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Chapter 1: The Meeting of Cultures
I. America Before Columbus
-early people for many centuries lived mainly on small nomadic bands, subsisting through hunting,
fishing, and occasionally primitive agriculture
A. The Civilizations of the South
-in Peru, the Incas created a powerful empire of 6 million people
-they developed a complex political system and a large network of paved roads
-in Central America, the Mayas built a sophisticated culture with written language, a numerical system
similar to Arabic
-in the north, Aztecs established a precarious rule over much of Central and Southern Mexico and built
elaborate administrative, educational, and medical systems
B. The Civilizations of the North
-the people north of Mexico built complex civilizations of great variety, subsisting on hunting,
gathering, fishing, or some combination of the three
-the Eskimos of the Arctic Circle fished and hunt seals and lived on miles of large frozen land
-the main occupations of the tribes of the Pacific Northwest include salmon fishing, creating
substantial permanent settlements along the coast, and engaging in constant and often violent
competitions for natural resources
-in the Great Plains region, most tribes were engaged in sedentary farming (corn and other grains) and
also lived on permanent settlements
C. Tribal Cultures
-before the arrival of the Europeans, Native Americans were going through an agricultural revolution
-most regions experienced significant population growth due to tribes becoming more sedentary and
were developing new sources of food, clothing, and shelter
-Native American religion was mainly bound up with the natural world on which the tribes depended
-among others (including the Algonquins, the Iroquois, and the Muskogees), women tended the fields
while men engaged in hunting, warfare, or clearing the land
II. Europe Looks Westward
-Leif Eriksson, an eleventh-century Norse seaman, had only glimpsed parts of the New World and had
demonstrated that Europeans were capable of crossing the ocean to reach it
A. Commerce and Nationalism
-the Black Death, a catastrophic epidemic of the bubonic plague that began in Constantinople in 1347,
had decimated Europe, killing more than a third of the population
-as trade increased, and as advances in navigation and ship-building made long distance sea travel
more feasible, interest in developing new markets, finding new products, and opening new trade routes
rapidly increased
-in the western areas of Europe, the authority of the distant Pope and the even more distant Holy
Roman Emperor was necessarily weak
-Prince Henry the Navigator’s principal interest was not in finding a sea route to Asia, but in exploring
the western coast of Africa
-the exploration he began did not fulfill his own hopes, but they ultimately led farther than he had
dreamed
B. Christopher Columbus
-Columbus wanted to prove the world was smaller than it actually is, but failed to win support for his
plan in Portugal, so he turned to Spain
-Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile had produced the strongest monarchy in Europe
-in 1492, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria left Spain with Columbus sailing west into the Atlantic
-ten weeks later, he landed on the island of the Bahamas, then Cuba, which he thought was China
-the three motivations for exploration: God, gold, and glory!
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
-Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese employee of Spain, found the strait that now holds his name at the
southern end of South America
The Conquistadors
-the Spanish claimed for themselves the whole entire New World, except for a piece of Brazil
-by the mid-16th century, the Spanish were well on their way to establishing a substantial American
empire
-Columbus and other Spanish colonists tried to enslave the Indians and find gold
-Cortez assaulted on the Aztec capital, but failed due to smallpox
-the Spanish and Aztecs battled, which exterminated the native population
Spanish America
-new Europeans diseases and Spanish military power forced the previously powerful Aztec and Incan
empires into submission
-the three phases in the history of the Spanish empire are as follows (in order): Columbus’s
discoveries, Spanish military forces ruled over natives, and new Spanish laws—the Ordinances of
Discovery
-Ferdinand and Isabella established Spain’s claim to most of the Americas from Mexico south to bow
to the wishes of the Catholic church
-although the Spanish founded several commercial and military centers in sixteenth century, the most
common settlement by the early seventeenth century was the mission
-missionaries’ primary purpose was converting natives to Catholicism
Northern Outposts
-the Spanish fort established in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, became the first permanent European
settlement
-Onate distributed encomiendas, which were licenses to exact labor and tribute from the natives in
specific areas
-the economic heart of New Mexico was cattle and sheep
-despite the widespread conversions to Catholicism, most natives continued to practice their own
religious rituals, which sustained their sense of tribal identity
