Exam #1: Part II

Question 1

Prior to 1850s, what was Paris like?

Answer 1

Paris was an overgrown medieval metropolis

• It was dark
• It was foul smelling
• It was unsanitary and disease ridden
• It was impossible to get around in

Question 2

Who redesigned Paris and how?

Answer 2

Haussmann envisioned the new roads as arteries in an urban circulatory system
The new boulevards would enable traffic to flow through the city
The boulevards would provide breathing spaces
Stimulate business activity
Pacification of the masses desire for work
The boulevards had a militaristic value
Designed with movement in mind

Question 3

What was London described as?

Answer 3

London … “a tumour, an elephantiasis sucking into its gorged system half the life and the blood and the bone of rural districts.”

Question 4

What was Thomas Jefferson’s view of London?

Answer 4

“The yellow fever will discourage the growth of great cities in our nation, and I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the
liberties of man.”

“The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.”

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”

Question 5

Who first found New Amsterdam (Manhattan)?

Answer 5

White men first saw Manhattan in 1524 (Giovanni Verrazzano and his crew working for the King of France). Verrazano left because he knew that this was not the Northwest passage
In 1526, Estaban Gomez (sailing for the Spanish) also found the bay but he was turned back by iceflows drifting downriver). He didn’t encounter Indians (it was winter) nor did he see gold or silver so he left.

Question 6

Who was the first to land in New Amsterdam?

Answer 6

1609 Henry Hudson (sailing for the Dutch) sailed through the narrows and all the way up to Albany. He landed in New York. He was looking for the Northwest passage but he found furs instead.

Question 7

When was Amsterdam landed on and why?

Answer 7

1609. Eighty Years’ War, or Dutch War of Independence, (1568–1648)
      12 Years Truce (1609-1621)

Question 8

Why were merchants interested in New Amsterdam?

Answer 8

While the directors of the Dutch East India company were not impressed with Hudson’s findings/report a group of Amsterdam merchants were intrigued (by the prospects of a new source of revenue)

The Dutch had been buying furs from the Russians and it was costly (the Russian emperor demanded gold as payment and he charged duties whereas the North American Indians took all kinds of payments/exchanges [‘gullible savages’])

Question 9

What happened in New Amsterdam between 1614 to 1626

Answer 9

1614, the Dutch established a year-round presence on the upper Hudson by founding Fort Nassau (later relocated and renamed Fort Orange)
But the Dutch knew that it need to settle and protect the mouth of the Hudson (security to guard the colony’s entrance)
Purchase of Manhattan from the Lenape
Creation of a small trading post in 1613
1625, fortification of the town of New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam encouraged agricultural settlement to the east (on Long Island), to the North along the Hudson and the West (present day New Jersey)
1626, the first eleven African slaves arrived from Angola

Question 10

Why was Manhattan such a great location?

Answer 10

Manhattan was 22 square miles
Good hunting grounds
It was a vast forest
Relatively mild climate (south of London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam)
It was located next to an excellent river
Perhaps the best natural bay in the world
Mostly fog and ice free
The Harlem river could be crossed easily during low tide (not anymore)
The first permanent Dutch colonists reached New Netherland in 1623 (they were distributed widely to claim as much territory as possible)
It was planned by a military engineer

Question 11

What was the bifurcation of policies that the Dutch used?

Answer 11

Bifurcation of policies
The Dutch used different ‘levels of aggression’ in developing their settlements. Why would there be different policies for New Amsterdam and for Fort Orange?
Upriver the strength of the Five Nations meant that the Dutch didn’t try to imposed themselves too much
Down river, the Algonquians were seen to be a nuisance (needed to be removed) [ethnocentricism]
Trade or farm (hence no missionary effort by the Dutch)
Missions were considered an unnecessary expense
Still, the Dutch West India Company struggle to make a profit

Question 12

Why did New Amsterdam fail initially?

