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Name: ____________________________________ Social Studies Seven/PD: _____Chapter Two/Part Two - English Early Exploration and Colonies

II. Early English Exploration and Colonies

A. England and Spain at War:

England was considered to be the most powerful Protestant nation in Europe and this placed England in direct conflict with Europe’s most powerful Catholic nation – Spain. Phillip II, King of Spain, married the Queen of England (Mary I) in the late 1500’s in an attempt to make England part of his own kingdom. He abandoned Mary and returned to Spain, however, when she was unable to have any children. Queen Mary died shortly afterwards. Phillip was never popular with the English people and when he proposed to Mary’s Protestant sister (Queen Elizabeth I), he was rejected.

Relations between England and Spain were already tense over religious issues. The situation was made worse when Queen Elizabeth I allowed some of her sea captains to attack Spanish treasure ships heading to Spain from the Americas loaded with tons of gold, silver, and gems. Although Elizabeth claimed that the men were acting without her orders, Phillip II was not convinced. When Elizabeth I made the most famous attacker of Spanish ships (Francis Drake) a knight for returning to England with a ship loaded with Spanish gold, Phillip II decided to attack.

In 1588, he assembled the largest fleet that Europe had ever seen (the Spanish Armada). The invasion fleet of ships was loaded with soldiers, horses, and supplies for an invasion of England. Queen Elizabeth knew that her nation was doomed if the Spanish Army landed on English soil. The English Army was too small and inexperienced to defend the nation.

England’s only hope was its navy – made up of fast warships and operated by experienced captains and sailors. In bitter fighting, the English drove the Spanish fleet away from their shores. Hurricanes then caught the Spanish fleet as it tried to round England and attack from the North. Less than half the fleet returned to Spain and England was saved.

EFFECTS: Spain was humiliated by its defeat at sea and England narrowly escaped being conquered by Spain. Over the next century, England continued to develop into Europe’s greatest naval power. Spain remained the greatest power in Europe on land. Although the two nations were not officially at war, they considered each other to be enemies and were always prepared to fight. Each nation was always on the lookout for opportunities to weaken the other whenever possible – and this struggle was carried into the newly “discovered” lands of North America.

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B. The Early Voyages of England, the Netherlands, and France:

News of the voyages of Columbus’ created a desire to explore in the smaller nations to the north of Spain and Portugal. England, France, and the Netherlands also wished to find a passage to Asia and to create colonies in the Americas, but none of them wished to begin a war with Portugal or Europe’s most powerful nation – Spain.

Portugal controlled the route around Africa leading to Asia to the south and east. Spain controlled the route around South America leading to Asia to the south and west and there was no passage above Europe to Asia as it was blocked by ice. As a result, England, France, and the Netherlands concentrated on finding a route to the north and west above the Americas and to Asia. This unknown route was called the Northwest Passage.

England began the search for a Northwest Passage in 1497 when King Henry VII (the seventh) hired an Italian captain named John Cabot. Cabot sailed the Atlantic on a 79-day voyage and returned to England to report that he had “found an island of Asia”. For a short time, England believed that it had discovered the Northwest Passage but soon discovered that it had simply found another part of North America. Cabot had discovered present day Newfoundland, the easternmost province of what is today Canada.

The English sent out other expeditions and hired Henry Hudson to find a Northwest Passage in 1610. During his first voyage for the Netherlands, Hudson had sailed into present day New York Harbor and up the Hudson River. On a later voyage for England, he sailed into what is today Hudson Bay, Canada and was trapped by the ice for the winter. His crew mutinied (rebelled) against him and cast him off with his son and a few sailors in a small boat. Hudson was never seen again.

France also hired an Italian captain named Verrazzano to find a Northwest Passage in 1524. He explored what is today the East Coast of the United States and returned to France. Another expedition under an explorer named Cartier sailed halfway up the St. Lawrence River and reported that he had found a possible Northwest Passage to Asia. In time, his discovery would become the colony of “New France.”

EFFECTS: None of these early explorations resulted in the immediate beginning of a colony or the discovery of a true Northwest Passage for England, France, or the Netherlands. The voyages did, however, lead to more complete knowledge of North America and the creation of new and more accurate maps. In the 1500’s, each of these nations would create colonies in North America based on their early explorations.

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C. The Failed Colony of Roanoke:

Queen Elizabeth I was determined to stop Spain’s spread north from Florida in North America. She recognized that England must start a colony in North America quickly or it would forever lose the chance to claim land and resources in the New World. When a group of wealthy English nobles proposed to start a colony, Elizabeth gave permission to Sir Walter Raleigh to raise money and lead 100 English settlers to North America.

