Exam #1
HIST 1311
Jillian Rabideau
TuTh 9:30-10:50 am
Instructor: Hailey Stewart
PART 1: IDs – Choose FIVE (5) of the following. Fully define the term, provide context (answering the “who, what, when, and where” about it), then, provide its larger significance (answering the “why does it matter?” question). Answers must be in complete sentences, no bullet points. Be as specific as possible, and include examples. [10 points each, 50 points total]
1. Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange was the trading of crops, livestock, disease, and culture that emerged when the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) conquested the Americas during the 15-16th centuries. Named after explorer Christopher Columbus, this exchange is what globalized our economy. Europe, Africa, and Asia introduced sugarcane, grains, bananas, onions, and livestock such as cattle and horses to the Americas. In return, America introduced tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, cacao, and turkeys to the Old World. The introduction of horses to the Natives completely changed their culture; hunting was made more efficient as well as transportation. However, despite the positives of the Natives and their horses, adding more variety to the world’s diet, and increasing European caloric intake (causing a population boom), the Columbian Exchange did have some lethal downsides. Both the people of the Old World and the New World had developed immunities to diseases native to their area. When the two populations were introduced to each other, the diseases were exchanged and due to the lack of immunity millions died. The Old World brought Smallpox, Malaria, and Yellow Fever to the Natives, wiping out nearly their entire population. In return however, the Native Americans introduced Syphilis to the Europeans. This syphilis epidemic was only made worse by the fact that the Europeans rampantly raped the Natives. Therefore, sexually transmitted diseases spread like wildfire. The Columbian Exchange is arguably one of the most prominent events of American history. The exchange globalized our economy, added variety to our diets, caused a European population boom, and a decimation of the Native population.
2. Encomienda
Encomienda was a slave-labor system imposed by the Spanish government during the 15-16th century conquests of the Americas. The basics of the system were that Spanish conquistadors, soldiers, and other nobles were entitled to (by the Spanish crown) a set amount of land and Natives in America. The Natives were required to pay tribute, either in gold or labor (usually labor due to the fact the Spaniards had pillaged nearly all of the Native gold mines) to their their Spanish masters known as Encomenderos. These Spaniards in return would offer them “protection” and convert them to the Christian faith. As in most slave labor systems, the Encomenderos treated their Natives with intense brutality. This brutality was observed and documented by Spanish historian Bartolomé de las Casas in his book The Destruction of the Indies. Horrified by the gruesome accounts of Bartolomé, the Spanish public demanded a new labor system that allocated for better treatment of the Indians. In 1542 the Spanish government changed the system to a supposedly milder one called repartimiento. Although this system was supposed to provide more safeties to the Indians, many of the same brutalities still occurred. Encomienda was significant to American history because it displays yet another example of European brutality and provides more context as to why the Natives were eradicated so rapidly.
3. Virginia Company
4. Indentured Servants
5. Roger Williams
Roger Williams was a radical Puritan who was exiled from Massachusetts on account of his comparatively liberal views on how a colony should be run. He was a strong believer in separation of the church and state, religious and political freedom, and that stealing land from the Natives was morally wrong. After being banished from Massachusetts, Williams and his following created a settlement called Providence near modern day Rhode Island in 1636 using land bought from the Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi Indians. A year later, a fellow Massachusetts exile Anne Hutchins and her supporters joined the colony and the settlement began to grew. After receiving a charter from Parliament in 1644, the colony began to implement revolutionary laws such as the abolition of witchcraft trials, chattel slavery, and the banning of imprisonment for debt. Also, the religious freedom allowed by the colony made it a safe haven for persecuted religious minorities such as Quakers and Jews. Roger Williams and his colony of Providence was largely significant to American history because it was one of the first steps in introducing the modern American principals of religious freedom and slavery abolition. This colony also allowed for otherwise persecuted groups to grow their populations in America.
6. Navigation Acts
7. Treaty of Paris (1763)
The 1763 version of the Treaty of Paris marked the end of the French and Indian (Seven Years) War between Britain and France. Due to the rising amount of debt Britain was accumulating, coupled with the many French defeats Britain had claimed, the English were eager to end the war. Initial formal peace negotiations were rocky; including large disagreements between the English and Spanish on what to do with Cuba following the British invasion. Finally, a French negotiator named Choiseul was able to come up with a compromise that suited all parties involved. All French land east of the Mississippi would be granted to England, and all west would be granted to Spain (including the French port of New Orleans). Spain would be allowed to keep Cuba and in return, Florida would be given to the British. In return for all the land lost, France would regain control of all Caribbean Islands seized by Britain, French Canadians would be allowed to practice Catholicism, and fishing rights would be granted off the coast of Newfoundland. This negotiation, although stripping France of most of its land was more favorable for the French because the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean were highly profitable. However, Native Americans were extremely unhappy with this change. European colonists were now moving onto their lands and were now pushed aside by the Europeans because they no longer held a purpose for them (military concessions.) This war ending treaty was significant to American history because it raised tensions between American colonists and Indians while also raising taxes. These events showed how little the British cared about the opinions of the American colonies. This started to create resentment for the British from the Americans and was a step towards the American Revolution.
