APUSH STUDY SESSION #1

1. APUSH STUDY SESSION #1 Pre-Columbian America through 1692 (Chapters 1-4)

2. Pre-Columbian America • NATIVE AMERICANS IN PRE-COLUMBIAN NORTH AMERICA • Native Americans are most likely descendents of migrants who crossed the Bering Strait • Migration took place between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago • 21-26 million lived here when Columbus arrived • Most were hunters and gatherers • Believed in animism and reverenced nature • Had minimal impact on the environment • Success of groups often depended on their environment • Tribes were independent and competed against one another for resources • Made them slow to unify against European settlers

3. Early Colonization of the New World (1492-1650) • EARLY COLONIAL ERA: SPAIN COLONIZES THE NEW WORLD • Vikings arrived first in the 11th century • Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492 • Started period of sustained contact between Europe and the Americas • Eventually led to the establishment of the Columbian Exchange • He had the resources and technology to establish colonies far from home • Started a long period of European expansion and colonialism in the Americas

4. Spain was THE colonial power in the Americas for a century • Conquistadors dominated Native Americans and the Spanish Armada prevented other powers from sending their own expeditions • Settled along the coast in Central and South America and the West Indies • Exploited regions they conquered • Natives were enslaved on encomiendas • Locals were slaughtered or died from exposure to smallpox • Natural resources were extracted and sent to Europe • Lost their advantage when the English Navy defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588

5. THE ENGLISH ARRIVE • England’s first attempt at colonization failed at Roanoke in 1587 • First successful colonization occurred at Jamestown, VA in 1607 • Funded by a joint-stock company called the Virginia Company • Group of investors who bought the right to establish plantations in the New World from the king • Location was terrible and English gentlemen couldn’t adapt • Only succeeded because Captain John Smith imposed harsh martial law • During the starving time of 1609-1610, some resorted to cannibalism while others abandoned the settlement

6. Powhatan Confederacy taught the English which crops to plant • Hoped alliance with the British would help them overpower rival tribes • Growth of tobacco helped the colony tremendously • Required vast acreage and depleted the soil, so it led to rapid expansion of the colony • Also led to the development of plantation slavery • Area became known as the Chesapeake • Included modern Virginia and Maryland

7. People migrated to the Chesapeake for financial reasons • Overpopulation in England limited opportunities • Many were attracted to America because of indentured servitude (75% of immigrants) • In return for free passage, indentured servants promised 7 years’ labor and then received their freedom • They also received land which helped them survive and vote • Virginia Company introduced the headright system in 1618 to attract new laborers for the tobacco plantations • Gave 50 acres to settlers • Wealthy investors accumulated land by paying passage for indentured servants and gaining a headright for each person they sponsored • Became the basis for the emerging aristocracy • Hindered development of democracy • Infringed on rights of Native Americans • House of Burgesses was established in 1619 • All property-holding white males could vote

8. FRENCH COLONIZATION OF NORTH AMERICA • French initially colonized modern Canada • Quebec was established as the first French colony in 1608 • Similar to Spanish and English colonization • French Jesuits tried to convert Native Americans to Roman Catholicism • Spread diseases • Wanted to exploit the New World’s natural resources and find a shortcut to Asia

9. Also differed from Spanish and English colonization • Had a smaller impact on the Native Americans • Few French settlers traveled to America and those who did were single men • Many stayed on the move as fur traders • Played a significant role in the French and Indian War from 1754-1763, but didn’t impact the development of North America as much as the British • Edict of Nantes (1598) spared Huguenots from persecution and kept them from leaving France

10. PILGRIMS AND MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY • Puritans were English Calvinists who wanted to purify the Anglican church of Roman Catholic practices and who founded Plymouth • Persecuted in 17th century England • Separatists left for Holland but then decided to immigrate to the New World in 1620 • They were called pilgrims and set sail for VA • Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact while on their journey • Created legal authority and an assembly • Said that the government’s power derives its consent from the governed