Raleigh landed 100 men on Roanoke Island off the coast of present day North Carolina in 1585. The colony lost much of its food in a shipwreck and the English fought with the local Natives. Despite the unfavorable conditions, 75 men were left to start a colony. Relations with the Natives for the next year did not improve and the English even attacked a village. When Sir Francis Drake stopped to check on the colony after raiding several Spanish colonies, the English colonists agreed to return home with him (fearing a massive attack by local Natives).

A second group of 115 colonists was sent under John White in 1587. After starting a second colony at Roanoke White returned to England for more supplies. The attack by the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the threat of a second attack in 1589 prevented his return until 1590. England would not allow any if its ships to leave English waters in case they were needed to repel another Spanish invasion attempt. When he did return, the colonists had vanished without a trace. Only the word “croatoan” was found carved into a post. Their fate remains unknown to this day.

EFFECTS: Although Roanoke was a failure, England was determined to start a colony in North America. In 1606, King James I of England gave a legal document known as a charter to the Virginia Company to start another colony in North America. The next year, the company sent 105 men to Virginia and started England’s first permanent colony in America at Jamestown, Virginia (named in honor of King James I).

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Review Questions

1. What resulted from the rivalry between England and Spain in Europe?

2. How did the news of Columbus’ voyages impact the nations of Europe?

3. How did Spain and Portugal’s New World Colonies have an effect on English, French, and Dutch exploration?

4. Based on their early explorations, what did England, France, and the Netherlands create?

5. What made Elizabeth I determined to start a North American Colony?

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Name: ____________________________________ Social Studies Seven/PD: _____Chapter Two/Part Three - Jamestown

III. Jamestown

A. Early Hardships for England’s Jamestown Colony:The English Government did not have the wealth of Spain or Portugal and could not afford to create new colonies with government money.

Instead, the English company chartered by King James I (The Virginia Company) raised money for a colony in North America by selling stocks, or small portions of the company’s value to investors (people with money to spend on new businesses and opportunities). The “portions” of the company were known as shares and each share was worth a specific amount of money.

For example, an investor who bought 100 “shares” of the Virginia Company valued at one English Pound (dollar) paid 100 Pounds (dollars). The company sold thousands of shares to raise the money to buy ships, materials, supplies, and hire men. In return, the investors were promised that they would receive a part of the profits of the colony for each share of stock that they owned. If the colony made a profit and the value of a share increased to one and one half Pounds, then the investors’ shares would be worth 150 Pounds and the investor would make a profit of 50 pounds.

King James I helped the Virginia Company with the job of attracting settlers. He promised all settlers that they would still be considered English citizens and would have all of the rights of English citizens even though they lived outside the country. Rumors of gold in the new lands also attracted a fair number of men who wished to go to the Americas. In 1607, ships owned by the Virginia Company placed 105 settlers (all men) on a swampy island in the middle of the James River (modern Virginia).

The location was not well chosen and problems developed almost at once. Settlers began to die from diseases, especially malaria that was carried by mosquitoes. The health problems were made worse by a poorly run colonial government. The council of 13 men appointed to govern the colony spent more time arguing with each other than they spent trying to improve the colony.

Many of the colonists themselves were unprepared for life in the New World. A large number of settlers were nobles and they were not used to hard work, taking orders, and growing food. The colony was nearly out of food by the end of the first summer and the settlers began to starve to death. Fortunately, experienced and tough soldiers (one of whom was John Smith) became new leaders or “captains” of the Jamestown Colony.

The leader before Smith and Smith were men of action and they quickly took steps to reverse the decline of the colony. Strict rules were created to force the colonists to work at growing food and building homes – not foolishly searching for gold in the swamps. Any settler who failed to put in his fair share of work discovered that he would not be allowed to eat (“he who shall not work, shall not eat”).

In addition, Smith went to the local Native chief (Powhatan) and asked for food. Smith told Powhatan that the colonists only planned to stay a short while and that the English were only hiding from the Spanish. This was, of course, untrue. The English had every intention of staying on Powhatan’s land. Smith was trying to buy the colony time until supplies and more colonists could arrive from England.

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The lies that Smith told came back to haunt him and the colony shortly afterwards. Suspecting that he was being told lies; Powhatan ordered the members of his tribe to stop giving food to the English and began to plan a large attack to destroy the colony. Surprisingly, the chief’s own daughter, Pocahontas, came to the English settlement and warned them that an attack was being planned. When the Natives arrived, they saw that the English were prepared for a fight and did not attack.

EFFECTS: The future of the colony was uncertain during the first few years. The English had a difficult time adjusting to conditions in Virginia and were not well prepared to keep a colony running smoothly. Relations with the Natives were also uncertain. Although the Natives were willing to trade for food, it was clear that the English were not welcome to take more land. Several settlers and Natives were killed in fighting when the English hunted on Native lands or tried to force the Natives to give them food.

