Overview
- Spanish Colonies
- Extract wealth with cash crops and valuable ores
- Subjugated the American Indian with a caste system
- New France
- Interested in fish and fur trade
- Few French colonists compared to other European power
- Created trade networks
- Married American Indian wives for economic purposes
- Allied with the Ojibwe Indians
- Indians could prepare beaver skins for trade
- French introduced iron cookware and manufactured cloth
- New Netherland
- Established fur trading center in the Hudson River
- Economic colonists
- Didn’t care about converting Natives
- Established New Amsterdam, a hub of trade
- Thirteen Colonies
- Shifting economy from conquest, Columbian Exchange, and inflation
- Upper class and lower class facing economic issues
- Colonized the Americas for economic gains or religious freedom
- Established Jamestown
- Founded under a Joint-stock Companies
- Profit-seeking venture
- Suffered from disease and famine
- Indentured Servants farmed valuable tobacco
- Took land from the Natives
- American Indians began retaliating
- Bacon’s Rebellion
- After the refusal to send troops, Nathaniel Bacon gathered a militia against the Natives and the Governor.
- Caused the elites to shift away from indentured servants to African slaves
- New England Colonies
- Settled by Pilgrims to create a society, not for profit
- Created family economies
- Suffered from disease
- Established a fully functional economy
- West Indies Colonies
- Established in Saint Christopher, Barbodes, etc
- Warm climate led to extensive tobacco and sugar cane farming
- Increased demand for African slaves
- Populations shifted to a majority black people
- New laws were created to govern African slaves
- Southern Colonies
- Copied the West Indies Colonies
- Middle Colonies
- Diverse population
- Thrived on an export economy with cereal crops
- Growing inequality between upper class and lower class
- Significant population of enslaved Africans
- Pennsylvania Colony
- Religious freedom for all
- Land gained by negotiations with American Indians
- Chesapeake Colonies
- Tobacco economy
- Colonies were generally democratic and independent
- Mayflower Compact
- Organized government to a self-governing church congregation
- House of Burgesses
- Representative assembly that could levy taxes and pass laws
- Democratic governments were dominated by the elite
- Late 17th to early 18th centuries were dominated by trade
- Triangular Trade
- Merchant ships would trade between New England, Africa, and West Indies
- Middle Passage was a dangerous passage because ships were full of cargo
- Economic system called Mercantilism
- Fixed amount of wealth in the world
- Each state’s goal was to gain as much wealth as possible
- Maintained by more exports than imports
- Relied on establishing colonies
- Navigation Acts
- Required Merchants to trade with English colonies and ships
- Some goods were required to go through English ports and get taxed
- Generated massive wealth for the elites
- Turned seaports into thriving urban centers
- 3 million slaves were carried through the middle passage
- Every colony participated in the slave trade
- Northern colonies had less slaves than southern colonies
- Slave Codes
- Slaves were defined as chattel; property
- Slaves were handed down from one generation to the next
- Slave rebellions
- Covert rebellions
- Secretly maintain traditions from homeland
- Broke tools and faked illness
- Overt rebellions
- Stono Rebellion
- In South Carolina, slaves stole weapons and marched along the Stono river, killing white colonists and burning plantations.
- Squashed by militia
- Stono Rebellion
- Covert rebellions
- King Philip’s War
- Saw the British encroachment as a threat
- Allied with other Indian groups
- Attacked white settlements
- British allied with the Mohawk Indians and killed Metacom, defeating the movement fizzled out
- Age of Enlightenment
- Spread to the colonies through trade
- Introduced natural rights to the colonies
- Government should have checks and balances through three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial
- Social contract
- People had the power that was given to the government to protect the people
- New Light Clergy
- Preached against the abandonment caused by the Enlightenment
- Emphasized democracy
- Against the elites holding all the power
- First Great Awakening
- Massive religious revival
- Jonathan Edwards
- New England minister that preached in the local area
- George Whitefield
- Preached across the colonies
- First vestige of an American identity
- Began paving way for independence
- Anglicization
- Became more English
- Rising frustration with the British
- Impressment
- Seizing colonial men to serve in the Royal Navy
- Conditions were bad
- Days of rioting in the colonies
- Colonies were increasing aware of their natural rights and didn’t want the British to violate it
Key Concept 1
Europeans (French, Spanish, English) developed a variety of colonization and migration patterns based on goals and culture treating Native Americans differently.
Different European countries used a variety of colonization techniques during their settlement of the New World. Colonies differ economically, politically, and socially.
- The Spanish colonies created colonies to extract resources like cash crops and ores, subjugating American Indians in the process with a caste system.
- The French colonies relied on a trade economy with the Natives marrying American Indian wives for economic purposes. Minor amounts of French colonists arrived in the New World compared to other colonies.
- The Dutch relied heavily on trade and focused little on converting the Natives. They established the trade hub of New Amsterdam.
- The British Colonies were incredibly varied depending on their location. Northern colonies were settled to create a new society while Southern colonies focused more on slaves and economic gains.
Key Concept 2
British colonies participated in political, social, cultural and economic exchange with Great Britain that encouraged a national identity and strong bonds with the mother country.
The British invested heavily into their colonial holdings and leveraged their economy and population to fuel their growing empire. Trade was usually required to pass through British owned ships and ports so goods could be taxed by the British government.
- Mercantilism encouraged the British to invest heavily into their colonies to extract as much raw resources as possible.
- The Navigation Acts required merchants to pass through English colonies and ships, turning seaports into thriving urban centers in the process.