European Colonization of North America
The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by European colonization and Europeans' enslavement and forced transportation of Africans to the Americas.
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New Netherland was the first Dutch colony in North America. It extended from Albany, New York, in the north to Delaware in the south and encompassed parts of what are now the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Delaware.
The Dutch claim to this territory derived from their sponsorship of Henry Hudson's voyages of exploration. In 1609, Hudson and his crew sailed the ship de Halve Maen (the Half Moon) from the Delaware Bay up to the river now named for Hudson. Upon his return to the Netherlands, Hudson described what he had found: a magnificent harbor, wide navigable rivers, and a land rich in natural resources.
The commercial possibilities of New Netherland attracted considerable interest during the era known as the Dutch Golden Age, when the newly independent United Provinces of the Netherlands became Europe's leading commercial power and Amsterdam its preeminent trading city. Soon after Hudson's report was made public, merchants and investors started sponsoring speculative voyages to the new colony. In 1621, the Dutch government chartered the West India Company with the goal both of bringing order to economic activity in New Netherland and of challenging Spanish influence in the New World.
Colonists arrived in New Netherland from all over Europe. Many fled religious persecution, war, or natural disaster. Others were lured by the promise of fertile farmland, vast forests, and a lucrative trade in fur. Initially, beaver pelts purchased from local Indians were the colony's primary source of wealth. In Europe, these pelts were used to produce fashionable men's hats. Over time, the Dutch colony's economy broadened and diversified. It became an entrepôt for Chesapeake tobacco and a hub of trade between New England and the Caribbean.
New Netherland developed into a culturally diverse and politically robust settlement. This diversity was fostered by Dutch respect for freedom of conscience. Furthermore, under Dutch rule, women enjoyed legal, civil, and economic rights denied their British counterparts in New England and Virginia. Towns within New Netherland were granted the protections and privileges of self-government. New Amsterdam, thus, became the first European-style chartered city in the thirteen original colonies that would comprise the United States.
Dutch success produced many rivals, the English chief among them. Between 1652 and 1674, the two nations fought three wars. As a consequence of these wars, New Netherland came under British control in 1664. Despite this transfer of power, Dutch influence remained strong in the former New Netherland, throughout the seventeenth century and beyond; many parts of the colony remained culturally Dutch up to and beyond the American Revolution.
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Chapter 20 - The Atlantic World - Section 2 - Europeans Settle in North America
Terms in this set (12)
New France
Area of the Americas explored and claimed by France They founded Quebec, which became the base of France's colonial empire.
Jamestown
The first colony in America founded in present day Virginia by the English and name is after the English King James in his honor.
Pilgrims
A member of a Puritan Separatist sect that left England in the early 1600's who established the second English colony in Plymouth Massachusetts.
Puritan
In 1630, another Puritan sect also sought religious freedom from England's Anglican Church or the Church of England . They established a larger colony than Plymouth and called it Massachusetts Bay Colony., A religious group who wanted to purify the Church of England. They came to America for religious freedom and settled Massachusetts Bay.
Metacom
Aka King Philip, Native American ruler, who in 1675 led attack on colonial villages throughout Massachusetts
French and Indian War
A conflict between Britain and France for control of territory in north America, lasting from 1754 to 1763.
Why were France's North American holdings so sparsely populated?
A large number of French colonists had no desire to build towns or raise families. They also included young, single men engaged in what had become New France's main economic activity, the fur trade. Unlike the English, the French were less interested in occupying territories than they were in making money off the land.
How were the Dutch and French colonies different from the English colonies in North America? T
he Dutch and French colonists were primarily single men trading furs. They had no desire to populate the land only to use its resources.
What was a basic difference between French and English attitudes about the land they acquired in North America?
Unlike the French and Dutch who lived peacefully with the native Americans by trading furs with the Indians, the English sought to populate their colonies in North America. This meant pushing the natives off their land.
What was the main result of the French and Indian War?
The French surrendered their North American holdings. As a result of the war, the British seized control of the eastern half of North America.
Why did the issues of land and religion cause strife between Native Americans and settlers?
The English pushed Indians off land in order to settle colonies. The English settlers considered Native Americans heathens, people without a faith. Over time, many Puritans viewed Native Americans as agents of the devil and as a threat to their godly society. Native Americans developed a similarly harsh view of the European invaders.
What were some of the results for Native Americans of European colonization of North America?
In 1616, for example, an epidemic of smallpox ravaged Native Americans living along the New England coast. Due to the decrease of population of native Americans European colonists soon turned to another group: Africans, whom they would enslave by the million.
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