Colonial Simulation

1. Colonial Simulation Adapted from http://sunclaw.tripod.com/p8.html By Miss Davis

2. Atlantic Voyage It is April of 1614, and your ships are ready and the colonists are eager. After packing up the barest personal essentials, you board your ships and set sail for the New World. The voyage will take approximately four months as you sail south from England to the Canary Islands, then west along the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic. The journey however is more difficult than your worst fears. On day 86, you run across a terrible storm, and a strong wind drive your ships every which way. Your captain and crew hurry about, frantically trying to hold the ship together. For five days, your ships are tossed about like children's toys, but eventually you survive the worst of it. The storm eventually stops and the clouds clear. You are now off course though, and it is up to your navigator to correct the error. CLICK HERE if you hired an expert navigator. CLICK HERE if you did not hire an expert navigator.

3. New Jersey Thankfully, your navigator sets you back on course and you arrive in New Jersey territory safely - though you are unwashed, ill, and half starved. You eagerly come ashore to set up your colony. The land before you is filled with opportunity, but it is also a wilderness filled with danger and the unknown.

4. Home Sweet Home Now the real work begins. First you build a fort. You offload the supplies into a company storehouse and the building continues. Your first cabins are made of thatch, just like back in England, but soon you take advantage of the forest looming about, and your colonists begin to construct sturdy wooden homes. Most important is the church. Now the big question is whether your colony will be successful. How did your company plan on making money? CLICK HERE if you planned on searching for gold. CLICK HERE if you planned on raising cash crops. CLICK HERE if you came to the New World for religious freedom.

5. The Search for Gold The Spanish have taken shiploads of gold and wealth from South America, but there seems to be no gold anywhere around your colony. A crisis looms ahead. If there is no gold, then how will your colony make a profit? If you make no profit, then your joint-stock company will go bankrupt. Is there any other way to make money before it's too late? CLICK HERE if your colony had purchased tobacco seed before leaving London. CLICK HERE if your colony did not purchase tobacco seed.

6. Question of Supplies The weeks drag on and so does the construction, it becomes more apparent that the quality of the supplies you purchased will play an important role during the colony's survival for the first year. CLICK HERE if you purchased “exceptional” supplies. CLICK HERE if you purchased “sufficient” supplies. CLICK HERE if you purchased “meager” supplies.

7. Uncharted Bay Without an expert navigator, you find your ships terribly off course. You head west, but your hopes of landing near the other settlements are lost. Eventually you make landfall on day 124. The bay is perfect and the land is beautiful and untamed. You have reached the New World. You are now safe - though you are unwashed, ill, and half starved. You eagerly come ashore to set up your colony. As you build your settlement, the question remains, should you try to contact the other colonies somewhere to the south? Jamestown is strongly tied to the Church of England. Are you? Did you come here for religious freedom? Maybe you are better off separated from Virginia. CLICK HERE if you came to the new world for religious freedom. CLICK HERE if you came to the new world for a different reason.

8. A Separate Colony Your colony was conceived with the need for religious freedom. Away from Virginia, you have a chance to start afresh in the New World. You will communicate and trade with Jamestown, but from here on out, you have founded a completely new and separate colony.

9. Close Ties to Neighbors Your colony is part of the Church of England, and close contact with the other colonies will only serve to strengthen your colony. They have survived for many years thus far, and there is much you can learn from them. You are sure that your colony and the other colonies will become strongly allied.

10. Time of Growth Your colony enters a period of growth. You clear away farmland and your colonists spread out into the surrounding wilderness to create homesteads. At the same time you are building on land belonging to the local Indian tribes. CLICK HERE if you decided on a policy of “friendly cooperation” CLICK HERE if you decided on a policy of “indifference” or “aggression”

11. Skilled Labor The American wilderness is more severe than you anticipated, and you are less prepared than you originally believed. The land comes in from all sides - wild and unpredictable. Everyday new hardships arise and your decreasing supplies begin to worry you. There is much work to do. You must set up mills, plant food crops, tend to livestock, and of course, continue constructing your fortifications. You did hire skilled tradesmen before leaving London, but have you hired enough to succeed? CLICK HERE if you hired at least 10 skilled tradesmen (not counting soldiers.) CLICK HERE if you hired less than 10 skilled tradesmen.

12. Starving Time Your lack of supplies quickly proves to be your downfall. Your buildings are inadequate, but more importantly, you are quickly running out of food. You do not know your environment well enough to forage for all your colonists, and your attempts at growing crops are failing miserably. Your colony is facing starvation. What was your policy on dealing with the native tribes? CLICK HERE if you decided on a policy of “friendly cooperation” CLICK HERE if you decided on a policy of “indifference” or “aggression”

13. Indian Wars Your encroachment onto Native American territory leads to war. Violence grows quickly as both sides start fighting over the land. Then, one terrible morning, the Indians launch a bloody assault, leaving over 35 of your colonists dead. Now there's a shooting war outside your fort walls. Both sides become guilty of terrible brutality. Where will it end? CLICK HERE if you decide to seek peace with the Native Americans. CLICK HERE if you continue to advance on tribal lands.

