Imperial Spaces of America: New France, New Spain, New Netherland

Question 1

what is the 1455 Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex?

Answer 1

Granted to the King of Portugal the right to “invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens, pagans and other enemies of Christ whatsoever in his dominions” including any “provinces, islands, harbors and seas” that he subsequently acquires. Also granted the King of Portugal an exclusive license to engage in trade with “infidels and pagans” and to forbid all other Christian powers from navigating, trading, or fishing in areas reserved to Portugal without his permission.

Colonization is not just about controlling territory it’s also about maritime space

prohibiting access from other powers

Question 2

What is the Treaty of Tordesillas Line, 1494?

Answer 2

-Did not divide the world up between spain and portugal

-Gave spain and portugal a monopoly on the ability to acquire territory by nonchristians

-Exclusive right to trade with non-christian people and the right to prohibit other Christian powers from entering these zones and navigating these zones

Question 3

what is the Manila Galleons: Spanish and Portuguese Global Trade Routes?

Answer 3

-Bringing in gold and silver to Europe

-Competition between european powers to secure as much gold and silver as possible

-Trade with China and Indonesia

Question 4

New Netherland

Answer 4

Dutch place names in New York

Major trading partners with the Mohawk

Heavy dutch presence even after the English take over New Netherland

Question 5

New France (who established Quebec? what is the economy reliant on? what is the major export commodity? how did the french and english have different colonizing styles?)

Answer 5

Quebec established in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, Control by the Compagnie de Cent-Associes from 1627-1663. Comes under royal control afterward

Government a mix of royally appointed administrators and semi-feudal seigneurs

Economy reliant on fishing and fur trading. The Pays d’en Haut and the “French River World” Economic diversification in the 18th century

Heightened military competition with English Colonies after 1680

Major export commodity is furs

The french and english had different colonizing styles:

French wanted indigenous people as close to them as possible because they depended on them for labour and trade

Also depended on them for the military defense of the colony

*Water ways are key!!! And is a point of conflict who has control over them

*Quebec is located in a place that is easily defendable

*Good farming territory

Question 6

English Migration to the America’s 1620-1650

Answer 6

Over 220 000 people migrated

Referred to as the great migration

English way to do colonialism

So heavily settler driven

Question 7

what were the main reasons for going to America? (5)

Answer 7

-Enclosure Movement (wool production, trade increase, etc.) push to close off what were formerly common lands for the purpose of wool production

-Anti-vagrancy Laws (increasingly powerful central state regulated vagrancy, people who are unemployed) banishment to the american colonies as a punishment for vagrancy

-Statute of Artificers 1563 (major economic reorganization that restricted the ability for labors to bargain with their employers *needed current employers permission)

-Violence, instability and religious persecution (War of the Roses) England was rocked by almost 200 years of various civil wars

-Desire for land, titles and wealth

Question 8

early english contacts (what was one of the first voyages?)

Answer 8

John Cabot voyage 1497 (funded one of the first voyages and establishes the basis for English claims on America)

Hakluyt (early propagandist for english colonization), Frobisher, Drake, 16th century

Failed colonies in Newfoundland (1583), Roanoke (1585-88?), and Popham (1607-08)

Question 9

Virginia: Colonization as corporate enterprise

Answer 9

Colonization as a for profit enterprise

Very long journey

Outsource colonization offers under the crown sovereignty in exchange get resources that come from there

early 17th century

105 colonists

Question 10

Settlement of Jamestown, 1607 (why was it chosen? what were the cons to choosing this location?)

Answer 10

-chosen because it was defensible against the french and spanish (surrounded by water on three sides and was far inland)

-bad location

-lots of disease

-1/3 dies in the first year

-too many traders and not enough farmers and labourers

-not a very well thought out plan

Question 11

Chesapeake society: tobacco, inequality, and slavery

Answer 11

Virginia House of Burgesses, 1619 (local assembly modeled on parliament) dominated by local planters
Tobacco was purchased by British merchants who would then sell it domestically as well as export it
Massively increases wealth of the colony
Tobacco cultivation and headright system
Enslaved population grew from 23 in 1625 to over 1,000 by 1660
Maryland chartered in 1643 as a religious refuge for English Catholics
Hierarchical society: aristocratic planter class on top, indentures and slaves at the bottom. Men were 75% of population in 1625
Rise of tobacco cultivation: 200, 000 lbs in 1618; 500, 000 in 1627; millions by 1634; over 20 million by 1680s

Question 12

what was the Powhatan Confederacy? what were the actions of the English?

Answer 12

Alliance of several algonquian nations who existed within the area
English get on bad terms with them immediately
Not enough food, so the english would steal from them
Kidnapping and use as ransom
Forcibly convert them to anglicanism
Virginia is anglican
In 1610, you have the first anglo powhatan war
King Powhatan Aziz refuses to give back the colonists he had captured who were encroaching on their territory
War starts again in 1620s after King Powhatan dies
Over 300,000 colonists are killed
War of extermination

Question 13

Describe Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. what caused it and what were the outcomes of it?

