1. THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICA
CHAPTER 1

2. Columbus and America Born in 1451 in the trading city of Genoa, Italy
While visiting Portugal, decided to attempt sailing west to reach Asia
Called this mission “Enterprise of the Indies”
Christopher Columbus
Finally won support from Spanish Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand
Began on August 3, 1492, with three ships: Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria – Columbus’s flagship
Landed at dawn on October 12, 1492, on a small island in the Bahamas, which Columbus mistook for the Indies in Asia
Enterprise of the Indies

3. The Columbian Exchange
European colonization in America and the downfall of the Native American people
New plants and animals exchanged between continents, known as the Columbian Exchange
This exchange brought European diseases to the Americas.
Voyage Impacts

4. Roanoke
In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent a group to America. They claimed land along the Atlantic seaboard and named it Virginia. In 1587 they founded the colony of Roanoke.
In 1590 when the colony’s leader returned from England, he found the colony mysteriously empty of people.

5. Jamestown
Settled in 1607, this was the first English colony to survive, despite disease, contaminated water and lack of food.
John Smith, who imposed military discipline on the colonists, helped them survive hardships.
John Rolfe, who discovered tobacco and learned to cure it from his wife Pocahontas, made the colony profitable.

6. House of Burgess
The Governor’s Palace
The Capitol
Formation of the House of Burgess, which was America’s first legislature, or law-making body
Williamsburg, Virginia

7. The Puritans, seeking religious freedom, founded the Northern Colonies.
English Protestants who thought the Reformation did not go far enough were known as Puritans.
Some Puritans, known as Separatists, wanted total separation from the established church.
Separatists who left for America were known as the Pilgrims.
In 1620 a group of Separatists sailed to America on a ship called the Mayflower. Two months later, they reached present-day Massachusetts.
The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact, a legal contract agreeing to make laws to protect the people. It was one of the first attempts at self-government in the English colonies.

9. Northern Colonies Plymouth Colony
The pilgrims who signed the Mayflower Compact established this colony. They grew their own food and built their own houses.
Harsh conditions, which killed many of the colonists, included cold, hunger, and sickness.
Those who survived had help from the friendly local Indians.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
This colony was established as both a religious haven and the headquarters of the Massachusetts Bay Company.
The colony’s success inspired the Great Migration, when 16,000 English settlers crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in New England.
Other Northern Colonies
In time, the strict rules of the Puritan colonies caused dissenters to leave and settle new towns in other parts of New England.
These new colonies included: Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

10. Thirteen Colonies

11. The Southern and Middle Colonies
New York
Granted to James, duke of York
Already belonged to the Dutch
Conquered by the English in 1674 and renamed New York
Later, a large tract James gave to two proprietors became New Jersey.
Pennsylvania
Given to William Penn
Founded as a haven for Quakers and called a “Holy Experiment”
Decreased in size when Penn agreed to give Native Americans present-day Delaware
The Carolinas and Georgia
Carolina co-owned by eight men
Split into North and South due to tensions over farm size and slavery
Georgia was formed as a military buffer between English and Spanish colonies.
Maryland
Founded by George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore
Was a haven for Catholics after Church of England became England’s official church
Was a source of personal wealth for Lord Baltimore

12. Southern Colonial Economies
Economics by Region
Northern Colonial Economies
Subsistence Farming - Crops did not grow well, so farmers only grew enough for themselves.
The most valuable Northern resources were dense forests
Timber exports
Wood for shipbuilding
Northerners produced rum, textiles, ironworks, and other goods.
Commerce was concentrated in the port cities.
Southern Colonial Economies
Agricultural-based economy
Produced valuable cash crops such as tobacco, rice, tar, and indigo.
Two agricultural systems developed:
Plantations were large, farms that grew one crop and depended on slave labor.
Small independent farms raised livestock and exported beef and pork.

13. The Impact of Slavery Plantation owners needed more and more workers.
Settlers gradually stopped using Native American workers and indentured servants in favor of enslaved Africans.
The slave trade caused massive human suffering.
The difficult trip across the Atlantic from Africa was called the Middle Passage.
Kidnapped Africans were chained together in dark, filthy quarters below the decks and many died.
The African population in America grew quickly.
Slavery existed in both the North and South, but the South’s agricultural economy depended more on slave labor.
Slaves developed strong cultural and religious communities.

14. The Middle Passage

15. The Middle Passage - Amistad

16. The Enlightenment
A period in Europe that was known for its use of logic and reason to improve government, law, and society
The ideas of the Enlightenment began in the European upper classes but soon traveled to the American colonies.
John Locke believed the government should protect citizens’ “natural rights.” His ideas influenced Americans such as Jefferson and Franklin.
Locke’s ideas are found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, including limited government and divided powers.

17. The Great Awakening
The Enlightenment led some colonists to question religious beliefs.
In 1730, the clergy, trying to bring people back to church, began the Great Awakening, a major religious revival in the colonies.
Jonathan Edwards was an influential religious leader of this period.
The Great Awakening made religion accessible to the people and church membership grew. It’s new ideas influenced the growing colonies.

18. The French and Indian War

19. The French and Indian War
The Cause
In the 1700s Britain and France struggled for territory.
The French built forts and allied with Native Americans to protect their fur trade.
The British built forts and alliances of their own, which led to many frontier battles.
In 1754 the French joined with the Native Americans to attack the English, which is why it is called the French and Indian War.
The Course
The British army, new to the territory, made easy targets.
Britain’s William Pitt took over and forced colonists into the army.
The British took the French city of Quebec in 1759.
The French surrendered the following year and the Treaty of Paris ended the war in 1763.

20. The Last of the Mohicans

21. Impacts of the French and Indian War
To avoid more conflict with the Native Americans, British officials tried to stop colonists from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Proclamation of 1763 reserved the land for the Native Americans, but colonists ignored it.

22. Impacts of the French and Indian War
Some say this war led to the American Revolution. Its effects include:
Colonial unity: Ben Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which was the first plan to unify the colonies. It was never adopted.
New boundaries: Britain gained lands east of the Mississippi and much of Canada from the French, and Florida from the Spanish. Spain gained the Louisiana Territory from France for joining the war.
War Debts: The war cost England a lot of money. King George III thought colonists should pay some of the costs of the war.
Effects on Native Americans: Chief Pontiac allied the Midwestern Native Americans and started a bloody rebellion.