(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved England Discovers Its Colonies: Empire, Liberty, and Expansion Chapter 3

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

England Discovers Its Colonies: Empire, Liberty, and Expansion

Chapter 3Chapter 3

The Atlantic Prism and the Spectrum of Settlement

• 17th Century Colonists of Americas and Caribbean – diverse, fragmented unity

• Provinces: common traits with neighbors, but few with other distant colonies

• Sugar and slave society of Barbados shared almost nothing in common with Puritans of Massachusetts


Demographic Differences

• Life expectancies higher farther North

• Ratio of men to women highest in plantation areas

• Northern colonies healthier than South or Europe

• Elite in plantation colonies decades younger than farther North


Race, Ethnicity, and Economy

• Ethnic diversity varied among regions • West Indies majority African slaves• As plantation economy expands, African

slave population grows• English minority Europeans in mid-Atlantic• New England dominated by English• Farther North = less diverse/Farther South =

more diverse


Religion and Education

• Religious fervor and education level varied in same pattern as diversity

• Most slaves kept illiterate• South-- College of William and Mary (1693)• Massachusetts

– Harvard College (1636)– Public school required in every town (1642)

• Piety, public support for clergy, literacy, education, and moral standards grew stronger from South to North


Local and Provincial Governments

• Varied forms of government

• Parishes, boroughs (towns), and counties were all established forms in the colonies

• Parish: Sugar islands and S.Carolina

• County: Chesapeake area

• Towns: New England


Local and Provincial Government Variations

• Local government• Parish: Sugar islands

and S.Carolina• County: Chesapeake

area• Towns: New England

• Provincial (or colonial) government

• Royal govt.: West Indies and Virginia

• “Corporate” forms: New England

• Proprietary govt.: rest of Mainland N. America

Unique and Unifying Trends: Language, War, Law and

Inheritance• Despite diversity, distinctive and unifying

trends emerged in the colonies. Examples:

• Less variation in spoken English

• Warfare: Volunteers and terror tactics

• Simple legal systems (absence of lawyers)

• Rejection of primogeniture inheritance

• Chance at upward mobility


The Beginnings of Empire

• English Civil War makes 1640s Chaotic

• England realizes the colonies overseas brought few benefits to homeland

• England has no coherent colonial policy


Upheaval in America: The Critical 1640s

• England loses control of colonial trade

• Interruption of trade and supplies made colonies more vulnerable to Indians

• New England Confederation (1643)


Mercantilism as a Moral Revolution

• New morality of Greed: Greed = predictable, stabilizing behavior

• Mercantilism the idea:– World’s wealth is fixed

– Countries increase their wealth at expense of rivals

– Less destructive trade wars replace religious wars

• Mercantilism promoted a more modern concept of law


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The First Navigation Act 1650s

• Motivation: London merchants’ demands to stifle Dutch competition

• Limited foreign trading with countries other than England– Non-European imports to England or colonies only in

English ships with majority English crews

– Colonists wanted option to use lower cost non-English shipping


Restoration Navigation Acts

• Navigation Act of 1660– Expands Mercantilist intent of previous Nav. Acts– “enumerated commodities” only to England

• Staple Act (1663)– most imports to colonies must come from England

• Plantation Duty Act (1673)– 1st time English govt. customs officials sent to colonies


Indians, Settlers, Upheaval

• Need for Indian trading partners• 1670: No boundaries existed between

Indian lands and colonial settlements– Boston, largest English colonial city only 15

miles from nearest Indian village

• Indian “mourning wars”• Mutual trade dependency evolved between

Indians and some settlers


Indian Strategies of Survival

• Five Nations of the Iroquois– Edmund Andros– “Covenant Chain”


Puritan Indian Missions

• Thomas Mayhew, Sr. and Jr.

• John Eliot

• “praying towns”


Metacom’s (or King Philip’s) War

• New England settlers vs. Indians• Wampanoags

– Metacom– Firearms and iron forges– Great Swamp Fight (1675)

• Internal dissension within colonies• Indian allies of settlers

– “praying” Indians– Mohawks and Mohegans


Virginia’s Indian War

• Frontier Conflicts– Doegs

– Susquehanncocks

– John Washington provokes Indian revenge

• VA Gov. Sir William Berkeley– Defensive strategy– Fight Susquehanncocks– Restricted fur trade

• Frontiersmen– Offensive strategy– War of plunder against

all Indians– Nathaniel Bacon

Bacon’s Rebellion

• Bacon attacks friendly and non-friendly Indians• Berkeley outlaws Bacon• Bacon con vs. elected to Burgesses• Civil War summer 1676: Bacon vs. Berkeley• Rebellion ends• Bacon dies• Royal forces arrive• Old order reestablished

Crisis in England and the Redefinition of Empire

• Bacon’s Rebellion forces calling of Parliament

• Charles II no legitimate children

• James Duke of York—a Catholic heir

The Popish Plot, the Exclusion Crisis, and the Rise of Party

• Popish Plot – Brings down the ministry– Strengthens Parliamentary opposition

• Whigs (Country)– Exclude James in favor of Mary and Anne– Decentralized militia– Toleration for all Protestants

