SPANISH NORTH AMERICA

1
SPANISH NORTH AMERICA

• Spain originally claimed all of North America
• Established oldest city in the U.S.
• St. Augustine, FL
• But never made any attempt to settle lands north
  of Florida

Spanish fort at St. Augustine
2
COLONIAL COMPETITION

• Spanish success in the New World stimulated three
  other nations to also get into the action
• England, France, and the Netherlands
• At first, they had to satisfy themselves with
  subsidizing pirates to plunder Spanish colonies
  and treasure ships
• But as Spain became weaker, all three began to
  explore the possibilities of establishing their
  own colonies north of Florida

3
ELIZABETH I (1558-1603)

• Became interested in New World colonies
• Read A Discourse on Western Plantations
• By Richard Hakluyt
• Stressed military advantages England would
  receive if she colonized Atlantic coast of North
  America

4
FIRST ATTEMPT

• Made by Sir Humphrey Gilbert
• Tried to found colony on the coast of
  Newfoundland
• Gave up shortly after he arrived because of
  weather
• Landed in the middle of winter
• Killed in shipwreck on the way home near Azores
  Islands

5
SIR WALTER RALEIGH

• Gilberts half brother
• Claimed all land north of Florida for Elizabeth
• Named it Virginia
• In honor of her nickname, the Virgin Queen

6
ROANOKE ISLAND

• First attempt to found colony on Roanoke Island
  was immediate failure
• Handpicked 118 men, women, and children for
  second attempt
• Landed on island in 1587
• Told supply ship would arrive in 1588
• Raleigh ran out of money and supply ship was
  delayed until 1590
• All colonists had disappeared

7
JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES

• Under James I, joint-stock companies were formed
  to finance colonial ventures
• Business organizations in which a large number of
  investors pooled their resources and then shared
  profits in proportion to their investment
• If venture failed, investors only lost their
  investment
• They were not liable for entire debt of company
• Joint-stock companies had been successful in
  financing trading expeditions to Russia and
  Middle East

James I
8
THE VIRGINIA COMPANY

• Created in 1606 to colonize land first claimed by
  Sir Walter Raleigh
• Received no direct financial help from the
  British government
• But needed government permission to conduct its
  mission
• James I issued company a charter to found colony
  within a 100-mile area along coast of Virginia
• Known as Jamestown

9
FIRST JAMESTOWN COLONISTS

• 120 men left England in 3 ships for Virginia in
  December 1606
• Employees of Virginia Company who received food,
  clothing, tools, weapons, and percentage of
  eventual profits in exchange for settling and
  maintaining the colony
• Colonists drawn from 3 groups of people
• Down-on-their luck gentlemen
• Pardoned prisoners
• Unemployed urban craftsmen

10
DISASTER

• Colonists given three missions
• Convert Indians to Christianity
• Find gold
• Discover Northwest Passage
• Failed in all three
• In fact, Jamestown proved to be a deathtrap
• Only 38 of the original 104 colonists survived
  the first year
• 50 of replacement colonists died within a year
  of arriving
• High death rates continued into the 1620s

11
PROBLEMS I

• Location
• Narrow thickly forested peninsula 57 miles up the
  James River from the Atlantic coast
• Easy to moor and unload ocean-going ships right
  at the colony
• Easy to defend
• Also loaded with malaria-bearing mosquitoes
• James River had 5 times the safe level of salt in
  it
• River also polluted by colonists and was full of
  dysentery and typhoid germs

12
PROBLEMS II

• Inadequate nutrition
• Famine was a constant threat for the first 12
  years
• Worst point was reached in winter of 1609-10
• People ate dogs, cats, rats, snakes, leather,
  tree bark
• Incidents of cannibalism

13
REASONS FOR FAMINE

• The problem was not that food could not be grown
  in the regionit was that the colonists would not
  grow it
• Virginia Company originally told them not to
  waste time farming and then withheld supplies
  when they didnt find gold
• Colonists had no farming experience at all

14
SIR THOMAS DALE

• Jamestown floundered for three years
• No profits, high death rate, always needed more
  supplies, buildings run down, and petty power
  struggles
• In 1610, the Virginia Company appointed Sir
  Thomas Dale as governor and authorized him to put
  colony under martial law

