Encounters and Colonies to 1754

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.