5.1 Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
As the city of Rome fell along with the Western Roman Empire, Western Europe fell into what was known as the feudal age. Germanic tribes began to establish control of the region, and by the late 700’s, one of them, the leader of the powerful Franks, took control of most of the region, the areas we call Germany, the Netherlands, and France. His name was Charlemagne. |
He was known to go throughout the countryside to meet with his subjects. In battle, he wore a bright colored robe to display his fearlessness to his men. As a ruler, he ended the practice of physical tests to prove innocence and guilt known as trial by ordeal (such as placing a burning piece of metal in a suspects hand and determining guilt or innocence by the blisters they leave). Charlemagne began trial by jury. He brought in scholars to his castle in Aachen (today in Germany near the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands), established the position of count to run large areas of his empire, and created a common coined currency for all the people of his empire. He even defended the Pope in Italy from another Germanic group known as the Lombards. In return, the Pope crowned Charlemagne the Holy Roman Emperor.
After Charlemagne’s death, as often happens when leaders hold a large amount of land, his kingdom was divided into three. One son basically held the area we know as France today, another the area of Germany, and the third, the land in between, where Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg are. Men from Scandinavia, known as the Vikings, would come down from the north and raid towns. It helped develop a system known as feudalism.
After Charlemagne’s death, as often happens when leaders hold a large amount of land, his kingdom was divided into three. One son basically held the area we know as France today, another the area of Germany, and the third, the land in between, where Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg are. Men from Scandinavia, known as the Vikings, would come down from the north and raid towns. It helped develop a system known as feudalism.
In feudalism, powerful lords controlled certain areas of land, known as fiefs, protected by knights who pledged loyalty to them. These lords could have other large land owners, or lesser lords, pledge loyalty to them, making a form of alliance for military protection. These lesser nobles were known as vassals. Most people were serfs, who worked the lord’s lands in exchange for protection if an attack occurred. Serfs were very close to slaves. The manor that the lord controlled was self-sufficient, it could supply most of what was needed to survive.
Feudalism created a social structure in Europe, as vassals pledged loyalty & armies in return for the land they were given by the lord. It gave a sense of control without a large central government such as the Roman Empire mandating their power through sending out governors. We dont only see feudalism in Europe, but Japan under the shoguns had a feudal system as well.
As we studied this year, the Roman Empire split into two parts, the eastern part continued on in the form of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. The religion of the empire was Eastern Orthodox Christianity and it was a major influence on the thinking and culture of the empire. In 1453, the Ottoman’s seized Constantinople, and the Roman Empire came to an end.
Feudalism created a social structure in Europe, as vassals pledged loyalty & armies in return for the land they were given by the lord. It gave a sense of control without a large central government such as the Roman Empire mandating their power through sending out governors. We dont only see feudalism in Europe, but Japan under the shoguns had a feudal system as well.
As we studied this year, the Roman Empire split into two parts, the eastern part continued on in the form of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. The religion of the empire was Eastern Orthodox Christianity and it was a major influence on the thinking and culture of the empire. In 1453, the Ottoman’s seized Constantinople, and the Roman Empire came to an end.
As the splendor and power of the Byzantine Empire was coming to an end, nations in western Europe were beginning to become more powerful. When the Western Roman Empire came to an end, the strongest influence on that part of Europe was the Roman Catholic Church. It dominated how people thought about the world, how it should be ruled, what should be created and built, etc. The Catholic Church owned a lot of land, had money, and was the one institution that united the people from the British Isles, through the German states, across France, and into both the Iberian and Italian peninsulas.
When trade began to flow back into Western Europe (thanks to the Mongols re-opening thriving trade routes to Europe), a new merchant class developed. Trade fairs were established along the rivers and trade routes of Western Europe. Lords pledged loyalty to stronger lords, and kings of nations began to develop. These kings started to create professional armies ready to fight on command. Along with the invention of gun powder, the days of knights were over. The use of paper money to signify the amount of gold someone had in a bank made trade move more easily. Instead of a division of people between nobility and peasants, a new class began to develop, the merchant class. Cities became more important than castles. The feudal system began to come to an end.
