Introduction
American exceptionalism is an old history in which English colonists are characterized as being oppressed by European customs and resources. By escaping from these hardships and subsequently British rule, these colonists are being given a new land of challenges and opportunities. American exceptionalism can give a one-sided view of colonialism because of its solely focusing on the hardships the English colonists faced. It fails to acknowledge any of the other peoples involved in the rise of colonial America, including Native Americans or Africans. Rather, English colonists are being portrayed as victims to British rule and culture.
Between the years 1492 and 1776, there was a decline in North America’s population, despite the new wave of settlers there, due to natives of the land dying from war and diseases brought by these settlers.
As colonists settled into the “New World,” they brought diseases, weapons, trade goods, livestock, and Christian beliefs with them, all of which were foreign to the Indians. Some of the Indians used these new resources to their advantage. For example, horses and buffalo were used for traveling and hunting, respectively. The Navajos used sheep to produce wool cloth. However, some Indians resisted colonial settlement and rolled back their settlements along the Great Plains.
The natives were important to their European rivals because they served as trading partners, guides, military allies, and religious converts.
Encounters
The first settlers in the Western Hemisphere were migrators from Serbia.
From the first moment nomadic groups arrived in present-day North America, they all traveled in different directions in search of large mammals to eat, such as wooly mammoths. As the environment changed for each group that settled, they would move on to a different area. For example, about ten thousand years ago, the land bridge the Serbians had crossed in order to enter North America had disappeared as a result of gradual climate increase, which caused the Pacific Ocean to rise. As a result, the second wave of migrators, settled in the southwestern region of America. Four thousand years later, a third wave of migrators settled in southern and western Alaska.
Europeans voyages of exportation were induced by new waves of maritime technology, such as the caravel and the astrolabe, and a longing to imperialize and dominate the oceans of the world. They wished to have access to the lands and peoples of undiscovered countries. Europe was a Christian continent. Muslims were significantly more advanced in terms of exploration, wealth, and technology than European Christians. The rivalry between these two religious groups also fueled Europeans to explore where the Muslims had already been and gain access to riches such as gold, gems, ivory, silk, and spices.
After first coming into contact with the West Indies in 1492, explorer Christopher Columbus returned to Spain with a report of the variety of riches he had seen. In 1493, Columbus returned, this time with the intention of conquering the land and its peoples. Arriving in Hispaniola with seventeen ships, Spanish colonizers settled on the land, which in turn produced negative effects for the natives of Hispaniola, the Taíno people. The Taíno population significantly decreased after many people died from European diseases. The Taíno were subject to forced labor, and anyone who resisted were subject to raids. On the flip side for the Spanish, soil in this “New World” proved to be excellent for planting new crops, such as maize and potatoes. In short, European contact with the Americas was more beneficial to the Europeans than the natives.
Paleo Indians: the descendants of the first migrants, who came from Serbia, to come to the Western Hemisphere; they spread across North America to South Africa and survived by means of hunting and gathering in small groups
Archaic Indians: came after the Paleo Indians; named for their use of different techniques used to adapt to a new way of life; devised new and more patient ways to hunt different animals and harvested new foods such as shellfish and berries
Three crops of horticulture: maize, squashes, and beans; pioneered by the natives of Mesoamerica
Hohokam: a culture that was a product of horticulture; Hohokam lived in the Gila and Salt River valleys of southern Arizona, built over five hundred miles of irrigation canals, and built stone and adobe towns
Anasazi: another culture that was a product of horticulture; like the Hohokam, the Anasazi also built stone and adobe towns; lived in the canyons of the Four Corners Region and caught rain in the winter to use in fields come spring and summer
Pueblos: a pueblo is an adobe town, but a Pueblo Indian refers to Anasazi people who fled south and east to establish new pueblo villages
Cahokia: site of the most vast and complex town built by the Mississippians; during the years 900 and 1100, Cahokia inhabited at least ten thousand people, but during the twelfth century, both its power and population declined, thus resulting in its abandonment during the middle of the thirteenth century
Reconquista: Spanish word meaning “reconquest”; Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella had successfully carried out the reconquest of Iberia, resulting in the Iberians wanting to conquer and enslave the people of the Canary Islands
Christopher Columbus: Italian explorer who sailed from Spain to the West Indies; Columbus mistook the West Indies for the East Indies, and he stuck to this belief up until the day he died
Amerigo Vespucci: Genoese explorer who contradicted Columbus’ beliefs and correctly determined that current-day America was located nowhere near Asia