8. Proclamation of 1763
9. Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
The Coercive (Intolerable) Acts were a series of four acts passed by Parliament in response to the rebellion in Boston. The main catalyst for these acts was the Boston Tea Party, in which Boston rebels dumped over 300 crates of tea into the harbor to protest unfair taxation. The British government reacted quickly with these four acts: The Boston Port Act, The Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act. The Boston Port Act completely shut down the port and restricted trade to and from Boston. The Massachusetts Government Act dissolved the colonial government, placing the colony completely under British control and restricted town meetings. The Administration of Justice Act allowed any British official who committed a crime to be tried in Britain instead of Massachusetts. Finally, passed for all American colonies, the Quartering Act allowed British soldiers to quarter in colonial homes without consent of the owners. These acts outraged all the colonies, and many smuggled food and supplies into Boston. Virginia even fasted and held prayer vigils for Massachusetts. The colonies were united, and these acts were a significantly large catalyst to the American Revolution. With the colonies united against Britain, revolt was inevitable.
10. Second Continental Congress
PART 2: (1 x 50 points) The essay needs to be as long as it takes for you to FULLY answer the question. There is no set minimum or maximum number of pages.
Also, do not simply drop names as though we know that you know who these people or places or things are. Be sure to define everything. Write the essay as though you are explaining the answer to someone who did not take this course and who, therefore, may not know what you’re talking about.
1. What were the goals of the founders of the Jamestown Colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Plymouth Colony? How did they go about achieving these goals? Were they successful? Consider dividing your answer into individual paragraphs for each colony. Use specific evidence to support your answer.
The British colonization of America was full of trial and error. Many colonies established in New England, such as the eerie Roanoke settlement, were failures. Each colony was established had different goals and desires and likewise, had different ways of achieving those goals. Varying from economic success to freedom from religious persecution, the colonies of Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay, and Plymouth all varied in success.
The colony of Jamestown in modern-day Virginia was a product of the Virginia Company; a joint-stock company in which English investors would pool money to invest in new settlements being formed in the Americas in the hopes that the land ’s natural resources would gain them massive profits. Therefore, from the beginning, the goal of Jamestown was to make money. Due to the success the Spanish had finding gold in other parts of the Americas, the Virginia Company assumed there would be gold across all of the Americas. In preparation for the mass amounts of gold the settlement was anticipated, many of the settlers to come to Jamestown were jewelers and metalsmiths. When it became apparent that gold was not as abundant as anticipated, this left the colony to their own devices as far as survival. The abundance of craftsmen in this colony meant very little knew how to do agricultural work that was necessary for survival. According to Captain John Smith, who later took leadership over the colony, most of the men “would rather starve than work.” Unfortunately, many of these men did. Due to the poor farming conditions, lack of effort on the part of the colonists, and the diseases spread through the mosquitoes of the swampy area, over half of the Jamestown colonists died in the first nine months. When John Smith took over Jamestown, he implemented stricter working regulations and attempted diplomacy with the Indians. The relations between the settlers and the Powhatan improved through trade of weapons and furs, and with the assistance of the Indians, Jamestown was able to survive another winter. However, this improvement was short-lived, as in 1609 supplies were lost at sea and therefore dissolved the positive relations with the Powhatan. The colony entered a disgusting famine that at some points resulted in cannibalism. The “starving time” winter of 1609-1610 killed off all but 60 colonists. While the colony was near failure, one final saving grace revived Jamestown, tobacco. In 1617 the first Virginia tobacco crops were sent to Europe and they took over the continent by storm. To cope with the demand, the headright system was introduced. This system promised land to workers who settled in Virginia to farm tobacco. With this extra labor, thousands and eventually millions of pounds of tobacco were being exported annually from Virginia. Jamestown sought out riches, and although they were wildly unsuccessful when it came to the gold they had assumed would make them rich, tobacco unexpectedly made Jamestown an incredibly wealthy and successful colony.
