The English Conquer the Americas

1. US History 11 - CHEE
A Meeting of Three Worlds:
Europe, Africa, and the Americas
Colonization Begins 1492–1680
Lecture 1.4 The English Conquest

2. English under the Reign of
Elizabeth I (1555-1603)
aka the Virgin Queen
Her father Henry VIII (started
the church of England)
William Byrd. “Oh Lord Make Thy
Servant Elizabeth” (1575)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4j3ZSxu2jo
“Elizabeth,” by Shekar Kapur (1998)
Or Cate Blanchett’s portrayal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wNboYbgYjo

3. English defeat the Spanish
Anglo-Spanish War of 1585 -8
aka Protestant-Catholic War
Consequences for Americas?
oStops the Spanish/Catholic
expansion
oStarts the British settlement
and expansion in the Americas!
oPearls from the new world
ochannel storm & English
defeat of the Spanish
oglobe – Americas

4. 1588, the Virginia Company Published a Book:
A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of
Virginia, directed to the Investors, Farmers and Wellwishers
of the Porject of Colonizing and Planting There
Thomas Harriot, 1588.
1. Convince middle class investors
to purchase stock
2. Attract colonists
3. Protestant weapon against
colonizing Spain

5. John White
watercolors
Depiction of a Native
American village

6. English settlement - America
First colonies unsuccessful:
1585- Newfoundland
1585-88 – Walter Raleigh – Roanoke Island
1591– relief expedition to Roanoake Island
1604-9 - Guiana – South America
1607 – Maine – only a year
First Successful Colony:
1607 – Jamestown, Virginia
(floundered at first but
flourished in time)

7. First English Colony:
Jamestown
Between 1607 – 1609
900 settlers arrived, but
only 60 survived. 7%
survival rate.
1/3 of immigrants were
unskilled, and looking for
gold
Named after…
King James I (r. 1603-1625)

8. Indentured laborers
irginia Company - 1618 - Offered 50 acres of
land to those willing to settle
610-1622 – 9000 crossed the Atlantic
/20 survived to get the land
thers died of malaria, dysentery, and
overwork
Masters” bought and sold servants like
property, re-indentured them at the end of

9. Powhatans, or the Algonquians
4K local Powhatan (Algonquian) Indians
nglish expected to subjugate them as the
Spanish had done, but were not able
owhatans brought maize to the sick and
starving Jamestown colony their first autumn
in 1607
fter that year, the relationship turned badly,
as Captain John Smith, raided Powhatan food

10. Chesapeake
settlers
Young men, with little
stake in English society
Sold their labor across the
Atlantic
soldiers of fortune
Roughneck adventurers
Men without families

11. Grace Chee Copyright 9.2018
Message to Students:
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