Colonization: The Beginnings

Goals/Objectives

1. You will be able to devise how North and South America were settled from the Native Americans to the European explorers.

2. You will be able to devise the differences between the Native American culture and the European culture.

3. You will be able to devise how important naval power was in the establishment of overseas colonies.

4. You will be able to devise how geography, politics, and social class all affected the development of the American colonies.

Who Discovered America?

• The Native Americans?

• Christopher Columbus?

• The Vikings?

• The Chinese?

• The Phoenicians?

How is History Different?

• First, there is often more than one perspective, or point of view

• Second, those perspectives are usually based on facts, but sometimes don’t tell the whole story

• Finally, that’s why we just did this activity – to demonstrate how each perspective may be right, but each falls a little bit short of the whole story

• It’s up to you to determine which perspective agrees with you!

Early North American Settlement• The first to settle North

America were the Native Americans, who migrated from Asia

• The Native Americans both settled in certain areas and moved around.

• As a result, they spread across both North and South America.

• By the time Columbus arrived in 1492, there were at least 30 million Native Americans living in the Americas.

• 200 years later, approximately 80-90 percent of them were gone from disease or bloodshed

Early Contact with Europeans

• Around 1000 CE, a Viking explorer named Leif Erickson landed off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada and established a settlement

• The settlement lasted around 150 years or so, after which it either died off or the settlers returned to Iceland

• In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed with 3 ships in the Bahamas

• He initially thought he landed off the coast of India, so he named the natives Indians

• His subsequent return to Spain and reports of what he encountered led to increased interest in the New World

The Effect of Columbus

• Most European nations wanted to establish colonies in the New World, especially after the discovery of gold, spices, and the promise of land

• The first nation to develop overseas colonies was Spain, since they sponsored Columbus’ journey

• Eventually, they conquered most of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America

• Spanish soldiers were called conquistadors, or conquerors, but in addition many Catholic priests went along to try and convert the Native population

Culture Clash

• Religion:

• Land Ownership:

• Social Hierarchy:

• Value of Gold:

• Trade:

Europeans Native Americans

Monotheistic/Christian

Individual ownership

Stratified (different levels)

Precious, very valuable

Monetary based: buy/sell

Polytheistic

Communal owners

Chief, then everyone

Ornamental/religious

Barter, no money

Things that came from the New World

• Chocolate Rubber• Tobacco Onions• Potatoes Cotton• Sweet Potatoes Pineapples• Vanilla Pumpkins• Gold Cranberries• Coca Wild Cherries• Corn Tomatoes• Peanuts Peppers• Beans

Things that came from Europe

• Oranges Horses• Beef Cattle Domesticated

Pigs• Mangos Apples• Bananas Watermelons• Lettuce Eggplants• Wheat Cows (Milk)• Broccoli Carrots• Chickens Sheep

Review Questions

1. How did the Native Americans arrive in the Americas?

2. When the Native Americans arrived, why didn’t they stay in one place?

3. Why didn’t the Viking settlement gain as much attention as Columbus’ journey to the New World?

4. Why did the New World seem so attractive to prospective settlers?

5. How did Columbus and subsequent conquistadors affect the Native Americans?

Do Now: Answer this question… why would you want to come to the New World from Europe? What

opportunities were here that weren’t available in Europe?

The Race for Colonies

• Early on, the main nations competing for colonial domination were Spain, Portugal, England, and France.

• How do you think this competition affected the relationship amongst these countries?

• Eventually wars between these nations became quite common.

5 Things you need for an empire

1. Strong leader

2. Vast amounts of money to financially support overseas expeditions

3. A desire to expand

4. Strong navy

5. People willing to go…

England vs. Spain• By 1580, Spain had conquered most

of Central and South America

• Also, Holland was fighting for its independence against Spain.

• England was supporting Holland, and competing with Spain for world domination

• In addition, England had recently become Protestant because Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his wife, who happened to be a Spanish princess. How do you think this went over with the Spanish?

Things Boil Over• Eventually, the tension between England and Spain grew to armed

conflict.• Queen Elizabeth I allowed English sea captains to raid Spanish

shipping in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans• These quasi-pirates were nicknamed sea dogs, and the most

famous of all was Sir Francis Drake.• As a result, in 1588 the King of Spain ordered a huge armada to be

constructed in order to invade England.• He wanted revenge for the English raids on his shipping and to force

England to become Catholic again.

