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Chapter 2. Colonizing America. The Spanish & French Build Empires.
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Chapter 2 Colonizing America
The Spanish & French Build Empires • In 1519 the Spanish government asked Hernán Cortés to lead an expedition to the Yucatán Peninsula to find new people who could be forced to work on the farms and mines of Cuba. Cortés also wanted to investigate reports of a wealthy civilization there.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • Equipped with swords, crossbows, guns, and cannons, the Spanish had a technological advantage over the people they encountered in the Yucatán Peninsula.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • After learning that the Aztec were at war with many groups in the region, Cortés recruited the help of the Tlaxcalan people against the Aztec. Montezuma, the Aztec leader, failed to stop the Spanish advance, and Cortés marched into Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • In 1520 the Aztec priests organized a rebellion against the Spanish and drove them out of the capital. However, in 1521 Cortés launched another attack and this time defeated the Aztec.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • After destroying Tenochtitlán, Cortés ordered a new city, named Mexico, to be built in its place. It became the capital of the Spanish colony of New Spain. Cortés sent other expeditions into what is present-day Mexico and Central America. • The people who led the expeditions became known as conquistadors, or “conquerors.” One conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, explored Peru and conquered the Inca empire.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • Other Spanish conquistadors explored other parts of America, searching for rumored wealthy cities. Pánfilo de Narváez search for a fabled city of gold in what is today northern Florida. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an expedition in search of the rumored Seven Golden Cities of Cibola. His explorations led him throughout the southwestern area of what is today the United States. Hernando de Soto led a large expedition and explored the area north of Florida.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • The Spanish gave the name New Mexico to the territory north of New Spain. They built presidios, or forts, throughout the region as trading posts and protection for the settlers. Spanish priests also built missions throughout the region to spread the Christian faith among the Native American people there.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • Most conquistadors were low-ranking nobles, called hidalgos, or working-class tradespeople. Their main motive for coming to America was to acquire wealth and prestige. • After Cortés defeated the Aztec empire, he rewarded his men by granting them control over some part of the empire. This was called the encomiendasystem.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • The people in the Spanish colonies in the Americas formed a highly-structured society. Aperson’sposition in society was determined by birth, income, and education. The highest level of society consisted of the peninsulares—those born in Spain. Below this level were the criollos—those born in the colonies of Spanish parents. Next were the mestizos—those born of Spanish and Native American parentage. • The lowest level of society included Native Americans, Africans, and people of mixed Spanish and African or African and Native American ancestry.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • The Spanish king divided the empire in America into regions called viceroyalties. A viceroy ruled each region as a representative of the king. • Although the Spanish did not find vast deposits of gold in the Americas, they did discover huge deposits of silver. Mining camps emerged all across northern Mexico. To feed the miners, the Spaniards created large ranches for their herds of cattle and sheep. These ranches were called haciendas. The men who worked the ranches were called vaqueros. Cowhands in the United States later adopted many of the ways of the vaqueros.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • In 1524 the French king sent Giovanni da Verrazano to map the North American coastline. The king was interested in finding the Northwest Passage—the northern route through North America to the Pacific Ocean. • Although Verrazano found no such passage, he did map a large area of North America’s east coast. Jacques Cartier, another explorer, discovered and mapped the St. Lawrence River.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • By 1600 fur, particularly beaver fur, had become very fashionable in Europe. As the demand for fur increased, French merchants became interested in expanding the fur trade. In 1602 the French king authorized a group of merchants to establish colonies in North America.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • The merchants hired geographer Samuel de Champlain to help them colonize North America. Champlain established a French colony in what is present-day Nova Scotia, and he founded Quebec, which became the capital of the new colony of New France.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • New France was founded for the fur trade. Settlers were not needed to clear land or start farms. Consequently, the population grew slowly. Most of the fur traders, known as coureurs de bois, did not live in the colony but among the Native Americans with whom they traded.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • In 1663 New France became a royal colony. The French government then introduced a series of projects designed to increase the colony’s population. The government also began exploring North America. Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explored the Mississippi River. René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle then followed the river to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the region, which he named Louisiana, for France.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • Settlements were established in Louisiana over the next few decades. The French soon realized that crops suitable for the region required hard manual labor, which few settlers were willing to do. By 1721 the French in Louisiana had imported enslaved Africans and forced them to work the plantations.
