The first Europeans in America. US history. The emergence of English colonies
Centuries after the Indians, and to their great regret, European ships appeared on the horizon. The first European colonizers after the Vikings in America were the Spaniards. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator and merchant, who received the rank of admiral and flotilla from the Spanish crown, was looking for a new trade route to rich India, China and Japan.
He sailed to the New World four times and swam to the Bahamas. On October 13, 1492, he landed on an island called San Salvador, set up the banner of Castile on it and drew up a notarial deed about this event. He himself believed that he sailed either to China, or to India, or even to Japan. For many years this land was called the West Indies. The Arawaks, the first natives of these places he saw, he called "Indians." The rest of Columbus's life and difficult fate was connected with the West Indies.
At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, a number of other European nations began to explore the paths of the Western Hemisphere. Navigator English king Henry VII the Italian John Cabot(Giovanni Caboto) set foot on the coast of Canada (1497-1498), Pedro Alvares Cabral assigned Brazil to Portugal (1500-1501), Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa founded Antigua, the first European city on a new continent, and went to the Pacific Ocean (1500-1513). Ferdinand Magellan, who served the Spanish king in 1519-1521, circled America from the south and made the first trip around the world.
In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller, a geographer from Lorraine, proposed that the New World be named America in honor of the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci who replaced the fallen Columbus. The proposal strangely took hold, and the development of the mainland goes already alternately under two names. Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish conquistador, discovered the Florida peninsula in 1513. In 1565, the first European colony was formed there, and later the city of St. Augustine. In the late 1530s, Hernando de Soto went to the Mississippi and reached the Arkansas River.
When the British and French began to explore America, Florida and the southwest of the continent were almost entirely Spanish. The gold that Spain brought from South America eventually became one of the reasons for the loss of her world domination. Buying everything that a far-sighted state needs to develop and strengthen, Spain was defeated during the first serious crisis. The power and influence of Spain in America began to decline after September 1588, when the Anglo-Dutch fleet destroyed and captured the ships of the Spanish Invincible Armada.
The British settled in America on the third try. One ended in a flight home, the second ended in the mysterious disappearance of the settlers, and only the third, in 1607, became successful. The trading post, named Jamestown after the king, was inhabited by the crew members of three ships under the command of Captain Newport, and also served as a barrier to the Spaniards, who were still rushing into the interior of the continent. Tobacco plantations turned Jamestown into a wealthy settlement, and by 1620 there were already about 1,000 people living in it.
Many people dreamed of America not only as a land of fabulous treasures, but as a wonderful world where you are not killed for a different faith, where it doesn’t matter what party you are from ... Dreams were fueled by those who received income from the transportation of goods and of people. In England, the London and Plymouth companies were hastily created, which from 1606 were involved in the development of the northeast coast of America. Many Europeans with their whole families and communities moved to the New World with the last money. People arrived and arrived, but they were still not enough to develop new lands. Many died on the way or in the first months of American life.
In August 1619, a Dutch ship brought several dozen Africans to Virginia; the colonists immediately bought twenty people. This is how it started Great Business White. During the 18th century, about seven million slaves were sold, and no one knows how many of them died during the long voyage and were fed to sharks.
On November 21, 1620, a small galleon "May Flower" moored to the Atlantic coast. 102 Puritan-Calvinists came ashore, stern, stubborn, frantic in faith and convinced of their chosenness, but exhausted and sick. The beginning of the conscious settlement by the British of America is counted from this day. The mutual treaty, called the Mayflower Treaty, embodied the ideas of the early American colonists about democracy, self-government and civil liberties. The same documents were signed by other colonists - in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.
The first inhabitants of South America were the American Indians. There is evidence that they were from Asia. Approximately 9000 years before our era, they crossed the Bering Strait, and then descended to the south, passing through the entire territory of North America. It was these people who created one of the most ancient and unusual civilizations in South America, including the mysterious states of the Aztecs and Incas. ancient civilization South American Indians was ruthlessly destroyed by the Europeans, who began the colonization of the continent in the 1500s.
Capture and looting
By the end of the 1500s, most of the South American continent had been taken over by Europeans. They were attracted here by huge natural resources - gold and precious stones. During colonization, Europeans destroyed and plundered ancient cities and brought diseases from Europe that wiped out almost the entire indigenous population - the Indians.
Modern population
There are twelve independent states in South America. The largest country, Brazil, covers almost half of the continent, including the vast Amazon Basin. Most of the inhabitants of South America speak Spanish, that is, the language of the conquerors who sailed here from Europe on their sailing ships in the 16th century. True, in Brazil, on whose territory the invaders once landed - the Portuguese, official language is Portuguese. Another country, Guyana, speaks English. Native American Indians still survive in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru. The majority of the inhabitants of Argentina are white, and in neighboring Brazil there are a large number of descendants of African black slaves.
Culture and sports
South America has become the birthplace of many unusual people and a hospitable home that has gathered many different cultures under its roof. Bright colorful houses in La Boca, the bohemian quarter of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. This area, which attracts artists and musicians, is inhabited mainly by Italians, descendants of settlers from Genoa who sailed here in the 1800s.
The most favorite sport on the continent is football, and it is not surprising that it was the South American teams - Brazil and Argentina - who became world champions more often than others. Pele played for Brazil - the most outstanding footballer in the history of this game.
In addition to football, Brazil is famous for its famous carnivals, which are held in Rio de Janeiro. During the carnival, which takes place in February or March, millions of people pass through the streets of Rio in the rhythm of the samba, and millions more spectators watch this colorful action. The Brazilian carnival is the most massive holiday held on our planet.
1. Discovery and settlement of the New World
The discovery and settlement of the Western Hemisphere is surrounded by many intriguing mysteries. Who were the people who first settled North and South America? Why did they come? How did they get there? How long did their migration take? According to one hypothesis, the movement of people to the New World began when they crossed a strip of land that at that time connected Siberia and Alaska, but later went under water due to the melting of glaciers and now turned into the Bering Strait. Perhaps these primitive people they sought to develop new territories or needed sources of food, or perhaps they were looking for better climatic conditions or fled persecution for religious reasons, in search of more favorable places to practice their special beliefs. Who knows?
Of course, some scientists claim that ancient people arrived by sea, and several modern researchers have tried to demonstrate how they could do this. But if it was indeed an overland route that brought them to the New World, when did it happen? How long ago? The closest guess - and this is just a guess - is that it happened 50,000 years ago, if not more. But was it one long migration over a number of years, or did it occur sporadically over a long period of time? Scientists have suggested that the migration ended 2000 years ago and was carried out in groups consisting of large families. Over time, these people settled in all habitable regions up to the southernmost ones, including many offshore islands, especially off the east coast. The first settlers settled in a space stretching in length from north to south for almost 18 thousand kilometers and in width from east to west for 5 thousand kilometers, and in some places even more. They created many different cultures, mainly depending on the regions where they settled permanently, and spoke at least 300 languages. Separate tribal communities served as the basis for the formation of tribes, or nationalities, and the ruling elite usually consisted of a council of elders and the leaders of the clan chosen by them. At the head of the tribe was chief chief, who was chosen from one of the main clans, but many management functions were carried out within the clan or family.
The ancient Americans were primarily hunters, fishermen, gatherers, and farmers, but their ability was limited by their lack of knowledge of the wheel and the lack of domestic animals such as horses and cows. They had no skill in metallurgy beyond forging copper to make primitive tools and gold and silver for jewelry.
None of the hundreds of tribes that lived north of what is now Mexico had an alphabet or a written language. For the record important events they resorted to pictograms, and for communication at a distance they used sign language and smoke signals. In the south, a society with a more developed culture arose among the Aztecs and Incas. The Aztecs had a written language and had knowledge of mathematics and architecture. Their large stone temples towered over cities and villages. It has been suggested that the cultural level of these southern peoples in the 8th century was higher than in countries Western Europe. But the question immediately arises: why did their culture freeze at this level and stop developing? This is another mystery that cannot be satisfactorily explained by the data currently available.