14. Got Soldiers The war escalates. You are outnumbered. Worst than that, your enemy can slip through the woods as quietly as ghosts. It is only by the cannon and musket that you can hope to win. Did you manage to bring any soldiers with you? CLICK HERE if you hired at least one squad of soldiers (15 men). CLICK HERE if you did not hire one squad of soldiers (15 men).

15. Quest of Expansion You are forced to institute "Martial Law." Every adult male in the colony now serves in the militia. Concerns of family and personal freedom come second to musket drills and guard duty. The toll upon your colony's social freedoms is considerable, and you can only wonder at the long term consequences. As the war continues, the Indians are slowly pushed back from their land. Much of the first year has gone by. You and your colonists survived much suffering, made unforeseen sacrifices, and overcame many obstacles. Now that things are beginning to seem stable, you face a dangerous choice. Beyond the boundaries of your colony is the great unknown of the North American continent. What lies out there? King James is hoping to discover a Northwest Passage - a sea route leading to China. Is it worth the costs and risks of exploring into the wilderness, or should you conserve your resources and focus upon strengthening your colony? CLICK HERE if you wish to brave the dangers and explore the unknown. CLICK HERE if you choose to do the safe thing and spend your time and resources nurturing your colony.

16. Exploration Your colony has survived much uncertainty and hardship, and the time has come to expand your holdings. Captain John Smith of Jamestown has been mapping the Atlantic coastline, finding many incredible places suitable for future colonization. Now it is your turn to send scouts into the North American wilderness to map beyond the safe boundaries of your growing colony. What will you find in that vast wild? What dangers lurk in the unknown? Where are England's great enemies - the Spanish and the French? Despite any trepidations and fears, you must forge ahead.

17. Blue Ridge Your scouts explore for the rest of the year into the deep wilderness. Some never return. None of your scouts are able to locate a Northeast Passage into the Pacific Ocean and on to China, but they do find a vast mountain range that seems to turn blue in the dawn and the dusk. You give these mountains, which the Indians call the Appalachians, a nickname - the Blue Ridge. These mountains will form the western boundary of your colony. Maybe in future years, you will be able to explore further West and find the Pacific Ocean.

18. Prosperity Your first year has ended successfully. In spite of war and other hardships, you have created a new foothold for the English to settle the New World. Over the following years thousands of arriving colonists will begin new lives in your colony, bringing their hopes and dreams with them. Your crops are successful and trade with England continues to increase. Your joint-stock company has made money and the King should be very pleased with your efforts. Yet, as you survey the maps of your vast colony, you stop to think about the native tribes who lost their homes and lands. You mourn the many dead. Was it all worth it? THE END- CLICK HERE

19. Thanksgiving The native tribes accept your offer of friendship and they work with you - teaching you what crops to grow and what to hunt. Hand and hand you and your new neighbors see your colony through its important chicken year. It's a time of peace and plenty and at the year's end you hold a big feast. All are invited to attend. However there is a problem - your colony can not grow any larger. To do so will betray your friendship with the Indians and may lead to war. Yet new ships are beginning to arrive from England bringing more colonist eager for property and a fresh start. The demand for more land will be overwhelming. What will happen if you begin to take territory away from the Indians? Yes, the future is uncertain, but for now at least, your colony is safe, well fed, and cozy. THE END- CLICK HERE

20. The Agony of Defeat The fighting goes on for weeks, but you are clearly losing. There are now more dead than alive. You eat and sleep with your musket close at hand, but you know it's only a matter of time. All the men in your colony are forced to ban together as militia, which are citizen-soldiers; but this last desperate measure is too little, too late. You feel dead inside as you surrender to the inevitable. Perhaps the hardest thing is the knowledge that you are the invader here. You regret not seeking peace when you had the chance, maybe things would have turned out different. The supply ship from England won't arrive for several more months. You wonder whether or not they'll find the remains of your colony. THE END- CLICK HERE

21. Lost Colony From a safe distance, the Native Americans watch your colony dwindle and die. They wonder from where you came that you lacked the basic skills necessary to survive in such a bountiful land. As winter comes and blankets the countryside, all traces of your colony are covered up and lost forever. The following summer, a supply ship arrives from England, but after a month of fruitless searching, they give up and return to London. Those family and friends back home will long wonder what happened to "the Lost Colony." THE END- CLICK HERE

22. Failed Colony Your colony has no way to make a profit this year, and your investors will lose faith in your company once they learn that there is no gold. Meanwhile the colonists are losing heart and work production suffers. It is apparent that everything is falling apart; discipline is nonexistent; and morale is at an all time low. The colony has failed. The best that you can hope for is to survive long enough for a supply ship to arrive and take you back to England. THE END- CLICK HERE

23. Reflection Report After completing the simulation with your group members, you will write your own report on the current status of your colony. • What happened to your colony in the PowerPoint simulation? Include what happened along the journey and what happened to your colony in the end. • Were you happy with how things turned out or would you go back and change any of your decisions? Explain why or why not.