Answer 12

No one was willing to defend it
Confusion: were they traders or settlers?
Failure to build the population
Choice of leadership/bad government
Kieft sought to make war on all the Indians
Kieft the Corn Thief
Payment without exchange
Greedy, ignorant, alcoholic
Incompetent commercial management
Personal interest before company interest
No penalties for abuse of power
High tariffs which ruined legitimate trade
Heavy taxation
Failure to maintain the school, orphanage, almshouse
Immorality, drunkenness, games of chance

Question 13

What terrorist attack happened in Manhattan?

Answer 13

The Year of Blood 1643
Governor William Kieft instigated numerous attacks around Manhattan and surrounding areas
A lethal attack in February 1643 by Mohawk warriors on Tappans and Wecquaesgeeks near Fort Orange (present-day Albany) caused them to flee to the environs of New Amsterdam.
The Dutch Governor Kieft ordered the refugees hacked to death or drowned by the Dutch soldiers on the night of February 25, 1643.
The next morning, there was a wild hunt through the city to slaughter the survivors.
The Algonquin tribes responded collectively by destroying Dutch settlements. Outlying farms and villages were burned, and the settlers who had not fled to New Amsterdam for protection were killed.
A peace treaty was signed in March 1643 ending Governor Kieft’s War, but the colony was little more than a smoking ruin. Stuyvesant replaced him as the governor.

Question 14

Who was Peter Stuyvesant and what impacts did he have on New Amsterdam?

Answer 14

Peter Stuyvesant (Dutch Director General 1647-1664)
Arrives in 1647
“I shall govern you as a father his children”
Soldier and ministers son
Results
Made peace with the natives
Re-established a more equitable trading relationship
Created a regular police force
Instituted a number of reforms (drinking, outlawed knife fighting, fines for missing church, fornicating with the Indians)

Sought to give New Amsterdam a new economic bass – slaving
New Amsterdam quickly became more self-respecting (creation of a municipal government separate from company rule)
First act of this government was the creation of a wall
Despite such improvements, in comparison to the other English colonies to the north and south, New Netherlands suffered from a chronic labor shortage
Stuyvesant was forced to let almost anyone in even though they might upset the sense of order (too diverse to govern)
New York begins its rise to kind of global village
Stuyvesant complained but …
…the Dutch West India Company reminded him that he was running a business colony, not a religious establishment

Question 15

Why did New Amsterdam become a new king of society?

Answer 15

“The consciences of men … ought to be free and unshackled, so long as they continue moderate peaceable, inoffensive and not hostile to government. Such have been the maxims of … toleration by which … this city has been governed; and the result has been, that the oppressed and persecuted from every country have found among us an asylum from distress. Follow in the same steps and you shall be blessed.”

New Amsterdam becomes a new kind of society, unlike any other in North America, accepting people of all faith (including Jews and those with no faith at all) and based on their willingness to work.

It was the Dutch that would give New York City much of its enduring character: an unswerving commitment to business and commerce, a willingness to take in almost anybody, and an openness to change

Question 16

Why did the colonization of New Netherland ultimately fail for the Dutch?

Answer 16

There were other colonial alternatives
A smaller pool of potential emigrants with fewer incentives to emigrate
Basically there was a smaller PUSH factor
Thinly populated, New Netherland proved vulnerable when the Dutch and English fought
When three English war ships (and 300 soldiers) showed up in the 1664, Governor Stuyvesant surrendered
New Netherland became New York and Fort Orange became Albany

Question 17

What was the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657?

Answer 17

Quaker religious teachings spread throughout the area surrounding New Amsterdam and threatened the dominance of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Netherland. Consequently, Peter Stuyvesant, forbade colonists from allowing Quaker meetings to be held in any home.
Flushing citizens protested, and in 1657 they wrote a demand for religious freedom
The Flushing Remonstrance is regarded as the precursor to the U.S. Constitution’s provision on freedom of religion on the Bill of Rights

Question 18

Why was the Flushing Remonstrance remarkable?