Along with trade, ideas, arts, and writings from other the Greeks and the Romans of the past that was preserved by the Byzantine Empire. Also, scholars from Byzantium began to make their way to Western Europe as the Ottomans began to dominate the lands of the former Roman Empire. With this revival in learning, people in western Europe began exploring and questioning the dominance that the Catholic Church had established in the western Europe.
When trade began to flow back into Western Europe (thanks to the Mongols re-opening thriving trade routes to Europe), a new merchant class developed. Trade fairs were established along the rivers and trade routes of Western Europe. Lords pledged loyalty to stronger lords, and kings of nations began to develop. These kings started to create professional armies ready to fight on command. Along with the invention of gun powder, the days of knights were over. The use of paper money to signify the amount of gold someone had in a bank made trade move more easily. Instead of a division of people between nobility and peasants, a new class began to develop, the merchant class. Cities became more important than castles. The feudal system began to come to an end.
Along with trade, ideas, arts, and writings from other the Greeks and the Romans of the past that was preserved by the Byzantine Empire. Also, scholars from Byzantium began to make their way to Western Europe as the Ottomans began to dominate the lands of the former Roman Empire. With this revival in learning, people in western Europe began exploring and questioning the dominance that the Catholic Church had established in the western Europe.
Several big events helped to shape Europe. In the mid 1300’s, the Black Death, or plague, traveled along trade routes from Asia into Europe on the fleas of rats. About 1/2 of the population of Europe died and it took until the 1800’s for Europe to reach pre-plague population counts. It broke the system of serfdom as the supply of workers were lower than the demand needed.
The city of Venice was becoming a wealthy city thanks to its importance to Mediterranean trade coming in from India. As money flowed into the city, people began to desire the finer things in life. The combination of wealth and re-introduction of Greco-Roman thought helped in part by the Byzantine scholars ushered in a time period known as the Renaissance (1450-1600). The Renaissance was a cultural movement that influenced the arts, literature, and thinking as people began to return to forms that were established by the Greeks & Romans of ancient times and away from the spiritual, other-worldly ideas of the Roman Catholic Church. Two of the famous artists of this time period were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. |
The Renaissance was not the only movement that sought to move people’s thoughts and ideas from being centered on the Roman Catholic Church during this time period. The Reformation was a rethinking of Christianity that split Christianity again, as the Great Schism did to Christianity many years earlier creating the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. In 1500, Roman Catholicism was the major branch of Christianity that people in western Europe lived under. One hundred years later, another branch of Christianity, known as Protestantism, would create several different type of Christian groups, known as denominations.
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- Roman Catholicism, at the highest levels had become powerful and wealthy. Sadly, some people were using the Church as a tool to gain more power. In 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther questioned the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. He believed the Church had added too many things that hindered people from knowing the Jesus of the Bible, and said that he wanted to return to what the early church taught rather than what he believed was added by the Popes during the Middle Ages. Protected by German princes, this “protest” created the Protestant branch of Christianity, and more specifically what we know as the Lutheran church today. Lutheranism became the Christian Church of northern Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Another branch of Protestant Christianity that developed during this time was by a man named John Calvin known as the Reformed movement. Calvin worked in the city of Geneva, Switzerland but his writings and beliefs became popular in the Netherlands and Scotland.
One thing that aided the advancement of Luther’s ideas about Christianity was the invention of the printing press by Johann Guttenberg. Before this time, books were expensive since they needed to be handwritten, and not many people were able to read. Now, with books and pamphlets being created quickly and cheaper, the access to people’s ideas in Europe grew and allowed people to be influenced by other sources from far away. More of the general public learned how to read. It also helped to standardized the languages of the countries of Europe and Latin became only used by the Roman Catholic Church.
Political changes also were brewing in Europe. During the Middle Ages, people believed that their rulers were appointed by God. They were taught this and the idea was endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church. Rebellion against your ruler would be as if you were rebelling against God. The idea that a ruler gained their authority to rule from God is known as “Divine Right”. As the authority of the Roman Catholic Church was reduced in western Europe due to the Reformation, along the influence of humanism popularized during the Renaissance, new ideas of how people should be governed began to be introduced.
