10 th grade u.s. history unit 2: european colonization of the americas note packet 2-2 coach styles...

10th Grade U.S. History

Unit 2: European Colonization of the

Americas

Note Packet 2-2

Coach Styles

10th Grade U.S. History

Unit 2: European Colonization of the

Americas

Note Packet 2-3

Coach Styles

Unit 2: European Colonization of the Americas, N.P. 2-3

• By the beginning of the 17th century, England was still militarily and commercially weak in comparison to Spain and Portugal.

• With the fate of the “Lost Colony of Roanoke” still a mystery, there were still no permanent English colonies in America.

• However, Raleigh’s disaster didn’t shatter English dreams of colonial expansion.

• Quite the contrary—the English would soon surpass her European rivals and would come to dominate expansion and settlement of the New World.


• Three Primary Factors Contributing to the Success of England in the New World:

1. The appearance of new business practices.• Joint-stock companies (def): Form of business organization

in which a group of investors pool their funds to raise money for a large project.

• Advantages of joint stock companies:• A) Company did not dissolve with the death of the primary

owner (and thus was permanent)• B) Featured limited liability (stockholder can only lose the

amount invested, as opposed to previous business forms in which stockholders were held liable for all the company’s debts)

• C) Allowed a rising class of middle-class merchants to increasingly support overseas ventures.


2. A climate receptive to economic and political risk-taking

• Entrepreneurship, invention, technical creativity, and innovation were embraced.

• Entrepreneur (def): One willing to risk his own capital (money) in search of profits.

3. English respect for property rights• The right to keep the gains of hard work and

sacrifice led provided the incentive to be productive and zealous.


• Following the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the King of Scotland, James Stuart, came to the throne.

• In 1605, two joint-stock companies (subsidiaries of the Virginia Company) were granted a charter by King James I to establish colonies in the land claimed by Sir Walter Raleigh:

1. The London Company was granted a charter to colonize southern Virginia (reaching from modern-day North Carolina to New York—referred to as the Chesapeake region).

2. The Plymouth Company was granted a charter to colonize northern Virginia (modern-day New England).


• The London Company moved swiftly to recruit a contingent of 144 settlers to establish a trading colony designed to extract wealth for shipment back to England.

• These men and boys boarded 3 ships: 1) Susan Constant 2) Discovery 3) Godspeed

• Most of the colonists had no idea what awaited them.• Thirty-nine of the settlers died on the 4-month voyage from

England to Virginia.


• In April of 1607, 26 yr. old Captain John Smith piloted the ships 50 miles up the James River (well removed from the sight of passing Spanish vessels).

• The site was well-suited for a defensive position, but was situated on a malarial swamp surrounded by thick forests that would prove difficult to clear.

• May 24, 1607: The first permanent English settlement was established at Jamestown.


• The triangle-shaped “James Forte,” as Jamestown was called, featured firing parapets at each corner and contained fewer than two-dozen buildings.


JAMESTOWN RESIDENCES


JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT


JAMESTOWN CHURCH: 1611


• Though the positioning of the fort made the defense of it possible, stocking the fort with provisions was far more difficult.

• Few of the first Jamestown settlers had knowledge of farming and even fewer wanted to do any physical labor.

• Initial attempts at communal sharing of food and supplies was a dismal failure.

• The first years at Jamestown was known to the colonists as “Starving Time.”

• Within months of arriving at Jamestown, half of the colony was dead or had fled to the mercies of the local Indians…but it got worse…

• In desperate need of food, the surviving colonists resorted to acts of cannibalism and even looted the fresh graves of their own number, as well as those of local Indians.


• The “Starving Time”:• 1607: 105 colonists

• By spring, 1608: 38 survived

• 1609: 300 more immigrants arrive

• By spring, 1610: 60 survived

• 1610 – 1624: 10,000 immigrants

• 1624 population: 1,200

• Adult life expectancy: 40 years

• Death of children before age 5: 80%


• Disease also decimated the Jamestown colony.• Malnutrition lowered the colonist’s immunity and

they had no resistance to the New World diseases.• Eventually, a deep water well provided clean water

to the settlers—but initially, they drank from shallow wells in the fort or straight from the James River (where garbage and sewage also collected).

• Low summertime water levels and nearby swamps harbored disease-carrying mosquitoes

• Malaria, Typhoid fever, dysentery, and salt intoxication took an extremely heavy toll on the colonists.


• It began to seem inevitable that Jamestown share the same fate as the “lost colony” of Roanoke.

• Thanks to the efforts of Captain John Smith, the Jamestown colony was saved.

• Smith imposed military discipline and order and issued the famous biblical edict, “He who will not work will not eat.”

• Martial law (def): Emergency rule by military officials.

• Smith discarded the ineffectual sharing system and replaced it with incentives for hard work, including the private ownership of land.


