Early Spanish, French, and English settlements adopted different patterns based on their goals and environments:
- Spanish settlements in the Southwest US clustered along irrigation networks, following the strict rules of the Law of the Indies, which dictated an organized grid layout.
- French settlements in Canada consisted mainly of fishing and fur trading posts along the St. Lawrence River, with little permanent agriculture.
- English settlements varied, with plantations relying on indentured servants and slaves in the Chesapeake and Carolinas, while family farms predominated in New England and the Mid-Atlantic colonies. Tobacco agriculture and slavery characterized the South, while the North featured smaller mixed farms and more religious communities.
The start of the European Colonization is typically dated to 1492, a.pdfAPMRETAIL
The start of the European Colonization is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one
earlier colonization effort. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas are believed to have
been the Vikings (\"Norse\") during the eleventh century, who established several colonies in
Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L\'Anse aux Meadows in the area the Norse called
Vinland, present day Newfoundland. Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries,
during which time the Greenland Norse and theInuit people experienced mostly hostile contact.
By the end of the fifteenth century, the Norse Greenland settlements had collapsed. In 1492, a
Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which
European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded, first through much of the Caribbean
region (including the islands of Hispaniola,Puerto Rico, and Cuba) and, early in the sixteenth
century, parts of the mainlands of North and South America.
Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere would come under the domination of European
nations, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In
the nineteenth century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. The post-1492
era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange. The potato, the pineapple, theturkey,
dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chilies, and chocolate went East across theAtlantic
Ocean. Smallpox and measles but also the horse and the gun traveled West.
The flow of benefit appears to have been one-sided, with Europe gaining more. However, the
colonization and exploration of the Americas also transformed the world, eventually adding 31
newnation-states to the global community. On the one hand, the cultural and religious arrogance
that led settlers to deny anything of value in pre-Columbian America was destructive, even
genocidal. On the other hand, many of those who settled in the New World were also social and
political visionaries, who found opportunities there, on what for them was a tabula rasa, to aim at
achieving their highest ideals of justice, equality, and freedom. Some of the world\'s most stable
democraciesexist as a result of this transformative process.
The first conquests were made by the Spanish and the Portuguese. In the 1494 Treaty of
Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world
between themselves, with a line drawn through South America. Based on this Treaty, and the
claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa to all lands touching the Pacific Ocean, the
Spanish rapidly conquered territory, overthrowing the Aztec and Inca Empires to gain control of
much of western South America, Central America, and Mexico by the mid-sixteenth century, in
addition to its earlier Caribbean conquests. Over this same time frame, Portugalconquered much
of eastern South America, naming it Brazil.
Early conquests, claims, and colonies
Other Eur.
THE AMERICAN YAWPMenuSkip to contentHomeAboutBarbara Jordan – On the.docxarnoldmeredith47041
THE AMERICAN YAWPMenuSkip to contentHomeAboutBarbara Jordan – On the Impeachment of Richard Nixon (1974)Brookes printCasta paintingContributorsHow the Other Half Lived: Photographs of Jacob RiisIntroductionNote on Recommended ReadingsPressSample Feedback (@AmericanYawp)Teaching MaterialsUpdates2. Colliding Cultures
Theodor de Bry, “Negotiating Peace With the Indians,” 1634, Virginia Historical Society.
*The American Yawp is an evolving, collaborative text. Please click here to improve this chapter.*I. IntroductionII. Spanish AmericaIII. Spain’s Rivals EmergeIV. English ColonizationV. JamestownVI. New EnglandVII. ConclusionVIII. Primary SourcesIX. Reference MaterialsI. Introduction
The Columbian Exchange transformed both sides of the Atlantic, but with dramatically disparate outcomes. New diseases wiped out entire civilizations in the Americas, while newly imported nutrient-rich foodstuffs enabled a European population boom. Spain benefited most immediately as the wealth of the Aztec and Incan Empires strengthened the Spanish monarchy. Spain used its new riches to gain an advantage over other European nations, but this advantage was soon contested.
Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and England all raced to the New World, eager to match the gains of the Spanish. Native peoples greeted the new visitors with responses ranging from welcoming cooperation to aggressive violence, but the ravages of disease and the possibility of new trading relationships enabled Europeans to create settlements all along the western rim of the Atlantic world. New empires would emerge from these tenuous beginnings, and by the end of the seventeenth century, Spain would lose its privileged position to its rivals. An age of colonization had begun and, with it, a great collision of cultures commenced.II. Spanish America
Spain extended its reach in the Americas after reaping the benefits of its colonies in Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. Expeditions slowly began combing the continent and bringing Europeans into the modern-day United States in the hopes of establishing religious and economic dominance in a new territory.
