AP UNITED STATES HISTORY - PERIOD 2

• European Colonization in the Americas

  • Spanish:

    • Sought colonies in the Americas in order to extract wealth through agriculture and the mining of gold and silver. They subjugated the Natives with the Encomienda system, then used African slaves, and then put in a caste system, then tried their best to convert Natives to Christianity (mixed success)

  • French:

    • Wanted a water route that went through the Americas to get to Asia. They were very slow to colonize the Americas because they were distracted by the European wars. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain established the first permanent french settlement called Quebec - wanted into the fish and fur trade, and there weren’t many French colonizers : TRADE FOR THE FRENCH (married Natives for kinship tries - Ex: the Ojibwe with a sharing of culture)

      • Mutual cultural exchange

  • Dutch:

    • Henry Hudson sailed up a river and claimed that land for the Dutch - in 1624, this became New Amsterdam. The Dutch had economic goals, a trading hub for fishermen and farmers. The Dutch were protestant and had no interest in converting Natives - only economic goals

  • British:

    • Economics had changed because of the Columbian Exchange, and their wealth was slowly disappearing. They began seeking new economic opportunities in America - peasants were losing land because of the enclosure movement so they wanted more land and money + religious freedom. They came into America as family groups in order to permanently live - while the Spanish subjugated the Native population, the British EXPELLED them.

• Regions of British Colonies - How and why did they develop into distinct societies?

  • Chesapeake

    • Jamestown was funded by a joint-stock company, meaning that a group of investors pooled the money and shared the financial risks to found Jamestown. They did not come as families. They set out to dig for gold and silver and create a military fort to protect those riches, but famine killed half in the first two years - they resorted to cannibalism!

      • John Rolfe started experimenting with tobacco planting, and this crop saved them as it grew popular in England.

    • Most people in Jamestown signed a 7 year contract to work as indentured servants in payment for crossing the sea. Because of this tobacco, they needed more land, which meant pushing away more Natives. The Natives raided the colonists, and this led to resentful farmers since their governor William Berkely wasn’t doing anything, and this is what led to Bacon’s rebellion (Class difference).

      • He led poor farmers and indentured servants on an atack on the Indians and turned that destructive power on Berkely’s plantations. The elite planters feared that more uprisings would happen, so they began to seek a new source of labor for their plantations - Africans.

  • New England

    • Pilgrims in 1620 brought puritan settlers unhappy with the Church of England. They did not really come for religious reasons (they were free to practice in England), but they had trouble making a living as farmers in urban areas (Economic reasons). They migrated as families to establish a society. Fever and disease killed half, but after a couple of years they established a successful agricultural society.

  • British West Indies + Southern Atlantic Coast

    • In the 1620s the British established their first colonies in the Carribean on islands like Barbados. These are very warm islands, so longer warming seasons, so tobacco also became a big plant here. In the 1630s, sugarcane took it’s place with more profits.

      • Lots of labor for sugarcanes = more enslaved people. By 1660, the majority population of Barbados was black - harsh slave codes and making slaves property, or chattel.

  • Atlanta Coast - South Carolina

    • They were inspired by the British practices and tried to replicate it on the mainland.

  • Middle Colonies

    • NY and NJ

      • They were by the streams and sea and developed an export economy based on cereal crops and had a diverse population but this was broken into social classes

        • Wealthy earning merchants > artisans and shopkeepers > unskilled laborers, widowed, unemployed > enslaved Africans

    • Pennsylvania

      • WIlliam Penn - religious freedom, negotiation with Natives

  • Similarities between all - they had a DEMOCRATIC type government since they had to govern themselves.

    • Virginia had a House of Burguesses which could tax the population and pass laws.

    • New England had the Mayflower Compact - Self organized church congregation with town meetings.

    • Middle and Southern colonies had legislatures dominated by the elite

TRADE

• Trans-Atlantic Trade

  • Triangular Trade: Carried Rum from New England into Africa, Rum was traded for enslaved Africans, and this ship sailed through the brutal middle passage. Slaves were traded for sugarcane in the British West Indies, and then sugarcane was traded for rum in New England, and the cycle started again.