Answer 18

Articulated a fundamental right that is as basic to American freedom as any we hold dear
The authors backed up their words with actions
People stood up for others (none of the signers was himself a Quaker)
The language of the remonstrance is as beautiful as the sentiments they express

Question 19

What were the Articles of Capitulation?

Answer 19

These are terms of surrender that create the possibility of co-existence
Granted extraordinary rights to the Dutch settlers
Article 8: “The Dutch here shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in Divine Worship and church discipline.”
Article 3. “All people shall still continue free denizens and enjoy their lands, houses, goods, shipps, wheresoever they are within this country, and dispose of them as they please.”
Article 21: “That the town of Manhatans shall choose Deputies, and those Deputies shall have free voices in all public affairs, as much as any other Deputies.”
The document guarantees a number of rights and more than 120 years later we find a number of these rights in the Bill of Rights

Question 20

What did the British gain when they took New Amsterdam from the Dutch and turned it into New York?

Answer 20

When the British captured New Amsterdam from the Dutch they basically gained the finest natural port in North America
Its magnificent location ensured that it would continue to be a site of capital (both commercial and political)

Question 21

What did Washington’s inaugration of the federal hall speech say about NYC?

Answer 21

“Here you have that feeling that you don’t have to be born wealthy to be admitted into the upper classes. You can make your way up through your own ability and I think that that is something that is very New York, I think that you could probably say that it goes back to the Dutch sense of equality.” Dr. Gehring

Question 22

Who founded Philadelphia and why?

Answer 22

William Penn chose the site of Philadelphia in 1682 one hundred miles up the Delaware River where it joined the Schuylkill (“hidden creek”).
A settlement on the edge of an unexplored continent
Chosen as the place that was “the most considerable for merchandize, trade, and fishery in these parts.”
Penn (A Quaker) wanted Philadelphia to be more rural in nature [“a greene Country Towne, which will never be burnt, and allways be wholsome.”]
He implemented Thomas Holme’s grid system to separate land use and reduce congestion (green space for farming)

Question 23

What was Philadelphia for Penn? What did he envision? Why was it different from the other colonies?

Answer 23

It was a holy experiment

Penn envisioned a place of refuge for the persecuted
A place for the spiritual union of all Christians
A place to live a/in peace with the Indians
Penn did not make provisions for city walls, fortifications, garrisons of soldiers
He wanted to avoid the factional politics that characterized European cities so he made no provisions for traditional institutions
This was a radically different vision for a city
It was the “most extensive experiment in city building that the colonies had yet witnessed.”

Question 24

What was the result of Penn’s “holy experiment?”

Answer 24

Penn’s ‘open door’ policy meant that hundreds of colonists would move into the new settlement (First Purchasers who bought tracts of Pennsylvania land)
Timing is Important – in comparison to other Atlantic colonies Philadelphia was founded late (lots of space on westbound ships)
Many of the new comers were interested in the commercial opportunities that the new town presented (especially the port)

Question 25

What were Philadelphia’s strengths?

Answer 25

Shielded 
Rich situation
A generous city lay out
Religious freedom (“Pennsylvania is heaven for farmers, paradise for artisans, and hell for officials and preachers)
Comparatively little government 
Central
Cheap land and private opportunity 
Crowded but civil

Question 26

What were the drawbacks to Philly’s site, situation, settlement?

Answer 26

Located 200 miles farther from England than New York
Location upriver was treacherous (shoals, the river freezes, banks were steep)
New comers challenged Penn’s conception of the city
refused to spread out
Rejected his design for a green country town (gardens/orchards)
They were not ready for spiritual union
They struggled with Penn’s radical vision versus tradition bound expectation
“Like the Puritans of Massachusetts and Connecticut, the Quakers of Pennsylvania had proved unable to sustain the primacy of religion against the solvents of cheap land and private opportunity.” (Sam Bass Warner)

When Philadelphia was conferred city status in 1701 it really didn’t warrant it
It was isolated
No newspaper
The world of real cities seemed far away to its residents
It was really only linked to the West Indies for trade
Yet with 2,500 inhabitants, “it was too small to be called a city, too crowded to be labeled a ‘green country town,’ too contentious to be seen as a model of brotherly love.”
Her fortunes over the next 30 years would rise and fall with English power and prestige

Question 27

What was Philly’s fate intimately tied to?