-in 1680, Spanish priests and colonial government launched a revolt in response
-the Spanish intensified their efforts to assimilate the Indians, but permitted the Pueblos to own land,
stopped commandeering Indian labor, replaced the encomiendas with a less demanding system, and
they tolerated the practice of tribal religious rituals
The Empire at High Tide
-by the end of the 16th century, the Spanish empire had become one of the largest in the history of the
world
-to enforce the collection of duties and to provide protection against pirates, the government
established rigid and restrictive regulations
-they required all trade with the colonies to go through a single Spanish port and a few colonial ports,
in fleets making two voyages a year
-the English, Dutch, and French colonies in North America concentrated on establishing permanent
settlement and family life in the New World
Biological and Cultural Exchanges
-the first and most profound result of the increasing levels of exchange was the importation of
European diseases
-native groups inhabiting some of the large Caribbean islands and some areas of Mexico were virtually
extinct within fifty years of their first contact with whites
-the decimation of native populations was in apart because of the conquistadores’ deliberate policy of
subjugation and extermination because of their conviction that the natives were “savages”
-agricultural discoveries ultimately proved more important to the future of Europe than the gold and
silver the conquistadores valued so highly
-intermarriage became frequent between the Spanish and native women and before long the population
of the colonies came to be dominated by people of mixed race called mestizos
-there were long-established customs of intermarriage in some tribes as a way of forming alliances
-colonists used a wage system closely related to slavery, by which Indians were forced to work in the
mines and on the plantations for fixed periods, unable to leave without the consent of their employers
H. Africa and America
-the residents of upper Guinea had substantial commercial contact with the Mediterranean world,
trading ivory, gold, and slaves for finished goods
-the central social unit in much of the south (like Benin, Congo, and Songhay) was the village, which
usually consisted of members of an extended family group
-African societies tended to be matrilineal, meaning that people traced their heredity through, and
inherited property from, their mothers rather than their fathers
-African societies had elaborate systems of social ranks, or hierarchies
-African kingdoms responded to the growing demand for workers by warring with one another in an
effort to capture potential slaves to exchange for European goods
III. The Arrival of the English
-John Cabot sailed to the northeastern coast of North America on an expedition sponsored by King
Henry VII in search of a northwest passage through the New World to the Orient
A. The Commercial Incentive
-the people of Tudor England suffered from frequent and costly European wars, from almost constant
religious strives, and from a harsh economic transformation of countryside
-because the worldwide demand for wool was growing rapidly, many landowners were finding it
profitable to convert their land from fields for crops to pastures for sheep
-new merchant capitalists helped create chartered companies, which gave it a monopoly for trading in
certain regions
-mercantilism greatly enhanced the position of the merchant capitalist and it also increased competition
among nations
-Richard Hakluyt, an Oxford clergyman and the outstanding English propagandist for colonization,
argued that colonies would not only create new markets for English goods, they would also help
alleviate poverty and unemployment by siphoning off the surplus population
B. The Religious Incentive
-the Protestant Reformation began in Germany in 1517 when Martin Luther openly challenged some of
the basic practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church
-the Swiss theologian John Calvin was an influential reformer who introduced the Doctrine of
Predestination
-the English Reformation began more because of a political dispute between the king and the Pope
than as a result of these doctrinal revolts
-under Elizabeth, the church began to incorporate some of the tenants of Calvinism but not enough to
satisfy the critics
-Puritans continued to clamor for reforms that would “purify” the church
-Separatists, by the standards of time, generally took radical positions
-by the early 17th century, some religious nonconformists were beginning to look for places of refuge
outside the kingdom
C. The English in Ireland
-only in the second half of the 16th century did serious efforts at large-scale colonization begin
-the most important of these assumptions was that the native population of Ireland, approximately 1
million people, was loyal to the Catholic Church
-the Irish were considered crude and wasteful because they fought back against the intruders with a
ferocity that the English considered barbaric
-Sir Humphrey Gilbert was a governor of one Irish district and suppressed native rebellions with
extraordinary viciousness
