US History # 5

Politics of empire & colonization,1550 - 1750

announcements

• Midterm exam: Tuesday 15/11/11, 10:10 – 11:45.

• Exam covers everything: power points, lectures, discussion, assigned reading.

• There will be choices of questions.• No dictionaries, please.

Competition for colonies & trade:England, Spain, France, Netherlands

• series of wars throughout 16th, 17th, 18th centuries.

• desire to control New World land, resources, peoples, and to monopolize trade.

• religious competition in most wars (Protestant, Catholic, dissenting Protestants).

• shifting alliances among European countries. • wars fought on oceans, in colonies around the

world, and in Europe.

Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury, Puritan leader

English conquest of Ireland• Warfare, late 16th c – imposition of English

centralized rule, language, law, & culture. • Imposition of Anglicanism on Catholic Ireland. • Occupation by English troops & colonization by

English people. • Ended autonomous, armed, clan-based

lordships. • Treatment of Irish a model for treatment of

Africans in British colonies.

Irish “savages”

• British believed civilized peoplecould not mix w savages, such asIrish. Brought this idea to New World.

Internal political & religious change in England

• Civil War, 1642 – 1651• Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell, executed king,

created Commonwealth, ended Anglican monopoly.• monarchy restored 1660.• Parliament deposed James II for Mary & William of Orange, 1688, Glorious Revolution.• Bill of Rights – England now a constitutional monarchy.

Wars for empire (and religious dominance)

• Anglo-Dutch wars, 1650s – 1670s. English became the Atlantic power. New York colony became English.

• English trade monopoly of Atlantic coast. • Intermittent wars between England & France

(usually allied with Spain) for control of North American interior, 1689 – 1763.

• France typically had Indian allies.

Wars for empire

• 1713 – Spain yielded exclusive right to England to supply slaves to British colonies.

• In northern colonies, wars over control of Indian trade.

Indian participation in wars• Among British, French, & Spanish, various

Indian nations attempted to play off Europeans against one another & to gain allies against their Indian

enemies.

colonial politics

• 1st colonial assembly established Jamestown, 1619. • voters were white, male, adult, propertied.• during English Civil War & aftermath, colonial

legislatures grew powerful & independent. • colonists rebelled against royal governors. • English imposed royal government on all colonies

except Pennsylvania (proprietary), Massachusetts, Connecticut.

• Development of self-government. Spanish & French colonies completely governed from Europe.

• Election day, with candidates supplying alcohol, 18th c.

• Jamestown, 1619

English attempts to control colonies

• Navigation Acts – 2nd half of 17th c – all trade between British & its colonies had to be on ships built in England or British colonies.

• Other nations forbidden to trade with British colonies.

• No competition with home country industries – wool, hat, & iron production forbidden.

• Huge growth of trade between England & colonies, 1700 – 1760.

mercantilism

• Political control of economy by the state. System designed to benefit the “mother” country.

• Slavery stimulated manufacturing w/ a huge colonial market for exports – textiles, metal products, shipwares.

• Profit from slavery a source of investment – modern banks, insurance companies, growth of British ports.

Ports: Bristol & Liverpool