Britain and its Colonies
Background: 1215 Magna Carta est. people have basic rights, limits monarchy, Parliament gets right to tax
Unlike Spain, England forms many joint-stock companies investors, not government shares risk of enterprise)
Late 1500s, huge population explosion in Britain, enclosure movement, surplus workers, good reason to explain
Quick Monarchy History
· Queen Liz dies 1603
· James I coins terms G.B. (merging of Scotland, England, Ireland)
o Puritans vs. conservative Anglicans
· Charles I(1625)
o Disbands Parliament, persecutes Puritains
o Captured in 1646 by parliament tried on high treason, loses his head in 1649
· Oliver Cromwell
o Religious tolerant (except to Catholics and Anglicans)
· Charles II
o Rules jointly with Parliament
· James II (Restoration) 1660
o Love Catholcism, fear they will gain throne
· William and Mary (Protestant)
o Take over in Glorious Rev (James II flees to France)
o 1689 Bill of Rights
o 1690 John Locke “Two Treaties on Government” influences colonists…people have “natural rights”, life, liberty and property, right to overthrow government.
CHESAPEAKE REGION
1606 King James I charters Virginia Company (bring Christianity to those who “live in darkness and miserable ignorance”)
But wine, citrus, olive oil, pitch, tar, forest products are known in New world and vagrants can be sent there too! No big Indian empires to crush in the East Coast!
Jamestown – (James River, Virgin Queen) marshy and fever ridden, No clear focus on the purpose of the colony
104 settlers over ½ are considered Gentlemen. Translation- they were semi-aristocrats who were there to serve as Garrisons at a military outposts designed to launch raids on the Spanish –
Consequence – Gentlemen preferred loafing, prospecting for gold and dreaming of a Northwest Passage to grubbing the earth to feed themselves. This almost killed the colony
John Smith – the right man at the right time (saved by Pocahontas) “he that will not work, shall not eat”
John Rolfe in 1612 gets some Spanish tobacco and Jamestown gets its rich on (more indentured servants needed!), Antagonism with Powhatans leads to attacks on Jamestown in 1622
Punishments harsh (guy that stole oatmeal had his tongue nailed to a tree and was starved to death)
1618 “headright” policy…buy a share in Company, get 50 acres and 50 more for any servants brought (need more people for all that tobacco!)
1619: first representative assembly (and Dutch ship dropping off “20 Negars”)
Indian attacks on the rise, King James revokes the Virginia Companies Charter in 1624 and declares the settlement under direct royal control
Now, no one owes the company, so basically VA is full of free people, Leads to the establishment of “benign neglect”. This means that Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay turned out to be an unplanned for attraction for a number of English Catholics
1642: Governor Wm Berkley arrives (35 yr run) (show video on Bacon’s Rebellion…know results!)
Maryland: first proprietary colony (owned by individual), Charles I gave to Lord Baltimore who gave to son, Celius Calvert, Prospered, lots of Catholics, easy access to shipping
NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
Pilgrims are separatists. (no rituals, organ music, bishops, crosses, yada)
James 1: harasses separatist to Holland (1608)...dutchification of kids
Plymouth in 1620 (video)
Mayflower Compact: first direct democracy, belief in covenant with god as a way to salvation
Planting season shorter, colder (less sickness), few servants, no planter elite, more ministers, religion, law based on bible, Mass bay co formed 1629 ( more interested on cod than god) leader John Winthrop “city on a hill”, hated democracy
80,000 Britons leave in Great Migration, also end up in West Indies (sugar!), more live in Caribbean than New England and Chesapeake in early 1600s
Roger Williams: native supporter, pay for land, separatist, don't need to regulate behaviors
Rhode Island squatter colony 1636 even for Jews and Catholics and Quakers!, 1652 outlawed slavery Anne
Hutchinson: predestination dumb, run out of town to NY, eventually killed by Indians with her family…a woman making these ideas! The horror!
New England expands:
1635: Connecticut...Dutch and English (fundamental orders of conn 1639)...constitution
1641 New Hampshire and Maine
1662 new haven merges with conn
Maine taken over by mass
RESTORATION COLONIES
New Amsterdam: Indian threats (wall street) Dutch west India company, surrounding NE towns. James 2 gives duke of York land and takeover is easy
1681 Quakers: Penn advertises colony, best planned city Americas, haven for anyone! Tolerance! Brotherly love!
Acts of Trade and Navigation:
Background: During English Civil War (1642-1646), colonists divided loyalties to king or parliament, less $ into America, kept England from effectively overseeing affairs (salutatory neglect!) Oliver Cromwell continues to ignore during his reign
England’s government implemented a mercantilist policy with a series of Navigation Acts (1650 to 1673), which established three rules for colonial trade:
1. Trade to and from the colonies could be carried only byEnglishor colonial-built ships, which could beoperatedonly by English orcolonialcrews
2. All goods importedintothe colonies, except for some perishables could pass only through ports inEngland.
3. Specified or “enumerated” goods from the colonies could be exported to England only.Tobaccowas theoriginal“enumerated” good, but over a period of time, the list was expanded to include most colonialproducts.
4. Enforcement was spotty
Positive Effects:
· New England shipbuilding prospered
· Chesapeake tobacco had a monopoly in England
· English military forces protect the colonies from attacks by the French and Spanish
Negative Effects:
· Colonial manufacturing wasseverelylimited
· Chesapeake farmers received low prices fortheircrops
· Colonists had to playhighprices for manufactured goods from England
· Leads to smuggling to other countries