Columbian exchange: refers to the exchange of disease, foods, plants, and animals between European explorers and Native Americans; Native Americans proved not to be immune to European diseases such as yellow fever, influenza, and smallpox, so the Native American population significantly decreased following the settlement of new colonists; the New World was beneficial to the Europeans, as the Americas provided new food crops and better climates to plant such crops
New Spain
A number of factors contributed to Spain’s ability to conquer Indian empires. While the weapons and technology used by conquistadores were somewhat primitive compared to today’s technology, the Spanish’s weapons were far more advances than that of the Indians. The sight of men on horses was foreign and frightening to the Indians. The Indians were not immune to any of the diseases brought by the Spanish. Sometimes it was easier for the Spanish to conquest an area since some of the natives wishes to rebel against their leader. Conquistador expeditions set out with the intent of gaining some sort of profit, as they were not being paid for their journey. Their profit was obtained in the form of tribute paid by conquered peoples. These peoples were also forcibly converted to Christianity. Many were either killed or enslaved. During the sixteenth century, many Spaniards settled in the Americas. Some Spanish men took native women as their wives, this producing mixed offspring known as mestizos. By 1700, the mestizos outnumbered the Indians in Central America. Colonial authorities created a new hierarchy in which Indians and any Africans, who were brought as slaves, at the bottom of the system, and Spaniards at the top. By 1550, the Spanish had successfully established one of the most powerful and wealthy empires in European history.
The Spanish crown felt the need to create a northern outpost in order to protect mines in Mexico. Other European countries were starting to explore in North America, and Spain wished to keep them away from the Mexican mines.
The cost of native conversion consisted of a number of losses for the natives: their wooden idols were taken away and burned by priests, monogamous Christian marriage was forced onto them, and their traditional ball game was banned. Any native who tried to defy a friar would be whipped. The natives had initially converted because they believed Christianity would protect them from the new wave of diseases brought on by the Spanish. To their dismay, this was not the case.
The Franciscan friars assisted in the task of converting Pueblo people to Catholicism. They founded fifty missions in the Rio Grande and Pecos valley by 1628. The friars erroneously believed hat converting the Pueblo would be a simple task and almost instantaneous. Rather, the Pueblo would integrates both Christianity and their native ways.
By 1700, Spain’s empire could be describes as both wealthy and poor. Mexico and Peru were powerful, thriving, and wealthy. On the other hand, the northern margins of the Spanish empire was facing poverty. The Spanish imperial policy displayed favoritism its motherland over the colonies. Northern colonies simply served a purpose as protection of Mexico and land south of it from any European rivals.
Conquistadores: armed volunteers; assisted in expanding Spain’s vast new empire
Hernán Cortés: led six hundred conquistadores from Cuba to Mexico in 1519; easily won over the natives of the land, who were under the rule of the Aztec; Cortés and his men had Moctezuma, the Aztec ruler, taken hostage and killed; the Aztec capital of Tecochtitlán was destroyed by the Spanish, and the Aztecs were captures as slaves
Francisco Pizarro: with the help of one hundred and eighty men, conquered the Inca Empire during the 1530s
Encomienda: system in which the natives of lands conquered by the Spanish had to pay tribute to their conquerers
Mestizos: offspring of a Spaniard and an Indian; by 1700, the mestizos had outnumbered the Indians in central Mexico
Hernando de Soto: sent with six hundred men from Cuba to Florida and through the southeastern America in pursuit of gold; de Soto would violently handle any resisting Indians by burning them alive or having their hand or nose cut off; there was little gold found
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado: sent with three hundred soldiers, six Franciscan priests, eight hundred Mexican-Indian auxiliaries, and one thousand five hundred horses from Mexico to southwestern America to the Great Plains; discovered the Pueblo Indians but found no gold
St. Augustine: town built by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés; the first European colony to be established within the borders of present-day America
Popé/Pueblo Revolt: Popé was a Pueblo shaman who was whipped for being charged with sorcery by the Hispanics; he organized the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; Pueblos, along with some Apache bands, destroyed missions, farms, and various Christian items such as alters and crosses; many colonists and priests were killed by these rebels; soon after the revolt, conflict within Pueblo villages and among the Apache people resumed, thus discrediting Popé and his promise of the revolt resulting in peace for the Pueblo
New France
The French had initially discovered Florida first before settling in Canada, but the Spanish were too hard to defeat. Instead, Canada was deemed the safer option to start colonizing. Canada had and abundance of fish and fur, and its St. Lawrence River was useful for trading with the Indians.