England became the center of this movement away from Divine Right. First, in 1215, King John was forced by British nobles to sign a paper that said the king was not above the law. In the 1640’s, parliament went to war and ended the monarchy because they believed the king was taking too much power away from them, the representatives of the people (and attempting to make England a Catholic country again) in the English Civil War. The monarchy was brought back about a decade later, but near the end of the decade, again the king and parliament were at odds about how much power the king should have, parliament asked his daughter and the next in line to come back to England (she was living in the Netherlands) with her husband to fight for the throne. The king fled, and the victory of parliament was known as the Glorious Revolution and led to the writing of the English Bill of RIghts. By the time of the 1700’s John Locke popularized several ideas that were going to have a profound affect on the founding of the United States a short time later. One of these ideas is known as “natural rights”, that each person enters the world with basic rights that comes from the fact he/she is a human being, not from any human government. He stated there were three basic rights; that of life, liberty, and property.
Another idea, that is an extension of natural rights, is the social contract theory of government. Locke believed governments were created in order to protect people’s natural rights. In order for a government to protect people’s rights, the people sacrifice to the government parts of their freedom, but in doing so now the government has the power to protect your rights. For example. you have the natural right to anyone’s property and/or house. No one, not even the government can enter without the owner’s permission. Locke also gave us the idea that if a government begins to take away too much of their people’s freedoms, it is the right of the people to overthrow the government because the government had broken the contract. Have you ever heard anything like that before?
However, even bigger changes in the world were yet to come…
Political changes also were brewing in Europe. During the Middle Ages, people believed that their rulers were appointed by God. They were taught this and the idea was endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church. Rebellion against your ruler would be as if you were rebelling against God. The idea that a ruler gained their authority to rule from God is known as “Divine Right”. As the authority of the Roman Catholic Church was reduced in western Europe due to the Reformation, along the influence of humanism popularized during the Renaissance, new ideas of how people should be governed began to be introduced.
England became the center of this movement away from Divine Right. First, in 1215, King John was forced by British nobles to sign a paper that said the king was not above the law. In the 1640’s, parliament went to war and ended the monarchy because they believed the king was taking too much power away from them, the representatives of the people (and attempting to make England a Catholic country again) in the English Civil War. The monarchy was brought back about a decade later, but near the end of the decade, again the king and parliament were at odds about how much power the king should have, parliament asked his daughter and the next in line to come back to England (she was living in the Netherlands) with her husband to fight for the throne. The king fled, and the victory of parliament was known as the Glorious Revolution and led to the writing of the English Bill of RIghts. By the time of the 1700’s John Locke popularized several ideas that were going to have a profound affect on the founding of the United States a short time later. One of these ideas is known as “natural rights”, that each person enters the world with basic rights that comes from the fact he/she is a human being, not from any human government. He stated there were three basic rights; that of life, liberty, and property.
Another idea, that is an extension of natural rights, is the social contract theory of government. Locke believed governments were created in order to protect people’s natural rights. In order for a government to protect people’s rights, the people sacrifice to the government parts of their freedom, but in doing so now the government has the power to protect your rights. For example. you have the natural right to anyone’s property and/or house. No one, not even the government can enter without the owner’s permission. Locke also gave us the idea that if a government begins to take away too much of their people’s freedoms, it is the right of the people to overthrow the government because the government had broken the contract. Have you ever heard anything like that before?
However, even bigger changes in the world were yet to come…
5.2 Off to America
Muslims during the Golden Age of Islam improved sailing with the invention of the sextant, while re-establishing trade with China brought the compass. Great wealth was to be had if one could access to the Indian Ocean trade of the spices of Asia. Spices that would enhance the taste of any food (especially rotten food). |
For Europeans, going through the Mediterranean Sea would bring two problems. One, the Italian city of Venice controlled many of the trading cities of the Western part of the sea. Due to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans had the eastern side and the land route to Asia all but locked up. The Ottomans charged a tax on spices that passed through their empire on the way to Europe. But the people of Europe wanted spices at the cheapest price possible, and European entrepreneurs would attempt to supply that demand. People in countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean began to think of ways to reach the Indian Ocean trade on their own.