Answer 13

-over the course of the 1650s, you have a series of these disruptions brought about by the english civil war
-brought about by the dutch wars
-brought about by the attempts to limit who people in english colonies could trade with
-navigation acts: require that colonial producers only trade with british merchants
-colonial producers want to trade with whoever will give them the best price
-all of these things cause a drop in the price of tobacco
-wealthy planters at the top who are people who are also in a position of political power and those at the bottom who are often either indentures or slaves who don’t necessarily have a right to freedom
-indentures: somebody paid your way to the colonies so you have to work off your loan
(many cases this was abused)
-increasing consolidation of wealth and political power in the hands of these Eastern plantation owners driving more and more of these people to Western Virginia
-Nathaniel Bacon: was not poor, he was one of these new frontier type planters and he raises this army of about 600 people (enslaved people or indentures)
-marched to Jamestown and basically hold the government hostage
-they are able to force through all of these reforms (elimination of the head tax)
-he wanted the virginia government to go to war against the suskahannock, so he kind of cleared them out and opened the area for more western settlement
-eastern planters didn’t want that, they didn’t really want competition from settlers further to the west
-capture and burning of Jamestown in 1676, and the British royal authorities basically have to intervene
-bacon dies of malaria and his army collapses
-by the time the british troops are there no one wants to risk their lives
-partly it’s an interelite war: war between the established eastern planters and the new frontier western planters (struggle for power within this elite planter class)

Question 14

Protestant Reformation and Puritanism (explain what Puritanism is)

Answer 14

Within hardcore calvisnism, to which puritans belong, there is a belief that god knows everybody’s fate before they were born
Most people will go to hell
Idea that those predestined to heaven were saints
Within hardcore calvinism (puritans) most people go to hell not heaven, god as omniscient, those destined to heaven were Saints or members of the elect

Question 15

Describe the settlement of Plymouth 1620

Answer 15

One group of puritans that left England for Holland in 1608 were puritans who were concerned with the religious situation in England
They receive permission from one of these chartered companies called the Plymouth company to settle in part of the Plymouth company grant (southeastern part of massachusetts)
In 1620, they arrive in Plymouth Bay with 125 colonists
½ die within the first year
Society is better organized than situation in Virginia

Question 16

Settlement of Massachusetts Bay 1630 (what was the goal of puritans vs. the pilgrims?, describe the quote “city on the hill”)

Answer 16

Leader of Massachusetts Bay company John Winthrop (“city on the hill” quote)
Quote implies that everybody is looking at them and this is going to be an experiment with a puritanical government
Period of great migration
For the puritans, the ultimate goal was to change the english church from within
Purify the church of england and make it more calvisnist (protestant)
Pilgrims were related to Plymouth colony while the puritans relate to Massachussets Bay
Both are part of the Puritan movement but they had different political theories
The pilgrims were separatists, they wanted to live holy and separately apart from the rest of English society to build their own separate community there

Question 17

Charter of New England 1620

Answer 17

-A royal charter that was granted to the Council for New England, which allowed for the establishment of colonies along the coast of North America.
Many of the Indigenous people were already in decline due to disease and also because of the little ice age
This is likely where the idea of the Americas as a virgin territory arose

Question 18

Puritans of the Caribbean: the Providence Island Colony (1630-1641)

Answer 18

Attempt of puritans to settle in the Carribean

Question 19

New England Society: Towns and Churches (what was the economy based on?)

Answer 19

Economy and society based on tight family units where each member had a defined role. The father was an extension of religious/state authority
Primary unit of organization was the town, centered on the church and governed by town meetings. By 1650, one minister for 415 people in NE compared to one in 3239 in VA
Harvard was established to train ministers in 1636. High percentage of the population was educated and literate. First printing presses in North America
Little mineral wealth; soil and climate not geared towards large-scale agricultural production. Economy based on small farms, fishing, artisan production, and shipbuilding/trade
Soon became the most prosperous economy despite not having good soil
Power of the puritan elite began to decline by the 1660s as population increased: 14, 000 in 1641 to 90, 000 by 1700. Church membership opens up beyond the “visible saints” in the 1664 “half-way covenant”

Question 20

The role of women in new england and the chesapeake (virginia) how were women treated in New England compared to Virginia?

Answer 20

New England much more centered on whole families, and having much more parity between men and women, whereas Virginia was much more skewed towards men
Virginia had less church authority than New England
Paradoxical role for women in New England (monitored but protected/guarded) much more controlled and monitored but much more protected
Model for morality (prosecute men who engaged in sexual misconduct)
Margaret Brent: first woman to be an independent litigate in court (Lord Baltimore sister?)
Thomas(ine) Hall: intersex individual (heavily documented) *court proceeding
Mary Dyer: Quaker, opponent of puritan elite in Boston, gave birth to a still born child that was “disfigured” and was banished and then returned to Boston (sentenced to death and hanged)
Anne Hutchinson: friend and mentor of Mary Dyer, against puritan elite, miscarriage and demonic possession, goes to New Netherland, killed in conflict during peace work