Transcript ALIEN ENCOUNTERS: EUROPE IN THE AMERICAS

ALIEN ENCOUNTERS: EUROPE
IN THE AMERICAS
• Columbus and the Discovery of America
– Christopher Columbus reached the West
Indies on October 12, 1492
– by the fifteenth century, western Europeans
discover direct routes to the East
– Prince Henry of Portugal sponsored
improvements in navigation and voyages
of exploration
• Spain’s American Empire
– in 1493, Pope divided the non-Christian
world between Spain and Portugal
– Portugal concentrated on Africa and Brasil
– Spain concentrated on the Caribbean and
Americas
• The Indian and the European
– European technological superiority,
particularly in instruments of war, provided
the tools for domination
• Relativity of Cultural Values
– Europeans regarded as heathens because
the did not worship the Christian God
– most Indians were deeply religious
– some Europeans believed Indians were minions
of Satan, unworthy of Christianity
– some, such as Spanish friars attempted to
convert them
– Indians exploited the land as Europeans did
– fished, hunted, & modified vegetation and
wildlife
– different approaches to land and government
led to conflict
– even in warfare, the two cultures differed
– Indians fought to display valor, avenge insult,
or to acquire captives
– Europeans fought with the intent to obliterate
the enemy
• Disease and Population Losses
– Europeans brought with them diseases for
which Indians had no immunities,
particularly smallpox and measles
– these diseases devastated Indian
populations
• Spain’s European Rivals
– Spain dominated exploration of the
Americas during 16th century due to its
internal stability
– but corruption over gold and silver began
to erode this stability and the disruption of
• The Protestant Reformation
– the sale of indulgences and the luxurious
life-styles of popes led to a challenge by
reformers such as Martin Luther and John
Calvin
– in England, Henry VIII’s search for a male
heir led him to split from Rome when the
Pope refused him a divorce
• English Beginnings in America
– Queen Elizabeth supported the
explorations of English joint-stock
companies and encouraged privateers,
such as Sir Francis Drake, to plunder
Spanish merchant shipping
– she supported colonization of New World
– in 1587Sir Walter Raleigh settled Roanoke
Island
– after the Spanish Armada was destroyed,
Spain could not stop English colonization
of New World
• The Settlement of Virginia
– London Company established first
permanent English settlement in America
at Jamestown in 1607
– half the settlers died during first winter
because of mismanagement, ignorance of
environment, and scarcity of people skilled
in manual labor and agriculture
– London Company encouraged useless
pursuits such as searching for gold rather
than building a settlement
– settlement survived in part because
Captain John Smith recognized the
importance of building houses and raising
food
– aid from Native Americans
– settlers’ realization that they must produce
their own food and the introduction of
tobacco as a cash crop saved the colony
– James I revoked the company’s charter in
1624, and Virginia became a royal colony
• “Purifying” the Church of England
– Under Elizabeth I, the Church of England
became the official church
– Elizabeth I’s “middle way”
– Catholics who could not reconcile
themselves left the country
– others practiced their faith in private
– other sects of Protestantism formed
– Puritans who objected to the rich
vestments, the use of candles, and the use
of music in services; Puritans’ belief in
predestination also set them apart from the
Anglican church
– Some Puritans, later called
Congregationalists, also favored autonomy
for individual churches
– Others, called Presbyterians, favored an
organization that emanated up from the
churches rather than down from the top
– Puritan fears that James I leaned towards
Catholicism further alienated them from the
• Bradford and Plymouth Colony
– English Separatists set sail from Plymouth,
England, on the Mayflower to settle near
the northern boundary of Virginia
– since they were outside jurisdiction of
London Company, they drew up the
Mayflower Compact
– a mutually agreed upon covenant that
established a set of political rules
– they elected William Bradford their first
governor
• Winthrop and Massachusetts Bay
Colony
– a group of Puritans formed the
Massachusetts Bay Company
– obtained a grant to the area between the
Charles and Merrimack rivers
– they founded Boston in 1630
– elected John Winthrop governor
– founders established an elected legislature
– voters and members of the legislature had
to be members of the church
– Under Charles I, Puritans were persecuted
in England, and the Great Migration of
• Troublemakers
– Several groups dissented from the
Massachusetts Bay colony
– Roger Williams opposed alliance of church
and civil government and championed the
fair treatment of Indians
– Banished from the colony, he founded the
town of Providence and later established
the colony of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantation
– Anne Hutchinson preached that those
possessed of saving grace were exempt
from rules of good behavior
– General Court charged Hutchinson with
defaming the clergy, brought her to trial,
and banished her
– Hutchinson and her followers left
Massachusetts for Rhode Island in 1637
• Other New England Colonies
– Congregations from Massachusetts settled
in the Connecticut River valley
– a group headed by Reverend Thomas
Hooker founded Hartford in 1836
– their instrument of government, the
Fundamental Orders
– did not limit voting to church members
• French and Dutch Settlements
– England was not alone in challenging
Spain's dominance in the New World.
– French planted colonies in the West Indies
and, through the explorations of Cartier
and Champlain, laid claim to much of the
Saint Lawrence River area
– Dutch also established themselves in the
Caribbean and founded the colony of New
Netherland in the Hudson Valley
• Maryland and the Carolinas
– in 17th century, English colonization shifted
to proprietary efforts
– proprietors hoped to obtain profit and
political power
– Maryland was one of the first proprietary
colonies
– established under a grant to the Calvert
family
– Lord Baltimore hoped not only to profit but
to create a refuge for Catholics
– Catholics remained a minority in the
colony, and Baltimore agreed to the
Toleration Act
– guaranteed freedom of religion to all
Christians
– in what is now known as the Carolinas,
proprietors, with the help of John Locke,
drafted a plan of government called
Fundamental Constitutions
– two separate societies emerged in Carolina
– north was poorer and more primitive
– Charleston colony to the south developed
an economy based on trade in fur and on
• The Middle Colonies
– British eventually ousted the Dutch from
New Amsterdam, which became New York
– Quakers settled in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania and there they drafted an
extremely liberal constitution that
guaranteed settlers freedom of conscience
– William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania,
treated the Indians fairly and permitted
freedom of worship to all who believed in
God; Penn’s ideas were more paternalistic
than democratic
• Indians and Europeans as
“Americanizers”
– relationship between Native Americans and
Europeans best characterized as
interactive
– Indians taught colonists how to grow food,
what to wear, and new forms of
transportation
– Native Americans adopted European
technology (especially weapons), clothing,
and alcohol
– out of the interaction between cultures