Answer 27

(1) pacifist policies towards immigrants

(2) an accessible agricultural hinterland

Question 28

What did the excess of people and products to Philly lead to?

Answer 28

Rise in trade with London and Bristol and with other places in Southern Europe and the West Indies
Raw materials, manufactured goods, human beings
Benjamin Franklin’s becomes postmaster (regular communication between Philly and New York)
Read: Philly becomes the communications center
Investments that made Philly even more attractive
Street lighting and paving
Sanitary improvements/a paid nightwatch (1751)/a hospital/a college/libraries
Leisure opportunities (the arts, theater, music, etc.)
Transportation improvements (stage line in 1755 to New York)
Communication and transportation improvements led to even more trade
Especially amongst America’s sister cities
Creation of the Great Philadelphia Wagon road
Facilitated the movement of settlers west
“A colonial interstate highway”
Philly looked both inward and outward

Question 29

What was the Old London Coffee House (1754) and City Tavern/Merchants Coffee House (1773) important for Philly?

Answer 29

The merchants’ coffee houses/taverns were the center of the town’s communications systems
The place were merchants read newspapers, discussed prices, arranged for cargoes and insurance, dealt real estate, public auction of slaves, horses, etc.
They were the precursors of exchanges, banks and insurance companies
They were more than a gentlemen’s club

Question 30

By 1776 what did Philly have? What was the result of this combination of features?

Answer 30

An undisputed commercial prominence
It was the cultural center of colonial America
Wide-ranging seaborne contacts
A polygot ethnic mix (social heterogeneity)
A vigorous press

A cradle for a nascent national consciousness
A strong voice against British policy making in North America
Notions of political reform and economic reform
The basis for hosting the Continental Congress
But also a city with a diversity of opinions on American autonomy
The hub of America’s revolutionary activity
Liberty would be proclaimed ‘thro’ all the Land and to all the ‘Inhabitants thereof’

Question 31

How did Charleston begin?

Answer 31

In 1680 proprietors of the Carolina colony moved their chief settlement to a location between the Ashley and Cooper rivers
Charles Towne was originally on the west bank of the Ashley river
Planned according to a grid

As the southernmost city of English America in 1680, Charles Towne stood closest to the Spanish in La Florida who reckoned Carolina to be their province of Guale
St. Augustine was 200 miles to the South
It had an excellent defensive position but because of its proximity to Spanish Florida it quickly became a walled city
To ensure a speedy peopling, the Proprietors encouraged immigration

Question 32

What originally limited growth in Charleston?

Answer 32

Originally there was no staple crop

Question 33

What was Charleston always seen as?

Answer 33

Charleston was always seen as a slavery base. Slaves were introduced from the outset. That population was Barados traders who brought with them slavery

Question 34

What was Chattal?

Answer 34

Chattal - different kind of slavery

Question 35

Why did Charleston grow?

Answer 35

Slavery

Question 36

What were some of the greater challenges to Charleston’s success?

