American Exceptionalism is the concept that America is superior to the rest of the world and that it is allowed to do certain things, even occasionally bad ones, because of that superiority. This can be one-sided because it justifies every doing of America even if it's bad.
Many people were migrating to North America from 1492 to 1776. This was true however, many people were dying mainly the Native Indians and Africans. Many of the Native Indians died due to diseases brought by newcomers and intense labor. Wars also caused the majority of deaths in North America at the time. The Africans who migrated to North America were decreasing in population due to their conditions as slaves set by colonists.
The Indians did not fear the Europeans. There were not many settlers but there was enough land for everyone to use and plant crops. The Indian Natives helped the settlers by teaching them how to plant crops and survive on the land. The Indians did not understand that the settlers were going to keep the land. Natives even asked the English settlers to join them to fight other Indian tribes. The Native Americans also brought deer and corn to the feast.
The first settlers in the Western Hemisphere were the Paleo-Indians. The first group of settlers was only about 15-50 people and they survived by hunting and gathering. Although the Paleo-Indians started as a small group they grew rapidly. After getting way too large they split up into subdivided groups.
A factor that caused nomadic tribes to settle in different regions has to be the fact that the group got too large. Another factor is more food sources. As they expand and look for other food sources they find more food ranges as well.
Economic factors mainly motivated Europeans to explore the world. The many reasons that explorers left their countries to find undiscovered lands were for economic factors, political factors, and technological factors.
The Europeans brought plants, animals, and diseases. They killed off native habitats. Despite the demographic disaster and the ecological changes, the native people survived in sufficient numbers to hinder and slow down colonial expansion. The native people adapted to their changing circumstances and defended their homes.
Europeans bought plants, animals, and diseases, and Spain looked for new slaves to work for their gold mines. This way, they started to conquer by getting their work done more efficiently leading to being more efficient economically. The Spanish also learned of the rich Aztec Empire. They also continued to practice the strategy of divide and conquer. This helped to find local allies among the Indian people.
A Catholic religious order devoted to simple living, missionary, and physical labor. They were founded by a 13th-century man named Francis, who was the son of a wealthy businessman. He gave up all his worldly luxuries and started to teach throughout the countryside, garnering him a following that led to the formation of the Franciscan order of Monks. The Franciscan order is one of the four great mendicant orders of the church, and its members strive to cultivate the ideals of poverty and charity.
Spain’s empire in the 1700s consisted of wealth and power mainly in Mexico and Peru. However, there was great poverty in the northern regions. The northern colonies were also retained primarily as a military buffer zone.
The Spanish had acquired a vast American empire of extremes: alluring wealth and great poverty.
It was concluded that the closer the French got to the North, the more safety was provided for their colony. Canada’s St. Lawrence River provided easier access to trade with the Indians. This assured the French more extensive fur trade with them. The French simply found out that they could profit from trading for furs with the Indians in Canada.
The Natives also accompanied the French on hunting parties and showed them where the good fur animals could be found. The French made it a point to learn the Native languages and ways and established good relations that were based on equality with all of the tribes in the area. This close alliance, which was based on mutual respect and good treatment from both sides, led the Natives to side with the French in their conflicts with the English settlers that came later in the 1600s and into the mid-1700s.
Beginning in 1663 the royal government sought to populate new France several measures were taken the arrival of the Filles du Roi, granting land to soldiers of the Carignan-Salieres regiment, And the engage system. More than 3,000 settlers, including girls of marriageable age, were sent out in the 1660s. Few followed thereafter, but by natural increase, the population began to expand rapidly.
The middle ground consisted of creative misunderstandings in which Indians and Europeans attempted to build a set of mutually understandable practices. Both sides then try to engage in practices, such as European leaders taking on the role of a patriarch that distributes gifts, mediates conflicts, and 'covers' violent deaths. The Indians began participating in a market economy, compromised on legal punishments, and submitted to a limited degree to European oversight.
In order to expand their native alliances, the French established another colony along the Mississippi River. They named it “Louisiana” after King Louis XIV. This colony attracted very few colonists due to being prone to subtropical diseases. The 4,100 slaves, 3,300 settlers, and 600 soldiers who did live in Louisiana (1764) mostly lived near the Mississippi River near New Orleans. This helped with the supply of deerskins and tobacco.
By acquiring public money with the aid of Congress, railroad barons were able to finance a continental railroad linking California to America which at the time was East of the Mississippi with the exception of Texas and Missouri. Once the railroad was built the railroad barons began promoting the Great Plains as being terrific for farming and aggressively persuaded groups of Europeans and Eastern Americans to fill these empty lands. All of this was at the expense of the Natives who were stripped of their ancestral lands, forced onto reservations, frequently exploited, and even killed.
French trading posts began as seasonal fishing and whaling camps around the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The exchange of goods (furs for beads, kettles, hatchets, and knives) gave Indians a greater need to hunt
The main reason why the English settled in the Chesapeake Bay was that the Bay offered good harbors, also the land was fertile. The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia also served a vital purpose in the development of the English empire by providing tobacco, a cash crop.
In the Chesapeake colonies such as Virginia (Jamestown) Natives originally showed them how to grow crops and even asked the English settlers to align with them to fight other Indian tribes. However, as Jamestownians kept taking more and more land their relationships turned bitter and the Powhatans revolted in 1622 and 1644.