The French and the Indians were mutually dependent on one another for trading goods. For example, at the St. Lawrence River, Indian hunters would offer French Mariners beaver, lynx, otter, and fox furs in exchange for goods such as hatchets, beads, kettles, and knives. During the time of fur trade conflict, Samuel de Champlain founded Québec. Québec depended on the Indians in order to survive. In exchange for metals, cloth, and alcohol, the Indians would serve as allies and hunters for the Europeans.
One outcome of the conflicts over fur trade was the founding of Québec by Samuel de Champlain. The English, French, and Dutch fought among each other over fur. As a strategy, big trading companies would build forts to protect harbors and river narrows. Québec is today a province in present-day Canada. Another outcome involves Samuel de Champlain’s fur trading alliance with the Indians.
There were also violent conflict between the Haudenosaunee and the French. The Haudenosaunee had initially been excluded from fur trade. To the Haudenosaunee soldiers’ chagrin, the French ended up wounding three of the Haudenosaunee chiefs. However, as a result from this battle, the Haudenosaunee realized they needed new war tactics. From that point on, Indians practiced hit and run tactics and used trees for protection rather than wooden armor. Indians scrambled for their own guns during fur trade. Unfortunately, as the Haudenosaunee gradually became better-armed than their enemies, and as a result the Haudenosaunee launched a brutal attack on the Huron villages. The villages were burned, and many Huron were either taken captive or killed.
By 1663, New France only had three thousand colonists as opposed to New England’s fifty-eight thousand colonists. In order to stimulate the growth of the population, the French Crowns would encourage ((((SUBSIDIZE- SUPPORT FINANCIALLY) emigration from different groups. Poor, young men out of work were given a three-year term to serve before becoming free. A cash dowry was provided women, as an incentive to lure young orphan girls into New France. The French spent very few colonists to the Americas.
A middle ground is a place where colonists and natives were able to coexist. Neither group would try to dominate the other. Rather, they would live as equals.
The French established Louisiana in order to contain any English colonists along the Atlantic Ocean and to expand their native alliances. Being unable to control or dictate their own alliances with the Indians had become a problem for the French. Prior to the founding of Louisiana, the French had no choice but to wipe out the Fox people for the Illinois, Miami, Ojibwa, Wyandot, Pottawatomi, and Ottawa Indians. Otherwise, the Indians had threatened to destroy Detroit.
The French subsidized its colonies because they needed their native allies to hold the interior and contain any eastern English colonies.
The French were initially the ones who encouraged tribes of the Great Plains to attack on the Pueblos of New Mexico. These particular tribes of Indians were involved with French trade. Specifically, they would mostly obtain guns and weapons from the French. This was a practice that the Spanish did not agree with. The tribes of the Great Plains were fueled with revenge against the Hispanics for their slave trade. The Hispanics were unsuccessful in retaliating. They were raised and had cattle and captives taken away from them. Also, they wished to obtain horses and any captives as means of paying for more French goods. As a result of the rise of the Great Plains tribes, the Spanish found it harder to control or dominate the Indians of their colonies.