There are other mysteries as well. According to the Scandinavian sagas, around 1000, the Vikings, while sailing from Iceland to Greenland, were blown off course by a storm and landed in the New World. Where exactly they took refuge remains unclear. A little later, Leif Erickson and his team repeated this journey and reached Newfoundland, or possibly the coast of modern New England. They set up camp and explored a large area, no doubt visiting the lands that later became part of the United States of America. Subsequently, other Vikings may have swum inland along the St. Lawrence River. In any case, the Vikings never established permanent settlements in the New World, and their discoveries led nowhere. Several more centuries passed before important socio-cultural shifts took place in Western Europe, which subsequently led to the migration of many Europeans to the New World.
These changes undoubtedly began with the Crusades. In 1095, Pope Urban II called on Christians to liberate the Holy Land from Muslims. Thousands of Europeans responded to his call and traveled to the East, where they encountered exotic cultures and lifestyles that fired their imaginations. They returned from campaigns with new ideas, striving to continue to use the curiosities that they saw in the East, such as spices, cotton and silk fabrics. Dreams of the wonders of the East were further ignited by the story of Marco Polo about long-distance travels and life in China (“The Book of Wonders of the World”, fr. Livres des merveilles du monde, XIII century), about gold and silver, spices and silk clothes, which captured the imagination of Europeans. At that time, trade routes were explored, along which oriental goods entered the European market. Soon the feudal, agricultural, closed economy of the medieval world was replaced by a capitalist economy based on trade, money and credit. Old cities grew, new ones arose. The development of cities attracted artisans who improved their skills, initiating technical revolution. The printing press made possible the widespread distribution of books, which, in turn, contributed to the growth of education and the founding of universities in a number of cities. A compass and an astrolabe appeared, with which it became safer to navigate the seas, and sailors could now lay routes to previously unknown lands.
All these and many other, less noticeable innovations gradually changed the medieval authoritarian and rigid system of beliefs and occupations. The power of the pope and the bishops who ruled the Catholic Church gave way in the young nation-states to the power of monarchs and titled nobility. And after Martin Luther placed a list of 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, thus initiating the Reformation, the Christian religion was no longer based on a single set of dogmas.
Capitalism, Protestantism and nation-states ruled by ambitious autocrats - all this formed the basis of modern Europe.
When the astrolabe allowed navigators to determine the latitude at which their ships were located, intrepid explorers ventured further south along the coast of Africa. The Portuguese Infante Enrique, who went down in history as Henry the Navigator, equipped expeditions one after another, which eventually crossed the equator and reached the very south of Africa. In 1498, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean and reached India, where he announced to the natives that he had come to trade.
Get to the East the shortest way and to return with gold, silver, spices and other exotic goods has become an ambitious dream for many. The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus believed that he would reach the East faster by sailing directly to the west, and not around Africa. Despite the objections of the councilors, who considered the long voyage in small caravels too dangerous and risky, Isabella of Castile, whose marriage to Ferdinand, King of Aragon, initiated the unification of Spain, agreed to finance the expedition. And on August 3, 1492, the ships "Nina", "Pinta" and "Santa Maria" with 90 sailors left the harbor of the city of Palos de la Frontera and, after a short stop in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, headed towards the setting sun. Of course, such a journey required great courage and excellent navigational skills. On October 12, at two o'clock in the morning, Columbus and his team discovered the island, which the navigator called San Salvador (later Watling Island in the Bahamas). Columbus then discovered a larger island, which he called Hispaniola (now the island of Haiti), and named the natives who greeted him Indians, mistakenly believing that he had arrived in India, and China was further west. Columbus returned home, where he was honored as a hero, and made three more voyages to the New World, but he never found treasures and spices and died under the delusion that he had reached Asia.
Subsequent travels to the New World, made by adventurers from Portugal and Spain, prompted the monarchs of these countries to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which established a demarcation line 1770 kilometers west of the Canary Islands, stretching along the meridian from pole to pole. Under this agreement, the lands to the west of the dividing line went to Spain, and the lands to the east of it - to Portugal.
The search for routes to Asia and the treasures that adventurers hoped to find continued into the next century. Another Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, made several voyages along the east coast of the southern part of the new continent and left spectacular, if not very true records of what he called the "New World", which attracted the attention of cartographers and geographers. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, who published descriptions of Vespucci, proposed that the New World be named America in his honor. So the continents in the Western Hemisphere got a new name.
Soon other Spanish adventurers rushed west in search of fortune and glory. These conquistadors, cruel, merciless soldiers, who, seeking to acquire the coveted wealth and glory, did not spare either the Indians or the Spaniards, circumnavigated the New World and conquered an empire for Spain. Among other things, they were convinced that by converting pagans to Christianity, they were fulfilling the will of God.
Hernán Cortés, an exceptionally cruel but talented leader, traveled to the New World in 1504. He took part in the conquest of Cuba and later commanded an expedition to the Yucatan peninsula, where he heard tales of untold riches further west from the Aztecs, who called themselves "bag". With five hundred soldiers, he set off in search of these riches. Montezuma, the emperor of the Aztecs, considered Cortes to have returned, as the Aztec myths predicted, the god Quetzalcoatl, and as a sign of greeting he sent gifts to him: food and a huge sun-shaped disk, the size of a wagon wheel, made of pure gold. The Spaniards realized that they had attacked the trail of fabulous treasures, and set out to appropriate them. The quick-witted and inventive Cortes played the role of the god Quetzalcoatl and in 1519 captured Montezuma, who paid a huge ransom for his release. With the support of neighboring tribes who hated Mexica, Cortez conquered the Aztecs and killed many natives with the help of guns and cannons. Smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus brought by his army contributed to his conquests, to which the locals had no immunity.
The booty captured from the Mexica inspired other conquistadors to set off in search of precious metals. Francisco Pizarro, one such fame-seeking adventurer, learned of a civilization farther south, in what is now Peru. In these parts, he could have found the wealth he so desired. After several unsuccessful expeditions, Pizarro enlisted the support of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who provided him with assistance in exchange for a fifth of future treasures. In 1531, a conquistador with several hundred soldiers went on a campaign and discovered the Inca civilization in Peru. Having crushed their resistance and killed the emperor Atahualpa, he captured mountains of gold and silver.
These discoveries and mines, which brought untold wealth, eventually turned Spain into the most powerful power in Europe. But the rivers of gold and silver caused inflation in the country, causing prices to skyrocket.
The Spaniards invaded the Americas. In 1565 the Spanish monarch sent Pedro Menendez de Aviles to establish settlements along the coast of North America, and in September of that year Menendez founded San Agustin in Florida. It was the first European settlement in North America. Colonies arose in the Caribbean and in Central and South America, where viceroys were appointed to rule the colonies on behalf of the monarch. But absolute power remained with the king, who ruled through the Council of the Indies in Spain, which appointed officials and drafted laws and regulations for the colonies.
Spanish society in the Americas was divided into categories. Representatives of the upper class were born in Spain and were called peninsulars. Then came those who were born in America from Spanish parents. They were called Creoles and most of them were landowners. These two groups constituted the upper class of society in New Spain. Those with Spanish and Indian blood were known as mestizos. Lower down on the social ladder were the natives, who adopted the Spanish way of life and culture and represented a vast working class. They were followed by mulattoes - those in whom mixed European and African blood flowed, and at the very bottom were black slaves brought from Africa to work in the mines and fields of the Spanish conquerors. The Roman Catholic Church played an important role. As in Spain, church and state were closely connected and acted in mutual interests.
