The Control of England in North America and Demise of the Spanish Power in the Atlantic

In June 1744, the Iroquois and representatives from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania met in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to resolve conflicts and negotiate on agreements. These meetings were called the Covenant Chain.

As the seventeenth century started, just about a hundred years after Columbus’s famous discovery, the face of much of the New World had already been profoundly transformed. European crops and livestock had begun to alter the very landscape, touching off an ecological revolution that would echo for centuries to come. Disease and armed conquest had cruelly disrupted the natives. Several hundred thousand enslaved Africans toiled on Caribbean and Brazilian sugar plantations. From Florida and New Mexico southward, most of the New World lay firmly within the grip of Imperial Spain. But European powers planted three primitive outposts in three distant corners of the continent: the Spanish at Santa Fé, the French in Québec, and the English at Jamestown, Virginia. The settlement in Jamestown was the start of it all for the thirteen colonies, but the colonies began differently in the north, middle, and south. The colonies built the north and south

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, New Spain and New France came to the New world for two different reasons. New France came to the new world in search of a new west passage and Spain came in search of gold and religious freedom. They both wanted to spread their religious beliefs through missionaries. The Spanish were the first to establish large settlements. The Spanish had over 200 cities by 1570. The French didn’t start colonizing until 1604. The first French colony was Acadia and Quebec which came years later in 1608. The Spanish had a huge head start on colonization over New France but they both thrived in their own ways by using Natural Resources and slaves.

During the European age of expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, various European nations were colonizing the newly discovered Americas. Spain and France would become prominent players in the Western Hemisphere, both conquering and colonizing new territories. However, each country had different methods of developing their colonies in the New World. Spanish and French settlements contrasted greatly with one another in terms of economic development and Native American relations.

Marcus Gravey stated that, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” With that being stated, are the people of the United States, Canada, and Mexico trees without roots? At a young age students learn that Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue in 1492”, a simple song used to assist children remember that America was discovered in 1492. In addition, Thackeray and Findling describe how Columbus’s discovery presented an unimaginable amount of opportunity for Europeans, and therefore, Spanish, French, and later British explores and settlers began to flock to this new world.

Was an American Revolution, separating the colonies from England, inevitable after the Glorious Revolution had encouraged colonists to end the Dominion of New England, England’s serious attempt at enforcing royal authority? Did England’s “salutary neglect” contribute to future problems in its empire? How might have England been able to successfully enforce its rule on the colonies without causing rebellion?

In Victors and the Vanquished, Schwartz poses the question of “How can we evaluate conflicting sources” (ix)? Through reading historical events such as the “Conquest of New Spain” there is an undeniably large amount of destruction of cultural material and bias testimonies of events recorded several years after they occurred. After analyzing the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica there is a debatable amount of evidence from the Mesoamericans and Spanish explanations of this event in history. The intentions of each explanation created a conflict to historians, art historians and anthropologists on which viewpoint holds to accuracy. There is also the issue of not only inaccuracies, but the motives behind each bias account. As many of these aspects are taken into consideration, interpreting each justification between both sides of history in Mesoamerica as a clash of ethnocentrism between two different cultures that causes an uncertainty of what actually happened in history.

The economy of the two regions also greatly differed because of the terrain that they landed on. Because the land in the south was much more fertile than in the north, the southern colonies thrived in rice and tobacco, profiting greatly. In New England the settlers could not grow anything in the rocky terrain and were forced into fishing, building, and farming. However, not much farming went on because of the infertile soil. In the Chesapeake slaves were also a main part of their economy. The slave trade made them very wealthy because of their closeness to the West Indies. They would be shipped many slaves and then use them to harvest their crops and plant their land. Soon, the slaves outnumbered white settlers by about four to one.

With the establishment of the first successful English colony of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in the New World and the creation of the other thirteen original colonies during the seventeenth-century, the colonists of America were originally immigrants from Europe who sought to escape hardships whether it be religious persecution or material gain. This created regional differences between the New England colonies of the north and the Chesapeake colonies of the south. The diverse population of these colonies continued to grow and prosper while under the rule of Britain. While the colonists were European in origin, they developed a uniquely American identity that was different from the mother country due to the abundance of land and the absence of Parliamentary authority. Although the colonists failed to

The Spanish for example, had a military fort in St, Augustine, Florida and carried on missionary activities as far north as Port Royal, South Carolina. Most of their colonization was either religion or military based as they planned to build missions to benefit the peaceful Native Americans and military outposts to deal with the hostile ones. The Spanish planed to use missions to grow their empire within the borders of America. The British on the other hand wished at first exploit the natives, fish and search for passage to the pacific. These were the ideas of Humphrey Gilbert. Gilbert makes a few voyages to America and nothing stays but after Gilbert dies, Sir Walter Raleigh asks to charter a new colony. He establishes the colonies Roanoke and Virginia and he eventually leaves, but in 1607 a joint stock company, the Virginia Company of London founds Jamestown. Eventually John Smith takes over Jamestown John Smith took over as a much more affective ruler. He then maps the colony, explores it and gets corn from the Indians so that the colonists can survive. The French however, did not colonize as much as the British did, and did not wish to harshly change the Native Americans way of life like the Spanish. In the early years, the French had one colony, New France but in 1682 the

Closely followed by Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World in 1492 were the establishments of European colonies with the French primarily in the north and down the Mississippi, and with the British along the east coast. As a result, the Native Americans’ lives changed drastically. Before 1750, in terms of economically, French responded mutually in terms of economy, culturally befriended them and in terms of religion, responded benignly by encouraging Catholicism through missionaries and on were on the best terms with the Natives; the British by contrast, economically

However, soon after Virginia became a royal colony under governor William Berkeley, an aristocrat who catered to the wealthiest planters, the economic disparity widened as large planters dominated the tobacco market with low prices, making it impossible for smaller farmers to compete. By 1676, half the population of white settlers was landless, and these colonies started to see an influx in African slaves from the international market, as their economy was dependent on cheap labor. In stark contrast, the northern New England colonies, like Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, composed largely of middle class families, had very few indentured servants, and no planter elite. Due to the short growing season and less fertile soil, these farmers were not as successful; instead, the economy depended upon activities like fishing, fur trading and shipbuilding, exploiting the old-growth trees and the abundance and diversity of wildlife. New England’s focus was not on economic

Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés'

Spain was in control of most of the Americas by 1700. Spain set up two provinces, New Spain and Peru, in their empire. Each of the provinces were led by a viceroy in the king’s name. To feed the colonists, Spain created haciendas. The Native Americans worked on the haciendas to grow cash crops. The Catholic Church tried converting Native Americans to Christianity. While the Native Americans learned reading, writing, and other skills, the missionaries often treated them like slaves and forced the Native Americans to change their religious beliefs and values. With the Europeans settling in the Americas, the Columbian Exchange was formed. Through the Columbian Exchange, the eastern and western hemispheres exchanged, plants, animals, and diseases.

For example, when the Spaniards sent conquistadores, soldiers, and missionaries across the Atlantic, they eventually landed settled several Caribbean islands, while the French sent fur traders, merchants, and missionaries to Newfoundland trading posts, and English middle-class farmers, artisans, and tradesmen arrived in Virginia and Massachusetts. The three empires also differed in the type of economy they used. For instance, Spain's economy revolved around plantations and mining, while the French found fur trading to be more fruitful for the economy. The English utilized a