11. Puritans accidentally landed in MA and founded Plymouth • Also received life-saving assistance from the Native Americans • Squanto interpreted and taught the pilgrims how to farm effectively • Interacted less with Native Americans because those in MA had suffered from a devastating plague • Did not grant religious freedom

12. Congregationalists founded a larger and more powerful colony called Massachusetts Bay in 1629 • Governor John Winthrop helped create this colony which embraced Puritan ideals • Called for colonists to be a “city upon a hill” • Settlers were strict Calvinists whose beliefs affected their daily lives • Also developed a plantation colony dependent on slave labor • Did not grant religious freedom • Roger Williams was banished and founded Rhode Island • Allowed religious freedom • Anne Hutchinson was tried and convicted of heresy and banished

13. Puritans stopped migrating during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, but resumed under the Stuart kings • English Puritans had different experiences in the Chesapeake (VA and MD) and New England (MA etc.) • Chesapeake • Immigrants were often single males and families were smaller • Lived in smaller, spread-out farming communities • New England • Immigrants often traveled with their whole family • Climate was more hospitable, so families were larger • Settled in large towns that were close to one another • Because of strong sense of community and absence of tobacco as a cash crop • More religious and often settled near meetinghouses • Puritans stopped migrating during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, but resumed under the Stuart kings

14. OTHER EARLY COLONIES • Connecticut was a proprietary colony settled by the English (Proprietary were owned by one person who usually received the land as a gift from the king) • Had a fertile valley with sea access • Pequot Indians resisted English settlements in the Pequot War • Pequot were nearly destroyed • Produced the Fundamental Orders, which were considered to be the first written constitution in British North America

15. Maryland was a proprietary colony granted to Lord Baltimore • Became a haven for members of all Christians • First major Catholic enclave in the New World • When Protestants outnumbered Catholics, Maryland passed the Act of Toleration (1649) • Protected most Christians

16. New York was a royal gift to James, brother of the king • New York was initially settled by the Dutch, who called it New Netherland • English waged a war against the Dutch • Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered along with 400 civilians • King Charles II gave the colony to his brother, James (the Duke of York) • New Jersey was a royal colony given to friends by Charles II • They sold it to Quaker investors

17. Pennsylvania became a royal colony given to William Penn by Charles II • Quakers received their own colony • Penn allowed religious freedom and extensive civil liberties • Recruited settlers through advertising • Treated the Native Americans more fairly than other colonies • Carolina was a proprietary colony that split into two • North Carolina was settled by Virginians and was modeled after Virginia • South Carolina was settled by English descendents who had colonized Barbados • Marked the beginning of the slave era in the colonies

18. Eventually, most proprietary colonies became royal colonies • Ownership was taken over by the king who could control their governments • By 1775, only Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were NOT royal colonies

19. SLAVERY IN THE EARLY COLONIES • Indentured servants initially provided most of the labor • Enslavement of Native Americans was difficult • Extensive use of African slaves began when English colonists from the Caribbean settled in South Carolina • Tobacco and rice cultivation required more workers • African s were easier to control and were less likely to escape • English rationalized slavery because they viewed dark skin as a sign of inferiority

20. The majority of African slaves went to Brazil and the Caribbean • 500,000 slaves were transported to the English colonies by 1775 • 700,000 blacks were slaves in the US by 1790 • Slaves were transported via the Middle Passage in a triangular trade route that linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas • This was incredibly inhumane • Slavery flourished in the South • Chesapeake and the Carolinas focused on labor-intensive crops like tobacco, rice, and indigo • Treatment of slaves was vicious and sadistic • Slaves sent to the North often served as domestic servants

21. The Age of Salutary Neglect (1650-1750) • SALUTARY NEGLECT • Referred to British treatment of the colonies up until the French and Indian War • England regulated trade and government in its colonies, but interfered in colonial affairs as little as possible • Colonies governed themselves and developed a high degree of autonomy • This eventually fueled revolutionary fervor • A new American culture took root during this time period