In 1513 Vasco de Balboa discovered Pacific Ocean, and Juan Ponce de Leon - Florida. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan sailed westward from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, hoping to reach Asia. Subsequently, he died in a fight with the natives in the Philippine Islands, and in 1522, out of 5 ships with 250 sailors on board, having completed the first round-the-world voyage, only one ship with 18 sailors returned to Spain.
In 1539–1542 Hernando de Soto undertook an aggressive campaign north from Mexico, to what is now the states of Georgia and North and South Carolina, and then west, through the territory of the modern states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. And in 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado with an army penetrated from Mexico into the depths of North America in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola, paved with gold. California was explored in 1542 by Juan Cabrillo. To convert Indian tribes to Christianity, Catholic priests organized missions.
The impressive successes of Spain, which created a world empire and stole fabulous treasures, encouraged other European states to follow its example and seize lands for colonization. France began to create an empire in 1534, when the king instructed Jacques Cartier to find the north western way to both Indias. Instead, Cartier, on several expeditions, claimed the eastern half of Canada and the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River as French. Later, Samuel de Champlain explored the area of the St. Lawrence River and founded the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The lucrative fur trade in the Great Lakes region became a source of wealth, but did not attract significant numbers of French settlers. The bulk of the population of New France were Indians, and Champlain entered into an alliance with the Huron tribe, thanks to which they managed to defeat their old enemy, the Iroquois.
The Iroquois were probably at a higher stage of development than other Indians. They lived south of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. This group included the tribes of the Seneca, Onondaga, Mohawk (Mohawk), Cayuga and Oneida, which were later joined by the Tuscarora, forming a stable union of Iroquois-speaking tribes - the League of Six Nations.
Further north, above the St. Lawrence River, lived the Algonquian tribes, mainly the Hurons, who had made an alliance with the French, who needed furs, and in these lands the beaver population was the largest. The Iroquois fought the Hurons over furs, which they exchanged for guns. Thus began a series of Indian wars, during which the Iroquois nearly drove the French out of North America.
In turn, the Dutch tried to expand their possessions and win new wealth. In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name and founded trading posts. The Dutch East India Company controlled several of these trading posts. The most important were New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island and Fort Orange, renamed New York and Albany when the British occupied them as a result of the war with Holland. The Dutch, like the French, were primarily interested in furs, not colonization, and they also traded furs with the Iroquois for guns.
The English were there, too, those same Anglo-Saxons who lived on the islands in the North Sea and were protected by the seas, which they soon began to rule. These possessors of stout ships and even more stout character plied the ocean to build an empire. Back in 1497, under King Henry VII, the Italian Giovanni Caboto, better known as John Cabot, was looking for a western route to the East, first along Newfoundland, and a year later south along the coast of North America, thereby securing England the rights to a significant part of what what later became the United States of America. But only under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I did the British become seriously interested in the New World. For the most part, they dealt blows to Spanish power, attacking merchant ships and ships carrying treasures from the New World on the high seas. Pirates such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake, delivered the stolen gold and silver to the queen. Elizabeth denied any connection with these pirate raids, but at the same time she knighted Drake, who traveled around the world and became fabulously wealthy. In 1588, the Spanish King Philip II sent an Invincible Armada of 130 ships armed with thousands of cannons to the shores of England, hoping to subdue the British and return them to the fold of Catholicism. Faced with dauntless British sailors and their nimble ships, as well as relentless storms, the Armada suffered heavy losses, with only half of its ships returning to their native shores. Now England could claim a significant part of the North American continent.
A few years earlier, in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a group of settlers who landed on an island off the coast of today's North Carolina and named it Roanoke. But because of the attack of the Invincible Armada, the British were not up to supplying the settlement on Roanoke, and when help did arrive in 1591, the island turned out to be deserted. The mystery of the disappearance of the settlers on Roanoke Island has remained unsolved.
But the enterprising English merchants did not give up their attempts to colonize the New World, hoping to repeat the success of the Spanish conquerors. A group of merchants, with the aim of colonizing North America, founded a joint-stock company, the London Company, whose shares were sold at 12 pounds 10 shillings. The charter granted to the joint-stock company by James I Stuart, who took the English throne after the death of Elizabeth in 1603, gave the right to develop lands from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean. These lands were named Virginia in honor of Elizabeth I, who never married and was known as The Virgin Queen. In December 1606, the ships Susan Constant, Goodspeed and Discovery sailed from England. The colonists landed in Virginia in April 1607 and founded a settlement named Jamestown in honor of King James I.
The colonists were looking for gold, but it was not there. Conditions in the triangular fort they built worsened every month. John Smith assumed control of the colony during the terrible winter of 1609/10, known as the "time of famine". The survivors ate roots, acorns, berries, and even their horses. The colonists received help from the Powhatan alliance tribes, who taught them how to grow corn and showed them where to fish. But due to the insatiability of the British, relations with the Indians became tense, and Smith was captured by a group of hunters during an exploratory expedition. He was handed over to Opechancanoch, apparently the half-brother of Chief Powhatan. Smith was in danger of death. As a boy in 1559, Opechancanoch was kidnapped by the Spaniards and sent to Spain to study Western customs, language, and culture. He was supposed to become a translator and even received the Spanish name Don Luis de Velasco. In the late 1570s, returning to his homeland, Opechankanoh abandoned Spanish customs and took a leading position in the Powhatan tribe. It is likely that he played last role in the murder of the missionaries who accompanied him on his way back to Virginia. Most likely, he would have killed John Smith too, if not for Pocahontas, the beloved daughter of Chief Powhatan.
At that time, Pocahontas was only 11 years old, and it is unlikely that she acted out of romantic urges. A number of historians suggest that she participated in the ritual of "execution and rescue" widespread among the Indians. By begging for Smith's life, the girl could perform an Algonquian rite by which Chief Powhatan demonstrated power over life and death, accepting Smith and the settlers of Jamestown under his supreme dominion. He granted them protection in exchange for recognition of his superior position. Whatever the true reason for Pocahontas's actions, she became friends with other English settlers, converted to Christianity and in 1614 married one of the settlers, John Rolfe, thereby guaranteeing a peaceful coexistence between Indians and colonists. Later, Pocahontas went to England, where she was received with due honor, given her position among the Indians. The Indian princess was presented to the king and queen. Unfortunately, Pocahontas contracted smallpox and died at the age of 22.
Instead of gold, the colonists discovered another treasure - tobacco, which the Indians smoked from time immemorial. In Europe, this “bad habit”, as King James called it, quickly became fashionable, and thanks to the growing demand, the settlers had the goods they needed to survive. Profits from the tobacco trade attracted more and more English settlers to America, and soon large tobacco plantations appeared here, and Virginia became a prosperous colony.
To manage Virginia, the London Company sent Thomas Dale, a military man, and he, in order to ensure the continued existence of the community, established strict orders there. In 1619, the company instructed the governor to convene two representatives from each of the settlements so that they would sit in Jamestown as an advisory body. 22 landowners gathered in the city church and, disregarding the instructions of the company, passed a series of laws against gambling, drunkenness, idleness and violation of the Sabbath. The House of Citizens, as it came to be known, then dispersed, but it was clear from the outset that the English settlers were ready to go their own way and deal with anything that might threaten their safety and income on their own. Their behavior demonstrated the degree of independence that the future legislatures of North America will strive for, asserting the right to decide their own problems in their own way.