• The planting of maize (Indian corn) went a long way toward solving the food shortages.

• Acre for acre, maize produces more grain than any other cereal crop.

• Pumpkins, squash, yams, and beans were also cultivated.

• Smith also organized raids on Indian villages—this brought immediate returns of food and animals, but fostered long-term retribution from the Indians, who harassed the colonists when they ventured outside of their walls.


• The Algonquin Indian tribes of the Chesapeake region were dominated by the powerful chief Wahunsonacock—referred to as Chief Powhatan by the colonists.

• The English called all Indians of the area “Powhatans.”

• Powhatan Confederacy (def): Powerful group of Algonquin Indian tribes that dominated eastern Virginia when the Jamestown colony was founded.

• Although each of these tribes had its own chief, they all paid homage to Chief Powhatan.

Powhatan Confederacy

CHIEF POWHATAN AND POWHATAN VILLAGE


• Relations between the colonists and the “Powhatans” were always strained.

• Simply by refusing to share their food, the Powhatans could have wiped out the struggling colony at will.

• Yet they did not do so, although they repeatedly threatened war.

• Though Smith had negotiated favorably with the Powhatans, both sides continuously played “balance of power” politics.

John Smith and Powhatan

Legend of John Smith and Pocahontas

• “At last they brought Captain Smith to Powhatan, their emperor. At Captain Smith’s entrance before the king, all the people gave a great shout. The queen was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, on which to dry them. Having feasted him after the best barbarous manner they could, a long conversation was held. At last two great stones were brought to Powhatan. Then as many as could lay hands on Captain Smith dragged him to the stones, and laid his head on them, and were ready with their clubs to beat out his brains. At this instant, Pocahontas, the king’s dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms and laid her head down upon his to save him from death. Thereupon, the emperor was contented to have him live.” From A History of the Settlement of Virginia, by Thomas Studley and John Smith


• In an effort to intimidate Chief Powhatan into keeping peaceful relations with the English, in 1613 Captain Samuel Argall kidnapped his daughter, Pocahontas (Matoaka), and took her to Jamestown as a hostage.

• Fascinated by the English, the “Indian Princess” quickly learned their language and customs and rapidly evolved from hostage to ambassador.

• A year later, in 1614, Pocahontas married tobacco planter, John Rolfe.

• The union brought 8 years of peace between the Powhatans and the English—a period that was crucial to the survival and growth of the colony.

• Rolfe took Pocahontas on a voyage back to England, where she was a favorite of London society and the royal court.

• On March 22, 1617, she died from an illness at the age of 22.

Official PortraitA. James Engraved Portrait


• John Rolfe made a significant contribution to the success of the Jamestown colony by curing tobacco in 1612.

• A great fondness had developed in Europe for the tobacco plant and America found its first significant export crop.

• Tobacco was America’s first cash crop and was a tremendous aid to Jamestown’s survival and growth.

Why did tobacco prices drop so sharply?

Tobacco Prices: 1618-1710

Virginia Tobacco Production• 1618 — Virginia produces 20,000 pounds of

tobacco.

• 1622 — Despite losing nearly one-third of its colonists in an Indian attack, Virginia produces 60,000 pounds of tobacco.

• 1627 — Virginia produces 500,000 pounds of tobacco.

• 1629 — Virginia produces 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco.


• The prospect of growing wealthy from the cultivation of tobacco attracted more settlers.

• Landowners brought workers from England, many coming as indentured servants (def): People who agreed to work for a period of three to seven years in exchange for food, shelter, and the cost of the voyage from England.

• Indentured servants made up a large portion of the population of the Chesapeake region, especially during the seventeenth century, when they accounted for 80 to 90 percent of European immigrants.

• In 1619, the first Africans came to Jamestown, though it is uncertain whether they came as indentured servants or as slaves.

• By 1624, more than 5,500 English and other Europeans had migrated to the Jamestown colony.


• After 8 years of peace, relations between the Powhatans and the English deteriorated.

• Following the death of Chief Powhatan, his older brother, Opechanough, became the new chief.

• In 1622, the Powhatans attacked the colonists, killing 347 (including John Rolfe).

Powhatan Uprising of 1622


• The Virginia Company called for a “perpetual war” against the Indians.

• Raids reduced the Indian population and drove them further westward.

• 1644-1646: Second Anglo-Powhatan War fought as the final effort of the Indians to defeat the English, but the Powhatans are again defeated.

• Peace Treaty of 1646—TWO PRIMARY OUTCOMES:

1. Removed the Indians from their original land

2. Formally separated Indian and English settlement areas• To what must have been the great surprise of anyone who could have

witnesses the first precarious year at Jamestown, the colony survived and prospered, and the world—New and Old—would never be the same.

10 th grade u.s. history unit 2: european colonization of the americas note packet 2-2 coach styles...

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