Portugal, on the Iberian Peninsula, was the first to make this attempt. Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, established a school to train sea captains. They sailed south along the western shores of Africa, establishing trade and supply ports. After Henry’s death, the drive to continue stalled, until in 1488, when Bartholomew Dias became the first European to lead a a crew around the Cape of Good Hope. It took another 10 years for Vasco da Gama, another captain for Portugal to land in India.
An Italian captain had a different idea. The Portuguese had built trading ports around the African coast. Christopher Columbus proposed to sail east, across the Atlantic, and reach India that way. He knew the world was round, he was just wrong on how big the earth was. He approached the Spanish monarch, Ferdinand & Isabella, whose marriage united the two most powerful families in Spain. They also had recently driven the last Muslim power out of Spain in 1492. With spare cash no longer needed to fight the Muslim Moors, they financed Columbus’ trip. On October 12 of 1492, land was spotted; the beginnings of the Americas we know today begun.
Spain began to spread out across the Americas, from the southern United States, to the tip of South America. They took the land of the indigenous people, the Amerindians. Many different tribes lived in the Americas. One of the most fierce were the Aztecs who controlled Mexico. The surrounding tribes were afraid of them since the Aztecs often raided them to collect people for human sacrifices to their gods. When the Spaniard, Hernan Cortes, wanted to defeat the Aztecs, these tribes were willing to help.
An Italian captain had a different idea. The Portuguese had built trading ports around the African coast. Christopher Columbus proposed to sail east, across the Atlantic, and reach India that way. He knew the world was round, he was just wrong on how big the earth was. He approached the Spanish monarch, Ferdinand & Isabella, whose marriage united the two most powerful families in Spain. They also had recently driven the last Muslim power out of Spain in 1492. With spare cash no longer needed to fight the Muslim Moors, they financed Columbus’ trip. On October 12 of 1492, land was spotted; the beginnings of the Americas we know today begun.
Spain began to spread out across the Americas, from the southern United States, to the tip of South America. They took the land of the indigenous people, the Amerindians. Many different tribes lived in the Americas. One of the most fierce were the Aztecs who controlled Mexico. The surrounding tribes were afraid of them since the Aztecs often raided them to collect people for human sacrifices to their gods. When the Spaniard, Hernan Cortes, wanted to defeat the Aztecs, these tribes were willing to help.
5.3 The Columbian Exchange
Imagine Italian food without tomato sauce. Before Columbus sailed to the Americas and the Old World met the New, this was the case. Tomatoes were not indigenous to the Eastern Hemisphere. Neither were potatoes, but they quickly became a staple food for the Irish. Tomatoes and potatoes did not need to be grown in “perfect” soil. Peppers, corn, sweet potatoes, and pineapples made their way to Europe. In fact, a sea captain would place a pineapple on his gate to indicate that to his neighbors that he had returned from his voyage. |
Europe sent to the Americas such Old World foods as wheat, rice, onions, grapes, bananas, coffee bean, and sugar cane. Europe even introduced animals to the New World. Cattle, horses, and pigs were not native to the Americas. The wide open acreage allowed these animals to multiply rapidly and increased people’s ability to eat meat. Before Columbus, the largest pack animal was the llama in the Americas. If people were to travel great distances, it would be on foot. Horses changed that. And there were no beasts of burden to strap on a plow on to prepare a field for farming, but the Europeans introduced cattle and millions of acres were converted to farmland. The introduction of Old World and New World foods, animals, and disease became known as the Columbian Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange was not all pleasant, as the Europeans brought diseases not known in the Americas. Without immunities to these sicknesses, it is estimated that millions of Amerindians died. Smallpox, measles, and malaria were introduced to the Americas. There wasn’t even a flu season in the Americas until Columbus. It is said that both the Inca and Aztecs empires were more easily defeated since their people were suffering from European sicknesses as the Spanish attacked.
The Columbian Exchange was not all pleasant, as the Europeans brought diseases not known in the Americas. Without immunities to these sicknesses, it is estimated that millions of Amerindians died. Smallpox, measles, and malaria were introduced to the Americas. There wasn’t even a flu season in the Americas until Columbus. It is said that both the Inca and Aztecs empires were more easily defeated since their people were suffering from European sicknesses as the Spanish attacked.
