When the London Company sent out its first expedition to begin colonizing Virginia on December 20, 1606, it was by no means the first European attempt to exploit North America. In 1564, for example, French Protestants (Huguenots) built a colony near what is now Jacksonville, Florida. This intrusion did not go unnoticed by the Spanish, who had previously claimed the region. The next year, the Spanish established a military post at St. Augustine; Spanish troops soon
wiped out the French interlopers residing but 40 miles away. Meanwhile, Basque, English, and French fishing fleets became regular visitors to the coasts from Newfoundland to Cape Cod. Some of these fishing fleets even set up semi-permanent camps on the coasts to dry their catches and to trade with local people, exchanging furs for manufactured goods. For the next two decades, Europeans' presence in North America was limited to these semi-permanent incursions. Then in the 1580s, the English
tried to plant a permanent colony on Roanoke Island (on the outer banks of present-day North Carolina), but their effort was short-lived. In the early 1600s, in rapid succession, the English began a colony (Jamestown) in Chesapeake Bay in 1607, the French built Quebec in 1608, and the Dutch began their interest in the region that became present-day New York. Within another generation, the Plymouth Company
(1620), the Massachusetts Bay Company (1629), the Company of New France (1627), and the Dutch West India Company (1621) began to send thousands of colonists, including families, to North America. Successful colonization was not inevitable. Rather, interest in North America was a halting, yet global, contest among European powers to exploit these lands. There is another very important point to keep in mind: European colonization and settlement of North America (and other areas of the
so-called "new world") was an invasion of territory controlled and settled for centuries by Native Americans. To be sure, Native American control and settlement of that land looked different to European eyes. Nonetheless, Native American groups perceived the Europeans' arrival as an encroachment and they pursued any number of avenues to deal with that invasion. That the Native American were unsuccessful in the long run in resisting or in establishing a more favorable accommodation with the
Europeans was as much the result of the impact of European diseases as superior force of arms. Moreover, to view the situation from Native American perspectives is essential in understanding the complex interaction of these very different peoples. Finally, it is also important to keep in mind that yet a third group of people--in this case Africans--played an active role in the European invasion (or colonization) of the western hemisphere. From the very beginning, Europeans' attempts to
establish colonies in the western hemisphere foundered on the lack of laborers to do the hard work of colony-building. The Spanish, for example, enslaved the Native American in regions under their control. The English struck upon the idea of indentured servitude to solve the labor problem in Virginia. Virtually all the European powers eventually turned to African slavery to provide labor on their islands in the West Indies. Slavery was eventually transferred to other colonies in both South and
North America. Because of the interactions of these very diverse peoples, the process of European colonization of the western hemisphere was a complex one, indeed. Individual members of each group confronted situations that were most often not of their own making or choosing. These individuals responded with the means available to them. For most, these means were not sufficient to prevail. Yet these people were not simply victims; they were active agents trying to shape their own
destinies. That many of them failed should not detract from their efforts. Part of
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1. The Colonies: 1690-1715
It does not seem difficult to find out the reasons why the people multiply faster here than in Europe. As soon as a person is old enough he may marry in these provinces without any fear of poverty. There is such an amount of good land yet uncultivated that a newly married man can, without difficulty, get a spot of ground where he may comfortably subsist with his wife and children. The taxes are very low, and he need not be under any concern on their account. The liberties he enjoys are so great that he considers himself as a prince in his possessions.It is fitting to begin this toolbox on the British Atlantic colonies from 1690 to 1763 with the theme GROWTH. From 260,000 settlers in 1700, the colonial population grew eight times to 2,150,000 in 1770. (In comparison, the French colonial population grew from 15,000 to 90,000 in 1775, i.e., just 4% of the English total.) In fact, the English colonial population doubled almost every 25 years in the 1700s.2 If the U.S. population had doubled since 1983, it would be 468 million (not 300 million) in 2007. In this section we capture a snapshot of the British Atlantic colonies around the turn of the 18th century. In 1700 Jamestown was 93 years old, Charleston 37 years old, and Philadelphia only 19 years old. There were two Jerseys but only one Carolina, and Georgia wouldn't be settled until 33 years later. Note that all the readings in this section, except the travel journal, were written to inform a European audience to promote emigration, provide status reports, or, in one case, to accuse the governor of abuse of power. What overall view do they give of the colonies at this time?
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NOTE ON THE SCOPE OF THIS TOOLBOX: In American Beginnings: 1492-1690, the first toolbox in the Toolbox Library, we study all the peoples who settled North America—Native Americans, Norse, Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, Swedish, and Russians. In this toolbox, Becoming American, we narrow our focus to the British Atlantic colonies from 1690-1763, especially those that became the United States of America. Listing the colonies as of 1690 reveals how fluid were the boundaries and political dynamics of the British Atlantic colonies. In that year, the colonies that would become the United States of America 86 years later were:
One final note on the names "England" and "Britain." In 1707 England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, so we will use "England" when referring to pre-1707 texts and events, and "Britain" for texts and events from 1707 forward. 1 Peter Kalm's Travels in North America: The English Version of 1770, revised from the original Swedish and edited by Adolph B. Benson (Wilson-Erickson, 1937); reprint edition (Dover, 1966), p. 211.
2 T. H. Breen & Timothy Hall, Colonial America in an Atlantic World: A Story of Creative Interaction (New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004), p. 257. Image: Philip Lea, map, North America divided into its III principall parts, 1685, details. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division, #G3300 1685 .L4 TIL Vault. *PDF file - You will need software on your computer that allows you to read and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this software, you may download it FREE from Adobe's Web site. What was were the largest nonWhat was the largest non-English ethnic group in the English colonies in the 17th century? The Scots-Irish and Germans combined.
What were the largest nonAlso, the population came to include a larger number of non-English people and a variety of ethnic groups and religious sects. About 260,000 Africans arrived on the mainland during the eighteenth century, making them the largest ethnic or racial group that came to the colonies.
What were the largest groups of immigrants to the English colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries?In the 17th century the principal component of the population in the colonies was of English origin, and the second largest group was of African heritage. German and Scotch-Irish immigrants arrived in large numbers during the 18th century.
What were the English colonies in the 17th century?In North America, Newfoundland and Virginia were the first centres of English colonisation. During the 17th century, Maine, Plymouth, New Hampshire, Salem, Massachusetts Bay, New Scotland, Connecticut, New Haven, Maryland, and Rhode Island and Providence were settled.
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