in Ireland develop contempt for "savage natives" (they bring this idea with them to America)

 

Elizabeth Energizes England

• Francis Drake sailed around pillaging and pillfering, returned 1580 with large booty and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth
• Banks of Newfoundland- first attempt at British colonization - failed when Sir Humphrey Gilbert died at sea in 1583
• Gilbert's half brother Sir Walter Raleigh attempted a 2nd voyage in 1585 and esatblishes Roanoke Island (mysteriously disappeared later)
• Phillip II of Spain creates the "Invincible Armada"
• 1588- Spanish "invincible Armada" (130 ships) attacks England and is defeated

           -> Marks the beginnging of the end of the end for Spain

         -> Also establishes England's naval dominance and started England on its way to becoming master of the oceans

• British ready to go to America and colonize  

 

England on the Eve of Empire

• England's mushrooming population causes English landlords to "enclose" croplands

          -> Causes many small farmers to have very little land or none at all

• Many of the Puritans from the "woolen district" wandered around England chronically unemployed
• England had a "surplus nation"
• New laws of primogeniture were put in place; they stated that only the eldests sons could inherit landed estates

           -> ambitious younger sons were forced to find their fortunes elsewhere

• Peace with Spain gave the English a chance for colonization, all the unnemployed supplied the workers, and religious freedom also made Engla-nd ready to go to the New World

 

England Plants Jamestown Seedling

• Joint-stock company, the Virginia Company, got a charter from King JamesI, for land in the New World

          -> Virginia Company main objective is to find gold

• The charter of the Virginia Company os significant because it gives the colonists overseas the same rights as an englishmen, which was later extended ot the other colonies
• 1606, Virginia Companies 3 ships land near Chesapeake Bay, then the indians attack them
• They eventually find a spot by the James River (which they names for the king), and they called the place Jamestown- May 24th, 1607
• Early years of Jamestown were disastrous, many died from disease, malnutrition, and starvation, (even though the woods had game and the rivers fish)
• Captain John Smith takes over in 1608, whipped the men into shape, "He who shall not work shall not eat".
• People kept dying and the colonists were driven to eating corpses, one man killed his wife, salted and ste her, then was punished by death
• People were going to leave but were met by govenor, Lord De La Warr, who was strict and soon began attacking the indians

 

Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake

• Powhatan wanted to be allies with the colonists but when Lord De La Warr arrived he declared war against the indians
• Peace was sealed in 1614 when Pocahontas married John Rolfe - the first interracial union in Virginia
• 1622, indians attacked again and killed 347 settlers, and killed John Rolfe

        ->Virginia Company called for a war that would extinct the indians

• 1644, Powhatans made one last effort to remove the colonists, they failed

        -> Peace treaty of 1646 removed Chesapeake Indians from their lands

• Powhatans failed because of 3 D's- Disease, Disorganization, and Disposability

 

The Indians' New World

• Powhatans' fate foreshadows many indians throughout the country's fate

        ->European colonization disrupts indians on a large scale

• The introduction of the horse made many forest dwelling tribes into nomadic hunters
• Disease was the biggest disrupter, killed millions of biologically defenseless indians
• Indians wanted guns and would be more competetive for hunting land to get furs to trade with the Europeans
• Some inland tribes were powerful enough to make the Europeans conform to their ways, that is until Europeans arrive in large numbers 

 

Virginia: Child of Tabacco

• John Rolfe, the father of tobacco, and economic savior of Virginia 

         -> 1612, he perfected the methods of raising/ curing the pungent weed

• Such a huge tobacco rush ensued that the colonists had to import foodstuffs
• Tobacco was Virginia's prosperity, tobacco was also called "King Nicotine"

        -> tobacco promoted broad-acred plantation systems

• Black slaves were to costly for the colonists
• 1619-House of Burgesses was established
• James I didn't trust Virginia and took away thier charter putting them under his direct rule

 

Maryland: Catholic Haven

• Second plantaion colony, and fourth english colony
• Founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore (from a prominent Catholic family)

        -> Sought out Maryland to gain riches and to create a Catholic haven

• 200 settlers founded Maryland at St. Marys, on Chesapeake Bay.
• Lord Baltimore gave huge estates to Catholic landlords and his Catholic relatives
• Catholics were surrounded by resentful backcountry planters, who were mainly protestant

        ->Resentment of the Catholics flared into rebellion near the end of the century.