Answer 36

(1)Hurricanes/Disasters
	“Charleston has long been the center of real calamity”
1686 = hurricane
1697 =  Smallpox
1698 = earthquake
1699 = yellow fever
1713 =hurricane
1728 = drought/yellow fever/hurricane
1752 = hurricane
And so on, and so on

(2) Controlling the Spanish
War between England and Spain
Interference with commerce
Proximity of Charleston to Spanish Florida
Insurrection of slaves
Slaves were often encouraged by those in Spanish controlled Florida to escape (if they could get to St. Augustine, they could convert and work for four years and earn their freedom)

(3) Controlling Slaves
What was the response?
Sustained efforts to encourage more white immigration (mostly German-Swiss, French Huguenots and Irish-Scots)
Tension between white farmers in the backcountry and the Indians
Georgia and Carolina attempt to invade Florida in retaliation for the territory’s policy toward runaways.
Creation of the Negro Act of 1740
“making it illegal for slaves to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money, and learn to read English. Owners are permitted to kill rebellious slaves if necessary”

Question 37

Why did Charleston lag behind the other colonies?

Answer 37

• Charleston does not diversify. They don’t think they need to industrialize. They have to compete with places that are producing commodities cheaper and quicker.
  
  • Smaller market, less urbanized, rural hinterland
  • Charleston does not produce skilled laborers = poor local goods
  • Charleston is incredibly dependent on Britain for purchasing power and bringing in goods. Other colonies started to think of themselves as independent from Britain, a network of Americans who could go it alone, Charleston did not follow that pattern. It didn’t have a network of southern cities to trade with like Boston, New York, and Philly did.

The result?
With a business community refusing to place greater emphasis on manufacturing or to diversify its trading practices, Charleston didn’t make the necessary changes to make South Carolina a major center in a highly integrated regional economy.
A weakly developed inter-city system within South Carolina and the South more generally
There really wasn’t a well developed relationship between Richmond, VA and Charleston nor between Savannah and Charleston
As a whole, the South lacked a well articulated regional system of cities
Charleston was outward looking (foreign exports)
It relied on natural resource exportation and domestic importation
Charleston functioned like a colony of Britain (financially and commercially dominated by the British for much longer than places in the north).
Independent not Interdependent

Question 38

Who claimed what is now Canada for France? What did he initially think of it and what did it do for France’s entry into the new world?

Answer 38

Jacques Cartier (1491-1557).

He thought it was the land that God gave Cain.

Cartier’s lack of immediate success stalled France’s entry in the new world.

Question 39

What were the French colonies in North America?

Answer 39

Quebec
Montreal
Detroit
St. Louis
New Orleans

Question 40

When did the true colonization of North America by the French begin?

Answer 40

Jacque Cartier claimed Canada as Nouvelle-France in 1536, but it was only in 1608, with Samuel Champlain’s establishment of Quebec, that French colonization of the New World began.
Quebec is an Algonquin world meaning “narrowing”
More than 2,000 miles to the south, France established settlements in 1635 on the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and the French colony of Saint-Domingue 1659

Question 41

When was Quebec City founded and what did it begin as?

Answer 41

Initial contacts commenced in the 1530s but the city was founded in 1608
Began as a trading outpost that was slowly transformed with the arrival of French farmers and missionaries in Quebec.
Champlain singled out this site as early as 1608, one reason being that from a cape, cannons could be installed to control the narrows of this river leading upstream to the Great Lakes

Question 42

What did the French do to revive and create a French/ Catholic presence in the absence of French settlers?

Answer 42

• Befriend the Indian population
• The French could ill-afford casualties
• Breeding (interbreeding rather than apartheid)
• Religious conversion

Question 43

Did the project designed to create a French province peopled with peasant Indians fail or succeed? Why? What happened next?

Answer 43

The project designed to create a French province peopled with peasant Indians ultimately failed. The king took over control of the colony in 1663 to people it with immigrants

-Indian depopulation and the French repopulation
Creation of two very different types of Frenchmen: the settled peasant and the nomad traveler.
Creation of a new people: The Métis

Question 44

If Quebec City was founded in 1608 and Montreal was founded in 1642 what was the religious explanation for why it took so long for Detroit (1701) and New Orleans (1718) to be established?

