The Development and Expansion of Colonial America

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1. The Growth of Colonial America Europeans colonize North America from 1492 onwards. 1565 they found Saint Agustine in Florida. Prosperity and good health of the Europeans in comparison to the sickness suffered by the natives were seen as signs from God. The natives didn’t consider themselves as one people, nor did they think of uniting to repel the Europeans invaders. Europeans learnt how to transplant crops and livestock successfully to exotic locations and learnt how native people could be conquered and exploited. (Sugar, Horses and Tobacco the most important commodities brought from America). The English started officially colonialising in 1607 by Virgina Company founded in Jamestown. First colonists were gentlemen and artisans, but what were needed were farmers. Virginians insisted on governing themselves at the local level so the political structures of England’s American possessions came to differ from the other ones which were ruled autocratically. Captain John Smith was the leader of the colonists in Virginia, captured by Powhatan, the legend of Pocahontas. When he was released, he instituted a policy of rigid discipline and encourage farming. “He who does not work, will note eat.” Purtians colonies. The Mayflower Compact. Half of the voyagers were saints, God had chosen them to colonise the new world and set an example for the other countries. The other half were strangers: ordinary settlers and servants. John Winthrop was elected in 1629 as the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, he foresaw America as a true commonwealth, a community in which each person put the good of her private concerns. “We shall build a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” By 1640, all property-owning adult male church members could vote. Harvard University was found 1636, located at Cambridge, MA. Agricultural settlements in the interior based on family farms. Costal towns (Boston and Salem) became busy seaports. Clashes with neighbouring Indians. England attempted to regulate its economy to ensure wealth and national power. The Navigation Acts (1651) required colonial porducts (tobacco and sugar) to be transported in English ships and sold at English ports. The Enlightenment of the 17th Century was the way to improve society and human nature; Isaac Newton 1687; theory of gravitation. John locked argued that the human mind was a blank tablet at birth that gained knowledge through experience. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). Founded Library Company, the first fire department and the University of Pennsylvania. New Amsterdam (colony of New Netherlands) was offered to King Charles II who gave it to James, the duke of York, and became New York. With the Dutch, women and blacks were free and when they surrounded they did if British respect those terms. Pennsylvania was given to proprietor William Penn perquè tenia deute amb el rei. Quaker Liberty was believed that liberty was a universal entitlement: women, blacks and Indians. Religious freedom was a fundamental principle. Penn established an assembly elected by male taxpayers which meant that a majority of the male population could vote. He owned all of the colony’s land and sold it to settlers at low prices rather than granting it outright. Pennsylvania prospered under Penn’s policies as it attracted settlers from several European countries. As Pennsylvania grew, the benevolent Indian policy would start to change. Bacon’s Rebellion 1676: Land and Labour in Virginia. Virginia’s shift from white indentured servants to African slaves as the main plantation labour force was accelerated by Bacon’s Rebellion. Virginia’s government ran a corrupt regime under Governor Berkeley. Free land was scarce for freed indentured servants, and taxes on tobacco were rising as the prices were falling. Governor Berkley maintained peaceful relations with Virginia’s native population. The prohibition to set white houses in Indian reserve land made people angry. Nathaniel Bacon, an elite planter, called for the removal of all the Indians, lower taxes. Bacon promised freedom (including access to Indian lands to all who joined his ranks. He refused Berekley’s order to disband and marched on Jamestown, burning it to the ground. The governor fled, and Bacon became the ruler of Virginia. Only the arrival of a squadron of warships from England restored order. Changes in New England. Plymouth was absorbed into Massachusetts and there were a few changes: Land ownership was required to vote and the governor was appointed in London rather than elected. The colony had to abide by the Toleration Act, which increased the power of some non-Puritan merchants and landowners. Escalation of the tension between French and Indians raids. The prosecution of Witches. Witchcraft was widely belived in and punishable by execution. The Salem Trials: in 1691, several girls suffered fits and nigmares which were attributed to witchcraft, accusations snowballed; ultimately fifteen women and four men were executed before the governor halted all prosecutions. The Seven Years’ War (1754-1763). Growing political antagonism between England and her American possessions. It all began with the Seven Years’ War. American settlers did not see the French as a threat. The war was between the American colonies and the Iroquois Confederacy against the French and Algonquin Indian tribes. 1. What was the role of the government according to the economic theory known as mercantilism? 2. Why was the Enlightenment relevant in America? 3. Why is Benjamin Franklin regarded as the “epitome of the Enlightenment”? 4. How did English rule affect the Iroquois Confederacy? What was the Covenant Chain? 5. Pennsylvania’s treatment of Native Americans was unique in what way? 6. What ironic consequence did William Penn’s generous policies, such as religious toleration and inexpensive land, have? 7. Who in the Pennsylvania colony was eligible to vote? 8. How did the new Massachusetts charter of 1691 change that colony’s government? 9. What is a theocracy? What were the beliefs and attitudes about witches and witchcraft held by many people in the New England colonies in the late seventeenth century? What characteristics did witches supposedly manifest? How were they identified? How were they punished? 10. Why did the accusations of witchcraft in Salem suddenly snowball in 1692? Who finally ended the Salem trials? 11. Which major event first led the British government to seek ways to make the colonies bear part of the cost of the empire? 2. Talking about a Revolution George Washington (1732-1799). In 1754, Major George Washington was sent during the Seven Years’ War by the Virginia’s governor to evict the French from Fort Duquesne. He came upon a French scouting party and ordered his men to open fire but was trapped by the French and forced to surrender. In 1759, the British occupied Quebec. In 1760, they captured Montreal, and thus completed the capture of Canada, effectively ending war in North America with the signing of the Treaty of Paris February 10th 1763. When the war ended, France was no longer in control of Canada. For Native American Indians this meant that they could no longer play one power off against the other. During the 1760s and 70s, a dispute over taxation within the British empire escalated into a conflict that gave birth to the United States of America. It al started with the Lords of Trade and the Navegation Acts, sought to channel key American exports like tobacco through British ports. British keep insisted that American should help to pay for the war debt. Another major crisis was the virtual representation. Britons believed the members of the British Parliament had virtual representation (each British citizen was a constituent of each member of the Parliament, the duty of which was to represent the whole empire, not just his district. American colonists argued London could not tax them because they were underrepresented in Parliament. The Sugar Act of 1764. It was a revenue-raising act passed but the Parliament. The earlier Molasses Act 1833, which had imposed a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses. By reducing the rate by half and increasing measures to enforce the tax, the British hoped that the tax would actually be collected. The Stamp Act Crisis 1765. It was a direct tax on all sorts of printed materials (newspapers, books, commercial papers…) American leaders viewed the British empire as an association of equals in which free settlers overseas enjoyed the same right as Britons at home.