Relations Between Natives & European Settlers

Standard 8-1.2: Compare motives, activities, and accomplishments of

the exploration of South Carolina an North America by the Spanish,

French, and English.

The Spanish

• Hernando de Soto was the first European to have contact with Native Americans in SC.

He was in search of GOLD….

But only found COPPER!

• When the Spanish didn’t find gold, they started setting up encomiendas (large plantations) where Native Americans were put to work (enslaved) to produce wealth for their Spanish Masters.

• Disease & overwork decimated the native population.

Small pox Typhus

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• African slaves were brought to SC to replace the dwindling Native population (1700’s)

• Slaves worked on plantations and in mines

The Spanish built cities & established universities, transferring a complex social class system, their style of government, & their Catholic religion to the New World.

De Soto’s descriptive journals of the Mississippians gives modern day historians

a wealth of information about the early Native Americans.

The French• Searched for the Northwest

Passage• Established settlements in

Montreal & Quebec• Only Catholic French were

allowed to immigrate to the New World

• They used the rivers to travel and established good relationships with the natives in order to trade for furs.

The English• Claimed lands along the east coast

of North America, for the king.• Later permanent settlements in the

area named Virginia and New England

• Settlers seen prospects of gold and tobacco in these settlements

• Others were fleeing religious persecution & founded societies based on their shared religious values

The English• All English settlers brought their culture,

including language, Protestant religions, and ideas about self-government to the New World

South Carolina ColonyNeither France nor Spain could establish

a permanent settlement in SC

Conditions at the settlements & trouble back in the mother countries resulted in them abandoning their SC settlements

Spain founded the San Miguel de Gualdape settlement along the Waccamaw River near present –day Georgetown (1520’s).. But abandoned it

South Carolina ColonyThe French founded Charelsfort near

present-day Beaufort, but abandoned it in the 1560’s

Spain tried again by founding San Felipe on the ruins of the French Charlesfort (lasted 10 years)

Native Americans attacked the settlement… survivors fled to St. Augustine, FL.

South Carolina ColonyThe English succeeded with their

permanent colony- Charles Town (1670) Now known as Charleston

New World Settlements