Chapter #2-Blog #3: Describe the cultural and social changes that Indian communities underwent in response to English colonization.

The early southern colonies’ encounters with Indians and Africans (especially by way of the West Indies) established the patterns of race relations that would shape the North American experience in particular, warfare and reservations for the Indians, and lifelong slave codes for African-Americans. As the British were colonizing Virginia, they were also settling into the West Indies. By mid-1600's, England had secured several West Indies islands, including Jamaica. They grew lots of sugar on brutal plantations there, slaves were needed to operate the sugar plantations. Indians were being used but 90% of the died due to diseases. Due to the involvement of various cultures and races being involved in Virginia, the English Colonization was changed.

Chapter #2-Blog #2: Describe the development of the jamestown colony from its disastrous beginnings to its later prosperity.

    The London Company dispatched three ships, the Godspeed, the Discovery, and the Sarah Constant, to repopulate the settlement.  They arrived in May of 1607.  A mercenary soldier, Captain John Smith, was commissioned to bring order to Jamestown.  He decreed that anyone who did not work would not eat.  While waiting for crops to grow, Smith sustained the settlers on food seized from surrounding Indian camps.  Over time, the raids grew increasingly violent, eventually leading to Smith’s capture by the Indians.  Tribal chief Powhatan took pity on the starving Jamestown settlers, returning John Smith to his people, along with a large supply of corn. During a period known as the Starving Time of 1609-10, nine out of every ten settlers died from either starvation or disease.  With Jamestown on the brink of extinction, the Virginia Company dispatched emergency shipments of food and supplies.  In 1611, the colony’s new governor, Sir Thomas Dale, arrived with threats of harsh and oppressive penalties for those who failed to meet food production quotas.  When his intimidation tactics failed to improve conditions, Governor Dale abducted the Indian princess, Pocahontas, demanding a large supply of Chief Powhatan’s corn as ransom.  At the age of eighteen, she married Jamestown planter John Rolfe—a union that launched a period of friendship and sharing between the settlers and Indians.  Jamestown survived, becoming the first permanent English colony in America. Pocahontas changed her name to Rebecka, traveling to England in 1616 with Rolfe and their infant son, Thomas.  Tragically, her immune system was unaccustomed to viruses common among the English, and she died in 1617.  Her grief-stricken husband, John Rolfe, returned to Virginia to develop his tobacco crop, a product of growing appeal in England.

Chapter #2-Blog #1: State the factors that led England to begin colonization.

To protect themselves from reprisals over the mass murders, nervous Spanish priests erected a fort in St. Augustine, Florida.  This was the first permanent European settlement in North America. By this time, Elizabeth I ruled the throne of England, and this pro-Huguenot queen was troubled by Spain’s hostile dominance in the New World.  The writings of geographer Richard Hakluyt reminded the English people that John Cabot had staked a claim for England in the New World a mere five years after the first voyage of Columbus.  Queen Elizabeth commissioned the bold sea captain, Sir Frances Drake, to challenge the Spanish monopoly in the Americas.  From 1577 to 1580, Drake raided Spanish galleons and stormed settlements along the west coast of South America.  When the queen openly received the captured Spanish treasures and granted knighthood to Drake, Spain’s King Philip II ordered people to prepare for war against England. During this period, Sir Humphery Gilbert twice attempted to establish an English colony in Newfoundland, only to be thwarted by foul weather.  Upon his return to England, Gilbert was killed in a shipwreck.  His half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, assumed the challenge, setting his sights southward, where the climate appeared more hospitable.  In 1585, Raleigh planted 107 men on Roanoke Island, in Chesapeake Bay, off the coast of what is now North Carolina.  Frustrated over the absence of women, the men returned to England the following year.  On his second attempt to establish a settlement, Raleigh allowed women and children to accompany the men.  The new group of 114 people landed at Roanoke in July 1587.  The island served as gateway to a large expanse of land that Raleigh called “Virginia” in honor of Elizabeth, England’s celebrated “virgin queen.”  On August 18, 1587, the Roanoke settlers celebrated the birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child born on American soil.