As the settlers in and around Jamestown grew rich, their numbers steadily increased, and by 1620 there were about 2,000 colonists. Opechankanoh, who had been watching with dismay the steadily increasing power of the white people to the detriment of the power of the Powhatan tribal union, decided to put an end to this. Early in the morning of March 22, 1622, unarmed and friendly Indians appeared in several settlements. Suddenly, they drew hatchets and muskets and attacked the locals. To allay the fears of the colonists with ostentatious friendliness, and then suddenly attack and kill them was a typical Indian ploy. They destroyed about a third of the settlers, who returned fire and tried to push the tribe further to the west. The killings and ensuing riots were so massive that King James in 1624 rescinded the charter of the London Company and made Virginia a royal colony. But changes in management did not stop the bloodshed. Some time after Powhatan's death, probably in 1628, Opechancanoch became paramount chief and resumed hostilities, albeit irregular ones. In 1644 he launched what the colonists called a "great offensive" and killed more than 500 colonists. However, the leader grew old, he was already about a hundred years old, and his power weakened. He was captured and, after a short stay in prison, was killed. Thus ended the Powhatan War.
Between sessions, the House of Citizens did its best to meet regularly, and in 1639 the King instructed the Governor to convene the House of Citizens annually, recognizing what had become common practice.
Not all settlers came to America for gold or other benefits, many emigrated in search of religious freedom. After the Protestant Reformation and religious wars between representatives of various sects and denominations, religious persecution was in the order of things. In England, the monarchs led the Anglican Church, which opposed the Roman Catholic, although Anglicanism retained many Catholic rites and rituals. Protestants who believed that the Church of England needed to be cleansed of such paraphernalia became known as the Puritans. Even more radical Protestants sought to separate from the Anglican Church altogether.
A group of English religious dissidents, striving for even greater religious freedom, fled to Holland in 1608, but life in this foreign state did not at all meet their aspirations and temper, and they decided to move to new lands. Having obtained permission from the London Company to settle in Virginia, these dissidents left Holland, sailing for the New World in the galleon Mayflower.
However, they never made it to Virginia. The colonists landed at Cape Cod, landing on Plymouth Rock on November 21, 1620. But before they left the ship to establish a colony, 41 people signed an agreement in which they swore allegiance to the “revered sovereign, the king” and “undertook to unite” in a “civil political organization." They further consolidated their intention to establish a colony and to obey the laws they deem "fit and in keeping with the general good of the colony." The Mayflower Agreement became the authority by which the colonists made their own laws and elected officials. After that they went ashore.
It is worth noting that the settlers reached a written agreement, consolidating their opinion about the management and principles on which their society will be built. The Mayflower Agreement is the first of many documents declaring the principles that will form the basis of government and political system inhabitants of the New World. Subsequently, it became a custom among Americans to use a written document as an authoritative source in proclaiming the principles and procedures by which all members of society should be guided.
The Pilgrims, as the original settlers are commonly known, were fortunate enough to be met by two English-speaking Indians, Scanto of the Pawtuxet and Samoset of the Pemawid, who helped them negotiate a peace agreement with the local tribes. The Indians taught the first settlers how to grow corn and showed them places to fish and hunt. The colony survived and prospered, and the colonists thanked God for their happy fate.
In England, Charles I, who succeeded the "venerable sovereign" James I, in 1629 gave a group of Puritans a charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company. In accordance with this charter, they could establish a colony north of Virginia, which John Smith later called New England. John Winthrop, like many Puritans, was concerned about the moral state of England and the future of religion. He decided to emigrate, taking his closest relatives with him. Winthrop held a prominent position in the company and was chosen to head the Puritans' Great Migration to America. On May 22, 1630, a squadron of 17 ships with more than 1,000 men, women, and children on board left England and arrived in America on June 12, 1630. In time, the Puritans settled in Boston, with John Winthrop as governor. Upon their arrival, Winthrop assured his followers that if they stood together "as one man," God would protect them and ensure their prosperity. “We must bear in mind that we will be like a city on a hill and the eyes of all will be fixed on us: therefore, if we prevaricate before God in the work we have begun, and thus force Him to deprive us of the help that He is now giving us , we will glorify ourselves and become the talk of the town for the whole world ... ”The colonists believed that they entered into a“ covenant ”- an agreement between God as the supreme ruler and people - to build a society based on the teachings of the Bible. The church, the state, the family and individuals have united into a single whole to create a system of government and a community that meets the requirements of the Almighty. Many of the settlers were well educated and had the means to start their own business, trade or farm. In a few years, the population of the colony grew to 20 thousand people who lived in nearby cities.
The Massachusetts Bay Company decided to move all their activities to America along with the charter, which meant that from now on they had no need to obtain permission or follow instructions from England. To a large extent, the company became independent. The colony was governed by a governor and 18 assistants who were elected by the Fremen. This body was called the General Council. In 1634, the Massachusetts General Council allowed each settlement to elect representatives who had the right to sit with the governor's assistants, and 10 years later became a bicameral legislature that made laws for the entire Massachusetts Bay colony.
But there were also dissatisfied people who objected to individual decisions and actions or to the system of government as a whole. One of them was Roger Williams, a young Puritan who led a congregation in Salem and, from the point of view of the Boston clergy, preached outright heresy. Williams respected the Indians and their culture and did not try to convert them to Christianity. He believed that people could worship God in different ways and was tolerant of different interpretations of the Bible. Williams preached that God's gift faith in the form in which it has developed in the soul of the believer, and is the only way to his salvation. He was expelled from the colony because he questioned the right of the civil authorities to enforce religious beliefs. To avoid being sent to England, William moved to the outback in New England and, with a group of followers, founded the settlement of Providence, the first community in Rhode Island where religious freedom and the separation of church and state became possible. In 1644 he received a charter for his colony.
Another rebel, Ann Hutchinson, held meetings at her home, where religious issues and sermons of the clergy were discussed. She taught that holiness comes to a person through Divine revelation, that is, through the direct communication of the believer with God, which gives the knowledge of holy truth. Anne attracted a significant number of followers and, accused of the "heresy of antinomianism", in 1637 was expelled from the colony. With her associates, she went to Rhode Island and joined the followers of Roger Williams. She and her family were later killed by the Indians.
One of the most popular preachers in the Massachusetts colony was Thomas Hooker, which caused the envy of other preachers, and above all the elder preacher of the colony, John Cotton. Without waiting for the deportation, Hooker decided to lead his congregation through the wilds of the forest to the Connecticut River valley, where his followers settled in Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield. Hooker was personally involved in the creation of the Basic Laws of Connecticut. As in Rhode Island, but unlike in Massachusetts, church membership was not a condition for voting, and priests were not allowed to participate in politics. In 1662 a charter was granted to this colony.
Wanting to establish a colony loyal to the Anglican Church and capable of competing with Massachusetts, Sir Ferdinando Gorges received a charter to establish a settlement in Maine, but died before he could attract immigrants. His heirs sold the charter to Massachusetts, and thus Massachusetts and Maine were united. Another attempt to colonize northern New England in what is now New Hampshire also failed. Subsequently, in 1638, another preacher, exiled from Massachusetts, John Wheelwright, brother-in-law of Ann Hutchinson, took refuge here. The original charter was canceled and in 1679 New Hampshire became a royal colony.
Catholics also sought refuge in the New World. George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, converted to Catholicism and received a charter to establish a colony for his fellow believers. Hundreds of thousands of hectares became his private property, and those who were going to settle on this land had to pay him a land tax - a receipt, and he, in turn, was obliged to send "two Indian arrows" to the king every Easter. Calvert's powers allowed him to appoint a governor, judges and councillors, establish a judiciary, and establish legislatures. But George Calvert died before the king's final approval of the project, and in 1632 it passed by succession to Calvert's son, Cecil, second Lord Baltimore, who promptly sent an expedition to found the colony of Maryland. Unfortunately, the lands allocated to him went into the territories granted to the Virginia Company, which repeatedly led to conflicts between the authorities of the colonies. Calvert expected to dictate his terms to the settlers, but they had a different opinion on this matter. In 1635 the first legislature of Maryland insisted on its right to make its own laws, and Calvert did not argue with this. Contrary to his hopes, there was no massive influx of Catholics into Maryland, but many Protestants were tempted by generous allotments of land, and by the end of the century they outnumbered Catholics ten times. In 1649, the Maryland Assembly agreed to Lord Baltimore's proposal and passed the Toleration Act, stating that no person who believed in Christ would be persecuted for practicing his faith. However, this religious tolerance remained limited, since it did not extend to non-Christians.