Juan Ponce de León arrived in the area named La Florida in 1513. He found between 150,000 and 300,000 Native Americans. But then two and a half centuries of contact with European and African peoples—whether through war, slave raids, or, most dramatically, foreign disease—decimated Florida’s indigenous population. European explorers, meanwhile, had hoped to find great wealth in Florida, but reality never aligned with their imaginations.
1513 Atlantic map from cartographer Martin Waldseemuller. Wikimedia.
In the first half of the sixteenth century, Spanish colonizers fought frequently with Florida’s Native peoples as well as with other Europeans. In the 1560s Spain expelled French Protestants, called Huguenots, from the area near modern-day Jacksonville in northeast Florida. In 1586 English privateer Sir Francis Drake burned the wooden settlement o.
Chapter 13 political transformations : Empires and encounters 1450-1750S Sandoval
AP WORLD HISTORY - CHAPTER 16 WAYS OF THE WORLD.
The Early Modern world, 1450 to 1750- Political transformations of empires and encounters. (sorry for the grammar mistakes)
Chapter 3 Creating New Social Orders Colonial Societies, 15EstelaJeffery653
Chapter 3 | Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500–1700
63
CHAPTER 3
Creating New Social Orders:
Colonial Societies, 1500–1700
Figure 3.1 John Smith’s famous map of Virginia (1622) illustrates many geopolitical
features of early colonization. In
the upper left, Powhatan, who governed a powerful local confederation of Algonquian
communities, sits above other
local chiefs, denoting his authority. Another native figure, Susquehannock, who
appears in the upper right, visually
reinforces the message that the English did not control the land beyond a few
outposts along the Chesapeake.
Chapter Outline
3.1 Spanish Exploration and Colonial Society
3.2 Colonial Rivalries: Dutch and French Colonial Ambitions
3.3 English Settlements in America
3.4 The Impact of Colonization
Introduction
By the mid-seventeenth century, the geopolitical map of North America had become a
patchwork of
imperial designs and ambitions as the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English
reinforced their claims to
parts of the land. Uneasiness, punctuated by violent clashes, prevailed in the
border zones between the
Europeans’ territorial claims. Meanwhile, still-powerful native peoples waged war
to drive the invaders
from the continent. In the Chesapeake Bay and New England colonies, conflicts
erupted as the English
pushed against their native neighbors (Figure 3.1).
The rise of colonial societies in the Americas brought Native Americans, Africans,
and Europeans together
for the first time, highlighting the radical social, cultural, and religious
differences that hampered their
ability to understand each other. European settlement affected every aspect of the
land and its people,
bringing goods, ideas, and diseases that transformed the Americas. Reciprocally,
Native American
practices, such as the use of tobacco, profoundly altered European habits and
tastes.
64
Chapter 3 | Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500–1700
3.1 Spanish Exploration and Colonial Society
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Identify the main Spanish American colonial settlements of the 1500s and
1600s
• Discuss economic, political, and demographic similarities and
differences between the
Spanish colonies
During the 1500s, Spain expanded its colonial empire to the Philippines in the Far
East and to areas in
the Americas that later became the United States. The Spanish dreamed of mountains
of gold and silver
and imagined converting thousands of eager Indians to Catholicism. In their vision
of colonial society,
everyone would know his or her place. Patriarchy (the rule of men over family,
society, and government)
shaped t ...
1. Comparing Settlement Patterns: New Spain, New France, New England
Early Spanish, French, & English permanent settlements tried to transplant European forms into the
"new world" environment, in the effort to make the new world environment look like the old one.
Spanish: Following Columbus voyages to W. Indies, Spanish established sugar plantations; when Natives
died imported African slave labor remaking population of Caribbean; in Mexico used Native Population
to mine gold; when this population died, Spanish in SW turned to ranching and farming. Law of the
Indies (1573) royal ordinances dictated that settlements be like a Spanish village, a grid of streets around
a central plaza of approx 5 1/2 acres, w/ church at one end and govt/military building at other. Houses
joined together w/common walls on plaza side. Beyond houses were common pastures, woodlots, and
private holdings assigned to each family based on military rank: 106 acres for common folk, 2200 for
officers; nobility even higher. Settlers received water for irrigation in proportion to their acreage (which
was in proportion to rank). Gates on common "acequia madre" w/ time you were allowed to open them
to your fields strictly regulated (2-4 hours flow). [interestingly,, Native Americans had also irrigated to
grow corn, beans, and squash and Spanish followed and incorporated Native American networks into
their own.] Traditions of government regulating land and water use brought from Spain; if you wanted
to settle in New Spain you had to abide by its strict rules. Irrigation needs kept Spanish SW settlements
clustered; Spanish towns such as Santa Fe well established long before Quebec or Jamestown.