Chapter #1-Blog #3: Explain the changes and conflicts that occurred when the diverse worlds of Europe, Africa, and the Americas collided after 1492.

The Spanish wanted to explore the Americas because of gold. And when the Europeans and Americas collided the Europeans ended up colonizing the Americas and expanded through North America. The Europeans change the agriculture, religion, and the architecture. The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and ideas between the Old World and the New World. Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the New World in 1492 is what sparked this revolution hence the name “Columbian” Exchange. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every culture around the world. New diseases brought to the New World by the Europeans killed off many populations because the Indians had no immunity to diseases such as smallpox.

Chapter #1-Blog #2: Describe the geological and geographical conditions that set the stage for North America history.

Two million years ago the "Great Ice Age" began, the oceans became glaciers and sea levels dropped. As a result of The Great Ice Age, it created a land bridge that connected Eurasia with North America allowing nomads to come over. When the great land bridge melted it transformed the upper part of America and formed the Great Lakes. Early North American history was affected by the fact that the North American continent was far away enough from Europe and Asia that it was unknown yet the land bridge over the Bering Strait allowed for early peoples to migrate to the region. The climate was temperate enough in many areas that animals and crops were plentiful as well.

 George Mason

In 1725 George Mason was born to George and Ann Thomson Mason. When the boy was 10 years old his father died, and young George's upbringing was left in the care of his uncle, John Mercer. The future jurist's education was profoundly shaped by the contents of his uncle's 1500-volume library, one-third of which concerned the law. Mason established himself as an important figure in his community. As owner of Gunston Hall he was one of the richest planters in Virginia. In 1750 he married Anne Eilbeck, and in 23 years of marriage they had five sons and four daughters. In 1752 he acquired an interest in the Ohio Company, an organization that speculated in western lands. In early 1776, before the Declaration of Independence, Mason drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights and framed Virginia’s constitution. George Mason was rightfully proud of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and pleased that it became a model for other states. George Mason’s primary objection to the Constitution was the absence of a bill of rights. He not only refused to sign the document at the convention, he hotly fought against it during Virginia ratification, despite promises by James Madison and others to add a bill of rights in the first congress. Although he believed a bill of rights was mandatory, he had additional objections to the Constitution. Among his other concerns, he believed the convention was giving the executive branch (president) too much power. In the end, George Mason did not believe the Constitution established a wise and just government. He was one of only three delegates present in the final days of the convention who didn’t sign the document.  Throughout his career Mason was guided by his belief in the rule of reason and in the centrality of the natural rights of man. He approached problems coolly, rationally, and impersonally. In recognition of his accomplishments and dedication to the principles of the Age of Reason, Mason has been called the American manifestation of the Enlightenment. Mason died on October 7, 1792, and was buried on the grounds of Gunston Hall.

The Great Awakening

Question: Compare the ways in which religion shaped the development of colonial society (to 1740) in two of the following regions:
New England
Chesapeake

Thesis: During the 1730's and the 1740's  the mother country went through a series of revolutions that fought for religious freedom and therefore caused social, political, and economic changes.The Great Awakening had a major impact to the New England and Chesapeake colonies and shaped their society and caused many colonist create war.

 

 

 

In late 17th Century England, fighting between religious and political groups came to a halt with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, an event which established the Church of England as the reigning church of the country. Other religions, such as Catholicism, Judaism, and Puritanism, were subsequently suppressed. From a political perspective, this led to stability since everyone now practiced the same religion. But instead of being a positive driving force for religious belief in general, it created complacency and spiritual “dryness” among believers. Religion became something of a pastime in which people would “go through the motions” during religious services without deeply-felt convictions of the heart and soul. It was only after some decades of this kind of complacency in both England and the American colonies that the spiritual “revival” of the Great Awakening came about. The fire leapt over to the Baptists of Pennsylvania and Virginia before the extraordinary awakening that began in Northampton, Massachusetts, under the ministry of Jonathan Edwards in December 1734.

Atlantic Slave Trade

Question: How did economic, geographic, and social factors encourage the growth of slavery as an important part of the economy of the Southern colonies between 1607 and 1775?