Thus, in a comparatively short period, three forms of government developed in the English colonies in America: royal, corporate, and private.
Another private colony was created by the grace of Charles II, who granted land to eight of his courtiers who supported him in 1660, during the restoration of the monarchy after the Puritan revolution, during which his father, Charles I, was executed in 1649, and the dictatorship of Oliver was established. Cromwell. The colony was located between Virginia and Spanish Florida, and a charter was granted to it in 1663. The "Lords Proprietors" intended to attract settlers from Barbados, from Virginia and New England and to profit from the trade in rice, ginger and silk. The new colony was named Caroline, after Charles's wife, Queen Caroline. Its distinguishing feature was a management plan drawn up by one of the "Lords Proprietors", Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, and his secretary, John Locke. It was called "The Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas" and was intended to instill in America a feudal system with a pronounced social hierarchy, including titles, and by analogy a hierarchical judicial system. And while this document recognized and legalized slavery—the Carolinas were the first colony to do so openly—it provided for religious freedom and a representative assembly. These fertile lands attracted settlers who disregarded the feudal provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions, which could not take root in vast America, and preferred more liberal ones to them. By the end of the century, the region was inhabited by about 50,000 colonists, mainly concentrated in two areas: to the north around Albemarle Sound, in today's North Carolina, and 500 kilometers to the south, around the community named after King Charles Charlestown, today's Charleston. Both areas prospered, and their population constantly increased due to migrations from other English colonies.
Residents of North Carolina grew tobacco and supplied resin to shipbuilders, in South Carolina, due to humidity, soil and climatic conditions, rice and indigo, containing indigo dye, grew.
Many of the locals were religiously Presbyterians who had originally moved from the lowlands of Scotland to Northern Ireland where they lived for many years before they crossed the ocean and settled in the Carolinas. To protect themselves from the Florida Spaniards, they brought in Indians from the Sioux tribal group - Wateri, Kongari, Santee, Waxho, Catoba - but chief among them was the strong and fierce people of the Cherokee, who lived in the mountains lying to the west and were related to the Iroquois living to the north.
The Carolina colonists often helped the Indians fight each other, and the captured natives were sold into slavery. Soon they exterminated, enslaved or brought into a state of complete dependence the Indians of South and North Carolina.
Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, who succeeded to the throne as James II after Charles' death, cast envious glances at the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and especially at the attractive port on Manhattan Island, where the Hudson flows into the ocean. The Dutch, who lacked incentives to emigrate to America, were not as successful in colonization as the British. The people of New Amsterdam had little regard for the Dutch West India Company and its authoritarian governors. The last of these, Peter Stuyvesant, arrived at the colony on May 11, 1647, dressed "like a peacock," with extraordinary pomp and grandeur. The new governor, who had lost his leg in battle years earlier, wore an ornate wooden prosthesis. Determined to put things in order in the colony and establish his sole power, he ruled for 17 years by tough decrees, making few friends and many enemies.
Since England and Holland were commercial rivals, Charles II went to war, granting his brother James all the lands between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers. Soon the British fleet appeared in the harbor of New Amsterdam and demanded the surrender of Manhattan Island. Governor Peter Stuyvesant swore that he would never give up, but the city's elite managed to convince him. Realizing that they could not fight off the well-armed and determined British, the Dutch persuaded Stuyvesant to surrender without firing a shot. Having taken possession of the colony, Jacob renamed it New York. He arrogantly believed that the governor he had chosen would be able to manage the Dutch settlers, regardless of their opinion. He soon became convinced that, ruling across the ocean, with such an approach, he would inevitably achieve only disobedience and lawlessness. Therefore, having succeeded his brother on the throne, Jacob nevertheless allowed the convening of the Legislative Assembly, but his constant neglect of the needs and requests of the New York colonists caused endless controversy. The semi-feudal system of land tenure of the Dutch settlers further aggravated the problem, and together led to social, economic and ethnic divisions between them and the newly arrived British.
James gave the lower part of his possessions to two friends, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Since Carteret was the governor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel, this territory was called New Jersey. Berkeley owned the western half of the province, and Carteret the eastern. Both of them later sold their holdings, and Puritans, Anglicans, and Quakers settled in the divided province until, in 1702, the King united East and West Jersey into one royal colony.
A more successful attempt at establishing a private colony was made by William Penn on lands granted to him by Charles II. While studying at Oxford, Penn joined the Society of Friends, a radical religious sect that condemned war and rejected the authority of priests and bishops and lavish worship. These Quakers were subject only to what they called "the inner light of conscience." They refused to bow even to the king or take off their hats to royal officials and professed complete equality without a single exception.
William Penn was a zealous Quaker, which landed him in prison and angered and disappointed his father, Admiral William Penn. After his release from prison, William Penn Jr. took up missionary work in Holland and Germany, where he created Quaker communities. King Charles agreed to provide him with a piece of land on account of a large sum owed to his father. Realizing that he could not find a better refuge for the persecuted Quakers, William Penn in 1681 received a charter that made him the owner of the future state of Pennsylvania. He also persuaded the Duke of York to cede to him the three lower counties on the Delaware River, which the Dutch had seized from the Swedes long before. These three counties remained the private property of Penn and his heirs until the Revolutionary War, when they achieved independence and became the state of Delaware.
In the case of Pennsylvania, its liberal government is particularly noteworthy. The colony became a "sacred experiment" where everyone could live in peace. This also applied to the Indians. In his Frame of Government (1682), Penn provided for a governorship with an appointed council to propose laws, and an assembly that initially lacked real power but became more self-sufficient over time. Penn advertised his colony in England and on the continent, inviting people of all nationalities to settle in it and offering lands at extremely low prices. Dutch, Welsh, Swedish, French, German, and English emigrants responded to his calls, and Pennsylvania soon became the most populous and prosperous of the American colonies.
In 1732, when James Oglethorpe received a 21-year charter from George II over the lands between the Savannah and Oltamaho rivers, Georgia was founded.
The identity of the cultures that developed in each of the three areas - in New England and in the central and southern colonies - is due to differences in climate, soils, the nature of the settlers, the reasons that brought them to different areas of the New World, and other features. The inhabitants of New England, where strong, straight, tall pines grew, were engaged in shipbuilding. Fishing played an important role in the economy. However, many settlers built clusters of small farms around a seaport or near rivers and streams. Each such group consisted of a village with a plot of communal land - pasture, which served all the surrounding residents for such purposes as grazing. The settlers were predominantly Puritans, and their lives were centered around the church they built and the pastor who preached and monitored morality in the community. In New England, the colonies were created mainly for religious reasons.
Agriculture and trade were developed in the central colonies: wheat, corn and vegetables were grown here, and beavers, raccoons and other animals provided furs for export. Ships from New York and Philadelphia regularly delivered these goods not only to Europe, but also to the southern colonies and the West Indies. Farms tended to be small to medium-sized, but in New York County the Dutch established extensive plantations, such as Van Rensselaer's holdings that stretched on both sides of the Hudson. The Dutch influence manifested itself in the architecture, language and customs of New York even after it passed to England. The culture of Pennsylvania was greatly influenced by the Germans. Pennsylvania was founded for religious reasons, but the other central colonies were founded to exploit natural resources, and their populations were diverse.