    • Image: After British Slave Trade act limited amount of slaves able to be stuffed on a ship

  • Mercantilism

    • There is only a fixed amount of wealth in the world (in terms of gold and silver), the main goal was to maintain a favorable balance of trade. They wanted more exports (more gold) than imports

    • Establishment of colonies gave access to raw materials and these colonies could become markets for these goods. The British government tried to weave their colonies together, and passed the Navigation Act, which meant that merchants could only trade with ENglish colonies in English ships. Certain trade items were also required to pass through the British port.

  • How did trade change society?

    • Massive wealth for the elites of society, transformed sea ports into urban trading centers, and started a consumer revolution in North America (buying more goods, shaped society to depend on financial success instead of family name).

• Interactions Between AMERICAN INDIANS and EUROPEANS - How did they change over time?

  • Spain

    • They altered the society with a caste system, and made Santa Fe the capital of New Mexico, forced Christianity (led to Pueblo revolt).

  • British

    • Settled in areas without large empires (like Aztecs), they did not have a large labor force. They weren’t interested in inter-marrying, they wanted more land from Natives which led to King Phillips/Metacom’s war

      • Metacom was the king of Wampanoag Indians and was mad at the destruction of their ancestral land, so he and his people killed British men and captured the women/children and burned their fields. The British called apon their Mohawk Indian allies who killed Metacom (the resistance was then squashed).

    • Spanish subjugated indians, British forced them out

  • French

    • Were less invasive, married and set up trading posts, and allied with them. However, none of the Europeans saw them as human and didn’t want a unified resistance from them against the Europeans.

• Slavery

  • All British colonies participated in Slavery because of increased demand for agricultural goods and increased need of servants

  • New England

    • Smaller farms, less slaves, worked in agricultural estates in middle colonies and others worked in household servantry (blacksmiths, etc.)

  • Chesapeake and southern colonies

    • More enslaved people for plantations

  • British West Indies

    • A lot more - further you went down, the more slaves there were

  • Chattel Slavery - the slaves were equal to domesticated animals which was justification for their treatment. The British West Indies were the leaders in the slave trade, they influenced the rest in having harsh Slave laws

    • Legally defined African laborers as chattel

    • Slavery was passed from generations

    • Harsher laws as time went on (murder for defiance, and then later they could not hold weapons or leave the plantations without permission, and no interracial marriage)

  • Slaves found covert and overt ways to resist labor.

    • Covert included secret practice from homeland, belief systems, kept native languages, naming practices from home, slowed work by breaking tools

    • Overt included the Stono rebellion where slaves stole weapons from a store, killed the white owners, and marched along the Stono rivers joined by more people and burned plantations.

    • These practices were not against the thought that being under white people rule gave them a “better life”

• Colonial SOCIETY and Culture from 1607 to 1754 - How and why did the movement of ideas and people across the Atlantic contribute to the development of an American culture?

  • Enlightenment

    • Said rational thinking was more important than religious and tradition-related ideas. These ideas were spread through the trans-Atlantic trade to the British colonies. John Locke spread the idea of natural rights, saying that human beings, by existing, had rights to life, liberty and property not given by a monarch but by a creator.

    • A government with three branches with checks and balances, and a Social Contract meaning that the people had the right to govern themselves and they gave this power to a government that would protect their natural rights. If they failed, the people could overthrow them.

    • Undermined the authority of the bible, saying that science and human perception teaches us, but the Bible says what is knowable starts with God.

  • Great Awakening

    • New Light Clergy were inspired by “heart over head” and the GA was a revival in religious ideas which spread through the colonies as Christian love.

      • Johnathan Edwards studied philosophy and combined enlightenment ideas with intense religious fervor and helped a revival break out. He was concerned with the joy of God and other human beings - the first preacher and lit the fire of the Great Awakening

      • George Whitfield took the message of Jesus Christ all over the colonies because he was such a magnificent and powerful preacher.

    • New light preachers emphasized the democratic nature - said that those who were less wealthy should not diminish God’s favor upon them and told them to resist the tyranny of the wealthy

    • Colonist’s attitude towards the colonial authorities changed

      • The British parliament was having trouble with the government, so people formed town meetings and elected members. They were resisting threats against democracy.

    • Growing resistance against British rule, especially with impressment (taking American men and forcing them to serve in the British navy). The conditions in the ships were bad, and during King George’s war fought by the British AMericans rioted against impressment. They were aware of violations to their natural rights, and started to REBEL, leading to…

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