B. Success for Jamestown:

Disease and starvation always shadowed the colony and many talked of abandoning the colony when the next ships arrived from England. Smith was able to keep the colony going by trading for food with the Natives and by keeping the colonists busy, but he was badly burned in a gunpowder explosion and had to return to England. Without Smith’s leadership, the colony began to fall apart once again. Smith never returned to the colony, even after recovering from his wounds.

Fortunately, several things happened to save the colony. Pocahontas pitied the colonists and often persuaded her father to give food to the English or to send Natives to teach the English how to find and grow food. The military government that had enforced strict laws to keep the colonists in line (such as putting settlers to death for stealing food) was replaced with a government that was similar to England’s. With a new representative government, or government in which people elect others to represent them, settlers were given a chance to vote and have a say in how the colony was run.

The spirits of the colonists slowly rose and the colony held on. Women began to arrive in the colony and many of the men married, started families, and stopped talking about leaving on the next ship. Instead, many of the men began to consider Jamestown to be their permanent home and worked to improve their farms as they started families.

African slaves also arrived and this gave the colony the number of workers needed to make profits. In the beginning, African slaves were not permanently slaves. Early slaves could and did have a chance to earn wages and buy his or her freedom. Sadly, this practice passed away after a short time and slaves were not allowed to earn money or buy their own freedom.

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The greatest breakthroughs, however, were both connected to a settler named John Rolfe. Rolfe experimented with the tobacco plants in the area and created a plant that had a more mild taste when smoked. “Virginia tobacco” became very popular in England and hundreds of colonists began to arrive to farm the new crop. The new arrivals hoped to make money by growing tobacco and selling it in England. Many historians now believe that the colony never would have been able to grow surplus tobacco crops or turn a profit without the help of a cheap source of labor – slaves.

John Rolfe and Pocahontas also fell in love (Pocahontas was 18 or 19 at the time) and the colonial government wisely allowed them to marry. Their marriage created a bond between the English and Powhatan’s powerful nation. While the two were married, the English and the Natives were able to exist on the same land in peace. The marriage, however, only lasted a little under three years. Pocahontas became ill and died when Rolfe took her to visit England in 1617.

EFFECTS: The marriage of Pocahontas was critical to the success of the Jamestown Colony. The pressure of large numbers of Englishmen flooding onto Native lands had pushed Powhatan to the edge of an all-out war to drive the English off his lands. Pocahontas’ marriage put an end to these plans and gave the colony time to grow strong. In addition, the creation of a crop (tobacco) that could make money in England attracted thousands of settlers and pleased the investors of the Virginia Company. By the time that news of Pocahontas’ death reached her father, the English were too strong for him to be able to push them off his land.

Queen Elizabeth I of England Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Francis Drake

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John Smith (Jamestown Colony) The locations of Jamestown and Roanoke Pocahontas

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Jamestown Colony

Review Questions

1. How did England raise the funds to begin a Colony at Jamestown, Virginia?

2. How did King James I help to attract settlers to the Colony at Jamestown?

3. What caused Jamestown to nearly fail (five reasons)?

4. How did John Smith and the captain before him help the Colony of Jamestown (three examples)?

5. What made it possible for Jamestown to survive and succeed (six reasons)?

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Name: ______________________________ Social Studies Seven/PD: _____Chapter Two/Part Four – Religious Freedom and New England

IV. Religious Freedom and New England

A. Religious Persecution in England:

The Protestant Reformation had a far-reaching impact on all of Europe. King Henry VIII (the eighth) of England led his nation away from the Catholic Church and created the Church of England or Anglican Church. Parliament (England’s representative and lawmaking part of the government) passed a law making the king (or queen) the head of the new church and the Church of England became the “established” or legally recognized church of the nation. Refusing to become a member of the Church of England or failing to support the church was considered to be an act of disloyalty to both the King and the nation.

Regardless of the law, groups of people did fail to join the Church of England and decided to follow their own beliefs. Although these groups were both Christian and Protestant, they were labeled “Separatists” and were widely considered to be disloyal citizens. Within a short time, the government of England began to persecute (punish) the Separatists with everything from penalty taxes to exclusion from universities, the military, and the government. Many Separatists were jailed for “crimes against the state” and a few were accused of treason (betraying their nation) and executed.

