Lecture 2: The English Empire

1. Lecture 2: The English Empire

2. Elizabeth 1 Richard Hakluyt Roanoke Algonquin Iroquois John White Spanish Armada John Smith King James I Puritans Indentured Servants Pilgrims Mayflower Compact Identifiers

3. The English Empire • Spain was establishing themselves in the Americas • France was dominating the fur trade. • At first the English Crown made little effort to establish any settlements in North America. • During the reign of Elizabeth the 1st in the late 16th century there was one man who wanted to develop a settlement along the Atlantic coast.

4. Richard Hakluyt (Hak-loot) advocated for the establishment of English colonies on the Atlantic coast. • He argued that colonies would provide bases to attack Spanish fleets, offer new markets for English goods, and provide a destination for “loiterers and vagabonds.”

5. During the 1570s and 1580s a succession of voyages of exploration were sent to discover the best prospects for a settlement.

6. Early English Colonies • There were two models: • Virginia: was a commercial venture intended to make profit for English investors. • Massachusetts: was created as a refuge for religious dissenters who wished to escape the control of the English church. • These two types of colonies laid the foundation for the American colonial experience.

7. Roanoke: The Lost Colony • The English courtier Walter Raleigh dreamed of creating an English empire on Roanoke Island to rival that of Spain. • In 1585 a group of settlers traveled there to mine gold (using natives as slaves), trade furs, or establish farms. • At first the natives cooperated and shared precious food and supplies, but this would soon turn to violence and mistrust.

8. Virginia • Established in 1607 by John Smith who worked for the Virginia Company • These merchants hoped to find gold and silver. • In doing so, Jamestown was founded in honor of King James I of England. • Jamestown was situated in a swampy area infested with disease bearing mosquitoes.

9. Powhatan (leader of the Algonquin) welcomed the arrival of the English. • He hoped by providing the English with food and supplies her would profit through trade. • He also hoped that alliances would be made against competing Algonquin groups. • However, after the departure of John Smith relations began to deteriorate and tension began to rise.

10. The English soon began to steal food as they lacked the supplies and had difficulty coping with the harsh winters. • Powhatan cut off further assistance and the colonists starved. • The Virginia Company responded by sending more colonists and weapons to fight against Powhatan. • Relations were temporarily alleviated by the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe.

11. With the arrival of more colonists there became a demand for land, increasing tensions once more. • Warfare and the introduction of new diseases devastated the Algonquin peoples. • Facts: • 1607- Chesapeake Bay 20,000 Algonquins • Fewer than 100 English colonists • 1670- more than 40,000 colonists and barely 2,000 Algonquins

12. Virginia colony became fixated on Tobacco farming • Effects: • Poor soil (more land needed) • Less food • Tensions with Algonquins • Labour intensive

13. Massachusetts • During the mid-16th cent England underwent a Protestant Reformation. • Because of this many people thought that the church was slipping and they wanted to take their values to a new place. These people were called Puritans. • They wished to purify the English church, many of these people sought out the new world as a refuge where they could create their own religious communities.

14. The Mayflower • Sept 16, 1620 the first group of Puritan colonists, known as Pilgrims, sailed for America from Plymouth, England. • The ship was called the Mayflower • The voyage was led by William Bradford and sponsored by the Virginia Company. • Dec 1620, the colonists reached Massachusetts Bay • The colony survived only with the aid of the Algonquin peoples, the Wampanoags.

15. 1629 they established the Massachusetts Bay Company which began to organize a large-scale emigration from England. • This was called the Great Migration led by the lawyer John Winthrop who founded Boston in 1630. • As governor, Winthrop declared that all male heads of households (freemen) who were church members could vote to select delegates to the General Court, which drew up laws for the colony.

16. The Mayflower Compact • While on board the Mayflower, the male members of the expedition composed the MC, which they hoped would preserve their freedom in the new colony. • However, when the ship veered off course from the original destination in Virginia, the legal patent was longer valid in Plymouth.

17. The pilgrims acknowledged that a government should be formed by and for its citizens for whom it governed. • Thomas Jefferson would champion this principle in the next century. • The compact emphasized both preserving order in an untamed, faraway colony and the philosophy of justice and equality in law.

18. The Pilgrims also understood that in order to preserve the common good of the community, they had to create a compact where citizens would submit themselves to a government: “from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience…”

19. The Mayflower Compact is often referred to as the first constitution in American history. • Historical Significance: • Is the idea that government is a contract between those who govern and the governed, and that legitimacy of a government must be based on the consent of the citizens.

21. During the American Revolution the Compact served as vital political propaganda. • Some historians say the this compact was the first steps in creating the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the creation of the United States.

23. Check Your Understanding • 1. Why did Powhatan cooperate with the first English settlers? 2.What factors hurt the early development of the Virginia Colony? 3. Why did Puritans move to Massachusetts? 4. Given the purposes of Virginia and Mass, what two values were established in the colonies from the beginning?