European Colonization

European Colonization of the Americas

Emphasis on the North American British Colonies

Colonies in the Americas

SPANISH

GOALS

BRITISH

• Win converts to Christianity
• Gain Land and Riches
• God, Glory, and Gold

GOVERNMENT

FRENCH

RELIGION

• Commercial Ventures
• Haven for persecuted religious groups
• Permanent colonies

• King exercises strict control through Council of the Indies and viceroys

• Catholic Church influences colonial government
• Missionaries seek converts to Christianity (Catholic)

SLAVERY

• Overseen by royal governors
• Colonists enjoy large degree of self-government

• Fishing, fur trapping
• Win converts to Christianity

• At first, France paid little attention
• Later, king (monarch) exercised control over justice and economy

• Haven for religious persecution
• City on a Hill

• Used Native Americans, then African slaves
• Brutal

INTERACTION WITH NATIVE AMERICANS

• Missionaries sought converts to Christianity (Catholic)
• Prohibited settling by Protestants

• African slaves, especially on southern plantations

• Conquered and destroyed native civilizations

• Some early settlers helped by native Americans
• Later settlers fought native Americans for land

• African slaves in the Caribbean colonies

• Native Americans helped fur traders claim territory
• Settlers married native American women

European Imperial Claims and Settlements in Eastern North America, 1565–1625

French & Spanish Occupation of North America, to 1750

Eastern North America in 1650

New Netherlands & New Sweden

The Caribbean Colonies, 1660

Ethnic Groups in Colonial America

New England Colonies

Colony (Date founded)

Leader

Massachusetts

New Hampshire (1622)

Reasons founded

• Plymouth (1620)
• Massachusetts Bay (1630)

William Bradford

Miles Standish

John Winthrop

Ferdinando Gorges

John Mason

Connecticut

Religious Freedom

Profit from trading and fishing

• Hartford (1636)
• New Haven (1639)

Thomas Hooker

Rhode Island (1636)

Roger Williams

• Religious and political freedom
• Expand trade

Religious freedom (dissent)

Colonizing New England

New England Spreads Out

Settlement Patterns within New England Towns, 1630–1700

New England Colonies, 1650

The Dominion of New England, 1686-1689

Population Comparisons: New England vs. the Chesapeake

Southern Colonies

Colony (Date founded)

Leader

Virginia (1607)

Maryland (1632)

Reasons founded

John Smith

Lord Baltimore

The Carolinas (1663)

Trade and farming

• Profit from land sales
• Religious (Catholic) and political freedom

• North (1712)
• South (1712)

Group of 8 proprietors

Georgia (1732)

James Oglethorpe

• Trade and farming
• Religious freedom

• Profit
• Home for debtors
• Buffer against Spanish Florida

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Map: Land Grants to the Virginia Company

River Plantations in Virginia, c. 1640

Chesapeake Expansion, 1607–1700

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Map: Early Virginia and Maryland

Power and Race in the Chesapeake: Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore.

Settling the “Lower South”

18th Century Southern Colonies

Middle Colonies

Colony (Date founded)

Leader

New York (1624)

Reasons founded

Peter Minuit

Delaware (1638)

Swedish settlers

Expand trade

New Jersey (1664)

Expand trade

John Berkeley

George Carteret

Pennsylvania (1682)

William Penn

• Profit from land sales
• Religious and political freedom

• Profit from land sales
• Religious and political freedom

European Colonization in the Middle and North Atlantic, c. 1650

Settling the Middle [or “Restoration”] Colonies

New York Manors & Land Grants

Dutch

(Holland, the Netherlands) “Patroonships”

Duke of York’s Original Charter

Britain’s American Empire, 1713