Colonization and Forging a New NationPart 1

Christopher Columbus

• Born in 1451 in the trading city of Genoa, Italy

• While visiting Portugal, decided to attempt sailing west to reach Asia

• Finally won support from Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand

• Began on August 3, 1492, with three ships: Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria – Columbus’s flagship

• Landed at dawn on October 12, 1492, on a small island in the Bahamas, which Columbus mistook for the Indies in Asia

Other Players

The Spanish and Portuguese claimed the Americas, but other European powers challenged those claims.

After Columbus returned from the Americas, the Spanish and the Portuguese debated claims to newly discovered lands. The Treaty of Tordesillas settled the dispute, granting Spain a much bigger land claim.

A wave of exploration followed the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the Spanish conquistadors, or conquerors, led the way in the 1500s. Their goals were “God, gold, and glory.”

Spanish Explorers

Juan Ponce de Léon claimed Florida for Spain

Hernán Cortés conquered the wealthy Aztec Empire in 1521

Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado discovered the Grand Canyon

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo: explored the coast of California

England and others

During the late 1400s and 1500s, explorers from England, France and the Netherlands began to explore America.

English explorers Francis Drake and John Cabot challenged Spain’s claim to the Americas.

Queen Elizabeth I built England into a sea power, which began a key chain of events:

Religious issues caused Spain and England to go to war.

In 1588 the Spanish king sent a fleet of 130 ships, called the Spanish Armada, to invade England.

England’s superior navy defeated the Spanish Armada, leaving England free to build American colonies.

English Takeover

• After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, English colonists came to America for many reasons, including economic opportunity and adventure.

• King James I issued a charter dividing North America between two groups of investors, the London Company and the Plymouth Company.

• These companies were joint-stock ventures in which investors pooled their money, hoping to make a profit.

• The companies governed and maintained the colonies and received most of the profit.

Early English

• In 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh founded Roanoke in Virginia They claimed land along the Atlantic seaboard and named it Virginia, three years later all had disappeared.

Jamestown

• Settled in 1607, this was the first English colony to survive, despite disease, contaminated water and lack of food.

• John Smith, who imposed military discipline on the colonists, helped them survive hardships.

• John Rolfe, who introduced tobacco and learned to cure it from his wife Pocahontas, made the colony profitable.

Jamestown

Key Developments

• Formation of the House of Burgess, which was America’s first legislature, or law-making body

• Use of indentured servants, who worked for a number of years in exchange for food, shelter and paid passage to America

• Transition to slave labor by the late 1600s

Religious Freedom

English Protestants who thought the Reformation did not go far enough were known as Puritans.

Some Puritans, known as Separatists, wanted total separation from the established church.

Separatists who left for America were known as the Pilgrims.

Mayflower Compact

In 1620 a group of Separatists sailed to America on a ship called the Mayflower. Two months later, they reached present-day Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact, a legal contract agreeing to make laws to protect the people. It was one of the first attempts at self-government in the English colonies.

Northern Colonies

• Plymouth Colony – Pilgrims from Mayflower. They grew their own food and built their own houses.

• Harsh conditions, which killed many of the colonists, included cold, hunger, and sickness.

• Those who survived had help from the friendly local

Indians.• Massachusetts Bay Colony - This colony was established

as both a religious haven and the headquarters of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

• The colony’s success inspired the Great Migration, when 16,000 English settlers crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in New England.

Other Northern

• In time, the strict rules of the Puritan colonies caused dissenters to leave and settle new towns in other parts of New England.

•These new colonies included: Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

Middle and Southern Colonies

King Charles II granted friends and family land to rule, and

they formed the Middle and Southern Colonies.

A new king, Charles II, owed money and favors to many

people. He repaid them with American land grants.

The colonies created

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Carolina

Georgia

Unlike joint-stock colonies, these were not ruled by investors or colonial legislatures, but by their owners.

New York

Granted to James, duke of York

Already belonged to the Dutch

Conquered by the English in 1674 and renamed New York

Later, a large tract James gave to two proprietors became New Jersey.

Pennsylvania

Given to William Penn

Founded as a haven for Quakers and called a “Holy Experiment”

Decreased in size when Penn agreed to give Native Americans present-day Delaware

The Carolinas and Georgia

Carolina co-owned by eight men

Split into North and South due to tensions over farm size and slavery

Georgia was formed as a military buffer between English and Spanish colonies.

Maryland

Founded by George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore

Was a haven for Catholics after Church of England became England’s official church

Was a source of personal wealth for Lord Baltimore

Different regional economies developed in the North and South.

Northern Colonial Economies

Commerce-based economy

Crops did not grow well, so farmers only grew enough for themselves.

The most valuable Northern resources were dense forests

Timber exports

Wood for shipbuilding

• Northerners produced rum, textiles, ironworks, and other goods.

• Good harbors and inexpensive ships encouraged commerce in the North; it was concentrated in the port cities.

• These cities became part of trade routes that linked the world.

Southern Colonial Economies

Agricultural-based economy

Produced valuable cash crops such as tobacco, rice, tar, and indigo.

Two agricultural systems developed:

Plantations were large, warm-climate farms that grew one cash crop and depending largely on slave labor.

Small independent farms raised livestock and exported beef and pork. They grew corn, wheat, fruit and vegetables for the home market.

The Impact of Slavery

Plantation owners needed more and more workers.

Settlers gradually stopped using Native American workers and

indentured servants in favor of enslaved Africans.

The slave trade caused massive human suffering.

The difficult trip across the Atlantic from Africa was

called the Middle Passage.

Kidnapped Africans were chained together in dark, filthy

quarters below the decks and many died.

The African population in America grew quickly.

Slavery existed in both the North and South, but the

South’s agricultural economy depended more on slave labor.

Slaves developed strong cultural and religious communities.