Samuel de Champlain: founded Québec in 1608
Québec: founded by Samuel de Champlain as a mean of keeping any rivals away during the height of fur trading; had a cannon that blocked any rival ships
Five Nations: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca
Coureurs de bois: upper-country French who loved as fur traders; they would travel on canoes to go beyond any trading posts
New Orleans: capital of the colony of Louisiana
Presidios: military settlement or base
Chesapeake colonies
The English settled in the Chesapeake region because of its harbors, fertile land, and freshwater rivers suitable for navigation.
Chesapeake colonists and Indians had a strained relationship because of their differences of cultures and beliefs. The monotheistic English found the Indians’ practice of pantheism to be sacrilegious. Unlike the Indians, the English believed in owning private property and doing heavy labor. While the English did not send any missionaries to try and convert the Indians, any Indian who resisted being taught Protestant Christianity was treated as if they were an animal.
Jamestown was a colony built near a swamp on the north bank of the James River. The slow growth of this colony was mostly due to its location. Many disease-carrying mosquitoes inhabited the swampy area. Salty water from wells also killed many colonists. Most colonist either did not want to work or were not healthy enough to work, so they died of starvation. After only nine months of being founded, Jamestown’s population dropped from one hundred and four to thirty-eight.
Maryland and Virginia both prospered due to the growth of tobacco. Tobacco was a crop that thrived in Virginia but not England. Therefore, there was a significant increase of the population from 1616 to 1650 (350 to 13,000). Maryland was a very accepting colony in terms of religion. Lord Baltimore promised refuge for any Roman Catholics, who were persecuted in Protestant England. People from Virginia were attracted to Maryland, bringing their tobacco-growing skills with them. As a result, Maryland too thrived as a tobacco colony.
Bacon’s rebellion was fueled by discontent towards the Sir William Berkley and the Indians by the colonists of Virginia. The colonists had to pay heavy taxes to Sir Berkley. They came to Sir Berkley, demanding that the Indians be wiped out of the frontier, but instead new forts were built. This angered the colonists, who not only found this as a waste, but also now had to pay even more in taxes because of these new forts. The frustrated colonists turned to Nathaniel Bacon, who led attacks on the Indians. He and his men then drove Sir Berkley and his supporters out of Jamestown in 1676. Bacon then burned Jamestown down. Unfortunately for Bacon’s group of rebels, when Bacon suddenly died, there was no one left in charge of the movement. Once Sir Berkley returned to the Western Shore, he rounded up twenty-three of Bacon’s rebels and had them hung. The British Crown became involved, and the king sent a small army to restore order and remove Sir Berkley from his power.
Slavery grew as servants became scarce and were too expensive to keep. There was also an increase of slave traders visiting Chesapeake.
Virginia: mid-Atlantic seaboard colonized by the English; thrived from growing tobacco
Sir Walter Raleigh: founded the first English colony at Roanoke
Roanoke: small, sandy island on the coast of North Carolina; site of the first English colony; it proved to be unsuccessful, as the Indians refused to provide the colonists any food, and they were killed off as a result
Powhatan: led a powerful paramount chiefdom in which tribute was gathered and then redistributed
Pocahontas: favorite daughter of Powhatan who was captured by the colonists; she converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca; died of disease soon after visiting England
John Rolfe/tobacco: Rolfe was the husband of Pocahontas; he developed tobacco as a cash crop; tobacco was able to thrive in Virginia as opposed to England because of Virginia’s hot, humid, and long growing season; tobacco caused a dramatic increase in Virginia’s population
Lord Baltimore: allowed Roman Catholics who were being persecuted in Protestant England to enter Chesapeake Bay
Law of coverture: married women did not have any legal or political existence; their husbands represented their household
Indentured servant: could not afford to immigrate to Chesapeake Bay; spent up to seven years mortgaged to either a ship captain or merchant; received enough food, clothing, and shelter to survive; at the end of the term, the indentured servant was given a new set of tools, clothes, and food
William Berkley: governor of Virginia; his corrupt system required that heavy taxes be paid by colonists; stripped of his power following Bacon’s Rebellion by the British Crown
Nathaniel Bacon: led attacks on the Indians and drove Sir Berkley out of Jamestown
New slave laws: restricted trading and movement by slaves; stripped free blacks of their right to vote, bear arms, hold office, or employ a white servants; free blacks had to pay higher taxes, and they would be punished much more severely for the same crime a white personal may commit; restricted black slaves from hitting or threatening any white person; interracial marriages or relationships were banned
New England
The Puritan rigor was a concept in which Puritans believed that immoral and indulgent authorities were to blame for any social and economic troubles. Therefore, only godlike men and women should be running the government and churches. This rigor alarmed kings, for they expected nothing but unquestioning loyalty from their subjects.