15
DALES DICTATORSHIP

• Every colonist given a military rank, place under
  the control of officers, and subjected to severe
  military discipline
• Everyone forced to work a specific number of days
  at jobs assigned to them
• Goof-offs and thieves were punished harshly
• Correspondence was censored and no one could
  leave without Dales permission
• Some colonists ran away to live with Indians
• But they were always caught and executed

16
INDIAN RELATIONS

• With some exceptions, most colonists viewed local
  Indians as sub-human and little better than
  animals
• Big exception was marriage of colonist John Rolfe
  to Pocahantas, daughter of local chief Powhaten

17
WAR

• Colonists raided Indian villages, kicked them off
  their land, and even murdered them when they
  resisted
• Indians struck back in 1622
• Attacked Jamestown and killed 347 colonists
• Began 20 years of on-and-off warfare
• By 1644, surviving Indians were forced to move
  west

18
HOUSE OF BURGESSES

• With end of Dales dictatorship, Virginia Company
  tried to make colony more attractive to new
  settlers
• Repealed Dales harsh laws and created a
  representative assembly
• Law making powers were limited and subject to
  approval by governor
• But company did promise not to impose new rules
  without prior consent of Assembly
• Assembly made up of governor, his advisors, and
  22 elected colonists (burgesses)
• Assembly called House of Burgesses

19
OTHER REFORMS

• Women were recruited so that normal family life
  could develop in the colony
• Company announced that any man in England would
  receive 50 acres in the colony for each servant
  he sent over
• Also guaranteed that these servants would work
  for their masters in the colony for a specified
  period of time and then would be released and
  receive their own plot of free land
• Allowed wealthy men to acquire land in colony
  without leaving England
• Provided poor, unemployed people a way to go to
  the colony and start a new life
• Indentured service system
• One of the major mechanisms for the population of
  all of English North America

20
TOBACCO

• Native to western hemisphere
• Indians in Caribbean had taught Spanish how to
  grow it
• Spanish began to export it to Europe
• Europeans at first valued it as a medicine
• But many began to smoke it for recreational
  reasons and Spanish tobacco growers became
  tremendously wealthy

21
JOHN ROLFE, TOBACCO PIONEER

• Indians around Jamestown grew tobacco but it was
  inferior in quality to Spanish Caribbean tobacco
  and did not sell in Europe
• John Rolfe obtained Caribbean tobacco seeds and
  tried planting them in Jamestown
• Plants well suited to local climate and soil
• Quality only slightly inferior to Caribbean
  tobacco
• Jamestown now had a profitable export commodity

22
GROWTH OF TOBACCO PRODUCTION
23
TOBACCO AND POPULATION I

• Settlers began to fan out from the original
  settlement, starting farms up and down the James
  and York rivers and deeper into the interior
• Land was free
• Labor was scarce
• Tobacco growing used up land quickly due to
  sloppy and haphazard methods and lack of
  fertilization
• Gave rise to plantations

24
TOBACCO AND POPULATION II

• Once tobacco growing induced people to spread out
  over a larger area, they were no longer
  concentrated in unhealthy Jamestown settlement
• Often ended up in healthier areas
• Also lowered population density, which hindered
  spread of disease
• Population of colony gradually grew as a result
• Reached 30,000 people by 1670
• Still a dangerous place to live but it was no
  longer destined to be another Roanoke Island

25
ATTACK ON THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES

• King Charles I dissolved the Virginia Company in
  1624 and made Virginia a royal colony
• Owned by the king and administered by governors
  appointed by him
• Charles gave his governors the power to do
  whatever they wanted without consulting the House
  of Burgesses

26
IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT

• Royal governors found it impossible to get
  anything done without the cooperation of
  influential colonists
• They were appointed to governors advisory
  council in order to gain their support and
  cooperation
• Also began to convene meetings of the House of
  Burgesses to gain broad base of support
• Two house colonial legislature gradually evolved
• Upper house advisory council
• Lower house elected House of Burgesses
• Claimed right to approve all taxes before they
  were imposed on colony
• In order to guarantee smooth running of colony
  Governors conceded this right
• Charles ignored this violation of his orders due
  to his absorption with growing problems in
  England
• Virginian settlers gained freedom to run their
  own local affairs with minimal interference from
  England