Thesis: Between 1607 and 1775, slavery in the southern colonies grew resulting from different reasons; however, the greatest influence was the "necessity" of profit. Blacks were inhumanely treated, leading to American dependence on profitable plantation systems.

The transatlantic slave trade generally followed a triangular route:

• Traders set out from European ports towards Africa's west coast. There they bought people in exchange for goods and loaded them into the ships.
• The voyage across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, generally took 6 to 8 weeks. Once in the Americas those Africans who had survived the journey were off-loaded for sale and put to work as slaves.
• The ships then returned to Europe with goods such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and later cotton, which had been produced by slave labor.

The triangle, involving three continents, was complete. European capital, African labor and American land and resources combined to supply a European market.
The colonists in the Americas also made direct slaving voyages to Africa, which did not follow the triangular route. This trade increased after 1800, particularly from Brazil.
The story of the transatlantic slave trade is the story of people on all three continents, as well as the dreaded 'Middle Passage' voyage. Follow the links on this page to find out more.

The Glorious Revolution

Question: Analyze the ways in which British imperial policies, intensified colonials resistance to British rule and their commitment to republican values. 

Thesis: English colonists fervently believed in the rights given to the British during the Glorious Revolution  but when the policies established by the British imperial rule during 1763 and 1776 were placed upon the colonists, many felt disillusioned with the government and began to demand the republican values given to men in the mother country.

 

 

 

 

After King James I being made King after the death of Queen Elizabeth. The Glorious Revolution began in England when King James II was overthrown and William III  and Mary II came into power to replace King James II. The Revolution allowed colonists to recieve their rights and independence from Great Britain. Yet, the Parliament decided that every person under the rule of England was to be virtually represented. Which meant that even if their representation did not live in the colonies he could speak for them without knowing the real needs of the colonist. The Stamp Act, Currency Act, Sugar Act, and Tea Act passed by England and the virtual representation angered the colonists, as a result; resisted from the English rule. The English Bill of Rights introduced some rights to the English which inlcuded freedom of speech and freedom to petition. However, even after the revolution everything seemed to by the same all the promises all forgotten.

The Seven Year War

"The French and Indian War"

Question:Analyze how the French and Indian Wars aftermath affected the relationship between Great Britain and the New England colonies.

Thesis: The ties between the mother country and the colonies was strained because of the compelling movement towards colonial independence, which involved social, economic, and political issues. The British Colonial government neglected to the needs of the American colonies, by imposing taxes, resulting in several colonial rebellions.

The Seven Year War was fought from 1756-1763 and this was a clash between France, Spain, and the British empire. This can also be the known as one of the first world wars because it did not only involve these three mighty countries but so many other ones that took sides.  The number one conflict, and reason why there was a war, was because Britain wanted to expel France from the colonies.The war was started when the governor of Virginia ordered George Washington to lead troops into the Ohio area, which was French territory. However, George Washington was forced to surrender upon the French. After this long never ending war closed with the Treaty of Paris as a result also brought disgrace to the colonies with a never ending list of Acts beginning with the Stamp act, Tea Act and protest against these acts as the Boston tea party. this was the first step to a movement to promote independence in the colonies.

The Enlightenment

Question: Explain how the Enlightenment influenced the ideas of the American Revolution. 

Thesis: The enlightenment influenced the American Revolution in three different forms, ideology, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

 

 

The Enlightenment was a sprawling intellectual, philosophical, cultural, and social movement that spread through England, France, Germany, and other parts of Europe during the 1700s. Enabled by the Scientific Revolution, which had begun as early as 1500, the Enlightenment represented about as big of a departure as possible from the Middle Ages—the period in European history lasting from roughly the fifth century to the fifteenth. Which help develop important documents as the Declaration of Independence, English Bill of Rights, and The Constitution. An important influence of the Enlightenment was John Locke with his idea that "All Men are created equal." Jean Jacques-Rousseau was the creator of the "social contract' which stated that only designated people may have rights. Baron De Montesquieu  was another influence during this time because of him we have the three branches which consist of the  judicial, legislative,and executive.