Why did the European countries want to establish colonies in America? 1. With the emergence of the new merchant class and cottage industry there was a need new sources of raw materials and markets for these goods. Sources for raw materials and demand for goods within Europe nations was limited.
2. Aristocrats were feeling cramped in Spain and England, which were dominated by the system of primogeniture, which meant that the first born son inherited everything on the death of the father. Such as land, money, and title. All other children were out of luck.
3. The other countries had seen the success of the Spanish and wanted to tap into the New World s wealth. After Aztecs in Mexico and the Inca in Peru had been conquered, Spain was getting rich on the gold and wealth from the colonies.
Spain and Portugal had originally divided up the new world under the Treaty of Tordesillas 1494. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English in 1588 the New World was open for exploration and conquest by the other European powers.
Early English Colonial failures The first English colonial attempts failed. In 1578 and again in 1583 Sir. Humphrey Gilbert set sail for the new world. On the second voyage he and his ship were lost in a storm killing him.
His half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh inherited the royal patent for a colony. In 1585 he set up a short lived colony on Roanoke island off North Carolina. In 1586 these colonist were picked up halfstarved by Sir Francis Drake.
In 1587 The artist John Winters convinced Raleigh to tried again to set up a colony on Roanoke Island. This time he sent 107 colonies (men, women, and children). This one failed as well. Delayed by the attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Raleigh failed to reach them until 1590. By that time no one was left. All that was left was the word Croaton (the name of a local tribe) carved in a tree. They were never seen again.
Another English colonial failure started in 1607 when the Plymouth Company sponsored the Sagadahoc/ Popham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in what would become the state of Maine. It s principal installation of Fort St. George was placed at the tip of a headland called Sabino.
This particular place was carefully selected for the purpose of initiating English colonization in the north. Nevertheless, it failed. Some of the settlers were English convicts. One of the colonist wrote of George Popham, the governors, He stocked or planted [ the colony] out of the jails of England
Within a year, arguments among colonists, a harsh winter, fights with Native American, and shortages forced most of the colonist to return to England. The failure of this colony had a discouraging effect upon English colonization in northern Virginia, and it was not until after the promotions of John Smith (for the land he renamed New England) and the success of the Pilgrims that the interest for colonization here was renewed.
The First English Success In 1605 a group of merchants petitioned King James I for a charter to a colony. They formed a joint-stock company in which investors, people who pooled their money to support a big project. In exchanged for there financing it, they hoped to earn a profit. This company would be known as The Virginia Company of London. In 1606 they financed an expedition including 100 colonists to set up a new colony on the Chesapeake Bay.
By May 1607 they had sailed up the James River and established the firsts permanent English colony in the Americas. They named it Jamestown after the English King. This colony would be established to make a profit. From the start things did not go well. The location wasn t a good one. It was in the middle of a disease ridden mosquito filled swamp. Malaria was a big problem.
They arrived too late to plant crops. Almost all of the colonist were not accustomed to hard work. To make matters worse, the London Company had incorrectly told the settlers that the colony would be rich in gold. As a result, many colonist spent their days searching for gold rather than building houses and growing food. Plus, people also got sick from drinking the water. Part of the year the water from the James River became salty and undrinkable.
By January 1608 only 38 of the original settles were still alive. In in that year John Smith took over control of the colony. He work on the principle that He that will not work shall not eat. His methods worked and he convicted local tribes to trade with the colony. In 1609 Smith was injured when his powder exploded accidentally and was forced to returned to England Also, that year 800 new colonist arrived.
Tension with the Native Americans increased and they stopped trading with the colonist (including food). Between 1609 and 1610 were know as the Starving times. Things got so bad that the colonist had to resort to cannibalism. By 1610 only 60 colonist were remaining.
That year the new Governor Lord De La War arrived in with two ships and imposed discipline. The starving time ended. But, the colony was still not profitable though.
This all changed in 1612 when John Rolfe brought in the first tobacco seeds to the colony. With the success of tobacco, the fortune of the colony changed. This new tobacco became very popular in England. The success of tobacco growing changed Jamestown in many ways.
The Virginia company thought of the colonist as employees. The colonist however, wanted a part of the profit. The company responded by letting settlers own land. The company offered a 50acre land grant for each man, woman, and child who could pay their way to the colony.
The company, also, encourage people to come to Jamestown as indentured servants. In this way they could pay for the trip to the Americas by agreeing to work for a number of years for a master. After this time they would be free to do what they wanted. Usually, the got land and a suit of cloths at the end too.
In 1619 a Dutch slave ship was blown off course by a storm. It landed at Jamestown bringing with it 20 slaves. These were the first African slaves to come to the English Colonies. By 1621 the population of Jamestown had increased to over 2,000.
The colonist had been annoyed with the strict rule of the governors who served the interest company. To provide for local control, the company decided that burgesses or elected representatives, of the colonist would meet once a year in a assembly. The House of Burgesses created in 1619, became the first representative assembly in the American colonies
In 1614 John Rolfe married Chief Powhatan s daughter Pocahontas. For a time an uneasy peace reigned between the natives and the English. In 1622 a war broke out and 350 colonist were killed by the natives.
Although about 6000 people had gone to Virginia by 1624 a census showed that only 1,277 people were alive. In that year Jamestown s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.
Bacon s Rebellion 1676 Although many of the English Colonist in Virginia fought with the Native American, they also fought each other. By the 1670s, one-forth of the free white population were former Indentured servants. These colonists did not own land and as a consequence they resented the wealthy English landowners.
These poor English settlers lived mostly on the Virginia western frontier, where they battled the Native Americans for land. Nathaniel Bacon and a group or landless frontier settlers opposed Governor William Berkley.
They complained about the high taxes and the Royal Governor Berkeley s favoritism forward large plantation owners. Bacon demanded that Berkeley approve a war against the Native Americans to seize their lands for tobacco plantations. Berkeley refused Bacon s demand and this refusal sparked Bacon s Rebellion.
Bacon and his army marched into Jamestown, took control of the House of Burgesses, and burned Jamestown to the ground. Bacon suddenly became ill and died effectively ending the rebellion. Governor Berkeley had Bacon s followers hung.
Angered by the Governors actions, King Charles II recalled the governor to England. After the incident, the House of Burgesses passed laws to prevent the royal governor from assuming such power again. The Burgesses had taken an important step against tyranny.
New Netherland In 1624 the Dutch West India company founded the colony of New Netherlands including the Hudson River Valley, Long Island, and the land along the Delaware River.
Peter Minuit was one of those who decided to settle in America and in 1626 became director-general of New Netherland. Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from Native Americans for $24 worth of trinkets, beads and knives. Over the next few years other colonists arrived a large settlement was established on Manhattan Island. The chief port on Manhattan was named New Amsterdam (later renamed to New York after the Duke of York, when the English took it over in 1664).
In 1638 the Swedish government employed Minuit to help them establish a colony in America. Soon afterwards two vessels owned by the Swedish West India Company arrived with 50 colonists and established a small settlement in Delaware Bay. They named the town Christina in honor of Sweden's young queen. Peter Minuit died at sea in 1638. In 1655 this colony was taken over by the Dutch under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant their colonial governor.
New France In 1608 Samuel de Champlain established France s first permanent settlement in the Americas at Quebec in what is now Canada. In time Quebec became the base for a huge empire that stretched from Canada to the Mississippi River to the Caribbean.