The economy of the southern colonies, where the cultivation of tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo led to the creation of large plantations that needed a large labor force, differed markedly from the economy of the northern regions. Initially, they mainly used the labor of servants who signed a contract for work for 4-5 years in exchange for moving to America, but in 1619 a Dutch ship delivered 20 Africans to Virginia, who became slaves or forced laborers. It is not entirely clear what exactly their status was, but in any case, as more and more Africans were brought to America, the institution of slavery took shape. By 1700, a disenfranchised class of slaves existed in the south, whose life and death were controlled by the master class without regard to their needs. In the southern cities near harbors and seaports, a small middle class arose, providing legal and other services that could not be obtained on plantations. The populations of the southern colonies were generally more homogeneous than those of the central colonies and New England.
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The mainland of North America was deserted at the moment when the Lower and Middle were replaced in the eastern hemisphere, and the Eurasian Neanderthal gradually turned into homo sapiens, trying to live in a tribal system.
American soil saw a man only at the very end ice age, 15 - 30 thousand years ago (From the latest research:).
He called the aborigines Indians Christopher Columbus. He was sure that he was standing off the coast of India, and therefore it was an appropriate name for the natives. It took root, but the mainland began to be called America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, after Columbus' error became apparent.
The first people from Asia were hunters and gatherers. Having settled down on the land, they began to engage in agriculture. At the beginning of our era, the territories of Central America, Mexico, and Peru were mastered. These were the Mayan, Inca (read about), Aztec tribes.
The European conquerors could not come to terms with the idea that some savages created early class social relations, built entire civilizations.
The first attempts at colonization were made by the Vikings in 1000 AD. According to the sagas, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, landed his detachment near Newfoundland. He discovered the country, calling it Vinland, the country of grapes. But the settlement did not last long, disappearing without a trace.
(clickable) When Columbus discovered America, the most motley Indian tribes already existed on it, standing on different stages social development.
In 1585 Walter Raleigh, favorite of Elizabeth I, founded the first English colony on the island in North America Roanoke. He called her Virginia, in honor of the virgin queen (virgin).
The settlers did not want to deal hard work and explore new lands. They were more interested in gold. Everyone suffered from a gold rush and went even to the ends of the earth in search of an attractive metal.
A rescue expedition was organized only in 1590, but the settlers were no longer there. Famine and confrontation with the Indians depleted Virginia.
The colonization of America was in question, as England was going through hard times (economic difficulties, war with Spain, constant religious strife). After the death of Elizabeth I (1603) on the throne was James I Stuart who didn't care about the Roanoke Island colony. He made peace with Spain, thereby recognizing the enemy's rights to the New World. It was the time of the "lost colony", as Virginia is called in English historiography.
This state of affairs did not suit the Elizabethan veterans who participated in the wars with Spain. They aspired to the New World out of a thirst for enrichment and a desire to wipe the nose of the Spaniards. Under their pressure, James I gave his permission to resume the colonization of Virginia.
To make the plan come true, the veterans created joint-stock companies, where they invested their funds and joint efforts. The issue of settling the New World was resolved at the expense of the so-called "rebels" and "loafers". That is how they called people who found themselves homeless or without means of subsistence in the course of the development of bourgeois relations.
How did the colonization of America take place?
European colonization of America began as early as the 10th and 11th centuries, when western Scandinavian sailors explored and for some time settled insignificant territories on the coast. modern Canada. These Scandinavians were Vikings who discovered and settled in Greenland, and then they sailed to the arctic region of North America near Greenland and down to neighboring Canada to explore and then settle. According to the Icelandic sagas, violent conflicts with the indigenous population eventually forced the Scandinavians to abandon these settlements.
Discovery of North American lands
Extensive European colonization began in 1492 when a Spanish expedition led by Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to Far East, but inadvertently moored to the lands that became known to Europeans as " New world". Moving through the northern part of Hispaniola on December 5, 1492, which was inhabited by the Taino people since the 7th century, Europeans founded their first settlement in the Americas. This was followed by European conquest, large-scale exploration, colonization and industrial development. During his first two voyages (1492-93), Columbus reached the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands, including Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1497, setting out from Bristol on behalf of England, John Cabot landed on the North American coast, and a year later, on his third voyage, Columbus reached the coast of South America. As sponsor of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Spain was the first European power to settle and colonize most of North America and the Caribbean all the way to southern point South America.
Which countries colonized America
Other countries, such as France, established colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America, on a number of islands in the Caribbean, and also on small coastal parts of South America. Portugal colonized Brazil, tried to colonize the coast of modern Canada, and its representatives settled for a long period in the northwest (east bank) of the La Plata River. In the era of great geographical discoveries, the beginning of territorial expansion by some European countries was laid. Europe was occupied with internal wars, and was slowly recovering from the loss of population as a result of the bubonic plague; therefore the rapid growth of her wealth and power was unpredictable at the beginning of the 15th century.
Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere came under the apparent control of European governments, resulting in profound changes in its landscape, its population, and its flora and fauna. In the 19th century, more than 50 million people left Europe alone for resettlement in North and South America. The time after 1492 is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange, a large and widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, populations (including slaves), infectious diseases, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres, which followed Columbus's voyages to the Americas. .
Scandinavian voyages to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence. The Scandinavian colony in Greenland was established at the end of the 10th century and continued until the middle of the 15th century, with a court and parliamentary assemblies sitting in Brattalida and a bishop who was based in Sargan. The remains of a Scandinavian settlement at L'Anse-o-Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada were discovered in 1960 and have been dated around 1000 (carbon analysis showed 990-1050 AD); L'Anse-o-Meadows is the only settlement which has been widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian transoceanic contact. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It should also be noted that the settlement may be related to the failed Vinland colony founded by Leif Erickson around the same time, or more broadly to the West Scandinavian colonization of the Americas.
Colonial history of America
Early explorations and conquests were made by the Spanish and Portuguese immediately after their own final reconquest of Iberia in 1492. In 1494, by the Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world into two parts for exploration and colonization, from the northern to the southern border, cutting the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of modern Brazil. Based on this treaty and on the basis of earlier claims by the Spanish explorer Núñez de Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513, the Spaniards conquered large territories in North, Central and South America.
The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortes conquered the Aztec kingdom and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca empire. As a result, by the mid-16th century, the Spanish crown had gained control of much of western South America, Central America, and southern North America, in addition to the early Caribbean territories it had conquered. During the same period, Portugal took over land in North America (Canada) and colonized much of the eastern region of South America, naming it Santa Cruz and Brazil.
Other European countries soon began to challenge the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. England and France tried to establish colonies in the Americas in the 16th century, but failed. England and France succeeded in establishing permanent colonies in the next century along with the Dutch Republic. Some of these were in the Caribbean, which had already been repeatedly conquered by the Spaniards, or depopulated by disease, while other colonies were in eastern North America, north of Florida, which had not been colonized by Spain.
Early European possessions in North America included Spanish Florida, Spanish New Mexico, the English colonies of Virginia (with their North Atlantic offshoot, Bermuda) and New England, the French colonies of Acadia and Canada, the Swedish colony of New Sweden, and the Dutch colony of New Netherland. In the 18th century, Denmark-Norway resurrected their former colonies in Greenland, while the Russian Empire established itself in Alaska. Denmark-Norway later made several claims to land ownership in the Caribbean starting in the 1600s.
As more countries gained interest in colonizing the Americas, the competition for territory became more and more fierce. The colonists often faced the threat of attacks from neighboring colonies, as well as native tribes and pirates.
Who paid for the expeditions of the discoverers of America?
The first phase of a well-funded European activity in the Americas began with the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by Christopher Columbus (1492-1504), funded by Spain, whose original goal was to try to find a new route to India and China, then known as the "Indies". He was followed by other explorers such as John Cabot, who was funded by England and reached Newfoundland. Pedro Alvarez Cabral reached Brazil and claimed it on behalf of Portugal.