-English settlements in distant lands that must retain a rigid separation from the native populations
were called “plantations”
D. The French and the Dutch in America
-England’s more formidable North American rivals in early 16th century were the French
-France founded its first settlement Quebec in 1608; in less than a year, the English started its first
colony Jamestown
-Coureurs de bois were adventurous fur traders and trappers who also penetrated far into the
wilderness and developed an extensive trade that became one of the underpinnings of the French
colonial economy
-the English explorer and the employee of the Dutch Henry Hudson sailed to New York, where he
discovered a new water route currently known as the Hudson River
-the Dutch West India Company established a series of permanent trading posts on the Hudson,
Delaware, and Connecticut Rivers
E. The First English Settlements
-Sir Francis Drake staged successful raids on Spanish merchant ships and built confidence in
England’s ability to challenge Spanish sea power
-King Phillip II assembled the largest military fleet in the history of warfare known as the “Spanish
Armada”
-Gilbert’s expedition led to his ship sinking and his death
F. Roanoke
-Raleigh asked for the queen’s permission to name the entire region Virginia, after the Virgin King
-Sir Richard Grenville led the group of men to Roanoke to establish a colony
-Sir Francis Drake unexpectedly arrived in Roanoke and many colonists left with him, leaving Raleigh
trying another expedition carrying 91 men and 17 women hoping to create a “plantation”
-in 1606, James I issued a new charter which divided America between two groups; London took the
south and created Plymouth
IV. Conclusion
-by the middle of the 16th century, the Spanish and Portuguese—who no longer faced the native
populations with effective resistance—had established colonial control over all of South America and
much of North America creating one of the largest empires in the world
Chapter 2: Transplantations and Borderlands
I. The Early Chesapeake
-the Plymouth group made an early unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony at Sagadoahoc on the
coast of Maine
A. The Founding of Jamestown
-104 men reached the American coast in the spring of 1607, sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and up a
river they named the James, and established their colony on a peninsula extending from the river’s
northern bank
-diseases were a huge downfall and killer of Jamestown
-the London Company promoters had little interest in creating a family-centered community and at
first they did not send any women to Jamestown
-John Smith, the council president, was also a capable organizer and leader in the colony that had been
divided by the several members of council who quarreled continually
B. Reorganization
-the Virginia Company promoted new settlers by offering stock to “planters”
-the starving time was a period that local Indians antagonized by John Smith’s raids and other hostile
actions by the early English settlers killed off the livestock in the woods and kept the colonists
barricaded within their palisade
-De La Warrs organized settlers into work gangs and they sentenced offenders to be flogged, hanged,
or broken on the wheel
-harsh governors of Virginia produced an increased military assault on the local Indian tribes which
provided protection for the new settlements
C. Tobacco
-John Rolfe began to experiment in Virginia with the harsh strain of tobacco that local Indians had
been growing for years
-of most immediate importance was the pressure tobacco cultivation created for territorial expansion
D. Expansion
-in 1618, they launched a last great campaign to attract settlers and make the colonies profitable
-the headright system was a variety of ways new settlers received land for themselves
-tobacco was being used to purchase items such as women
-Sir Thomas Dale led unrelenting assaults against the Powhatan Indians and in the process kidnapped
the great chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas
-the Virginia Company in London was defunct, the company poured virtually all of its funds into the
profitless Jamestown venture which made it face bankruptcy
E. Exchanges of Agricultural Technology
-the hostility that the early English settlers expressed toward the Indian neighbors was a result of their
conviction that their own civilization was greatly superior to that of the natives
-the Spanish in South America had grown rich because the natives there had built advanced
civilizations and mined gold and silver
-the Indians of Virginia were not nomadic hunters, but they settled farms with villages that surrounded
neatly ordered fields in which grew a variety of crops
-corn was attractive to the settlers because its stocks could be a source of sugar and it spoiled less
easily than other grains
F. Maryland and the Calverts
-in 1632, George Calvert’s son Cecilius received a charter that not only granted him territory in what is
now Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland but also bestowed many powers on him
-unlike the Virginians, the early Marylanders experienced no Indian assaults, no plagues, and no
starving time
-to appease the non-Catholic majority, Calvert appointed a Protestant as governor in 1648