5.4 Competition
As goods from the Americas and Asia began flowing into Europe from Spanish and Portuguese ships, other countries of Europe did not want to be left out. The Dutch, who had recently won their independence from the Hapsburg empire, as well as the French and British decided they wanted in on the action. All the countries held to mercantilist ideas of the economy. |
Mercantilism wanted all trade to stay within a nation’s country. These nations did not want to import anything from another country. Colonies would be set up in the Americas to provide the countries of Europe with raw materials, in return, the European countries that owned the colonies would ship finished goods to the colonies. Trade would be banned from other European countries in order for a country’s gold supply (which was used for payment) would remain in the country. Of course this made the country’s producers happy but the consumer could not get what they wanted (if it was an imported good) at a fair price.
The Dutch, French, and British searched for the allusive Northwest Passage, a sea route located in the northern hemisphere of the Americas that would allow ships to freely sail to Asia. Jacques Cartier, sailed through what is known today as the St. Lawrence Seaway. He made it into the interior of North America to modern day Montreal, and claimed the region for the French. LaSalle and the pair of Marquette, a priest and Joliet, a fur trader, explored the Great Lakes region and Mississippi River area for the French. However, it is Samuel Champlain who would establish the French colony of New France and its capital of Quebec City.
Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch in 1609, searched for a route south of Cape Cod. He entered both the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays before deciding on exploring an area first explored by Giovanni Verrazano in the 1520’s. He sailed up the river, now known as the Hudson River, as far as Albany. He claimed the lands surrounding the river, including the island of Manhattan, for the Dutch. The following year, Hudson sailed for the British and sailed to northern Canada looking for the Passage. Hudson Bay was discovered at this time. However, having to spend a winter in the region, and Hudson’s desire to push to Asia the following spring, led to a mutiny, in which Hudson, his son, and some supporters were set adrift on a rowboat.
With the Dutch controlling New York, the French and the British set up colonies surrounding it. The French built settlement in Canada and around the Great Lakes region. They were not focused on bringing settlers over, but on building relationships with the Amerindians of the region in order to supply European markets with fur pelts. French Catholic missionaries also came to these settlements to introduce Christianity to the Amerindians.
The Dutch, French, and British searched for the allusive Northwest Passage, a sea route located in the northern hemisphere of the Americas that would allow ships to freely sail to Asia. Jacques Cartier, sailed through what is known today as the St. Lawrence Seaway. He made it into the interior of North America to modern day Montreal, and claimed the region for the French. LaSalle and the pair of Marquette, a priest and Joliet, a fur trader, explored the Great Lakes region and Mississippi River area for the French. However, it is Samuel Champlain who would establish the French colony of New France and its capital of Quebec City.
Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch in 1609, searched for a route south of Cape Cod. He entered both the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays before deciding on exploring an area first explored by Giovanni Verrazano in the 1520’s. He sailed up the river, now known as the Hudson River, as far as Albany. He claimed the lands surrounding the river, including the island of Manhattan, for the Dutch. The following year, Hudson sailed for the British and sailed to northern Canada looking for the Passage. Hudson Bay was discovered at this time. However, having to spend a winter in the region, and Hudson’s desire to push to Asia the following spring, led to a mutiny, in which Hudson, his son, and some supporters were set adrift on a rowboat.
With the Dutch controlling New York, the French and the British set up colonies surrounding it. The French built settlement in Canada and around the Great Lakes region. They were not focused on bringing settlers over, but on building relationships with the Amerindians of the region in order to supply European markets with fur pelts. French Catholic missionaries also came to these settlements to introduce Christianity to the Amerindians.
5.5 The British are Coming
At the start of the 16th century (1500), the Hapsburg dynasty stretched across Europe, from Vienna, the German states, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the Americas. The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain) even had his aunt, Catherine of Aragon, married to the King of England, Henry VIII, to assure a relative on that throne as well. Catherine could not give Henry a son, only a daughter, Mary. Henry left the Roman Catholic Church and created the Church of England (Anglican Church) with himself as the head and married Anne Boleyn. They had a daughter, Elizabeth. Henry eventually had a son, but both he and the son died allowing Mary to become Queen. Mary married Charles V son, Phillip, and if they had children, would make England another country under Hapsburg rule. But Mary died before she gave birth to a child, and the next in line to throne, Elizabeth, became Queen in 1558. |
The Spanish sought to have Phillip marry Elizabeth, but she wouldn’t accept the proposal. The Spanish, seeking to both expand its power over Europe, as well as make England a Catholic country once again, attempted to place Mary, Queen of Scotland (Elizabeth’s cousin) on the throne of England. It failed and ended in Mary’s execution.
