The Northern European Phase• Challenge to Spanish Hegemony

– most powers avoided Spain & Portugal’s eastern & western empires, choosing instead to explore the North Atlantic

– 1496: John Cabot investigated Newfoundland (Canada)--vast fishing resource

– Northwest Passage = northern Europeans looked for a Northwest route to the East (for the lucrative spice trade)

– The Privateers

• new route to India & Asia not found, so direct confrontation with Spain & Portugal necessary

• French privateers & Dutch “Sea Beggars”plundered Spanish treasure ships & conducted illegal trade with Spanish colonies

• English Sea Dogs (John Hawkins, Francis Drake, etc.) engaged in smuggling & piracy

• The English as Colonizers– Incentives for American colonization & 1st attempts

• incentives: gold (found little), extend Protestantism, expand trade, increase tax revenues, employment, timber, military bases, enhance search for Northwest Passage

• first attempts: disastrous! Lost ships, abandoned settlements, lost settlers (ex. Roanoke)

– English Colonies• Differences from Spain:

– no civilizations to conquer– colonies established by joint-stock companies organized by private

entrepreneurs (instead of the king) who were given charters by the crown

• Virginia: 1st Successful Colony• New England: religious motivations to settle here

– Massachusetts Bay Colony (English Puritans)– Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire,

Maine (Puritan dissenters)– “triangular trade”:Manufactured goods from

New England

Molasses from Caribbean

Rum from New England (made from

molasses)

Slaves from Africa

–Later colonies: Maryland, Carolinas, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (Quakers), Delaware

• The Dutch Empire in the 17th Century– The Carrying Trade: carried commodities for northern European powers: fish, tar, pitch, timber,

hemp, flax, etc.• ships were larger, slower, more spacious (no cannons), so they could carry more cargo than

others• monopoly on Arctic whaling industry

– Challenging the Portuguese: Dutch fleets in the East Indies (southern Asia) beginning in 1595• advantages over Portuguese: superior seamanship; better & less expensive trade goods =

PROFIT!!!• East India Company

– 1602: all private Dutch trading companies brought into one large organization– unity + organization = drove Portuguese from East Indies by 1629– huge inter-Asian trade in China, Japan, & India with posts & protectorates (became part

of their empire in the 1700s)– biggest commodity = coffee

– Colonies• New Amsterdam: fur trading post on Long Island (New York) found by Henry

Hudson turned into a permanent settlement under the direction of governor Peter Minuit

– 1664: fell to an English fleet• South Africa: most permanent Dutch settlement est. 1652

– purpose: provisioning port for ships bound for the Orient (fresh fruit, meat, water, etc.)

– settlers established farms in the area– Decline

• England & France (both with larger populations, more natural resources, etc.) drove the Dutch out of business with their strong mercantilist systems with their vast colonies

• French Expansionism– New France

• claim to North America established by Jacque Cartier in Quebec & the Great Lakes

• only French-speaking Catholics could settle there– Louisiana

• Robert Cavalier traveled down the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes in 1682

– Relations with the English• intense rivalry, but no hostilities at first• French got along better with the Native Americans (except the Iroquois)• English had more people (1.5 m to France’s 80,000)

• French-English Rivalry Outside N. America– The West Indies (Caribbean): traded with Spanish &

Portuguese (against Spain’s mercantilist system, but all sides benefited, so Spain was OK with it)

– India• English possessed Calcutta & Madras on the east coast and

Surat & Bombay on the west coast• French held Chandarnagar & Pondichéry in the east• footholds to become dominant political forces in India in the

1700s

• English, French, & Spanish Empires: Comparisons

– Government:

• English = high degree of self-government; property owners elected lower house of legislature; could pass laws & levy taxes

• French & Spanish = rule by the crown

– Native Americans:

• English = found them to be “in the way”; removal treaties; series of Indian wars

• French = saw them as trading partners (except for Iroquois)

• Spanish = exploited them &/or intermarried with them