Answer 44

1530s - John Calvin creates the Reformed Church
1536 - A general edict encourages the extermination of Huguenots
1562-1,200 Huguenots slain in Vassey, France
1572-St. Bartholomew Massacre
1598-edict of Nantes (returns some civil guarantees/rights to Protestants)
1685-Louis XIV revokes the edict of Nantes
1688/89-France goes to war
What was the result of the Huguenots fleeing?
They were productive/industrious people. Many were wealthy. They smuggled their wealth with them when they left. They helped to deplete France’s money supply.
Basically Louis XIV expelled his most productive class
They had no interest in going to a territory named for Louis XIV (even if they were invited)
France’s economy was depleted by the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-1697)
With the war ended, it was time for France to make its move on the southern part of North America (where it hoped to duplicate Spain’s success at finding precious metal and establish a new empire)

Question 45

The French couldn’t match the flood of immigration into the English colonies so what did they do?

Answer 45

They built posts/ forts in the interior to block English expansion (i.e. Detroit). The French also wanted to control the rich fur trade in the area.

Question 46

What did French fur traders do and why was the French Crown reluctant to help them? What was eventually determined?

Answer 46

As early as the 1630s (some even suggest 1610) French fur traders from Quebec had pushed deep into the Upper Great Lakes wilderness
But the inland bases were costly to staff and maintain and as a result the French Crown was reluctant to maintain them
Rise of independent operators
Also problems with the Jesuits
Saving souls doesn’t mesh well when trading liquor for pelts
Lives were being lost before they could be saved

Eventually it was determined that Indians should bring all furs to Montreal and that the other trading posts should be closed

Question 47

Who was Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and what did he petition of King Louis XIV and what was the most enticing part of the petition to the King?

Answer 47

One trader, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac thought that “closing the west” was akin to giving it (the Ohio, Great Lakes and the Mississippi) away to the British
He sailed to France to petition King Louis XIV to have a new outpost and the King agreed.
He suggested that French soldiers and farmers would be encouraged to marry Indian maidens (the intended result was the defeat of the Iroquois and the English)
Most enticing, for the King, was Cadillac’s financing plan – the King would grant a generous portion of land with a trade monopoly. Cadillac could sell off portions of the land via seignorial rights and use the money to hire soldiers for the garrison and to buy equipment to furnish farmers
Farmers = a self-sustaining place
Soldiers = maintenance of French sovereignty
Traders = financially stable

Question 48

Why did Cadillac place Detroit where he placed it? What did he want Detroit to be for the French?

Answer 48

July 24th, 1701 – Cadillac lands and calls the area Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit
The wilderness outpost was chosen for two key reasons:
Stop British from coming into the region
Control the fur trade in what is now Michigan (Northwest Territory)
Cadillac chose the north bank because of the view, the narrow expanse of the river, and the high banks.
The bend in the river allowed long sight lines both north and south (Defense)
Cadillac wanted to plant a permanent colony – he didn’t simply want another outpost for France
A model settlement that would be self-sustaining
He had three locations in mind (Detroit, St. Louis, New Orleans)

Question 49

Indians could get a better price for furs by trading with the English so why did they trade with the French?

Answer 49

Detroit presented an alternative (and the French were respectful/fair)

Question 50

Why did Detroit struggle?

Answer 50

Nevertheless Detroit struggled
Disheartened by a lack of support (from the King)
Conflict with Montreal fur merchants
Conflicts with the Jesuits
Lack of profits
Cadillac was also corrupt – he sold high quality furs to the English instead of sending them back to France
Cadillac was demoted to the position of governor of the wilderness colony of Louisiana

Cadillac became a booster trying to sell Louisiana
Before long, Fort Pontchartrain was being encroached upon by English traders pushing westward
French Rule came to an end in Detroit in 1760 when the village was given to the British as part of the spoils of the French and Indian war

Detroit officially became American in 1783, but the British did not evacuate the settlement until 1796.
And so it remained a tiny French-speaking community because it was separated from all other major population centers by several weeks travel through often hostile Indian territory
French sovereignty vanished from Detroit more than 200 years ago but French influence remains (i.e. place/street names and in the people)

Question 51

How did Louisiana begin?

