Colonies in North America

Competing in North America

• Colony: region controlled by a foreign country• French, English, Dutch want a claim in the

New World

New France

• Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec• New France includes Great Lakes and

Mississippi River valley• New France is very large but has few

inhabitants• Main activity of colony is the fur trade

New England

• Lost colony of Roanoke, NC• The Settlement at Jamestown, VA (1607)– Early years very difficult; many die, but settlement

takes hold• Puritans/Pilgrims settle Plymouth Rock, MA

(1620)– Puritans/Pilgrims – group

persecuted for religion

New Netherland

• In 1609, Henry Hudson explores waterways for Dutch

• Dutch claim land in (now) New York– Then NYC was called New Amsterdam

• Dutch focus on fur tradenot on settlement– Welcomed settlers from

other lands

The Caribbean

• English, Spanish, and French also start colonies in Caribbean

• Large cotton, sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans

England Victorious

• The English beat the Dutch– New Netherland splits northern and

southern English colonies• In 1664, English force Dutch colonists to surrender

control

– By 1750, about 1.2 million English settlers in 13 colonies• GA as a buffer zone to protect from Spanish attack

England Victorious continued

• England Battles France– English settlers, pushing west, collide with French– French and Indian War – French and Native

Americans fight against the British• “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”

– In 1763, France loses to Britain, gives up its American colonies

Native Americans

• Natives Fall to Disease– Wars are less deadly to Indians than European

diseases• Smallpox was the most deadly

– Colonists use enslaved Africans to work in place of Native Americans