Transcript Hist 331: Civil War and Reconstruction (Fall 2001)

American Colonial
Societies
American Colonial Societies
Spain: The “Model” Colonizer
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Spain was the “model” colonizer
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Not in the sense that other
European nations slavishly followed
their example in terms of how they
colonized the New World
Instead, the Spanish experience in
Central and South America helped
shape the expectations of other
European colonizers in the New
World
Government of Spanish America
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Because of the vast wealth it
generated, Spanish monarchs tried
to keep their American colonies
under tight control
Colonies organized into
“viceroyalties” under a “viceroyal”
directly appointed by the king
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Viceroyal advised by an Audencia,
but his word was law
Most Spanish Kings tried to keep
the viceroyals on a tight leash
However, distance made this goal
difficult to achieve in practice,
since oversight limited to visiting
inspectors
Spain was once the
dominant colonial power
in the Americas
American Colonial Societies
Important Institutions of Spanish America
 The Catholic Church
Bartolome de Las Casas: successfully promoted the idea that the
Indians had souls and should not be
killed or enslaved
 Missions had the dual purpose of
converting the Indians to Christianity
and “civilizing” them (i.e., turning
them into good Spanish peasants)
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 Encomienda
A grant of land and Indian laborers to
a Spaniard
 The Spaniard could make use of the
Indian labor, but in return was
expected to work to convert the
Indians to Christianity and civilize
them
 Early encomiendas involved the
ruthless exploitation of natives

American Colonial Societies
Social Groups of Spanish America
 Peninsulares
Spanish-born persons
 They were at the top of the economic
and political order in Spanish America
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 Creoles
People born in America, but of pure
Spanish ancestry
 A midling group in Spanish America

 Mestizos/Mulattoes
Mestizos: persons of mixed Spanish
and Indian ancestry—eventually the
largest single group
 Mulattoes: persons of mixed Spanish
and African ancestry
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 Indians/Africans

Persons of pure Indian or African
ancestry—at the bottom of society
American Colonial Societies
Portugal in Brazil
 Portugal’s claim to Brazil based on
the Treaty of Tordesillas and the
1500 visit of Pedro Alvares Cabral
 However from 1500 to 1530,
Portugal paid little attention to Brazil
because its attention was directed at
exploiting its new sea trade routes to
Asia
 Captaincies
Between 1534 and 1536, King John
III granted fifteen captaincies to
Portuguese noblemen to settle,
administer, and profit from in Brazil
 The successful captaincies
developed as sugar colonies

 In 1549, John III reasserted royal
control and Brazil developed a
colonial government similar to
Spanish America
American Colonial Societies
France
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The French moved gradually into
North America in the 16th century
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Like the Spanish, they initially came
looking for treasure, but found none
in what is today Quebec
They stayed, however, because
they found it profitable to trade
European goods with the Indians
for animal furs
Like the Spanish they tried to
convert the Indians to Christianity,
but initially did not seek conquest

The fur trade worked best with a
limited French presence, mostly
traders
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
coureurs de bois
Eventually the French established
larger settlements, but they were
small compared to the English
American Colonial Societies
England (1)
 The first successful English colony in
North America was established at
Jamestown in Virginia in 1607
Established by the Virginia Company
of London, a joint-stock company
charted by James I
 The intent of the company was to
emulate the Spanish model
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Live initially by exploiting the Indians
Find and seize Indian treasure
This model did not work because the
Indians in the Chesapeake region were
poor hunter-farmers
Most early colonists soon died from
disease and starvation
Artist’s conception
of early Jamestown
 Tobacco
The salvation of the colony was
tobacco, brought in from the
Caribbean
 After the introduction of tobacco,
Virginia prospered, although life
remained rough and life spans short
until the late 1600s

That
“noxious weed”
American Colonial Societies
England (2)
 The other main early center of
English settlement in North America
was in New England
Separatist Puritans settled in 1620
near Cape Cod, establishing
Plymouth
 Congregationalist Puritans
established the much larger
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629
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 Hence, unlike the colonization of the
Chesapeake Bay region, whose
basis was economic, the motive of
the Puritans who settled in New
England was religious
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They were escaping persecution by
religious authorities of the Church of
England and in the case of Mass. Bay
wished to prove the feasibility of a
Puritan-based society
 Although the religious experiment
failed they and their descendants
prospered in America and enjoyed
some of the longest average lifespans in the 1600s