The Spanish & French Build Empires • The Spanish had established the town of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565 to protect their claim to the region after the French tried to settle the Carolinas. • The town became the first permanent settlement established by Europeans in present-day United States. After the French arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the Spanish established a mission in eastern Texas to attempt to block French expansion into the region.
English Colonies in America • In 1497 the king of England sent John Cabot to find a western route to Asia. He landed in what is today Nova Scotia and explored the region southward. However, at that point England did not attempt to colonize North America.
English Colonies in America • Several changes in England in the 1500s led to renewed interest in colonization. One change was the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther, a German monk, published an attack on the practices of the Catholic Church. The Reformation spread across western Europe. • In England the Reformation involved a disagreement between King Henry VIII and the pope, who refused to annul the king’s marriage. The king then broke with the Church and declared himself the head of the Anglican Church.
English Colonies in America • Some English people wanted to keep the organization of the Catholic Church in the Anglican Church. Others, however, wanted to “purify” the Anglican Church of all Catholic elements. These people became known as Puritans. • King James I refused to implement the changes to the Anglican Church that the Puritans wanted. This forced many Puritans to leave England for America.
English Colonies in America • Economic changes in England also led to colonization. In the early 1500s, much of England’s land was divided into large estates. The landowners rented the land to tenant farmers. • Then the demand for wool increased dramatically, leading English landowners to convert their estates into sheep farms by enclosing the land. This enclosure movement resulted in the eviction of tenants, who were left unemployed and poor. Leaving England for America was a possible economic opportunity.
English Colonies in America • The English merchants needed new markets for their surplus wool. Many organized joint-stock companies, pooling the money of many investors for large projects, such as establishing colonies.
English Colonies in America • After England emerged as the leading Protestant power and Spain the leading Catholic power, the two countries became enemies. When the Spanish tried to check the spread of Protestantism in the Netherlands, which was part of the Spanish empire, the Dutch rebelled. • England came to the aid of the Dutch. Queen Elizabeth allowed privateers to attack Spanish ships. Privateers are privately owned ships licensed by the government to attack ships of other countries.
English Colonies in America • To more easily attack Spanish ships in the Caribbean, England needed to establish colonies nearby in order to establish bases. Walter Raleigh obtained a charter from the queen to explore the American coastline. His ships landed on Roanoke, an island near present-day North Carolina, and he named the land Virginia.
English Colonies in America • In 1606 the king of England granted the Virginia Company a charter to establish colonies in Virginia. The 144 men sent to Virginia founded the settlement of Jamestown.
English Colonies in America • Jamestown faced many problems. The leadership of Captain John Smith and assistance from the Powhatan Confederacy, the local Native Americans, helped the colony survive.
English Colonies in America • The Jamestown Company offered free land to people who worked for the colony for seven years. New settlers arrived in 1609, but there was not enough food for them. • The settlers stole food from the Native Americans, who retaliated by attacking them. By 1610 only 60 settlers survived.
English Colonies in America • John Rolfe, a Jamestown colonist, developed a strain of tobacco that was marketable in England. The Jamestown settlers soon began growing large quantities of tobacco for profit.
English Colonies in America • To attract more settlers to Jamestown, the Virginia Company gave the colony the right to elect its own general assembly. The elected representatives were called burgesses, and the legislative body was called the House of Burgesses.
English Colonies in America • The Virginia Company also introduced the system of headrights. Under this system, new settlers who bought a share in the company or paid for their passage were granted 50 acres. They received more land for each family member or servant they brought to Virginia. • The Native Americans near Jamestown grew alarmed at the increasing population. They attacked the settlement, killing nearly 350 settlers. King James revoked the colony’s charter and declared it a royal colony.