22. ENGLISH REGULATION OF COLONIAL TRADE • Mercantilism was the prevailing economic theory • Economic power was rooted in a favorable balance of trade and was based on the control of hard currency • Believed colonies were most important for economic reasons • British encouraged manufacturing in England in order to guarantee a favorable balance of trade • Passed protective tariffs on imports that might compete with British goods • A number of these, including the Navigation Acts, were passed between 1651 and 1673

23. Navigation Acts helped England while hurting the colonies • Required colonists to: • Buy goods from England alone • Sell certain goods only to England • Buy non-English goods in English ports and pay a tax on these imports • Not produce a number of goods that England produced • Sought to control colonial commerce and were moderately successful • It was easy to smuggle goods in and out of the colonies • British attempted to strengthen the Navigation Acts • Military courts were established without a jury • Boards of Trade were set up to better regulate commerce and to review colonial legislation • Colonists didn’t protest because they depended on England for trade and military protection

24. COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS • Colonists had political autonomy although they experienced economic restrictions • British never tried to establish a powerful central government in the colonies • Had a governor appointed by the king or proprietor • Depended on colonial legislatures for their salaries • All of the colonies except Pennsylvania had bicameral legislatures • Colonists attempted to create a centralized government with the New England Confederation • Had no real power but dealt with disputes among members • Allowed colonists to meet together

25. LIFE IN THE COLONIES • Population grew very quickly • Large numbers of Scotch-Irish, Scottish, and German immigrants challenged English dominance • Black population swelled • 90% of colonists lived in rural areas • Inequality was most pronounced in the cities • Children and women were completely subordinate to men • Blacks mostly lived in the country and in the South • Slaves who lived on large plantations and who developed special skills had easier lives • Developed extended kinship ties and strong communal bonds

26. City conditions were poor when compared to the countryside • They did offer contact with different people and with the outside world • They served as centers of progress and education • Education was rare and colleges were for training ministers

27. COLONIES DEVELOPED DIFFERENTLY • New England centered on trade • Population farmed for subsistence • Subscribed to rigid Protestantism • Middle colonies focused on farming (NY, PA, NJ) • Population farmed for trade • Population was more heterogeneous than New England • Carolinas concentrated on growing cash crops like tobacco and rice • Slavery was crucial for success on plantations • Majority of southerners were subsistence farmers with no slaves • Chesapeake colonies combined features of the middle colonies and Carolinas (MD, VA) • Slavery and tobacco were important but so was grain • Developed major cities

29. Major Events of this Time Period • Bacon’s Rebellion occurred in VA in the 1670s • Showed backcountry farmers’ discontent with coastal elites and the colonial government • Skirmishes with the Native Americans and lack of governmental protection made them feel like they were being used to shield wealthy colonists in the East • Attacked Native Americans and burned Jamestown to the ground • Early populist uprising in America • Disenfranchised all combined against the upper class

30. King Philip’s War was the bloodiest English-Native American conflict up to that point • Occurred in New England in the 1670s • English took native lands and tried forced assimilation • Natives responded by attacking several settlements • Native American tribes united and destroyed a number of English settlements • English eventually devastated the tribes by selling many natives into slavery in the West Indies • Marked the end of a formidable Native American presence in New England

31. Salem Witch Trials took place in New England in 1692 • Not the first time that witches had been tried, but it was the first time so many were tried simultaneously • In the summer of 1692, 130 witches were jailed or executed in Salem • Hysteria resulted from political, religious, and economic factors • Puritanism had lost some of its power in England and MA became a royal colony in 1691 • All Protestants could now vote, which weakened the power of the Puritans in MA • Puritans felt that commercialism was undermining the only true religion—theirs • Halfway Covenant boosted number of Puritans in MA