History of Colonial America

I

Introduction

History of Colonial America, colonial possessions or dependencies in the western hemisphere formed by European nations. European countries developed colonies for many reasons, but primarily to generate income. They used colonies to provide raw materials for trade and to serve as markets for finished products. English colonies eventually became dominant in North America because many settlers were drawn to their political systems. These systems encouraged representative government, religious toleration, economic growth, and cultural diversity.

After Christopher Columbus explored the Americas in 1492, the nations of Western Europe—Spain, Portugal, France, The Netherlands, and England—created vast colonial empires in the western hemisphere. The Spanish empire in Mesoamerica (the lands from present-day Mexico to Panama) sent great wealth to Spain in the form of gold and silver. The Portuguese colony in Brazil and the French and English possessions in the West Indies provided sugar, a valuable crop to sell in European markets. In addition, the French, Dutch, and English colonies in North America exported huge quantities of furs. These goods stimulated the European economy and pushed forward a commercial revolution that expanded European trade and wealth.

Yet within two centuries the number of European nations with colonial possessions in America began to dwindle as a result of conquests by rival nations. By 1700 England had pushed the Dutch out of North America, and in 1763 England and Spain divided the French empire in North America. Shortly thereafter, most of the British colonies on the mainland of North America revolted against imperial control and established their independence in 1776 as the United States of America. Three decades later, many of the colonies controlled by Portugal and Spain followed the example of the British colonies and gained their independence. By 1820 few European colonies remained in the western hemisphere.

This article focuses on the history of the English settlements that achieved independence as the United States of America. It covers their experience during the colonial period, which lasted from 1607 to 1763; a separate article covers the era of the American Revolution, which began in 1763.

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Four themes are central to the colonial period of American history. First, property-owning settlers created an increasingly free and competitive political system based on representative institutions of government. Second, the diversity of religious belief among the settlers gradually eroded support for an established church and promoted a new ideal of religious toleration. Third, the settlers created a bustling economy based on communities of independent farm families in New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies and plantations owned by wealthy planters and worked by English indentured servants and African slaves in the Southern colonies. Fourth, colonial culture became more diverse after 1700 because of the influx of many African peoples—Senegalese, Gambians, Ibo, Yoruba, Kongo, among others—and various European ethnic groups—Scots, Scots-Irish, Dutch, and German. However, by 1763 the settlers had begun to fashion a common cultural identity rooted in the English language, English legal and political institutions, and the shared experience of life in America.

II

European Colonial Ventures

The colonial holdings of each European country developed in a distinct way. The Spanish established an authoritarian regime in Mesoamerica and imposed strict controls over the native peoples. The French and the Dutch in North America created fur-trading empires in which the native peoples retained their lands and their political autonomy. The English created settler-colonies, which were populated primarily by migrants from Europe and by slaves from Africa. British colonists excluded Native American peoples and pushed them ever further to the west.

A

Spain and Portugal

Until 1600 Spain and Portugal were the only European powers with colonies in the New World, the term used by Christopher Columbus to describe previously unexplored lands in North and South America. In the 1520s Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) subdued the wealthy Aztec empire that ruled much of what is now Mexico. Over the next decade, they began to expand Spain’s control over the Inca empire in Peru and over the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. During and after these conquests, millions of native peoples died because they lacked immunity to European diseases such as measles and smallpox. Thousands of Spanish migrants settled on Native American lands and used local people as laborers to raise wheat and livestock and to mine gold and silver. All of these products were sent back to Europe or sold to enrich Spain. The Spanish also forced native peoples to convert to Catholicism.

Portugal focused on Brazil as its main colony in the New World. In the 1550s the Portuguese established a plantation economy in Brazil; they raised livestock and grew sugar and other agricultural products for export to Europe. The Portuguese tried to force indigenous peoples to work on these plantations, but the people resisted. European diseases devastated the native population. The Portuguese eventually met their labor needs by importing tens of thousands of enslaved African workers.

Spain and Portugal ruled their American domains in a relatively strict or authoritarian fashion. Their kings dispatched administrators and other official representatives, called viceroys by the Spanish, to rule the colonists. Settlers in Spanish and Portuguese colonies had few opportunities to determine public policy or to develop institutions of representative government.

In 1565 Spain established a fort in Florida to protect its fleets from attack by other European nations. The fort, called Saint Augustine, became the first permanent European settlement in the future United States. The Spanish also founded a dozen other military outposts and religious missions along the Atlantic coast, including one as far north as present-day Virginia. Native Americans soon attacked and destroyed most of these sites. Spanish adventurers searched for gold in large areas of the southern and western United States, but they had little success and so developed few Spanish settlements north of the Rio Grande River.

B

France

France claimed the northeastern region of North America in the 1530s based on the explorations of Jacques Cartier in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The first permanent French settlement did not begin until 1608 when explorer Samuel de Champlain founded a trading post at the narrows of the St. Lawrence River. The site later became the city of Québec.

In 1628 the Company of One Hundred Associates, a joint-stock enterprise run by merchants and court officials, took control of Québec and the surrounding region. Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, a French cardinal and statesman, founded the company. He was a strong advocate of colonization, and with his associates, he hoped to bring settlers to the area. The colony was known as New France, and eventually encompassed Acadia, the island of Newfoundland, Canada (the area drained by the St. Lawrence River), as well as French claims along the Mississippi River valley that were collectively known as Louisiana. Company members also wanted to exploit the rich resources of the region, and the king of France gave them exclusive rights to develop a trade in furs (see Fur Trade in North America).

However, few French men and women made permanent homes in the new colony. The climate was harsh, and the French government discouraged the migration of Huguenots (French Protestants) and of young men who were potential military recruits in France. As a result, New France never developed as a colony for settlers. In 1698 its European population was only 15,200, whereas the population in the neighboring English colonies had already risen to 250,000.

Despite the lack of settlement, New France prospered as a vast fur-trading enterprise. French explorers traveled deep into the North American continent seeking new supplies of deerskins and beaver pelts. In 1673 French missionary Jacques Marquette reached the Mississippi River in present-day Wisconsin. In 1681 explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, traveled down the majestic Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. He honored the reign of King Louis XIV (1643-1715) by creating the new colony of Louisiana and opening up a vast new region for French fur traders.

Military and civilian officials sent from France governed the colonies of Louisiana and New France in an authoritarian but effective manner. They maintained order among the white population and assisted them in building churches and obtaining Catholic priests from France.

Like the Spanish, the French had a disastrous impact on Native Americans. By introducing European diseases, French traders unwittingly triggered massive epidemics, and by creating a market for furs, they sparked wars among native peoples.

The Iroquois, who occupied what later became New York state, profited from the fur trade more than other native peoples in the region. The Iroquois were numerous and lived in large towns of 500 to 2,000 people. Politically, they were united in a great confederation, known as the Five Nations or League of Five Nations, which included the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca peoples. In the 1640s the Five Nations went to war to control the fur trade between the French and the various native peoples who lived in the region.

To win command of this trade, the Five Nations formed an alliance with the English colonies. They then forced the Iroquoian-speaking Huron people to move north of the Great Lakes, pushed a dozen Algonquian peoples westward into present-day Wisconsin, and made other tribes supply them with furs. In the 1670s the Algonquian tribes allied themselves with the French and attacked the Five Nations. After years of conflict, the Five Nations in 1701 agreed to a compromise settlement. Under this agreement, the Iroquois retained their primary role in the fur trade, but they abandoned efforts to dominate the native peoples of the West and promised neutrality in French conflicts with England.