English Colonies in America • Catholics were persecuted in England for their beliefs. Lord Baltimore, a Catholic member of Parliament, decided to found a colony in America where Catholics could practice their religion without persecution.
English Colonies in America • The king granted Baltimore an area of land northeast of Virginia, which Baltimore named Maryland. Baltimore owned Maryland, making it the first proprietary colony. Although Maryland was founded as a Catholic refuge, most of the colony’s settlers were Protestant.
New England • Some Puritans, called Separatists, broke away from the Anglican Church to start their own congregations. The king viewed the act as a challenge to his authority and imprisoned them. In 1608 one group of Separatists, who became known as Pilgrims, fled to Holland. Unhappy there, they decided to immigrate to America.
New England • The Pilgrims set sail for America on the Mayflower in 1620 and settled in Plymouth, near Massachusetts Bay.
New England • Under the leadership of William Bradford, the Pilgrims began constructing homes immediately after their arrival. A plague swept through the colony, killing many settlers. The remaining settlers survived in large part because of the assistance of a Native American named Squanto, who taught them how to use the environment to meet their needs.
New England • Many Puritans stayed within the Anglican Church and worked for reform. Like the Separatists, these Puritans were also persecuted, and many were willing to leave England. • A depression in England’s wool industry caused high unemployment, particularly among Puritans. John Winthrop and other wealthy Puritans held stock in the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had received a charter from King Charles to establish a colony in New England.
New England • Winthrop used the charter to start a colony as a refuge for Puritans. In 1630 several hundred Puritans set sail for American and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. • As conditions in England worsened, increasing numbers of people left England in what was later called the Great Migration. By 1643 Massachusetts included about 20,000 settlers.
New England • In Massachusetts, a General Court made the laws and elected the colony’s governor. The General Court was made up of “freemen”—the people who owned stock in the Massachusetts Bay Company. Eventually the General Court became a representative assembly. • The government of Massachusetts required all colonists to attend church, collected taxes to support it, and regulated people’s moral behavior. The government was intolerant towards differences in religious beliefs. Heretics, those whose religious beliefs differed from the majority’s, were considered a threat to the community.
New England • Roger Williams, a strict Separatist, challenged Puritan authority in Massachusetts. In 1635 the General Court banned him from the colony. Williams headed south, where he founded the town of Providence. • The government there had no authority in religious matters, and religious differences were tolerated.
New England • Anne Hutchinson was declared a heretic and banished from Massachusetts for her challenge of Puritan practices. She and her followers also headed south and founded the town of Portsmouth.
New England • Other Puritans were also banished from Massachusetts. They founded the towns of Newport and Warwick. • These two towns joined with Providence and Portsmouth to become the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The colony’s charter included a total separation of church and state and religious freedom.
New England • Reverend Thomas Hooker opposed the Massachusetts government’s policy of allowing only church members to vote. He and his followers left Massachusetts and founded the town of Hartford, in the Connecticut River valley. Hartford and two other towns in the region joined together to create their own General Court. • They adopted a constitution known as the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut—the first written constitution of the American colonies.
New England • Two Massachusetts traders were killed by the Pequot, a Native American group in the Connecticut River valley. A war between the colonists and Pequot developed. Hundreds of Pequot were killed, and many were sold into slavery.
New England • Some Puritans moved north of Massachusetts. Much of this territory had been granted to two men. One claimed the southern part, named New Hampshire, and the other claimed the northern part, named Maine. • New Hampshire eventually became a royal colony, while Massachusetts bought back Maine, which remained part of Massachusetts until 1820.
New England • The colonial governments’ demand that Native American follow English law angered the Native Americans, who believed that the English were trying to destroy their culture. • In 1675 the Plymouth Colony tried and executed three Wampanaog for a murder, which led to attacks by the Native Americans against the colonists. The attacks marked the beginning of King Philip’s War. The Wampanoag’s defeat by the colonists in 1678 was a turning point. After the war, few Native Americans were left in New England.
