Lecture 2: The English Empire

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Lecture 2 The English Empire
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Identifiers

• Elizabeth 1
• Richard Hakluyt
• Roanoke
• Algonquin
• Iroquois
• John White
• Spanish Armada

• John Smith
• King James I
• Puritans
• Indentured Servants
• Pilgrims
• Mayflower Compact

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The English Empire

• Spain was establishing themselves in the Americas
• France was dominating the fur trade.
• At first the English Crown made little effort to
  establish any settlements in North America.
• During the reign of Elizabeth the 1st in the late
  16th century there was one man who wanted to
  develop a settlement along the Atlantic coast.

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• Richard Hakluyt (Hak-loot) advocated for the
  establishment of English colonies on the Atlantic
  coast.
• He argued that colonies would provide bases to
  attack Spanish fleets, offer new markets for
  English goods, and provide a destination for
  loiterers and vagabonds.

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• During the 1570s and 1580s a succession of
  voyages of exploration were sent to discover the
  best prospects for a settlement.

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Early English Colonies

• There were two models
• Virginia was a commercial venture intended to
  make profit for English investors.
• Massachusetts was created as a refuge for
  religious dissenters who wished to escape the
  control of the English church.
• These two types of colonies laid the foundation
  for the American colonial experience.

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Roanoke The Lost Colony

• The English courtier Walter Raleigh dreamed of
  creating an English empire on Roanoke Island to
  rival that of Spain.
• In 1585 a group of settlers traveled there to
  mine gold (using natives as slaves), trade furs,
  or establish farms.
• At first the natives cooperated and shared
  precious food and supplies, but this would soon
  turn to violence and mistrust.

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Virginia

• Established in 1607 by John Smith who worked for
  the Virginia Company
• These merchants hoped to find gold and silver.
• In doing so, Jamestown was founded in honor of
  King James I of England.
• Jamestown was situated in a swampy area infested
  with disease bearing mosquitoes.

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• Powhatan (leader of the Algonquin) welcomed the
  arrival of the English.
• He hoped by providing the English with food and
  supplies her would profit through trade.
• He also hoped that alliances would be made
  against competing Algonquin groups.
• However, after the departure of John Smith
  relations began to deteriorate and tension began
  to rise.

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• The English soon began to steal food as they
  lacked the supplies and had difficulty coping
  with the harsh winters.
• Powhatan cut off further assistance and the
  colonists starved.
• The Virginia Company responded by sending more
  colonists and weapons to fight against Powhatan.
• Relations were temporarily alleviated by the
  marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe.

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• With the arrival of more colonists there became a
  demand for land, increasing tensions once more.
• Warfare and the introduction of new diseases
  devastated the Algonquin peoples.
• Facts
• 1607- Chesapeake Bay 20,000 Algonquins
• Fewer than 100 English colonists
• 1670- more than 40,000 colonists and barely 2,000
  Algonquins

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• Virginia colony became fixated on Tobacco farming
• Effects
• Poor soil (more land needed)
• Less food
• Tensions with Algonquins
• Labour intensive

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Massachusetts

• During the mid-16th cent England underwent a
  Protestant Reformation.
• Because of this many people thought that the
  church was slipping and they wanted to take their
  values to a new place. These people were called
  Puritans.
• They wished to purify the English church, many of
  these people sought out the new world as a refuge
  where they could create their own religious
  communities.

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The Mayflower

• Sept 16, 1620 the first group of Puritan
  colonists, known as Pilgrims, sailed for America
  from Plymouth, England.
• The ship was called the Mayflower
• The voyage was led by William Bradford and
  sponsored by the Virginia Company.
• Dec 1620, the colonists reached Massachusetts Bay
• The colony survived only with the aid of the
  Algonquin peoples, the Wampanoags.

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• 1629 they established the Massachusetts Bay
  Company which began to organize a large-scale
  emigration from England.
• This was called the Great Migration led by the
  lawyer John Winthrop who founded Boston in 1630.
• As governor, Winthrop declared that all male
  heads of households (freemen) who were church
  members could vote to select delegates to the
  General Court, which drew up laws for the colony.

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The Mayflower Compact

• While on board the Mayflower, the male members of
  the expedition composed the MC, which they hoped
  would preserve their freedom in the new colony.
• However, when the ship veered off course from the
  original destination in Virginia, the legal
  patent was longer valid in Plymouth.

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• The pilgrims acknowledged that a government
  should be formed by and for its citizens for whom
  it governed.
• Thomas Jefferson would champion this principle in
  the next century.
• The compact emphasized both preserving order in
  an untamed, faraway colony and the philosophy of
  justice and equality in law.

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• The Pilgrims also understood that in order to
  preserve the common good of the community, they
  had to create a compact where citizens would
  submit themselves to a government from time to
  time, as shall be thought most meet and
  convenient for the general good of the colony,
  unto which we promise all due submission and
  obedience

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• The Mayflower Compact is often referred to as the
  first constitution in American history.
• Historical Significance
• Is the idea that government is a contract between
  those who govern and the governed, and that
  legitimacy of a government must be based on the
  consent of the citizens.

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• During the American Revolution the Compact served
  as vital political propaganda.
• Some historians say the this compact was the
  first steps in creating the Declaration of
  Independence (1776) and the creation of the
  United States.

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Check Your Understanding

• 1. Why did Powhatan cooperate with the first
  English settlers?
• 2.What factors hurt the early development of
  the Virginia Colony?
• 3. Why did Puritans move to Massachusetts?
• 4. Given the purposes of Virginia and Mass,
  what two values were established in the colonies
  from the beginning?