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Home , Henry Hudson, Proprietary colony

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III. European , Trade, and the Clash of Cultures

them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face down- ward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off. After this encounter, there were no longer enough men to sail three ships, so one ship was abandoned. The two remaining ships arrived in the Spice Islands in 1521. After loading up with spices, they sailed for home. One ship was captured by the rival Portuguese, so only one ship returned to Spain. This ship had sailed west to Africa, south along the coast, west around the Cape of Good Hope, and northward along the western coast of Africa, reaching Spain in 1522. Despite the loss of four ships and all but 18 men, the spices that the one remaining ship had taken on in the Spice Islands made the voyage a profit for its backers. Arriving home, the survivors of the journey noticed something interesting. They had kept a careful record of the days they had journeyed, but when they checked the date with locals, they found that their reckoning of what day it was differed by one day from the reckoning of those who had stayed at home. The travelers thought it was Wednesday, but the Europeans who stayed at home said it was Thursday. What had happened was the ship had sailed one rotation around Earth, so that their assessment of time was off by 24 hours. This even- tually led to the creation of the International Date Line. England and France Search for the Although Spain and Portugal led the way in exploration, England and France were not far behind. The English and the French were hopeful that they could find a “Northwest Passage,” a water route that would lead them through to the Pacific Ocean. Then they could sail to the Spice Islands and grow wealthy. An early English explorer was . Although he was from Venice, Cabot was in the service of the English monarch when he sailed west in 1497. Cabot reached the coast of North America at and possibly sailed as far south as the . Cabot’s expedition was the first European expedition to see the North American continent since the Vikings. But Cabot himself did not know this. Like Columbus, he believed he had reached Asia. When Cabot returned to England, he did not have any spices and silks to show for his journey, but was able to describe scooping codfish out of the water in baskets. Cabot’s second expedition in 1498 disappeared, and while he had not located the Northwest Passage, England based its later claim to North American territory on his . When Cabot had first sighted Newfoundland, he had gone ashore and claimed the land for England. Frenchman searched for a Northwest Passage several times. He explored the St. Lawrence River, northern (where he discov- ered the lake that bears his name), and the Great Lakes Huron and . From

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1603 to 1606, he explored Nova . In 1608, he founded the settlement of Quebec, which is the oldest city in . His explorations were the basis for Teaching Idea French claims to the colony of , of which Champlain was Here are additional explorers who between 1633 and his death in 1635. might be of particular interest depending on your location. Henry Hudson tried two different routes to Asia. Sailing for the Dutch East • Giovanni da Verrazano— India Company in 1609, he first explored along the lower coast of North America Although Italian, he was sailing around what is now New York and came across the mouth of the river that now under the flag of France in 1524 bears his name. Thinking this might be the long-sought Northwest Passage, he when he discovered New York sailed north on it to what is now Albany. Finding no passage, he returned down- Harbor and Narragansett Bay. The stream. His voyage of exploration became the basis for the Netherlands’ claim to Verrazano Narrows and the the area. Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New In 1610, Hudson, then sailing for his native England, tried a more northerly York Harbor are named for him. route. Sailing north and then west around Newfoundland, he found a strait and • Jacques Cartier— sailed through it into a huge bay. Both the strait and the bay are now named for Searching for the Northwest him. Once in , he planned to spend the winter there before going on. Passage for his native France, When his ship Discovery froze in the bay and food ran low, his crew mutinied and Cartier explored the Gulf of St. put Hudson, his son, and seven others in an open boat with no oars. When spring Lawrence in 1534 and the St. came, the bay thawed and the crew sailed the Discovery back to England, but Lawrence River in 1535 as far as Hudson, his son, and his loyal crew were never heard from again. what would become the cities of English Colonies in North America Quebec and Montreal. He claimed Beginning in the late 1500s, the English attempted to found permanent set- the area for France. tlements in North America. However, the first lasting settlement, Jamestown, on the James River in Virginia, was not established until 1607. The next permanent settlement was Plymouth in 1620, in what is today . From these beginnings, the English—partly through independent settlements and partly through acquisition by force of other kingdoms’ colonies—had established 13 colonies by the early 1700s. Territories claimed by the English reached south to Florida from what is now the United States–Canadian border and west from the Atlantic Coast to beyond the Appalachians. Whereas New France and New Spain were both sparsely settled, by 1760 the English colonies had a population of some 2 million, about half of whom were English or of English descent. There were also around 300,000 enslaved Africans in the colonies. Boston—with a population of 20,000—was the largest city in the North American colonies, and second in the only to London. English colonies were one of three types: joint-stock, proprietary, or royal. A colony established by a joint-stock company was set up to provide its share- holders with revenue. A joint-stock company was like a modern corporation; members bought shares in it in order to finance an activity, in this case the establishment of a colony. A was one established by and for the financial benefit of one, two, or a handful of proprietors. The proprietors established the rules for governance, selected the governor, and received the taxes. In a royal colony, the monarch appointed the governor and often the gover- nor’s council of advisors, which was different from the colonial legislature.

