Unit 1: Colonial Beginnings Flashcards
Richard Hakluyt: Particular Discourses on the Western Planting
1) Colonies so expensive that national government aid necessary
2) Colonies would aid suffering economy
3) Enhance England’s in’l position
4) English colonies would ensure no Catholic block in the New World
Colonial Generalization
1) Period studied as Colonial; for its own sake
2) Study of separate societies
3) Colonial societies were violent
4) Colonists came for a myriad of reasons
Two Major Themes of the Colonial Period
1) Influence of England and her tradition
2) Conditions in American forced changes in “re-creating” England
Distinction between England and the American Colonies
1) Land
2) Jobs and Wages
3) Social Status
1) Land
a. Scarce and expensive in England
b. Abundant and cheap in the colonies
2) Jobs and Wages
a. Overcrowding in England = Low wages
b. Scarcity in colonies = High wages
3) Social Status
a. Based on birth, lineage in England
b. Based on monetary wealth in colonies
Idealistic Impulses
Thomas More’s Utopia, 1516
Commericial Motivation
- Enclosure Movement: hard times
- Rise of the Charter Company
Monopoly of Trade
Theory of Mercantilism: Finite Amount of Trade Available
- Favorable trade, exchange of bullion = wealth
- Objective: Export more than import
- Colonies: Source of Raw Material, Labor and Consumers
Religious incentive: Reformation in Europe
A. Martin Luther’s Protestantism
B. John Calvin: Swiss theologian; Doctrine of Predestination
C. English Reformation: Protest/ants of the Catholic Church
A. Martin Luther’s Protestantism
1) Bible, not church, authentic voice of God
2) Salvation by faith, not works or church payments
B. John Calvin: Swiss theologian : Doctrine of Predestination
1) The “elect” pre-ordained for salvation
2) Leading a good life evidence of salvation
3) Incentive for Virtue
C. English Reformation: Protest/ants of the Catholic Church
1) Henry VIII breaks with pope over divorce issue
2) Names himself as the Head of the Church
3) Upon his death, daughter Mary goes back to Catholicism, persecutes Protestants
4) Elizabeth brings back Protestantism and the Church of the England (Anglican Church)
5) Her compromise irked both Protestants and Catholics
6) Puritans: Wanted to “purify” Anglican church of all Catholicism
Nationalistic Ventures
A. The English in Ireland
1) First experience with colonization shaped future action/attitudes in America
2) Viewed Irish as wild, to be subdued
3) Plantation Model: Transplanting of English society separate from natives
The Founding of Jamestown: Early Problems
1) Chose a Poor Site
2) Colonists were “adventure”
3) Malaria
4) Greed and Idleness
5) No English Women
The Arrival of John Smith, 1608
1) Imposed work and order on the colony
2) Organized raids of Native American villages to procure food
Reorganization of the London Company (Now the Virginia Co.)
- New efforts to colonize Jamestown
- The Starving Time
- Jamestown Survival