French: hoped to find gold down St. Lawrence river and along Great Lakes, but developed fishing and fur
trading posts instead, trading w/Micmacs. By 1663 there were approximately 2500 French in Canada,
mostly in Quebec, Trois-Rivieres, and Montreal. French pattern of living in cities along St. Lawrence
River trade route w/ very little permanent settlement elsewhere.
NOTE: one major way that these Spanish and French settlements differed from those in Europe is sex
ratio--they were approx 90% male. Both Spanish and French had considerable trade with Native
population and contacts resulted in substantial metis and mestizo populations.
English: followed two different patterns of settlement: plantations in Chesapeake and Carolinas and
family farms in New England and Middle Colonies.
Chesapeake: Virginia Company of London established 1606 to extract gold from Virginia, created
outpost in Jamestown in 1607. Unable to find gold, but in 1612 English began planting tobacco. By
1617 70,000 lbs/yr.; 1638 3,000,000 lbs; by 1700 30,000,000 lbs; by 1775 100,000,000 lbs. (accounted
for 27% of total value of American exports on eve of Revolution). Tobacco very labor and soil intensive:
cultivation required 9 months of labor/yr, and soils would only produce tobacco for about 5 years before
exhausting. As in Caribbean, scarcity of labor led to importation of African slave population, as well as
to use of indentured labor and headright system (to encourage population growth). Indentures:
company paid for passage in return for 7 years labor. headrights: anyone who arrived granted 100
acres, anyone who sent someone over granted 50 acres. Thus: poor could indenture themselves and get
100 acres at end of 7 years (betting that they would live--btw 1607-24, 80% of Virginia colonists died
(1/3 Jamestown killed in Powhattan raid of 1622)., At same time, wealthy in england could send four
people over and get 200 acre plantation. RESULT of these land systems combined with demands of
tobacco agriculture and geography of Chesapeake region (wide, navigable rivers) to create very
dispersed population in contrast to Spanish or French.
2. NOTE: while Chesapeake offered economic opportunity to landless in early modern England displaced
by commercial revolution, huge differences in extent of land holdings from outset between those who
labored and those who could afford to purchase labor. By 1700 the top 10% of Chesapeake population
owned over 1/2 acreage and 2/3 total wealth.
Carolinas: like Chesapeake, also developed plantation agriculture. Earliest English settlers in
Carolinas came from Barbados where they had run sugar plantations along Spanish model with African
slaves. Sugar did not do well in Carolinas, but west African slaves planters brought with them
introduced new crop--rice--which was Carolinas major export throughout 18C.
By contrast, family farm (with children providing labor rather than slaves or indentures) became
prevailing mode of agricultural production in English middle colonies and New England. Note:
plantations w/slavery and indentures did exist in tobacco regions of Northeast, such as Hudson River
Valley and CT River Valley.
Mid-Atlantic colonies topography and navigable rivers led to dispersed settlement pattern.
Pennsylvania had reputation as "best poor man's country" and for most of 18C had no trouble attracting
settlement. Was "breadbasket" of Colonial America like Iowa or Kansas today. Dutch in New York,
Welsh and Swedes in PA, plus communal settlements of religious dissenters--Moravians from Germany--
meant that look of land varied with diverse building practices (stone barns) and cultivation methods
settlers brought with them from Europe. Pattern repeated itself in mid-late 19C with German and
Scandinavian immigrants farmers in the upper midwest.
Of course, family farms grouped around religious community was main pattern in 17C New
England. Biggest difference between New England and colonies to the south was that while Chesapeake
and Carolinas were in many ways extension of commercial revolution of early modern england, puritan
settlements were not only an extension of it (Massachusetts Bay Company) but also a reaction against
it. In many ways, their model community very much resembled medieval village in settlement pattern,
ties of religious obligation, and especially effort to regulate individual social and economic behavior.
Earliest Massachusetts towns had nucleated settlement with outlying fields and common pastureland at
the time when pastures were being fenced and enclosed in old England. John Winthrop was "setting the
price" in Massachusetts long after "free market" forces had obliterated this practice in Old England.
Desire to live close together meant concentrated settlement--in 17C town held all land and dispersed it
according to need.
NOTE also that New England farmers traded with Native population to an extent--but the large numbers
of Puritan women who crossed the Atlantic early on meant less "intercourse" (in all senses of the word)
with Native population compared to French and Spanish settlements (which were 90% male).
New England also traded with England (timber, fish, furs)--but primary goal of Colony was self-
sufficiency, and this was replicated, to an extent still hotly debated by historians, at the village and
family farm level. This meant that while Chesapeake and Carolinas were transforming huge tracts of
land to produce tobacco and rice for market, New England and Middle Colony farmers were growing
cereals and staples similar to what they would be growing in England, and producing items for local
trade. Certainly inland, if anywhere, we might find the "subsistence" family farm that Carolyn Merchant
describes on pp. 157-63 of text (and that she describes at length in Ecological Revolutions book).