Chapter 4 - Life in the Colonies

Between the years of 1607-1775 almost a million people

came over from Europe

New England• Subsistence farming- farming

only enough to meet your families needs

• center of trading • triangular trade routes developed• The trade route between West

Africa and West Indies known as The Middle Passage

Triangular trade routes

• http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u3/index.htm

Middle Passage

Middle Coloniescash crops – crops grown to make a profit. Mixed with subsistence (called bread basket)Immigrants from all over Europe settled in these colonies-(Scotch-Irish, German, Dutch, Swedish)lots of religious and cultural differences

Southern Colonies

• Indentured servants – people who would work for free in return for land

• Soon began to depend on slave labor

Tidewater- near the coast- large plantations Backcountry- in the mountains - small farmsSlave Codes – strict laws that governed slave life.Overseers- slave bosses

English Government

• Magna Carta (1215) - English document that the colonist based their government on – respected civil liberties

Colonial Government

• Charter colonies – based on a charter to a company (Mass)

• Proprietary Colonies – owned and run by individual people. (Penn)

• Royal Colony – run by the King(Va)

• Mercantilism – a country builds power by exporting more than importing

• Navigation Acts – 1650’s passed to force the colonists to only trade with England

Colonial America

North America before 1754

British-French Rivalry• Before 1754, major powers in

America were France and Britain• Both wanted to control the Ohio

River Valley, • British wanted to colonize and

French wanted it for fur trade• French began to build forts to

stake their claim to the land

• 1754 British sent George Washington with a small force to establish a fort- Ft. Necessity

• He attacked a larger French force, was surrounded, and captured. He surrendered. Gives him recognition

Indian help

• Iroquois Confederation- 5 Native American tribes who banned together to fight the British

• Native American tribes helped the French attack British forts

English- The British forces were made up of: 1. Redcoats (English Soldiers)2. American Colonists (English Subjects)

French- French forces were made up of:1. French Soldiers2. French Colonists (French Subjects)3. Native Americans

The War

• General Braddock in charge/GW under him

• Redcoats-easy targets• Braddock was killed, GW in charge

and gave him military experience

England steps in to help!

England steps in to help!

• Called The Seven Years’ War in the rest of the world

• 1757 William Pitt took over as Prime Minister of England. Turns tide of war because he sends lots of $

•

• After several years, the French were defeated and they withdrew to Canada

• British attacked them in Canada• Fall of Quebec – huge success• The French surrendered

Treaty of Paris

• Ended the War• 1. France gave up all it’s land • 2. England gained Florida from Spain • 3. Spain received lands west of the

Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans

• North America was now divided between England and Spain

Pontiacs War

• Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa, continued fighting – Native Americans were defeated

Proclamation of 1763

• To prevent more fighting between the colonists and Indians

• King declared the Appalachian Mountains as the boundary for colonist-stopped westward expansion

• This just angered the colonists