Amerigo Vespucci, working for Portugal on voyages from 1497 to 1513, established that Columbus had reached new continents. Cartographers still use a Latinized version of their first name, America, for the two continents. Other explorers: Giovanni Verrazzano, whose voyage was financed by France in 1524; the Portuguese João Vaz Cortireal in Newfoundland; João Fernández Lavrador, Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real and João Alvarez Fagundes in Newfoundland, Greenland, Labrador and Nova Scotia (from 1498 to 1502, and in 1520); Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), Henry Hudson (1560-1611), and Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) who explored Canada.
In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and led the first European expedition to view the Pacific Ocean from the western coast of the New World. In fact, sticking to the previous history of conquest, Balboa claimed that the Spanish crown laid claim to the Pacific Ocean and all adjacent lands. This was before 1517, before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America, landing on the Yucatan coast in search of slaves.
These explorations were followed, in particular by Spain, by a stage of conquest: the Spaniards, having just completed the liberation of Spain from Muslim domination, were the first to colonize the Americas, applying the same model of European administration of their territories in the New World.
colonial period
Ten years after the discovery of Columbus, the administration of Hispaniola was transferred to Nicolás de Ovando of the Order of Alcantara, founded during the Reconquista (liberation of Spain from Muslim domination). As in the Iberian Peninsula, the inhabitants of Hispaniola received new landowners-masters, while religious orders led the local administration. Gradually, an encomienda system was established there, which obliged European settlers to pay tribute (having access to local labor and taxation).
A relatively common misconception is that a small number of conquistadors conquered vast territories, bringing only epidemics and their powerful caballeros there. In fact, recent archaeological excavations gave reason to believe the existence of a large numbering of the Spanish-Indian alliance in the hundreds of thousands. Hernán Cortés eventually conquered Mexico with the help of Tlaxcala in 1519-1521, while the Inca conquest was carried out by about 40,000 traitors of the same people, led by Francisco Pizarro, between 1532 and 1535.
How did the relations between the European colonists and the Indians develop?
A century and a half after the voyages of Columbus, the number of the indigenous population of North and South America decreased sharply by about 80% (from 50 million in 1492 to 8 million people in 1650), mainly due to outbreaks of diseases of the Old World.
In 1532, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, sent a Viceroy to Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, to prevent the movement of pro-independence that arose during the reign of Cortés, who finally returned to Spain in 1540. Two years later, Charles V signed the New Laws (which replaced the Laws of Burgos of 1512) banning slavery and repartimiento, but also claiming ownership of American lands and considering all the people inhabiting these lands to be his subjects.
When, in May 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the bull "Inter caetera", according to which the new lands were transferred to the Kingdom of Spain, in exchange he demanded the evangelization of the people. So, during the second journey of Columbus, Benedictine monks accompanied him along with twelve other priests. Because slavery was forbidden among Christians, and could only be applied to prisoners of war who were not Christians, or to men already sold as slaves, the debate over Christianization was particularly heated during the 16th century. In 1537, the papal bull "Sublimis Deus" finally recognized the fact that Native Americans possessed souls, thereby forbidding their enslavement, but did not end the discussion. Some argued that the natives, who rebelled against the authorities and were captured, could still be enslaved.
Later, a debate was held in Valladolid between the Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas and another Dominican philosopher, Juan Gines de Sepúlveda, where the former argued that Native Americans were creatures with souls, like all other human beings, while the latter argued the opposite and justified their enslavement.
Christianization of Colonial America
The process of Christianization was brutal at first: when the first Franciscans arrived in Mexico in 1524, they burned the places dedicated to the pagan cult, cooling off relations with much of the local population. In the 1530s, they began to adapt Christian practices to local customs, including the building of new churches on the sites of ancient places of worship, which led to the mixing of Old World Christianity with local religions. The Spanish Roman Catholic Church, in need of native labor and cooperation, preached in Quechua, Nahuatl, Guarani and other Indian languages, which contributed to the expansion of the use of these indigenous languages and provided some of them with writing systems. One of the first primitive schools for Native Americans was one founded by Fray Pedro de Gante in 1523.
In order to encourage their troops, the conquistadors often gave away Indian cities for the use of their troops and officers. Black African slaves replaced local labor in some places, including in the West Indies, where the native population was close to extinction on many islands.
During this time, the Portuguese gradually moved from the original plan of establishing trading posts to extensive colonization of what is now Brazil. They brought millions of slaves to work their plantations. The Portuguese and Spanish royal governments intended to manage these settlements and receive at least 20% of all treasures found (in Quinto Real, collected by the Casa de Contratación government agency), in addition to collecting any taxes they might levy. By the end of the 16th century, American silver accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget. In the 16th century, about 240,000 Europeans landed at American ports.
Colonization of America in search of wealth
Inspired by the wealth derived by the Spaniards from their colonies based on the conquered lands of the Aztecs, Incas and other large Indian settlements in the 16th century, the early English began to settle permanently in America and hoped for the same rich discoveries when they founded their first permanent settlement. at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They were funded by the same joint-stock companies such as the Virginia Freight Company, financed by wealthy Englishmen who exaggerated the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this colony was the hope of finding gold.
It took strong leaders, such as John Smith, to convince the Jamestown colonists that in their search for gold they needed to forget their basic needs for food and shelter, and the biblical principle "he who does not work, neither shall he eat." to an extremely high mortality rate was very unfortunate and a cause for despair among the colonists.Many supply missions were organized to support the colony.Later, thanks to the work of John Rolfe and others, tobacco became a commercial export crop, which ensured a sustainable economic development Virginia and neighboring Maryland.
From the very beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor was a large number of immigrants, in search of a new life, who arrived in foreign colonies to work under contract. During the 17th century, wage laborers made up three-quarters of all European immigrants in the Chesapeake region. Most of the hired workers were teenagers, originally from England, with poor economic prospects in their homeland. Their fathers signed documents that gave these teenagers the opportunity to come to America for free and get unpaid work until they reach adulthood. They were provided with food, clothing, housing and training in agricultural work or household services. American landowners needed workers and were willing to pay for their passage to America if these workers served them for several years. By exchanging a passage to America for unpaid work for five to seven years, after this period they could begin an independent life in America. Many migrants from England died within the first few years.
Economic advantage also prompted the creation of the Darien Project, the ill-fated venture of the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s. The Darien project had as its object the control of trade through that part of the world, and thereby was to assist Scotland in increasing her strength in world trade. However, the project was doomed due to poor planning, low food supplies, poor leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, and a devastating disease. The failure of the Darien Project was one of the reasons that led the Kingdom of Scotland to enter into the Act of Union in 1707 with the Kingdom of England, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and giving Scotland commercial access to the English, now British, colonies.
In the French colonial regions, sugar plantations in the Caribbean were the backbone of the economy. In Canada, the fur trade with the locals was very important. About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers. The vast majority became farmers, settling along the St. Lawrence River. With favorable conditions for health (no disease) and plenty of land and food, their numbers grew exponentially to 65,000 by 1760. The colony was ceded to Great Britain in 1760, but there were few social, religious, legal, cultural and economic changes in a society that remained true to the newly formed traditions.
Religious immigration to the New World
Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as the settlers of the colonies of Spain and Portugal (and later, France) belonged to this faith. The English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, were more religiously diverse. The settlers of these colonies included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans and other nonconformists, English Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Jews of various ethnicities.
Many groups of colonists went to America in order to gain the right to practice their religion without persecution. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century broke the unity of Western Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which were often persecuted by the authorities. state power. In England, many people came to the question of the organization of the Church of England towards the end of the 16th century. One of the main manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites, which they believed had no mention in the Bible.
A firm believer in the principle of government based on divine right, Charles I, King of England and Scotland, persecuted religious dissenters. Waves of repression led about 20,000 Puritans to migrate to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they established several colonies. Later in the same century, the new colony of Pennsylvania was given to William Penn as a settlement of the king's debt to his father. The government of this colony was established by William Penn about 1682, primarily to provide a refuge for persecuted English Quakers; but other residents were also welcome. Baptists, Quakers, German and Swiss Protestants, Anabaptists flocked to Pennsylvania. Very attractive were the good opportunity to get cheap land, freedom of religion and the right to improve their own lives.