In 1630, a Puritan colony known as Massachusetts Bay was founded. Similarly to Jamestown, the colony was a product of another joint-stock company, the Massachusetts Bay Company. However the goal of this colony was not financial gain, it was religious freedom. In 1629, English monarch James I dismissed Parliament and gave Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, permission to tighten royal control over the church. Due to his anti-puritan views, he dismissed any minister who showed even a semblance of Puritan ideals. The increasing royal hatred of the Puritans was growing more and more worrisome for them, and in that same year 1,000 Puritans fled to America and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The main goal of the colony was to be, as the first elected governor of Massachusetts Bay John Winthrop said, “a city on a hill.” Meaning that the colony’s ambition was to be an example to all of England (and the rest of the world) of how a colony should be run and how to lead a godly life. Even though the colony’s goals were strictly religious (unlike the Jamestown Colony) they understood that they would not be successful if they did not establish themselves economically. The soil in the New England area was unsuitable for crops, so the colonists took advantage of the natural resources around them. Lumber and grain mills were established, a fishing industry began, and lumber not exported was used to build ships. Since the colony was formed near the coast, a harbor was established and trade began to boom. Due to this economic success, more settlers were eager to relocate to Massachusetts Bay and with the steady stream of colonists came a steady stream of supplies. In all the economic bustle the colony did not forget its religious roots and ran itself similar to a theocracy. Only freemen (male churchgoers) could hold office or vote for the higher positions of governor, deputy governor, and assistants. The purpose of the government was to enforce God’s laws, so above all, God was the highest power of this colony. In conclusion, the success of Massachusetts Bay is relative. Economically, they were highly successful, however, that was not their primary goal. The goal of Massachusetts Bay was religious freedom, and to be an example to all mankind. While the colony secured the freedom to practice their Puritan views, any person who had a difference in opinion (such as Roger Williams, founder of Providence) was exiled from the colony, negating their claim of religious freedom. In addition, a godly lifestyle is based on opinion, so it may vary from person to person on how close the Massachusetts Bay came to creating a model society. Overall, the colony was successful in their own endeavors but were hypocritical in their mission.
Similarly to Massachusetts Bay, the settlement of Plymouth was also based on religious freedom. When Queen Elizabeth deemed the Anglican church the official church of England during her reign, radical protestants were very unhappy. They felt the church, though Protestant, still was too similar to the Catholic church of Rome and needed to be purified. Unlike their Massachusetts Bay counterparts, the Plymouth settlers known as Separatists, wasted no time waiting for their religious conditions to worsen and fled to Holland in 1608. After residing with the Dutch for 12 years, the Separatists felt too out of touch with English culture and decided to create their own colony. A charter was soon secured by the Virginia Company, and 100 pilgrims boarded the Mayflower and set sail for a settlement near the mouth of the Hudson River. However, a storm blew the ship farther north than intended and the pilgrims settled in New England near modern-day Plymouth Bay. Due to being blown so far off course, the pilgrims believed their new settlement would be outside the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company and drew up a contract called the Mayflower Compact to plan their colony. The compact detailed the ideals of modern American democracy, granting men the right to participate in the enactment of laws and entitled them to just and equal treatment. Similar to Massachusetts Bay, governors, such as William Bradford, were elected by the freemen (male churchgoers), usually during town-hall-like meetings. The first few months of the Plymouth settlement, however, were extremely rough. Over half of the pilgrims died in the first winter due to being unfamiliar with the terrain. This confusion did not last though as in the following spring the settlers met an English speaking Indian named Squanto who assisted them with crop growing and other survival skills. The crop yield became so successful that during the harvest of 1621 a large feast, now traditionally known as Thanksgiving, was held. Part of the small success of the colony was rooted in their amicable relations with the Indians. They built a small economy based on lumber, fur, and fishing, however, their colony never grew above 1,000 settlers. Eventually, in 1650, Plymouth merged with Massachusetts Bay. So how successful was Plymouth? It can be argued that their success is only as good as Massachusetts Bay’s. The colony itself never boomed into the large success Massachusetts Bay or Jamestown was. So it can be argued in that sense that Plymouth was relatively unsuccessful. However, the Pilgrims only goal was religious freedom, and even as they merged into the other Puritan settlement of Massachusetts Bay, they were able to maintain that goal. Therefore, in its roots, Plymouth was successful in its original goal of religious freedom.
Every American colony came with its own backstory, hardships, and successes. The financial successes of Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay created the foundation of the American economy. And the religious freedom attained by Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth set a precedent for modern American rights and freedoms. Each colony's success varies as much as their goals do. However, Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay, and Plymouth all were successful in making their mark in American history.