The tension between Spain and England came to a head in 1588 when the Spanish sent 130 ships to England to overthrow
Queen Elizabeth. The English and Dutch ship harassed the Spanish fleet, but it was a storm that caused much damage to the ships that ended the attempt. One third of the ships were lost. Many historians point to the defeat of the Spanish Armada as the mark in history where the Spanish Hapsburgs began to lose their power while the British began their rise to become the most powerful nation in Europe. One thing we can notice that happened soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the British begin colonizing America in earnest.
Queen Elizabeth. The English and Dutch ship harassed the Spanish fleet, but it was a storm that caused much damage to the ships that ended the attempt. One third of the ships were lost. Many historians point to the defeat of the Spanish Armada as the mark in history where the Spanish Hapsburgs began to lose their power while the British began their rise to become the most powerful nation in Europe. One thing we can notice that happened soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the British begin colonizing America in earnest.
The British sought to colonize North America. The first attempt on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1587 ended in failure as a small group of settlers were left to build a town as the British ship sailed back for supplies. However, when war with the Spanish broke out, it made it difficult for the ship to return. When a ship could return, they found an abandoned settlement with no signs of struggle with the word CROATAN carved into a tree.
The British, desiring to grow another American crop made popular in Europe, tobacco, sent out another group of settlers in 1607. The Jamestown colony, under the leadership of Captain John Smith, became the first permanent British settlement in North America. British colonists would come to the Americas for reasons other than making a profit as well.
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The reason why Christopher Columbus approached the Spanish King and Queen was that sending ships out was expensive. If the ships sank without bringing anything of value back, the person who put up the money would not only lose the ship, but the profit that they expected. It was a huge risk.
England allowed citizens to put up their money to send out expeditions to the Americas and around the world. In order to do this, the citizens had to figure out a way to collect all that money while reducing the risk. They created the Joint Stock Company. Investors would give money to buy shares in the company and take the same percentage of the profits. For example, if it cost $1million to send a ship to America, you could buy a 10% share for $100,000. If the ship sank, you would not be liable (responsible) for the whole $1 million. You would also own 10% of the company, get a share of the profits, and if it was successful company, sell your shares for more than you paid for it. One such joint-stock company that sent a ship to the Americas was the Virginia Company.
Eventually, Jamestown created the first representative government in the Americas in 1619, but after an Amerindian attack on the colony, the King revoked the agreement of the Virginia Company, and Virginia became a Royal Colony.
England allowed citizens to put up their money to send out expeditions to the Americas and around the world. In order to do this, the citizens had to figure out a way to collect all that money while reducing the risk. They created the Joint Stock Company. Investors would give money to buy shares in the company and take the same percentage of the profits. For example, if it cost $1million to send a ship to America, you could buy a 10% share for $100,000. If the ship sank, you would not be liable (responsible) for the whole $1 million. You would also own 10% of the company, get a share of the profits, and if it was successful company, sell your shares for more than you paid for it. One such joint-stock company that sent a ship to the Americas was the Virginia Company.
Eventually, Jamestown created the first representative government in the Americas in 1619, but after an Amerindian attack on the colony, the King revoked the agreement of the Virginia Company, and Virginia became a Royal Colony.
When studying the Reformation, we learned England became a Protestant country. However, there where English Protestants who believed the Church of England (Anglican Church) kept too much of ideas of Roman Catholicism. They wanted to purify the Church of England of these things, and were known as Puritans. Another group wanted to separate from the Church of England all together and create their own Protestant church, they were known as Separatists. We know them today as Pilgrims, named after a word that is used for people who take a religious journey. |
At first Pilgrims left England for the Netherlands where they were more free to practice their form of Christianity. After several years there, the Pilgrims began to notice their children were growing up Dutch, not British. They arranged passage with the London Company and landed in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. Before landing, the settlers agreed to a document promising to meet from time to time to vote on colonial issues. This document is the Mayflower Compact and is seen as the first written constitution in the Americas.