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Establishment of the Thirteen English Colonies in North America Virginia Teaching Idea The first permanent English colony was established in North America in King James did not think much of the 1607 at Jamestown. A joint-stock company named the received chief export from Jamestown. Students a charter from King James I and named the colony Virginia in honor of Queen may enjoy hearing his famous attack Elizabeth, the “Virgin Queen.” The first settlers were not farmers, but adventur- on smoking from his pamphlet, “A ers, interested mostly in searching out goods that would bring substantial prices Counterblaste to Tobacco.” The text is in trade with England. However, tobacco agriculture was soon introduced to the available online. colony and by 1619, tobacco had become the chief crop. By 1669, Virginia was exporting 15 million pounds of tobacco a year. Massachusetts Bay In 1620, a group of Puritans sailed from Holland intending to set up a colony near Jamestown. The Puritans were religious dissenters who believed that the Church of England did not go far enough to remove Roman Catholic practices. As they crossed the Atlantic, they were caught in a storm and ultimately landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. They named their settlement in honor of the English town from which they had set sail. In 1629, a group of English Puritans and merchants formed a partnership called the Massachusetts Bay Company. Its purpose was to establish a colony north of Plymouth that would be both a business venture and an experiment in living according to the Bible and Christian principles. The settlement grew to over 10,000 people by the end of the 1630s. Teaching Idea New Hampshire was founded in 1623 by Captain . It came under As a round robin activity, ask students control of in 1641, but was granted a separate royal to tell you one fact about each of the 13 charter in 1679. It included the area of what is today Maine. English colonies. See how many rounds Maryland the class can go before running out of information. In 1632, Maryland was established as a colony for Roman Catholics seeking refuge from persecution in Protestant England. Maryland was established by a land grant from King Charles I to his friend Lord Baltimore. It was named after the queen, Henrietta Marie. The colony was settled in 1634. It was the first pro- prietary colony. In 1631, Roger Williams arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony and soon ran afoul of the colony’s leaders because of his religious beliefs. Williams advocated religious toleration and fair treatment for Native Americans. In 1635, Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony. He established a settlement south of Massachusetts Bay Colony in present-day Providence with land he purchased from the Narragansetts. In 1643, this settlement, along with others in the area, petitioned King Charles I for a charter. It was granted in 1644, and the colony set up its own gov- ernment that guaranteed self-government and religious freedom.

