colonizing the new world

Colonizing the New World

New France and Holland

1530-1630

French Colonization First pioneer was Jacques Cartier

who claimed the lands bordering the St. Lawrence in 1530.

Within 50 years hundres of ships were arriving annually off Greenland and the Grand Banks to enjoy the bountiful fishing.

The First Permanent Settlement 1608: Quebec is founded by Samuel de

Champlain.

Struggling Colony

New France/Quebec were struggling. French kings desperately encouraged settlement, with Louis XIV setting a goal of 4000 settlers annually…they failed miserably.

Louis XIV decided that the only way to boost the population and promote the fur trade was to allow Indentured Servitude.

French Servitude

Paid an annual salary Given short terms of 36 months (compared to 84

months for English servants) Receive a farm at terms end

Trouble settling?

Religion kept settlers in Europe Perception of Canada (a Huron-Iroqouis word for

village) Fear of Native Americans? Total migration: 1608-1760: 27,000! English migration was occurring at a rate of 6:1.

What were they thinking?

France had to keep pace with the demand for beaver and otter pelts to make this hat…

Why?

Native Americans at the center of trade

Huron's and Iroquois controlled trade. Alliances formed amongst the two sides France securing an alliance with the Huron and the

Dutch with the Iroquois. The French supplied the Huron with guns to fight

the Iroqouis

French (Huron)-Iroquois Wars Amongst the bloodiest

wars in American History.

Hurons nearly the victim of a genocide.

Failed to survive as a people. Surrendered as far west as Wisconsin (Beloit). Mixed with other tribes.

French Relations with Natives

They learned the languages They formed alliances They intermarried They were viewed as a source of wealth and not

leading an encroachment of lands.

Iroquois Troubles Dominant after Huron Wars…yet European disease devastated their population they

saw epidemics that ravaged and killed 25-50% and one scrouge that wiped out 90% in some villages

Victories with Dutch help allowed them to gain incredible amounts of land as far South as the Carolinas and north to Canada.

They were over extended

War woes Constant fighting thinned the original Iroquois

population and saw them “adopting” new cultures into their mist.

Made it difficult to control the original “Longhouse democracy”.

Yet by 1700 they were the dominant force in the present day United States, not the colonists. Their fortunes changed for the worse during the French and Indian War.

New Netherlands (Dutch) Colonization

By 1600 the Dutch were the greatest power in Europe (economically and commercially). Their 17th century was a period of brilliance (Rembrandt, et al)

They dominated nearly every industry in Europe and hoped to use their Iroquois allies to push an agenda of fur trade dominance.

Henry Hudson

Englishman sent by the Dutch to establish a settlement in present day New York (Hudson River Valley)

Sad fate of Henry Hudson

Dutch East India Company

Dutch used this corporation to control their interests in the New World. It was at the time perhaps the largest commercial enterprise in the world.

Controlled much of the fur trade, sugar trade, and slave trade in the New World.

Encouraging settlement in the New World

Patroon system: each settler granted 50 prime acres along the Hudson river that had to be established and maintained for five years.

The first “patroon” Kilaien Van Renesslaer

Settlement fails, fur trade doesn’t

Settlers didn’t come, but the firs did. 50,000 pelts by 1650 which went into making ugly

hats. New York will eventually be settleed by the

English in the 1660’s. The Dutch gradually began to ignore their colony

as Native American wars made it very expensive.

The English: Chesapeake Colonization

England established populous colonies Used force to take Native lands Created a society based on tobacco that produced

wealth to those who pursued the dream by importing slave labor.

Past failures Failures throughout the 1580’s prompted England

to remedy the problem, provide direct government support.

Roanoke served as a prime example of the failure. “The Lost Colony” The colony in present day North Carolina was not

funded and the colony died, its inhabitants whereabouts remains a mystery of history.

Policy shift The English like the Dutch used Joint-Stock

Companies to fund endeavors, they proved unsuccessful.

King James I began to assert control and gave the Va. Company of London all the land from North Carolina to New York.

Named Virginia in honor of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth.

Jamestown First group limited to only male traders, no women,

farmers, or preachers. This makes little sense as the colony was expected to feed

itself. “unruly sparks, packed off by their friends to escape

England”. All they wanted was “to dig gold, refine gold, and load

gold onto ships” Problem…no gold here.

Initial problems

Chose to settle on a swamp. Chose a place with no fresh water access Refused to plant crops Result: quick death. After 9 months: of the first 120 only 38 were alive.

John Smith asserts control

A former military man, John Smith had the wisdom to realize that no food meant death.

You either worked for the benefit of all or you didn’t eat.

Applied a military approach to Jamestown, and saved it.

Relationships with Powhatan Natives were suspicious of the new arrivals. Felt they could supply them with things to

strengthen their position. Helped feed the colony, traded corn for goods.

The marriage between Pocahantas and John Rolfe The John Smith saga… Powhatan thought it was a small group of traders,

he was wrong they came in a flood.

What to believe?

Maybe Disney got it right?

Nah…

The Starving Time

The colony survived on rats, roots, and even…the dead. There were accounts of cannibalism. Including a recipe for “bisque” that used a dead mans wife. Raids into Native territory became only option.

Encouraging Settlement

Two things seemed to spur settlement to Jamestown.

1. Tobacco: “Saved by smoke” 2. Establishment of the legislative body for

representative government: The House of Burgesses.

Saved by smoke:

First observed smoking in Columbian times Became an expensive luxury in Europe Became an affordable indulgence for all Caribbean tobacco planted by John Rolfe

(Pocahantas’s husband) in 1612

Growth

Year Population Export (lbs)

1620 1000 60,000

1700 100,000 35,000,000

Tobacco farming A  demanding  crop,  tobacco  required  close  attention

 and  a  great  deal  of  hand  labor  year round.   English  settlers,  however,  were  willing  to  work hard

 because  they  could  expect  to  do  much  better  in  the  Chesapeake  than  in  England.  A  hired  laborer  in a  Virginia  tobacco  field  earned   in  one  year  what  it  took  his  counterpart  in   England  to  earn  in  two  to   three years.

Headright system• Colonists already residing in Virginia were granted two

headrights, meaning two tracts of 50 acres each, or a total of 100 acres of land.

• New settlers who paid their own passage to Virginia were granted one headright. Since every person who entered the colony received a headright, families were encouraged to migrate together.

• Wealthy individuals could accumulate headrights by paying for the passage of poor individuals. Most of the workers who entered Virginia under this arrangement came as indentured servants — people who paid for their transportation by pledging to perform five to seven years of labor for the landowner.

Demographics

4/5 servants were men Women were rare and were often bought for 120

lbs of tobacco

Virginia becomes a Royal Colony

Frustrated by the failings of the corporate structure of the Virginia company, Virginia became a royal colony 1624.

Opechancanough Uprising

Uprising

“would not be drawn into any treaty with the English”.

“Before the end of two moons there should not be an Englishman in the countries”

Led a tribe that killed 347 English settlers in raids. “Destroying them who tried to destroy us”

African slaves

The first arrivals of African slaves occurred in 1619, when 20 arrived.

Economic differences divide Virginia

Most males were former indentured servants living (if they owned land) on the poorest quality land.

Despite their poverty they were subject to hevy taxes by the ‘grandees or planters’.

Doeg conflicts and turbulence between settlers and natives.

Bacon’s Rebellion In 1676 settlers led by

planter Nathaniel Bacon fought Virginia’s colonial government for failing to protect them from raids by the Susquehannock people. During Bacon’s Rebellion, settlers marched on Jamestown and burned the colonial capital. The rebellion faded later that year after Bacon died from disease