Unit 1: Colonial Beginnings Flashcards
Richard Hakluyt: Particular Discourses on the Western Planting
1) Colonies so expensive that national government aid necessary
2) Colonies would aid suffering economy
3) Enhance England’s in’l position
4) English colonies would ensure no Catholic block in the New World
Colonial Generalization
1) Period studied as Colonial; for its own sake
2) Study of separate societies
3) Colonial societies were violent
4) Colonists came for a myriad of reasons
Two Major Themes of the Colonial Period
1) Influence of England and her tradition
2) Conditions in American forced changes in “re-creating” England
Distinction between England and the American Colonies
1) Land
2) Jobs and Wages
3) Social Status
1) Land
a. Scarce and expensive in England
b. Abundant and cheap in the colonies
2) Jobs and Wages
a. Overcrowding in England = Low wages
b. Scarcity in colonies = High wages
3) Social Status
a. Based on birth, lineage in England
b. Based on monetary wealth in colonies
Idealistic Impulses
Thomas More’s Utopia, 1516
Commericial Motivation
- Enclosure Movement: hard times
- Rise of the Charter Company
Monopoly of Trade
Theory of Mercantilism: Finite Amount of Trade Available
- Favorable trade, exchange of bullion = wealth
- Objective: Export more than import
- Colonies: Source of Raw Material, Labor and Consumers
Religious incentive: Reformation in Europe
A. Martin Luther’s Protestantism
B. John Calvin: Swiss theologian; Doctrine of Predestination
C. English Reformation: Protest/ants of the Catholic Church
A. Martin Luther’s Protestantism
1) Bible, not church, authentic voice of God
2) Salvation by faith, not works or church payments
B. John Calvin: Swiss theologian : Doctrine of Predestination
1) The “elect” pre-ordained for salvation
2) Leading a good life evidence of salvation
3) Incentive for Virtue
C. English Reformation: Protest/ants of the Catholic Church
1) Henry VIII breaks with pope over divorce issue
2) Names himself as the Head of the Church
3) Upon his death, daughter Mary goes back to Catholicism, persecutes Protestants
4) Elizabeth brings back Protestantism and the Church of the England (Anglican Church)
5) Her compromise irked both Protestants and Catholics
6) Puritans: Wanted to “purify” Anglican church of all Catholicism
Nationalistic Ventures
A. The English in Ireland
1) First experience with colonization shaped future action/attitudes in America
2) Viewed Irish as wild, to be subdued
3) Plantation Model: Transplanting of English society separate from natives
The Founding of Jamestown: Early Problems
1) Chose a Poor Site
2) Colonists were “adventure”
3) Malaria
4) Greed and Idleness
5) No English Women
The Arrival of John Smith, 1608
1) Imposed work and order on the colony
2) Organized raids of Native American villages to procure food
Reorganization of the London Company (Now the Virginia Co.)
- New efforts to colonize Jamestown
- The Starving Time
- Jamestown Survival
New Effort to Colonize Jamestown
a. Sold stock to investor and emigrees
b. Free passage for indentured servants
Jamestown Survived due to:
a. Order and Discipline: (De La Warr)
b. Assaults on Native American tribes for supplies
c. Arrival of Self-government : (House of Burgessess 1619)
d. Success of Tobacco
Tobacco as Cash Crop led to Expansion and Settlement Incentives
- Headright System: 50-acre grants of land
- Skilled craftmen transported free
- English women sent as wives
- Full Rights of Englishmen
- Shared in Self-government
- Expansion Due only to effective Suppression of local N/A tribes
Virginia Becomes a Royal Colony in 1624:
Gov. Bekerley
James I revokes charter and takes back
Control of the colony
Prohibited further westward settlement after negotiation with tribes
a. Unpopular, especially because of the re-doubling of the population
b. Led to frequent clashes between whites and Native American people