-like Virginia, Maryland became a center of tobacco cultivation where planters worked their land with
the aid of indentured servants imported from England
A. Turbulent Virginia
-by the mid-17th century, the Virginia colony had survived its early disasters and both its population
and the complexity and profitability of its economy were increasing
-the most important dispute involved policy toward the natives as settlement moved west further into
Indian lands; border conflicts grew increasingly frequent
-Oliver Cromwell’s victory in 1649 in the English Civil War and the flight of many of his defeated
opponents to the colony contributed to what was already a substantial population increase
-when the first burgesses were elected in 1619, all men aged 17 or older were entitled to vote
B. Bacon’s Rebellion
-Nathaniel Bacon liked bacon
-the backcountry settlements were in constant danger of attack from Indians because many of the
settlements were being established on lands reserved for the tribes by treaty
-in 1675, some Doeg Indians—angry about the European intrusions into their lands—raided a western
plantation and killed a white servant
-Bacon’s Rebellion was part of the continuing struggle to define the boundary between Indian and
white lands in Virginia
-it showed how unwilling the English settlers were to abide by earlier agreements with the natives and
how unwilling the Indians were to tolerate further white movement into their territory
-the rebellion revealed the bitterness for the competition between eastern and western landowners
-it also revealed the potential for instability in the colony’s large population of free, landless men
II. The Growth of New England
-Separatists had been periodically imprisoned and even executed for defying the government and the
Church of England
A. Plymouth Plantation
-it was illegal to leave England without the consent of the king; in 1608, however, a congregation of
Separatists began emigrating quietly to Leyden, Holland, where they could worship without
interference
-in September 1620 they left the port of Plymouth on the English coast in the Mayflower with 35
“saints” (puritan Separatists) and 67 “strangers” (people who were not full members of the leaders’
church) aboard
-Plymouth lay outside the London Company’s territory and so 41 “saints” signed a document, the
Mayflower Compact, which established a civil government and proclaimed their allegiance to the king
-gradually, colonial society imposed a European pattern onto the American landscape, as the settlers
fenced in pastures, meadows, orchards, and fields for cultivation
-important Indian friends (specifically Squanto and Samoset) showed them how to gather seafood,
cultivate corn, and hunt local animals
-William Bradford ended the communal labor plan Standish had helped created, distributed land
among the families, and explained that it made “all hands very industrious”
B. The Massachusetts Bay Experiment
-by trying to restore Roman Catholicism to England and destroy religious nonconformity, he started
the nation down the road to civil war
-they acquired a charter from the king allowing them to create the Massachusetts Bay Company and to
establish a colony in the New World
-the Massachusetts Bay Company soon transformed itself into a colonial government
-each congregation chose its own minister and regulated its own affairs, which became known as the
Congregational Church
-colonial Massachusetts was a “theocracy,” or a society in which the line between church and state was
hard to see
C. The Expansion of New England
- Connecticut attracted Thomas Hooker, who led his congregation through the wilds to establish the
town of Hartford
-Rhode Island had its origins in the religious and political dissent of Roger Williams
-Anne Hutchinson developed a large following among women, to whom she offered an active role in
religious affairs
-Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges had received a grant from the Council for New
England and divided it along the Piscataqua River to create two separate provinces
D. Settlers and Natives
-whites learned from the natives about vital local food crops: corn, beans, pumpkins, and potatoes
-tensions soon developed as a result of the white colonists’ insatiable appetite for land
-some Puritans believed the solution to the Indian “problem” was to “civilize” the natives by
converting them to Christianity and European ways
-there had been more than 100,000 Indians in New England at the beginning of the 17th century; by
1675, only 10,000 remained
E. The Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and the Technology of Battle
-when hostilities broke out between English settlers in the Connecticut Valley and the Pequot Indians
of the region as a result of competition over trade with the Dutch in New Netherland and friction over
land
-the bloodiest act of war was when white raiders under Captain John Mason marched against a
palisaded Pequot stronghold and set it afire, which started King Philip’s War
-the war greatly weakened both the society and economy of Massachusetts, but in 1676 the white
settlers fought back and gradually prevailed
-the Indians introduced to New England a new weapon, the flintlock rifle, which replaced the earlier