England Is the Best• Naval power had enabled Spain to maintain its colonies… now that England had

defeated the armada, they now had the naval power to maintain colonies• After its loss, Spain slowly declined in power over the next two hundred years and

never fully recovered.• England had attempted to set up a colony at Roanoke, NC in the 1580s but it

mysteriously failed.• In 1607, they finally made a successful attempt at Jamestown, VA• Initially, all the settlers were male, since most felt that the settlement should be

established before women and children were allowed to arrive. • Why would this be a bad decision?

Growing Pains within Jamestown

• Because there were no women settlers, no one felt obligated to do domestic tasks like cooking, cleaning, etc.

• Eventually, the settlement faced a crisis: everyone was busy looking for gold and building fortifications, and no one had bothered to grow crops to store during the winter time.

• As a result, only 60 of the original 900 settlers that arrived during the first two years survived

• The leadership of the colony, especially John Smith, were more militaristic in their dealings with the Natives, and as a result there were almost constant conflicts with the local tribes, which made matters worse

Starving Time

• Because the settlers of Jamestown did not prepare any crops to sustain them through the winter, they had a bit of a struggle.

• Things were made worse by the fact that John Smith was seriously injured in an explosion and had to go back to England

• Eventually things got so bad that the settlers were forced to eat their horses, dogs, themselves, and even the soles of their shoes

• By the Spring of 1610, when a new governor arrived there were only 60 survivors out of about 900 original settlers.

Do Now: Why is separation of Church and State such an important issue in the United States?

Why People Came Here…

• After Jamestown had been established, many people living in England felt that the New World offered them new freedoms that could not be fathomed in England.

• Most of these people were religious minorities, or people that differed from the Church of England.

• One group in particular that had struggled from persecution were the Puritans, or people who strived to be free from sin.

• One group of Puritans, called Pilgrims or Separatists, wanted to be completely apart from normal society.

The Journey to America

• In May/June 1620, about 100 Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower for the journey across the Atlantic

• During the two month journey, some of the leaders drafted the Mayflower Compact, which was an agreement to form an informal government based on majority rule.

• They agreed to make William Bradford the first governor of the settlement.

New England Characteristics

• They established town meetings, where issues would be discussed in front of the entire community… the majority ruled.

• However, the church represented the law of the land, which is called a theocracy

• In addition, because of the rocky soil, they were dependant upon ship building, fishing, and trade.

• However, their strict rules eventually backfired in things such as the Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials

Middle Colonies

• NY, NJ, DE, and PA made up the Middle Colonies

• They were known for their economic, political, and social diversity

• Unlike New England, their rich soil and abundance of crops earned them the nickname the ‘breadbasket’

• Additionally, cities like New York and Philadelphia thrived as ports that shipped goods from all over the colonies to European markets

Middle Colonies, Cont’d.• The diversity within the Middle Colonies

also allowed for a great range of religious groups

• The Quakers settled in PA, Dutch Reformed in NY and NJ, and a small group of Jewish settlers in NY.

• New York City was already the most diverse city in the colonies, and it only contained the lower part of Manhattan

• All this diversity eventually led the colonies to be amongst the wealthiest

Southern Colonies

- The Southern colonies established their own agrarian economy

- Tobacco immediately became a vital crop for Southern farmers to ship over to European markets

- As time progressed, cotton also became a valuable crop for Southerners

- Virginia had the first colonial legislature, the House of Burgesses

- Most settlers were of either English or Scotch/Irish descent.

- Maryland was established for Catholics.

Homework• USIJ: read the following pages: 85, 98-top of 100, 122-

128– Answer the following questions…

• Why do you think the life expectancies varied so much in the different colonial regions?

• Why did Bacon’s Rebellion bring an end to the idea of indentured servants doing most of the manual labor in the colonies? Therefore, what was the major long term consequence for it?

• Create a chart that has the following categories: religions, main sources of economic wealth, and type of government. Then have a line for New England, the South, and Middle colonies. Fill in each space.

Homework

• USIK: p. 48 1-5, p.57 1-5, p. 63 1-5