• Despite conflicts, Maryland prospered

         ->Marlyand yeilded tobacco and relied on the workforce of indentured servants

• Maryland had freedom of worship, as seen in the Act of Toleration, passes in 1649

        ->Act of toleration allows every Christian to worship freely

 

The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America

•  Spain relaxed its grips on the Carribean due to rebellious Dutch provinces and military over-extention

         ->English then secured claims to several West Indies islnad, including Jamaica in 1655

• Sugar- The West Indies foundation to economy

         -> Sugar is to West Indies as tobacco is to Chesapeake, with one difference: Tobacco- poor man's crop, Sugar- rich man's crop.

• Sugar Lords imported enormous numbers of African slaves, more then 1/4 million in 5 decades, to work their plantations.

          -> After this mass importation of blacks the population of the region remained predominantly black ever since.

• To control slave labor strict codes, that defined slaves' legal status and masters' prerogatives, was put into place

          ->Barbados slave code of 1661 defined slaves rights, and gave master's complete control of the slaves

•  Since Carribean agriculture turned almost completely to sugar, it depended on America for needed foodstuffs.
•  The sugar agriculture pushed many small farmers to the mainland, and they brought with them slaves and the Barbados slave code

 

 

Colonizing the Carolinas

•  Colonization had been interrupted during a period of bloody unrest in England
• In the so-called "Restoration Period" empire building resumed with greater intensity
• Carolina, names for King Charles 2, was formally created in 1670

        -> King granted his court favorites, the Lord's Proprietors, the expanse of the Carolinas

•  Carolina was hoped to provide the West Indies with needed foodstuffs
• Carolina flourished by havinga  close relationship with the West Indies, many Carolina inhabitants had migrated from Barbados in the first place
• West Indies and Carolina had a vigorous slave trade, indian captives were also made a part of the slave trade
• Savannah Indians tried to migrate to Pennsylvania and Maryland for a better life, but hte Carolinians saw fit to "thin them out" and all but annihilated the tribe before they left (they also annihilated almost all the other costal indian tribes by 1710)
•  Rice emerged as an experimental crop

        ->Carolinians now wanted African slaves because they were experienced on how to grow rice

•  Charles Town, names for King Charles 2, became busiest seaport in the South.

 

The Emergence of North Carolina

• North Carolina was made up of poverty-stricken outcasts and religious dissenters.

        ->Were repelled by Virginia, and the big-plantation owning gentry there, often time called squatters

• North Carolina possesed certain different attributes

                    -Was considered irreligious

                    -Hospitable to pirates

                    -Developed strong spirit of resistance to authority

                    -One of the most independent-minded colonies

                    -Least aristocratic of the first 13 colonies  

• Officially separated fromf "snobbish" South Caronlina in 1712
• N. Carolina didn't import slaves, at first
• Many bloody fights with indians happened between the N. Carolinians

        -> Indiands that they fought were mainly the Tuscaroras and the Yamasees

 

Late-Coming Georgia: THe Buffer Colony

• Founded in 1733, the last of the 13 original colonies
• British crown meant for Goergia to be a buffer state to keep the hostile French in Louisiana and the venegful Spainards in Florida away for the more valuable Carolinians
• The only Colony to recieve subsides form the British Goverment in the founding stages
• Names to honor King George 2
• Launched by high-minded group of philanthropists
• Determined to keep slavery out and create a haven for "wretched souls"
• James Oglethrope was the ablest founder of Georgia
• Georgia grew slow and was the least populous

 

The Plantation Colonies

• Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia shared these traits:

                     -Broad-acred

                     -all somewhat devoted to the exportation of commercial agricultural products

                     -Staple crops were the rule (mainly tobacco and rice)

                     -Slavery found in all of the plantation colonies (but not Georgie until 1750)

                     -Aristocratic atmosphere (except N. Carolina and partly Georgia)

                     -Wide scattering of plantations and farms

                     -Buildin gof churches and schools, difficult and expensive

                     -All permitted some religious toleration

                     -All were to some degree expansionary