1. The colonial period Flashcards
Amerigo Vespucci and the origins of the name “America”
(1451-1512)
- Columbus failed to understand the magnitude of his discovery and doesn’t name it
- Vespucci does
- Publicises discoveries in series of hugely succesful letters which are translated
- Calls Americas Mundus Novus, the first to do so»_space; understands that what has been found is a new continent
New England
= British America
- Britain’s colonies in America
Columbian Exchange
= exchange of cultures, foods, technologies
- exchange is not a good word for it > implies equality but this was hardly the case
- lots of European habits, ideas (political structure, religion…) are imposed on these native peoples
- advantage for Europe: lots of goods, commercial things
» conflict between old and new world in favour of the West, supremacy of native peoples collapses
pre-Columbian period
30k-10k years ago - 1492
- groups and civilisations develop for thousands of years in pre-Columbian period
- waves of emigration towards Americas accross land bridges during Ice Age + migration from N to S when land bridge melted > loss of contact > own world
- long and involved histories of development, consolidation and rupture and war and trade
Old and New World
New = everything that’s been discovered, what we didn’t know
Old = specifically term for Europe + by extension Africa and Asia, the thing we knew
noble savage
= idea that people who are less civilised/urbanised are inherently superior, because they might be savage, however they are more nobel, moral»_space; without civilisation humans are essentially good, it’s civilisation that makes them act in bad ways
Christopher Columbus
1451-1506
- credited/blamed for having discovered the Americas + name “Indies” and “Indians” for natives Americans
- by origins Genoese
- August 1492: makes landfall in October with 3 ships and starts off vaguely in the Caribbean
- operates on behalf of the Crown of Castille, merged with the Crown of Aragon
- originally Spain considered the plan a fool’s errand» pointed out that the distance would be far greater
- failed to understand magnitude of his discovery
the Puritans
= key player in the story of the settlement and the creation of identity
= a group of radical Protestants who seek t purify religion and Church of England, which they consider to be too catholic
- strongly believe in predestination = before you are born, God has already made you one of the elects who will go to heaven > shown by outward signs e.g. you never get sick
- hope to create colonies into nations of saints > city on a hill
City on a Hill and American exceptionalism
- the Puritans hope to create colonies into redemeer nations, nations of saints
= basis for American exceptionalism > belief that American colonis (and ultimately US) are a unique nation, a fresh start in human history, they label themselves ‘the great experiment’
the Salem Witch Trials
= key event in religious and political development of America
- 1692-93
- mass hysteria caused by fractious religious, ethnic, political, gender situation
- fuelled by Puritan belief in confession, spirits and demons, witchcraft
- main reason: the town was divided between 2 important families (Putnams and Porters) who arrived at the same time > creeping sense amongst Putnams that the Porters might be the elect > accuse them of practicing witchcraft in order to obtain riches in exchange for their immortal soul
- 200 accused, 19 hangings, 5 deaths in jail, 1 pressed to death
= blow to hopes for theocratic government + symbol of religious hysteria
- people outside of Salem found it mad
- interpreted as an excess of religious feeling, makes religion more suspicious as a thing
the Thirteen Colonies
= situation right before Independence
- British America
- result of French and Indian War > British America divides into 3: New England Colonies, Middle Colonies and Southern Colonies
- called colonies/provinces/counties because they are not states > they’re part of England, the name is to show that they are lower
- no representation in Westminster Parliament
the Mayflower
Mythical event
- English ship that transported 102 Puritants to the New World from England
1620: Mayflower Compact = first written law by settlers in New World
- first legal basis for collaboration between people in a colony
- a compact, not a contract or a law > you bind yourseld to one another in a relationship of equality
indentured servitude
If you want to travel over to the colonies and you don’t have money, you can get someone to pay your voyage > you’d be indebted to them > need to work for your master in order to pay it off
= form of slavery
person who paid the voyage gets a headright = there’s a compensation for what they do»_space; they get land in the US
