The document discusses the colonial patterns of Spain, France, and England in North America. Spain focused on conquering land and peoples for wealth and converting natives to Catholicism through missions. France claimed territory for the fur trade and worked more cooperatively with native tribes. England's colonies were more decentralized and varied due to different motivations among settlers, leading to regional subcultures like the Chesapeake and New England. Overall, European diseases, technology, and religious justifications allowed them to establish control over North America at the expense of native populations.

1. Essential QuestionsEssential Questions::
• What does it mean to say that EuropeansWhat does it mean to say that Europeans
"conquered" the land and peoples of North"conquered" the land and peoples of North
America?America?
• What were theWhat were the advantagesadvantages && disadvantagesdisadvantages ofof
Spanish, French, & English colonial patterns inSpanish, French, & English colonial patterns in
terms ofterms of long-termlong-term colonization in America?colonization in America?

2. Advantages for
long-term
colonization
Disadvantages for
long-term
colonization
Spain
France
England

3. The Spanish Colonies
in America

4. A World Transformed
• Native Americans were eager for
European trade; they were not initially
victims of Spanish exploration
• They became dependent on and indebted
to Europeans
• Disease decimated perhaps 95% of
Native American population

5. Spanish Conquests &
Colonies
Spanish missionaries focused
heavily on converting Native
Americans & establishing missions
The Spanish used the encomienda system to
create large cash crop plantations using
Native American & African slave labor

6. From Plunder to Settlement
• By 1650, 1/2 million Spaniards
immigrated to the New World
– Mostly unmarried males came to New
World; intermarriage led to mixed-blood
mestizos & mulattos
– Distinguished between social classes:
peninsulares & creoles
– The Spanish government operated strict
control over the colonies
Whites from Spain
Whites born in America

7. Spanish Empire
• Its conquering of the Americas would allow Spain to become
the most powerful empire in the world during the 16th
Century
• “We came here to serve God and King… and to get rich”
• Not only disease, but civil wars and religious superstitions
also allowed the Europeans, namely the Spanish, to conquer
the Native Americans (who GREATLY outnumbered the
explorers)
• The advanced technology of the Europeans offered an
incredible advantage in combat
– Gunpowder, cannon, and bullets vs. bows and arrows
– Horses (transport and cavalry) and also pigs, cattle, and
goats (foodstuffs) played a very important role in conquest

8. Spanish-American Culture
• The Spanish conquerors would establish
the encomienda system
– Encomienda – a system of villages granted to
a privileged Spanish officer or aristocrat
• Was responsible for providing for Spanish
missionaries and contributing wealth to the empire
• Extreme class discrepancy: at one end were the
wealthy conquistadores and at the other the
impoverished natives

9. The Spread of Catholicism
• Catholic missionaries quickly spread to the Americas in the wake
of the conquistadors’ victories
• The Natives were viewed as pagans and the Catholic religion
was in turn imposed upon the people
– The spreading epidemics were seen as the wrath of God
upon the pagans and justified the actions of the god-
fearing Spanish
• A few missionaries would become the only advocates that the
Natives had among the Europeans
– Bartolome de la Casas and A Brief Relation of the
Destruction of the Indies
– Poet Staceyann Chin reads Bartolomé de Las Casas

10. Spanish Exploration of the US
• Spain would never develop successful settlements (in terms of trade
and power) in US territory  mainly due to its primary lust for gold
and silver instead of developing centers of trade
– Juan Ponce de Leon – explored Florida
– Hernando de Soto – explored the Southeast US
– Francisco Coronado – explored the Southwest US
– St. Augustine – the oldest surviving settlement in the US,
established in 1565 in Florida
– Spanish missions would dot the Southwest US with some
surviving today
• Santa Fe was the 1st
permanent seat of government in the US
• By 1630 there were over 50 missions and 3,000 Spanish in the
New Mexico territory

11. The Horse
• The introduction of the horse would forever
transform the Native American cultures of the US
– Tribes such as those of the Great Plains
converted from agriculturally domestic to
nomadic within a very short period of time
after acquiring and breeding a significant
horse population
– Following the buffalo herds became the focus
of Native society

12. The French Colonies
in America

13. The French Claim Canada
• In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded
Quebec; French Empire eventually included
St. Lawrence River, Great Lakes, Mississippi
• The French government strictly controlled the
colonies but made little effort to encourage
settlement
• Because the fur trade was the basis of the
colonial economy, Indians became valued
trading partners (not exploitive like Spain)

14. Like Spain, the French gov’t
encouraged converting Native
Americans & establishing missions

15. The English Colonies
in America

16. The English Colonies
• In the 1600s, English settlers arrived in
North America
– English colonization differed from Spanish &
French because the English gov’t had no
desire to create a centralized empire in the
New World
– Different motivations by English settlers led to
different types of colonies

17. Migrating to the English Colonies
• 17th
century England faced major social
changes:
– The most significantly was a boom in
population; Competition for land, food, jobs led
to a large mobile population (vagrants?)
– People had choices: could move to cities,
Ireland, Netherlands, or America (but this was
most expensive & dangerous)

18. Migrating to the English Colonies
• Motives for migration to America:
– Religious: purer form of worship
– Economic: Escape poverty or the threat of
lifelong poverty
– Personal: to escape bad marriages or jail
terms
• Migration to America was facilitated by the
English Civil War & Glorious Revolution

19. The Stuart Monarchs

20. Four Colonial Subcultures
• The values of the migrants dictated the
“personality” of the newly created colonies;
led to distinct (not unified) colonies
– The Chesapeake
– New England
– Middle Colonies
– The Carolinas & Georgia

22. By the early 1600s, Spain, England, & France
had large territorial claims in North America
(but these colonies were not heavily populated,
especially in Spanish & French claims)
These colonial claims came largely
at the expense of the Native
Americans already living there