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The first permanent English settlement in America was Jamestown, founded in 1607 as an economic venture. Problems soon emerged in the small English outpost, which was ruled by the powerful leader Powhatan. Relations with the Powhatan Indians were tenuous, although trading opportunities were established. An unfamiliar climate, as well as a salty water supply and lack of food, conditions possibly aggravated by a prolonged drought, led to disease and death which negatively affected Jamestown.
By 1700, the Virginia colonists had made their fortunes through the rising of tobacco, setting a pattern that was followed in Maryland and the Carolinas. Lord Baltimore planned for Maryland to serve as a refuge for English Catholics who suffered political and religious discrimination in England. Protestants were also attracted by the inexpensive land that Baltimore offered to help him pay his debts.
Bacon's rebellion led to the Colonists adopting slavery as the primary source of labor. Bacon's rebellion was led by a group of former servants who were now free, without work, and looking for trouble. The slaves were never free and never looking for trouble. After the 1676 rebellion led by Bacon, the colonies decided that black slaves from Africa would be the way to go since they never got their freedom.
There was a growth in slavery for many factors but specifically due to slaves working longer days under stricter supervision to tend to tobacco and corn. Furthermore, stricter laws were being established in order to keep these slaves with their masters. First, none could leave without a written pass. However, in 1961 no slave was permitted to be freed unless the planted paid for their transportation. Soon after, free blacks were stripped of their rights.
The English hoped to absorb the Indians as economic subordinates.
The Puritans considered the Bible as the true law of God that provided guidelines for church government. They wished to shape the Church of England to meet their ideals. They called for a less priestly church that emphasized preaching. The Puritans emphasized Bible reading, prayer, and preaching in worship services. They simplified the ritual of the sacraments.
Families in New England were much larger and consisted of both males and females. In contrast, families of the Chesapeake were primarily men brought over to work the fields (England: six males for every four women Chesapeake: four men for every woman.) Also, the ages of settlers in New England ranged wildly, seeing as immigrants came into family groups. Chesapeake settlers were all in the same general age range. Chesapeake and New England differed greatly in their religions. Chesapeake was primarily Protestant and Catholic, whereas New England would be Puritan.
Pilgrims wanted to separate themselves from the Church of England. They also wanted to separate themselves from those who were not believers. Puritans wanted to remove themselves from non-Puritans. They originally wanted to leave Great Britain because they were not pleased with the way non-Puritans were worshiping without much interference.
New England was not a good place for farming. The farmers only farmed enough for themselves, so the people in New England had to find other ways to make money. The main ways to make money in the 1700 New England colonies were to build ships, whaling, and fish. Building ships was also a good way to make money. The reason it was a good money maker for the New England colonies was that they needed ships if they were a sailor, fisherman, whalers, or a traveling merchant. These colonies also built ships for England themselves.
City On a Hill was a sermon given by John Winthrop which declared that the Puritans in the New World would set an example of a great society to the Christian world. The sermon inspired the Puritans with a sense of holy duty that would be crucial if they wanted to increase their chances of survival in the New World.
The English founded a new set of colonies in New England at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
By producing sugar, to which most of the land was devoted, the West Indies became the most valuable set of English colonies. There was a very high European demand for sugar to make their daily consumption sweeter. Also, sugar was easy transportation.
The abundance of land in the Carolinas attracted West Indian men who were being overcrowded. The Lords also promised religious tolerance and political representation. South Carolina soon grew by 6,600 people in 1700.
The colony continued to attract great planters with slaves to speed the development. The Lords also allowed a master to claim a full 150 acres for each slave imported. This led to the growth of slavery in the Carolinas.
The most important reason for Georgia's founding was defense. This meant that in the 1730s, South Carolina was a profitable British colony that was constantly threatened by the Spanish. Another reason Georgia was founded was because of Mercantilism. The trustees were hoping that Georgia would produce agricultural products that England couldn’t.
By producing sugar, the West Indies became the most valuable set of English colonies.
Britain's main rival initially was the Dutch, who were superior in the trade of Northern and Western Europe. The Dutch economy also benefited from a certain government that adapted to policies of freedom and religion. In October of 1651, the English Parliament passed its Navigation Acts of 1651. These acts were designed to tighten the government's control over trade between England, its colonies, and the rest of the world. The Navigations Act threatened the Dutch economy which sparked 3 wars between 1652 and 1674.
Pennsylvania was colonized by Swedish and Dutch settlers in the 17th century before the English took control of the colony in 1667. In 1681, William Penn established a colony based on religious tolerance which was settled by many Quakers along with its chief city Philadelphia. They were subject to persecution in England for a variety of reasons. Penn’s father had lent a lot of money to King Charles II, and after the elder Penn's death, Charles settled the debt by granting Penn title to Pennsylvania. Quakers used it as a refuge to escape the legal restrictions placed on them in England.
Due to the Scots losing their own Parliament, they won access to other colonies founded by the English. Between 1707 and 1775 there had already been about 145,000 Scottish migrants, outnumbering the Englishmen. Soon after the Scots, 100,000 Germans started to outnumber the English as they migrated to these thriving colonies alongside the Scots. The reason for the German migration was to find relief from chronic wars in Germany. Also, princes in Germany demanded military conscripts and religious conformities. Many enslaved Africans were also brought to America to work on plantations and American crops for the European market.
From a political perspective, “ The Great Awakening” led to stability since everyone now practiced the same religion. But instead of being a positive driving force for religious belief in general, religion became something of a pastime. The Awakening’s biggest significance was the way it prepared America for its War of Independence. Through the Awakening, the Colonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church of England, or any other religious authority.
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