One group of Separatists decided to escape persecution by settling in North America – far from the direct control of the English government and its legal system. In 1620, a group of 100 Separatists were given a charter to start a colony north of Virginia and they set sail for America in September of that year aboard a small ship named the Mayflower. After a very rough and stormy two month long crossing of the Atlantic, the Mayflower was blown off course and made landfall near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The Separatists aboard the Mayflower decided that they were too tired and that their ship was in no condition to travel further. Instead, they went ashore and started a new colony named Plymouth (after the harbor that they had sailed from in England). Before going ashore, 41 male Separatists or “Pilgrims” (as they called themselves) gathered together and created a written framework for the government of the new colony. In the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrims simply agreed to form a government with a governor and council that would make laws. All promised to obey the laws of the government. This was one of the earliest forms of representative government in North America.

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Although the first winter was very difficult and many Pilgrims died, the Natives helped the colony survive. Luckily, several of the Natives spoke English, which they had learned from contact with English fishermen traveling along the coast. When the first harvest was brought in during the fall of 1621, the Indians and Pilgrims joined together to celebrate and give thanks at a great feast. The yearly gathering between Indians and Pilgrims became the traditional holiday of Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.

EFFECTS: The Mayflower Compact and creation of Plymouth Colony strengthened and created very important traditions for English settlers in North America. The Mayflower Compact strengthened the tradition of representative government in America (that already existed in Jamestown, Virginia). In addition, the colony created a new tradition – America was a place that people could move to and practice religious freedom. The colony was also a place to escape the control of the English Government.

B. The Puritans Leave England:

The Puritans were another religious group that attracted the anger of the King of England. Unlike the Pilgrims, who simply wanted to be separate from the Church of England, the Puritans wanted to reform or change the Church of England. They believed that religion should be simple – from the buildings that people worshipped in to the clothing that the ministers wore. They wanted to do away with anything that was left over from the Catholic Church. The Church of England had changed very little from England’s Roman Catholic days and the Puritans disliked how similar the Church of England was to the Catholic Church.

King Charles I saw the Puritans as a true threat. The King believed that the Puritans threatened the Church of England and his power. Puritans were usually well educated and represented a large number of England’s merchants and landowners. Many Puritans were also members of Parliament and held seats in the House of Commons (the lower half of Parliament in which representatives were elected by voting citizens). As a result, the Puritans had political power and could fight against the power of the King and his policies.

King Charles responded by persecuting the Puritans. He cancelled business charters (royal documents that allowed merchants to operate in England), increased taxes on Puritans, expelled them from government and military jobs, and jailed Puritan leaders in an attempt to break their opposition to his policies. Some members of the Puritan community were convinced that England was a nation in decline and that the time had come for them to leave. In 1629, they persuaded royal officials to give them a charter to begin the Massachusetts Bay Company. The company’s plan was to create a colony based on the laws of the bible and the beliefs of the Puritan Church that would set an example for the rest of the world.

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C. The Massachusetts Bay Colony:

The situation in England (between the King, Parliament, and the Puritans) began to break down as the first group of 1,000 Puritans left England under the leadership of John Winthrop, a lawyer and devout (intensely religious) Puritan. Winthrop was elected the colony’s first leader and he quickly set an example for other colonists by building his own home, clearing his own fields, and planting his own crops. Winthrop, like all Puritans, believed that hard work was a form of worship and a sign of good character. Others followed his example and the colony began to grow quickly (Puritans typically worked ten or more hours a day, six days a week).

The Government of the colony was very limited at first – only male stockholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company were allowed to vote. Later, all male members of the Puritan Church were given the right to vote and were allowed to elect members to a representative organization known as the General Court. Between 1629 and 1640, the colony grew from 1,000 to 15,000 men, women, and children. This large movement of people from England to Massachusetts was known as the Great Migration. The town of Boston quickly became the colony’s largest settlement.

EFFECTS: Winthrop helped to create a successful and prosperous (money making) colony that attracted many settlers from England. Many of the people who arrived during the Great Migration, however, were not Puritans. Settlers came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony for many reasons. Some were the younger male children of landowning men and could not inherit land from their fathers. Others simply wanted a chance to own land for the first time. Many more had failed to do well in England and hoped to make a better life in America. Finally, some settlers left England out of fear – sensing that a civil war between the King and Parliament was coming.

The Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay (painting) Signing the Mayflower Compact (illustration)

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Cape Cod Bay – The original Plymouth Colony The second and final location of Plymouth Colonywas located just inside the tip of the “fish hook”

The map above is of Plymouth Harbor and was drawn by French Explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1605. The star represents the later location of Plymouth Colony and other places named by the English have been written in. John Smith had also visited this site and reported on it to England.

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Review Questions

1. How were people who did not belong to the Church of England punished?

2. What did the Pilgrims agree to do under the Mayflower Compact?

3. What important traditions did Plymouth Colony strengthen for English Colonists?

4. How did Governor Winthrop set an example for other Colonists?

5. What made many people leave England to settle in the Massachusetts Bay Colony?