staple of colonial musketry
-The Narragansetts, allies of the Wampanoags in King Philip’s War, built an enormous fort in the
Great Swamp of Rhode Island in 1675 which became the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war
before English attackers burned it down
III. The Restoration Colonies
-by the end of the 1630s, English settlers had established six significant colonies in the New World:
Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire
A. The English Civil War
-Charles I called Parliament back into session to ask it to levy new taxes
-English men and women elevated the stern Roundhead leader Oliver Cromwell to the position of
“protector,” from which he ruled for the next nine years
-the goal of the new colonies was not so much quick commercial success as permanent settlements that
would provide proprietors with land and power
B. The Carolinas
-in successive charters issued in 1663 and 1664, the eight proprietors received joint title to a vast
territory stretching south to the Florida peninsula and west to the Pacific Ocean
-the charter of the colony guaranteed religious freedom to everyone who would worship as a Christian
-Cooper convinced his partners to finance migrations to Carolina from England; those who survived
established a settlement in the Port Royal area of the Carolina coast
-John Lock drew up the Fundamental Constitution for Carolina in 1669, which created an elaborate
system of land distribution and an elaborately designed social order
-there were tensions between the small farmers of the Albemarle region in the north and the wealthy
planters in the south
C. New Netherland, New York, and New Jersey
-the emerging conflict between the English and the Cutch in America was part of a larger commercial
rivalry between the two nations throughout the world
-Articles of Capitulation - the Dutch surrendered to the British assuring that the Dutch settlers would
not be displaced; in 1673, the Dutch briefly reconquered New Amsterdam but lost it for good in 1674
-New York would for many years be a highly factious society
-James gave a large portion of that land to a pair of political allies, Sir John Berkeley and Sir George
Carteret, both of whom were Carolina proprietors
D. The Quaker Colonies
-Pennsylvania was born out of the efforts of dissenting English Protestants to find a home for their own
religion and their own distinctive social order
-of all the Protestant sectarians of the time, the Quakers were the most anarchistic and democratic
-William Penn established Pennsylvania
-settlers flocked to the province from throughout Europe, joining several hundred Swedes and Finns
who had been living in a small trading colony—New Sweden—established in 1638 at the mouth of the
Delaware River
-in 1682, he sailed to America and personally supervised the laying out of a city between the Delaware
and the Schuylkill Rivers, which he named Philadelphia
-the charter established a representative assembly which greatly limited the authority of the proprietor
IV. Borderlands and Middle Grounds
-the British Empire in North America was a much smaller and weaker one than the great Spanish
Empire in the South
A. The Caribbean Islands
-throughout the first half of the 17th century, the most important destination for English immigrants
was not the mainland, but the islands of the Caribbean
-beginning with Columbus’s first visit in 1492 and accelerating after the Spanish established their first
colony on Hispaniola in 1496, the native population was all but wiped out by European epidemics
-there was substantial Spanish settlement only on the largest of them: Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto
Rico; English, French, and Dutch traders began settling on some of the smaller islands early in the 16 th
century
-in the early years, English settlers experimented unsuccessfully with tobacco and cotton, but they soon
discovered that the most lucrative crop was sugar
B. Masters and Slaves in the Caribbean
-as in other English colonies in the New World in which Africans came to outnumber Europeans,
whites in the Caribbean grew fearful of slave revolts
-in the 1660s, all the islands enacted legal codes to regulate relations between masters and slaves and
to give white people virtually absolute authority over Africans
-a large proportion of the European settlers were single men and many of them either died or left at a
young age
-the Caribbean settlements were connected to the North American colonies in many ways and became
an important part of the Atlantic trading world
C. The Southwestern Borderlands
-the principal Spanish colonies north of Mexico include Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
California
-once the Spanish quelled the Pueblo revolt there in 1680, they worked effectively with the natives of
the region to develop a flourishing agriculture
-the Spanish began to colonize California once they realized that other Europeans—among them
English merchants and French and Russia trappers—were beginning to establish a presence in the
region
-in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Spanish considered the greatest threat to the
northern borders of their empire to be the growing ambitions of the French.