Answer 51

The Canadian explorer Louis Joliet and the French missionary Jacques Marquette travelled in 1678 down the Mississippi but turned back less than 500 miles before reaching the Gulf.
Louisiana began as a French colony claimed in the name of Louis XIV by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in 1682 when he reached the mouth of the Mississippi River.
To the entire unexplored, unmapped territory drained by the great river he gave the name La Louisiane

La Salle tried to colonize New Orleans in 1685 but the four ships bearing settlers missed the landing area and settled in Matagorda Bay instead (La Salle overshot the Mississippi by some 400 miles)
Disease, desertion, hostile Indians led to the assassination of La Salle by his own men

Question 52

What was the trouble with Louisiana?

Answer 52

In 1698, fearing that the British were planning to establish a port at the mouth of the Mississippi, the French sought to establish a colony first and dispatched Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville
France also hoped that by establishing a colony on the Gulf of Mexico, it might be able to take over Spanish mines as well (they had no idea of distances)
Spain responded by founding a post at the Bay of Panzacola (Pensacola)
Iberville struggled to find a suitable site
But there was an even greater problem – the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) [England and France at war]
France’s treasury was depleted
No money/supplies could be sent to the colonies
The colonies basically lost contact with France (go native or starve)

Question 53

What happened in 1699?

Answer 53

A second expedition in 1699 (under direction from fur trader Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville) managed to have a touch more success as tiny communities were carved out of the wilderness at Biloxi, Natchez and Mobile
Yet these were still remote outposts that struggled to survive

Question 54

What was France’s attitude to the New World and why was it not effective?

Answer 54

“FrANCE WANTED MAXIMUM EXPLOITATION OF THE NEW WORLD WITH MINIMUM DEVELOPMENT”

A vast territory that required anchors: Detroit and new orleans

Question 55

Why was New Orleans founded?

Answer 55

Security – control the Mississippi control the continent
The French were interested in controlling the Mississippi so they could deny British traders the ability to push inland from the Atlantic Seaboard
They also knew that the Spanish had explored the area but had only begun creating settlements in Florida, Mexico and Texas (they might take an interest in the mouth of the Mississippi)
Staging Point – a place to penetrate Spanish colonies by sea and land
“a stronghold on the Gulf was of far more value that a city on the Mississippi”

Question 56

Why is the fact that New Orleans is located in a watery wilderness important?

Answer 56

Because France commenced on a search for wealth in a place where there were no rocks

Louisiana is the nation’s drainpipe. Approximately 41% of the runoff of the continental U.S. flows down the Mississippi past New Orleans
“there are no rocks in the soil in southern Louisiana, not even a single pebble”

Question 57

Why was Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713)/ War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714) important? What impact did it have on France and by extension the New World colonies?

Answer 57

The end of the war of Spanish Succession also resulted in Britain winning “the exclusive right to sell slaves to Spain’s colonies in the Americas” 
France was in bad shape
Money was scarce
Commercial activity was at a standstill
Land went uncultivated
Buildings were deteriorating
Workers were unemployed 
Peasants were in debt
The crown was facing bankruptcy

Question 58

France turned to New Orleans for hope. Why?

Answer 58

It was thought that the Louisiana territory would provide salvation
Creation of the Company of the West (John Law) [later became the Company of the Indies] marked the creation of New Orleans
“New Orleans did not grow to become a city; it was decreed a city from the moment of its founding…”

Question 59

What’s interesting about New Orleans demographically?

Answer 59

A palimpsest
Frenchmen built the original town
The Spanish ruled for a1/3 of a century
Populated by refugees who fled France (and her colonies) [aka the Acadians] (1763)
The influence of Americans following the Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and other European countries during the 19th Century
And the Black population who have always made up a significant proportion of the population