• Tories (Court)– James as heir– Standing army– Anglican church only, no toleration


The Lords of Trade and Imperial Reform

• Lords Committee of Trade and Plantations (Lords of Trade)– James Duke of York’s idea– Enforced Navigation Acts

• Royal Government imposed on island colonies• The Jamaica Model:

– Permanent Revenue Act to fund Governor– Legislature with right to initiate and amend legislation


James Imposes Absolutism on the colonies

• Revocation of New York Charter of Liberties • The Dominion of New England and Gov. Andros

– Consolidation of Puritan colonies, New York and the Jersey colonies– No elective assembly– Religious toleration imposed, even on Puritans– Strictly enforced Navigation Acts– New property taxes (quitrents)

• Alienates most Northern colonists


The Glorious Revolution

• James has Catholic son

• Whigs and Tories invite William of Orange (stadholder in Netherlands)

• James flees to France

• William & Mary take English throne

• English throne again becomes Protestant


The Glorious Revolution in America

• Rebellion against Andros & the Dominion

• Old charters brought back

• Jacob Leisler in New York

• Maryland’s Catholic government overthrown


The English Response

• Royal government for Maryland• Leisler executed• Increase Mather and reorganization of Puritan colonies

– Increased royal power– Toleration to all Protestants– Property, not church, qualifications for voting– Only 4 Puritan colonies after 1691: MA, NH, RI, CT


The Salem Witch Trials

• Salem, Massachusetts• Samuel Parris, Reverend and village minister• Accusers came from families supporting Parris• Accused were old women opposed to Parris• Indian wars on frontier• 19 hanged (women and some men)• Trials: last gasp of Puritan rule


The Completion of Empire

• Transition to royal government in colonies• Navigation Act of 1696

– Plugs loopholes to orthodox Mercantilism in earlier Navigation Acts

– Advisory only Board of Trade replaces Lords of Trade

• England and Scotland to merge parliaments to become kingdom of Great Britain 1707


Imperial Federalism

• 1689-1707: transitions defined the structure of the British Empire until American Revolution

• Parliament rarely regulated anything except trade in the colonies

• Minimal compliance from colonists when Parliament did try to regulate inland affairs

• De facto federalism: – Arrangement of convenience for England– To colonists became right to consent to taxes and local

laws


The Mixed and Balanced Constitution

• Government of “King, Lords, and Commons”• Liberty = limitation of government power• 18th Century English politics: Court vs. Country

– Court (powerful central govt. to make war)– Country (liberty, weak central govt._

• Cato’s Letters– John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon– Corruption of powerful ministers threatens liberty– Popular in northern colonies


Contrasting Empires: Spain and France in North America

• 1689, Spain and France were primary enemies of England

• Spain and France:– Catholic– American empires


The Pueblo Revolt

• Causes– Increasing Spanish oppression and enslavement– Drought– Raids by neighboring tribes

• Popé (revolt leader)– Pueblo must abandon Christianity and return to traditional religion– Attack Spanish settlements– Revolt collapses when traditional religion does not solve problems

either and Spanish return in force


New France and the Middle Ground

• Iroquois vs. Algonquians

• French help Algonquians

• Peace and the “Middle Ground” 1701

• French use Indian methods of diplomacy


French Louisiana and Spanish Texas

• Early French exploration of the Miss.– Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet– René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle

• Choctaws vs. Chickasaws and Creeks• French help Choctaws• Spain’s response

– Pensacola– Texas


An Empire of Settlement: The British Colonies

• 1700: 250,000 settlers and slaves living in British mainland colonies

• Population doubled every 25 years

• 1700: 14,000 settlers in New France

• Spanish missionaries declined

• Britain's great advantage: its growing population


The Engine of British Expansion: The Colonial Household

• The American way: rejection of entail and primogeniture

• By mid-1750s new land needed to continue the American way

• Household ideal– Produced surplus– Long-term debt free


The Voluntaristic Ethic and Public Life

• Few freemen could be coerced – must be induced or persuaded

• Local official served without pay – frequently ignored orders they did not agree with

• Few colonists accepted military service or would re-enlist


Three Warring Empires, 1689-1716

• King William’s War (1689-1697)

• Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713)– Deerfield, Massachusetts– Esther Wheelwright (Esther Marie Joseph de

L’Enfant Jésus)– Slave raids into Spanish Florida


Conclusion• Britain and colonies mutually dependent

– Trade beneficial to both England and colonies– Colonists need English protection against hostile Indians and

internal discord

• Political values of England and colonies converge after Glorious Revolution– Property scared and is guarantor of liberty– Government by consent– Toleration for Protestants

• Racism– Common settlers anti-Indian, elites accommodating– Elites anti-African, commoners less so


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(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved England Discovers Its Colonies: Empire, Liberty, and Expansion Chapter 3