ALIEN ENCOUNTERS: EUROPE IN THE AMERICAS

• Columbus and the Discovery of America – Christopher Columbus reached the West

Indies on October 12, 1492– by the fifteenth century, western

Europeans discover direct routes to the East

– Prince Henry of Portugal sponsored improvements in navigation and voyages of exploration

• Spain’s American Empire– in 1493, Pope divided the non-Christian

world between Spain and Portugal

– Portugal concentrated on Africa and Brasil

– Spain concentrated on the Caribbean and Americas

• The Indian and the European– European technological superiority,

particularly in instruments of war, provided the tools for domination

• Relativity of Cultural Values– Europeans regarded as heathens

because the did not worship the Christian God

– most Indians were deeply religious

– some Europeans believed Indians were minions of Satan, unworthy of Christianity

– some, such as Spanish friars attempted to convert them

– Indians exploited the land as Europeans did

– fished, hunted, & modified vegetation and wildlife

– different approaches to land and government led to conflict

– even in warfare, the two cultures differed

– Indians fought to display valor, avenge insult, or to acquire captives

– Europeans fought with the intent to obliterate the enemy

• Disease and Population Losses– Europeans brought with them diseases for

which Indians had no immunities, particularly smallpox and measles

– these diseases devastated Indian populations

• Spain’s European Rivals– Spain dominated exploration of the Americas

during 16th century due to its internal stability

– but corruption over gold and silver began to erode this stability and the disruption of the Catholic church undermined Spanish power

• The Protestant Reformation

– the sale of indulgences and the

luxurious life-styles of popes led to a

challenge by reformers such as Martin

Luther and John Calvin

– in England, Henry VIII’s search for a

male heir led him to split from Rome

when the Pope refused him a divorce

• English Beginnings in America– Queen Elizabeth supported the

explorations of English joint-stock companies and encouraged privateers, such as Sir Francis Drake, to plunder Spanish merchant shipping

– she supported colonization of New World

– in 1587Sir Walter Raleigh settled Roanoke Island

– after the Spanish Armada was destroyed, Spain could not stop English colonization of New World

• The Settlement of Virginia– London Company established first

permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown in 1607

– half the settlers died during first winter because of mismanagement, ignorance of environment, and scarcity of people skilled in manual labor and agriculture

– London Company encouraged useless pursuits such as searching for gold rather than building a settlement

– settlement survived in part because Captain John Smith recognized the importance of building houses and raising food

– aid from Native Americans– settlers’ realization that they must

produce their own food and the introduction of tobacco as a cash crop saved the colony

– James I revoked the company’s charter in

1624, and Virginia became a royal colony

• “Purifying” the Church of England

– Under Elizabeth I, the Church of

England became the official church

– Elizabeth I’s “middle way”

– Catholics who could not reconcile

themselves left the country

– others practiced their faith in private

– other sects of Protestantism formed

– Puritans who objected to the rich vestments, the use of candles, and the use of music in services; Puritans’ belief in predestination also set them apart from the Anglican church

– Some Puritans, later called Congregationalists, also favored autonomy for individual churches

– Others, called Presbyterians, favored an organization that emanated up from the churches rather than down from the top

– Puritan fears that James I leaned towards Catholicism further alienated them from the Anglican church

• Bradford and Plymouth Colony– English Separatists set sail from

Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle near the northern boundary of Virginia

– since they were outside jurisdiction of London Company, they drew up the Mayflower Compact

– a mutually agreed upon covenant that established a set of political rules

– they elected William Bradford their first governor

• Winthrop and Massachusetts Bay Colony– a group of Puritans formed the

Massachusetts Bay Company – obtained a grant to the area between the

Charles and Merrimack rivers – they founded Boston in 1630 – elected John Winthrop governor– founders established an elected legislature– voters and members of the legislature had to

be members of the church– Under Charles I, Puritans were persecuted in

England, and the Great Migration of Puritans to Massachusetts Bay took place in the 1630s

• Troublemakers

– Several groups dissented from the

Massachusetts Bay colony

– Roger Williams opposed alliance of

church and civil government and

championed the fair treatment of Indians

– Banished from the colony, he founded the town of Providence and later established the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation

– Anne Hutchinson preached that those possessed of saving grace were exempt from rules of good behavior

– General Court charged Hutchinson

with defaming the clergy, brought her

to trial, and banished her

– Hutchinson and her followers left

Massachusetts for Rhode Island in

1637

• Other New England Colonies– Congregations from Massachusetts

settled in the Connecticut River valley

– a group headed by Reverend Thomas Hooker founded Hartford in 1836

– their instrument of government, the Fundamental Orders

– did not limit voting to church

members

• French and Dutch Settlements

– England was not alone in challenging Spain's dominance in the New World.

– French planted colonies in the West Indies and, through the explorations of Cartier and Champlain, laid claim to much of the Saint Lawrence River area

– Dutch also established themselves in the Caribbean and founded the colony of New Netherland in the Hudson Valley

• Maryland and the Carolinas – in 17th century, English colonization

shifted to proprietary efforts– proprietors hoped to obtain profit and

political power

– Maryland was one of the first proprietary

colonies– established under a grant to the Calvert

family – Lord Baltimore hoped not only to profit

but to create a refuge for Catholics

– Catholics remained a minority in the colony, and Baltimore agreed to the Toleration Act

– guaranteed freedom of religion to all Christians

– in what is now known as the Carolinas, proprietors, with the help of John Locke, drafted a plan of government called Fundamental Constitutions

– two separate societies emerged in Carolina– north was poorer and more primitive– Charleston colony to the south developed

an economy based on trade in fur and on the export of foodstuffs

• The Middle Colonies– British eventually ousted the Dutch from

New Amsterdam, which became New York

– Quakers settled in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and there they drafted an extremely liberal constitution that guaranteed settlers freedom of conscience

– William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, treated the Indians fairly and permitted freedom of worship to all who believed in God; Penn’s ideas were more paternalistic than democratic

• Indians and Europeans as “Americanizers”– relationship between Native Americans and

Europeans best characterized as interactive

– Indians taught colonists how to grow food, what to wear, and new forms of transportation

– Native Americans adopted European technology (especially weapons), clothing, and alcohol

– out of the interaction between cultures came something new and distinctively American