The New England colonists had a more balanced gender ratio. In contrast, the Chesapeake colonists had far more men than women. New England also provided healthier land to the colonists. The land has many hills, a short growing season, and many rivers and streams. Chesapeake had summers that were long, hot, and humid. As an effect of having better land, New England was less susceptible to disease. The expected lifespan of a New England colonist was about seventy years, while in Chesapeake it was barely fifty years. The population growth in New England could be accredited to healthier land and a more balanced number of men and women. Whereas in Chesapeake, population growth depended on human imports. New England colonists could not afford indentured servants as Chesapeake colonists could. Instead, sons and daughters did labor for their families.
Pilgrims and Puritans came to Massachusetts because the area had been completely abandoned due to an epidemic that wiped out the Indians there. Now, there were open fields available for use by the colonists. They wished to establish a self-governing colony far form the bishops and the king.
New Englanders made a living by shipping fish as a seaport merchant, building ships, working as a mariner, farmer, or artisan, or working in other places that were stimulated by shipyards: taverns, barrel shops, rope-walks, sail lofts, sawmills, and iron foundries.
Steps that were taken to make Massachusetts “A City upon a Hill” included barring any non-Puritan from New England, including Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and Anglicans. New Englanders were also threatened by “witches.” According to them, witches were responsible for the deaths of any children or cattle. Anyone deemed a witch was hung.
New Englanders and native Americans had a strained relationship mainly because of a conflict of beliefs. In the colonists’ eyes, the Indians were living a pagan, laid-back life within the wild rather than working hard as the Puritans believed in. The Indians hunting was frowned upon. Puritans believed they should be working to improve the land, despite native women actually doing farming. The Indians were a more generous and sharing people, so the colonists came off to them as stingy and materialistic. The Indians were also taken back by the fact the colonists would clear the land so they could domesticate animals.
Puritanism: more demanding form of Protestantism; offered a strict code of personal discipline and morality
Separatists: rather than staying with the Anglican Church and trying to reform is, Separatists left it altogether and formed independent sects
John Calvin: his Calvinist doctrines advocated the idea of predestination, meaning God would pick people by chance as to whether or not they could gain salvation
William Laud: archbishop who wished to remove Puritan ministers from the Anglican Church and punish anyone who published their ideas
Pilgrims: Puritan Separatists who crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower to the town of Plymouth
Mayflower: the ship the Pilgrims traveled to Plymouth on
Great Migration: large emigration of orthodox Puritans in 1630; brought fourteen thousand colonists to New England
Massachusetts Bay Colony: established by the Puritans of the Great Migration; had an independent republic in which Puritan men would elect government officials
John Winthrop: leader of the Great Migration
Town system: men who banded together as groups to found a town were given grants of lands; compact settlement pattern by towns favored public schools, a local church, and mutual supervision of morality
Religious toleration: the Puritans were anything but religiously tolerant; Catholics, Anglicans, Quakers, and Baptists were not welcome to New England
Salem Witch Trials: if cattle or a child died, New Englanders came to the conclusion that there was a witch present; women who seemed angry were also accused of witchcraft; if someone was found guilty of witchcraft, he or she was hung; if someone confessed or testified against someone else, he or she would be pardoned
Praying towns: Puritan missions in which Indians would enter, and priests would try to covert them
King Phillip: the New England colonists referred to a Wampanoag chief named Metacom as “King Phillip”; King Phillip was blamed by the colonists for the uprising of the Indians against the colonists as they counterattacked an initial attack by Indian rebels; he was killed and his head was displayed on a watchtower in Plymouth
West Indies and Carolina
Growing sugar was important to the British because it was used to sweeten food and drink.
West Indies planters moved to the Carolinas