The peoples of the Americas before and after the start of European colonization
Slavery was a common practice in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans, as different groups of American Indians captured and held members of other tribes as slaves. Many of these captives were subjected to human sacrifice in Native American civilizations such as the Aztecs. In response to some cases of enslavement of the local population in the Caribbean during the early years of colonization, the Spanish crown passed a series of laws prohibiting slavery as early as 1512. A new, stricter set of laws was passed in 1542 called the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Protection of the Indians, or simply the New Laws. They were created to prevent the exploitation of indigenous peoples by encomenderos or landowners by severely limiting their power and dominance. This helped to greatly reduce Indian slavery, although not completely. Later, with the arrival of other European colonial powers in the New World, the enslavement of the native population increased, as these empires did not have anti-slavery legislation for several decades. Indigenous populations declined (mainly due to European diseases, but also from forced exploitation and crime). Later, the indigenous workers were replaced by Africans brought in through the large commercial slave trade.
How were blacks brought to America?
By the 18th century, the overwhelming number of black slaves was such that Native American slavery was much rarer. The Africans who were taken aboard the slave ships sailing to North and South America were mostly supplied from their African home countries by the coastal tribes, who captured them and sold them. Europeans bought slaves from local African tribes who took them prisoner in exchange for rum, weapons, gunpowder and other goods.
Slave trade in America
An estimated 12 million Africans were involved in the total slave trade in the islands of the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. The vast majority of these slaves were sent to the sugar colonies in the Caribbean and Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the number of slaves had to be constantly replenished. At best, about 600,000 African slaves were imported into the US, or 5% of the 12 million slaves exported from Africa. Life expectancy was much higher in the US (because of better food, fewer diseases, more easy work and better medical care), so that the number of slaves grew rapidly from the excess of births over deaths and reached 4 million by 1860 according to the census. From 1770 to 1860, the natural growth rate of North American slaves was much higher than the population of any country in Europe, and was almost twice as fast as that of England.
Slaves imported into thirteen colonies/USA in a given time period:
- 1619-1700 - 21.000
- 1701-1760 - 189.000
- 1761-1770 - 63.000
- 1771-1790 - 56.000
- 1791-1800 - 79.000
- 1801-1810 - 124.000
- 1810-1865 - 51.000
- Total - 597.000
Indigenous losses during colonization
The European way of life included a long history of direct contact with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and various domesticated birds, from which many diseases originated. Thus, unlike the indigenous peoples, the Europeans accumulated antibodies. Large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 brought new microbes to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Epidemics of smallpox (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), typhoid (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) swept America after contact with Europeans, killing between 10 million and 100 million people, up to 95% of the indigenous population of North and South America. Cultural and political instability accompanied these losses, which together greatly contributed to the efforts of various colonists in New England and Massachusetts to gain control of great wealth in the form of land and resources commonly used by indigenous communities.
Such diseases have added human mortality to an undeniably enormous severity and scale - and it is pointless to try to determine its full extent with any degree of accuracy. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary greatly.
Others have argued that the large population differences after pre-Columbian history are the reason for treating the largest population count with caution. Such estimates may reflect historical population highs, while indigenous populations may have been at levels slightly below these highs, or at a time of decline just prior to European contact. Indigenous peoples reached their ultimate lows in most areas of the Americas in the early 20th century; and in some cases growth has returned.
List of European colonies in the Americas
Spanish colonies
- Cuba (until 1898)
- New Granada (1717-1819)
- Captaincy General of Venezuela
- New Spain (1535-1821)
- Nueva Extremadura
- Nueva Galicia
- Nuevo Reino de Leon
- Nuevo Santander
- Nueva Vizcaya
- California
- Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico
- Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824)
- Captaincy General of Chile
- Puerto Rico (1493-1898)
- Rio de la Plata (1776-1814)
- Hispaniola (1493-1865); the island, now included in the islands of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was under Spanish rule in whole or in part from 1492- to 1865.
English and (after 1707) British colonies
- British America (1607- 1783)
- Thirteen Colonies (1607-1783)
- Rupert's Land (1670-1870)
- British Columbia (1793-1871)
- British North America (1783-1907)
- British West Indies
- Belize
Courland
- New Courland (Tobago) (1654-1689)
Danish colonies
- Danish West Indies (1754-1917)
- Greenland (1814-present)
Dutch colonies
- New Netherland (1609-1667)
- Essequibo (1616-1815)
- Dutch Virgin Islands (1625-1680)
- Burbice (1627-1815)
- New Walcheren (1628-1677)
- Dutch Brazil (1630-1654)
- Pomerun (1650-1689)
- Cayenne (1658-1664)
- Demerara (1745-1815)
- Suriname (1667-1954) (After independence, still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1975)
- Curaçao and Dependencies (1634-1954) (Aruba and Curaçao are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire; 1634-present)
- Sint Eustatius and dependencies (1636-1954) (Sint Maarten is still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sint Eustatius and Saba; 1636-present)
French colonies
- New France (1604-1763)
- Acadia (1604-1713)
- Canada (1608-1763)
- Louisiana (1699-1763, 1800-1803)
- Newfoundland (1662-1713)
- Ile Royale (1713-1763)
- French Guiana (1763–present)
- French West Indies
- Saint Domingo (1659-1804, now Haiti)
- Tobago
- Virgin Islands
- Antarctic France (1555-1567)
- Equatorial France (1612-1615)
Order of Malta
- Saint Barthelemy (1651-1665)
- Saint Christopher (1651-1665)
- St. Croix (1651-1665)
- Saint Martin (1651-1665)
Norwegian colonies
- Greenland (986-1814)
- Danish-Norwegian West Indies (1754-1814)
- Sverdrup Islands (1898-1930)
- Land of Eric the Red (1931-1933)
Portuguese colonies
- Colonial Brazil (1500-1815) became a Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
- Terra do Labrador (1499/1500-) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
- Corte Real Land, also known as Terra Nova dos Bacalhaus (Land of the Cod) - Terra Nova (Newfoundland) (1501) claimed territory (settled periodically, from time to time).
- Portuguese Cove Saint Philip (1501-1696)
- Nova Scotia (1519 -1520) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
- Barbados (1536-1620)
- Colonia del Sacramento (1680-1705 / 1714-1762 / 1763-1777 (1811-1817))
- Sisplatina (1811-1822, now Uruguay)
- French Guiana (1809-1817)
Russian colonies
- Russian America (Alaska) (1799-1867)
Scottish colonies
- Nova Scotia (1622-1632)
- Darien Project on the Isthmus of Panama (1698-1700)
- City of Stuarts, Carolina (1684-1686)
Swedish colonies
- New Sweden (1638-1655)
- St. Barthelemy (1785-1878)
- Guadeloupe (1813-1815)
American museums and exhibitions of slavery
In 2007 the National Museum American history The Smithsonian Institution and the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) have co-hosted a traveling exhibit to recount the strategic alliances and bitter conflicts between European empires (English, Spanish, French) and the indigenous peoples of the American North. The exhibition was presented in three languages and from different points of view. Artifacts on display included rare surviving local and European artifacts, maps, documents, and ritual objects from museums and royal collections on both sides of the Atlantic. The exhibition opened in Richmond, Virginia on March 17, 2007 and closed at the Smithsonian International Gallery on October 31, 2009.
A linked online exhibition is dedicated to the international origins of the societies of Canada and the United States, and to the 400th anniversary of the three permanent settlements at Jamestown (1607), Quebec (1608), and Santa Fe (1609). The site is available in three languages.