D. The Southeast Borderlands
-a direct challenge to English ambitions in North America was the Spanish presence in the
southeastern areas of what is now the United States
- English pirates continually harassed the Spanish settlements and, in 1668, actually sacked St.
Augustine
-after more than a century English prevailed—acquiring Florida
-North America was still concerned about the English and that lead to the founding of the colony
Georgia
E. The Founding of Georgia
- Georgia’s founders were a group of unpaid trustees led by General James Oglethorpe
-in 1732, King George II granted Oglethorpe and his trustees’ control of the land between Savannah
and Altamaha Rivers.
-they limited the size of landholdings, excluded Africans, prohibited rum, strictly regulated trade with
the Indians, and excluded Catholics
-many resented the nearly absolute political power of Oglethorpe and as a result generally preferred to
settle in South Carolina
F. Middle Grounds
-along the western borders of English settlement, Europeans and Indians lived together tin regions in
which neither side was able to establish clear dominance; these place became known as “middle
grounds”
-here the Europeans found themselves obliged to adapt to tribal expectations at least much as the
Indians had to adapt to European ones
-the French welcomed the chance to form close relationship with the tries and recognized the
importance of treating tribal chiefs with respect
-by the mid-18th century, French influence in the interior was in decline and British settlers gradually
became the dominant European group in the “middle grounds”
-by the early 19th century, the “middle ground” had collapsed and was replaced by a European world in
which Indians were ruthlessly subjugated and eventually removed
V. The Evolution of the British Empire
-by the mid-17th century, the growing commercial success of the colonial ventures was producing
pressure in England for a more rational, uniform structure to the empire
A. The Drive for Reorganization
-for the new possessions truly to promote mercantilist goals, England would have to exclude foreigners
from its colonial trade
-according to mercantilist theory, any wealth flowing to another nation could come only at the expense
of England itself
-in theory, the mercantile system offered benefits to the colonies as well by providing them with a
ready market for the raw materials they produced and a source for the manufactured goods they did not
-Charles II adopted three Navigation Acts designed to regulate colonial commerce
-the first closed the colonies to all trade except that carried in English ships and required that the
colonists export certain items only to England or its possessions
-the second provided that all goods being shipped from Europe to the colonies had to pass through
England on the way, which made taxation possible
-the third imposed duties on the coastal trade among the English colonies
B. The Dominion of New England
-enforcement of the Navigation Acts required not only the stationing of customs officials in America,
but the establishment of an agency in England to oversee colonial affairs
-in 1679, Charles II attempted to increase his control over Massachusetts by stripping the colony of its
authority over New Hampshire and chartering a separate, royal colony there whose governor he would
himself appoint
-Sir Edmund Andros’s rigid enforcement of the Navigation Acts, his brusque dismissal of the
colonists’ claims to the “rights of Englishmen,” and his crude tactics made him unpopular
C. The “Glorious Revolution”
-James II made powerful enemies in England by attempting to exercise autocratic control over
Parliament and the courts
-in 1691, Massachusetts combined with Plymouth to make a royal colony
-Andros has been governing New York through a lieutenant governor, Captain Francis Nicholson, who
enjoyed the support of the wealthy merchants and fur traders of the province
-other, less favored colonists like farmers, mechanics, small traders, and shopkeepers had a long
accumulation of grievances against Nicholson and his allies
-the colonial assembly established the Church of England as the colony’s official religion and forbade
Catholics to hold public, office, to vote, or even to practice their religion in public
-in the process of colonial unification, they legitimized the idea that the colonists had some rights
within the empire and that the English government needed to consider their views in making policies
that affected them
VI. Conclusion
-in the British colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, new agricultural and commercial societies
gradually emerged
-the South centered on the cultivation of tobacco and cotton and was reliant on slave labor
-the North centered on more traditional food crops and was based mostly on free labor