Encounters
and Colonies to 1754
Since the
beginning, 40,000 years ago, people migrated to what now is called America. All
the people who migrate to America are called Native Americans. In the late
4000s AD Atlantic Ocean connected three main cultures: Native Americans,
European and African. They had differences
and similarities that made some conflicts among them. Their way of thinking,
living and perspective of lives were different.
Native
Americans looked to the family to fulfill many of their social needs. Their families were called a kinship network that today is
referred as clan. They believed in military defeat, disease or harvest. For this reason they were planting crops,
choosing a mate, or burying their dead. They were characterized as friendly and
they shared a lot among them.
The
European society had been organized in a system of duties and exchanges based
on land, war and traditions. They believed that everything, from the universe
to the average household was part of a hierarchy.
As the year passed they entered to the era of great change and it all started
with religion. Trade with Asia also
brought to Europe books filled with information from the Muslim world and the
world of the ancient Greeks and Romans. This information helped to spark the European
Renaissance. Competition among the highly structured societies
of Europe encouraged the people of that region to look overseas for trading
opportunities in 1400s.
The kingdoms
of West African were very difficult and wealthy cultures. They have a good trading
system that was from New Guinea
to North Africa. The ruling classes in
Guinea were generally groups of people who shared a common ancestor, this was a
kinship network called lineage.
People from guinea relied on religion
beliefs that included a Supreme Being who created other, lesser gods or
spirits. In the late 1400s, Songhai was one of the largest
empires in the world at the time. They obtained goods such as gold and ivory
from the kingdom. One of the trading systems was built on slaves.
Christopher Columbus made an
expedition to reach the Indies or Asia. Instead on October he reached the islands of
the Caribbean Sea and the Native Americans on them, the Tainos. When they get there Columbus got astonished
because the Tainos greeted the newcomers with gifts. When Europeans, Africans,
and Native Americans got connected that brought a global interchange of people,
animals, goods, ideas, technology, and disease this was known as Columbian Exchange.
This interaction between continents brought with it
many diseases that made the Native Americans way of living harder. So the
Europeans saw that the Native Americans were on a good land so they competed
among themselves to claim land in America.
While the Europeans settle on America they passed their culture to the
Native Americans that included language, laws, and custom. Suddenly Europeans
needed help to exploit the natural resources of the Americans so they transported
slaves from Africa.
After the
Americans, European, and African cultures collided in the 1400s, the Spanish
were the first to invade the Americans. They had three reasons to invade and
conquest: spread Christian religion, gain health and improve social standing.
When Spanish conquistadores reach
America they tried to collide both Native Americans and Spanish cultures with a
method called, encomienda system. As time passed many Spanish colonies established on the
country but they were only presidios.
Native Americans experienced some success in slowing the Spanish invasion of
New Mexico. Spanish people on some point
forced the Native Americans to settle in villages called congregacions that were made for Native Americans to work in
farms.
The
Native Americans didn’t like what was happening so they made a revolt. So Pope a leader of the Native
Americans declared that all Native Americans miseries was because the Spanish.
A colony near the Chesapeake Bay was invaded by the English and this colony was
called Virginia. There were two disadvantages of living there: mosquito
infested swamp and the settlement was a disaster. Powhatan a leader from the Native Americans retreaded from
the English because they used as a resource his fire guns. One of his brothers got kidnapped so he has the
change to know all the moves about the Spanish.
During
the early years of their settlements, only one thing saved the Virginia colonists
from falling: growing Tobacco for sale. During
the first sixty years after the founding of the colony, they turned primarily
to indentured servants from
England. While on Europe there was a Reformation
going on because of the corruption of the Catholic Church. The ones the Protested were the Puritans because they wanted to
purify the English church from within. Through the Puritans came from England
to escape persecution, or harassment, for their beliefs, they themselves did not
believe in the principles of religion
toleration.
Mercantilism is a theory that
activities such as supplying raw materials and buying goods dovetailed neatly
with the new European economy. One way mercantilism worked is by the balance of trade. As the colonies grew, each region developed
very different economies and societies.
So one example was the British government that they formed a policy
called salutary neglect because
they realized that the most beneficial policy was to neglect their colonies. One
of the most important factors why the colonies advanced a lot was because of
their trading system the mayor trade occurs primarily in three points:
Americans, Europe and Africa and this was called triangular trade.
Colonial society reflected attitudes of the time regarding equality. One
of the best differences within colonial society was between the Gentry that are men or women
wealthy enough to afford others to work for them.
During the Middle Passage, the name given
to the part of the triangular trade that was between Africa and the Americans
that were used to transport Africa slaves to America. In some point of the Middle passage the enslaved
African physically resisted by staging what was called “mutinies”. While tensions
built along the outer edges of the British colonies, unrest was also increased within
them and it was the religious life. This revival of religious feeling is now
known as the Great Awakening.
The purpose of the preachers who brought about the Great Awakening was to
remind people of the power of God and of the authority of their ministers. This
movement indirectly challenged the colonial acceptance of inequality.
Since Columbus
discovered America by accident there were many changes between colonies. Traditions
and cultured was shared and with it comes the desire of power, so Native
Americans were exploited by the European. At that time Europeans had many religious
changes one of them was the Protestants because of the Catholic Church. Many changes occurred during this time between
European, Africans and the Native Americans.