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Connecticut Thomas Hooker and fellow dissenters from Massachusetts Bay Colony estab- lished . In 1636, Hooker and his followers settled in what is now Hartford. In 1639, they and members of several other towns in the area drew up the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the first constitution in the English colonies. The colony was granted royal charter in 1662 separate from Massachusetts Bay. North and The Carolinas were founded by a land grant to a group of eight proprietors in 1663. The colony was named in honor of King Charles II. Rice was introduced into the colony in the 1690s, but the land and climate of the northern part of Carolina were not suitable for rice agriculture. Wealthy men began to buy up land and establish plantations. Slaves from Africa played a large role in the successful cultivation of rice. By 1740, for every European colonist in Carolina, there were two African slaves. Carolina was divided into North and South Carolina in 1729. New York The first settlement in the New York area was established by the Dutch in 1609. In 1624, supposedly purchased Island from the Manhattan people for $24 in trade goods. The Dutch named the city . The success of this trading post drew the attention of the English, who based their claim to the land on John Cabot’s voyage in 1497. They captured the city in 1664 and renamed the area New York in honor of the English king’s brother, the Duke of York. New Amsterdam was renamed . New Jersey was named after the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. The area was part of the colony seized by the English. It was given as a proprietary colony to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, two friends of the Duke of York. The colony was managed as a proprietary colony for the bene- fit of the two men, but it offered religious toleration and representative govern- ment to all who immigrated there. Pennsylvania In 1681, received a land grant from the king to pay off a debt owed to Penn’s father. Penn was the sole owner of the huge tract of land. Penn was a member of the Society of Friends, a group familiarly known as the Quakers. Like Puritans, Pilgrims, and Roman Catholics, Quakers were persecuted in England for their religious beliefs. Penn wanted to make Pennsylvania a haven for people of all religions. Because of Quaker belief, slavery was banned, and small farms rather than plantations developed in the colony. Delaware The English had occupied the area known today as Delaware since 1664, when they seized it from the original Swedish settlers. In 1682, the Duke of York gave the area to William Penn, who wanted an outlet to the Atlantic for Pennsylvania. The Lower Counties, as they were called, were represented in the Pennsylvania Assembly until 1704, when they were granted their own legislature.

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The Lower Counties did not have their own governor, however, and continued to be ruled from Philadelphia. Georgia Georgia was the last of the 13 colonies to be established. In 1732, James Oglethorpe and a group of London businessmen received a charter from King George II to set up a colony between South Carolina and Spanish Florida. It was established as a debtors’ colony to provide an opportunity for rehabilitation. Attempts at producing silk crops failed and caused economic problems for set- tlers. In time, plantation-style agriculture, including the use of enslaved Africans, was introduced. English Colonies in the West Indies Although the Spanish had been the first Europeans to see and seize the islands of the , other countries soon followed them into the region. They took some islands from the native American inhabitants and fought with Spain and with one another for possession of other islands. These conflicts were an outgrowth of the struggle for power among European nations. The English colonized Saint Kitts, Nevis, and Tortola (part of the British Virgin Islands) and forced Spain out of Jamaica. Today, the British Virgin Islands are a of the United Kingdom and Jamaica is an independent coun- try within the British . Trinidad and Tobago were British colonies, but today they are a single independent country. French Colonies in North America One outcome of the interest in finding a Northwest Passage was the French claim to the land that is now Canada and parts of northeastern and upper midwest- ern sections of the United States. Beginning in 1608, when the settlement of Quebec was founded, the territory claimed by France steadily grew. By 1682, Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, had claimed all the lands in the Mississippi River valley for France. This colony of New France reached all the way down the center of the continent to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1663, Quebec became its capital. Despite its size, the European population of New France never reached more than around 2,300 people. The real locus of the colony was in what is today east- ern Canada, where the weather is harsher than in the more southerly and temper- ate Mississippi basin. The French government was more interested in gaining ter- ritory and prestige in Europe than in promoting settlement in its faraway colony. France’s major concern was protecting New France’s lucrative . France lost the colony to Great Britain in 1763 after the French and Indian War. French Colonies in the West Indies Today, all that is left of France’s colonies in the West Indies are the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, which are now departments of France, or overseas , rather than colonies. Haiti, part of the island of Hispaniola, came under French rule in 1697. French colonists began importing enslaved Africans to build huge sugar and cof- fee plantations, which became the basis of a highly prosperous colonial economy. A slave rebellion in 1791 drove out the French and established an independent country in 1804. Core Knowledge students will learn about the revolution, led by

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