Although many on the ship came here for religious freedom, some came to make money. Even the Pilgrims came to America knowing they had to earn money to survive. They exported furs, agricultural goods (crops such as pumpkin and corn), and fish to create income, but it never was a wealthy colony.
When Elizabeth died, her cousins, the Stuarts from Scotland became kings of England. Charles I was seen as being too friendly with Catholic nations, and Puritan ministers were being thrown in jail for refusing to fully follow the Church of England, so Puritans began to raise funds themselves to come to America, settling in the Massachusetts Bay and founding the town of Boston.
Many of the laws in the land were aligned with Puritan religious belief. In fact, you had to be a member of a church to vote. But like Plymouth, settlers could not come just to have freedom to worship as they wished, they had to earn money. The Massachusetts Bay Colony quickly became known for shipbuilding, fish, furs, and lumber.
Although many on the ship came here for religious freedom, some came to make money. Even the Pilgrims came to America knowing they had to earn money to survive. They exported furs, agricultural goods (crops such as pumpkin and corn), and fish to create income, but it never was a wealthy colony.
When Elizabeth died, her cousins, the Stuarts from Scotland became kings of England. Charles I was seen as being too friendly with Catholic nations, and Puritan ministers were being thrown in jail for refusing to fully follow the Church of England, so Puritans began to raise funds themselves to come to America, settling in the Massachusetts Bay and founding the town of Boston.
Many of the laws in the land were aligned with Puritan religious belief. In fact, you had to be a member of a church to vote. But like Plymouth, settlers could not come just to have freedom to worship as they wished, they had to earn money. The Massachusetts Bay Colony quickly became known for shipbuilding, fish, furs, and lumber.
5.6 The Arrival of Slaves
Not all settlers came here willingly. The Portuguese, as they made their way around west Africa, had discovered the slave trade that was taking place there between the Africans and Muslim traders. They came involved as well. When the Spanish came to the islands of the Caribbean, they discovered sugar. However, processing sugar was physically demanding due to the heat involved and they could not encourage many Spaniards to come to America to take the jobs (remember the Black Death had allowed workers more value due to the low supply). Also, the Indians were sick and dying by the diseases the European brought with them. So the Spanish turned to the slave trade. The British did as well as they were developing large plantations and needed workers to farm the crops they were growing. They began what was known as the Triangular Trade. |
Slaves were bought in Africa for guns and rum, shipped to the colonies, stopping in the Caribbean to pick up molasses from the sugar plantations, sailing up to New England where the molasses was made into rum, which was shipped to Africa starting it all over again. The journey of the slaves was known as the Middle Passage. They were packed into the ships. Many of the Africans, not use to the sea voyage, the strange language being spoken, and the horrific conditions dies during the trip.
5.7 France vs. England The English did defeat the Dutch (the Netherlands) for control of the land that we know as New York today, but the country they fought for control of most of North America was the French. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was part of a larger European war known as the Seven Years War which pitted Great Britain and her allies against France and her allies. In North America, England claimed settled lands along the Atlantic coast while the French’s claim were along the St. Lawrence River in Canada. The British sent many settlers over who were making a new life for themselves, while the French had mostly fur trappers and people who traded with the Amerindians. It is said that the British had 15 times the population that the French had in North America at the time of the war. The French began building forts near the area we call Ohio today. The British saw this an infringement on their land claims in the area. It would also prevent the larger British population from expanding into that area. The British and French sent units from their home countries, made allies, and asked colonial militias (armies) to fight. One of the officers in the British colonial militia was a young man named George Washington. The British were victorious and won control of all the land to the Great Lakes and Canada. However, the victory came at a great cost to England. They were in debt because of the worldwide war and began to pass laws that instituted taxes on the colonists to pay off the debt. The problem was that the colonists became angry because they had no representative in the British parliament to voice their opinions on the taxes. And that would lead to another war... |