English Colonization of America
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The English colonization of America is the settlement of North America by immigrants from England, and from 1707 from Great Britain, then, from 1801, from the United Kingdom.
European colonies in America (XVI XVIII centuries).
Content
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1 First attempts 1.1 Settlement of New England
2 The Thirteen Colonies 2.1 Prerequisites for the War of Independence
3 Canada 4 Florida 5 Caribbean Islands 6 Central America 7 South America 8 Chronology of the founding of the English colonies 9 Notes
The first attempts[edit / edit wiki text]
The ideologist of the English colonization of North America was the famous chaplain Gakluyt.
In 1585 and 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I of England, made two attempts to establish a permanent settlement in North America.
A reconnaissance expedition reached the American coast in 1584 and named the open coast Virginia (English Virginia — "Virgin") in honor of the" virgin queen " Elizabeth I, who never married.
Both attempts ended in failure — the first colony, founded on Roanoke Island off the coast of Virginia, was on the verge of destruction due to Indian attacks and lack of supplies and was evacuated by Sir Francis Drake in April 1587.
In July of the same year, the second expedition of colonists, numbering 117 people, landed on the island.
It was planned that in the spring of 1588, ships with equipment and food would arrive in the colony.
However, for various reasons, the supply expedition was delayed for almost a year and a half.
When she arrived at the site, all the buildings of the colonists were intact, but no traces of people, except for the remains of one person, were found.
The exact fate of the colonists has not been established to this day[1].
At the beginning of the XVII century, private capital entered the business.
In 1605, two joint stock companies received licenses from King James I to establish colonies in Virginia.
It should be borne in mind that at that time the term "Virginia" meant the entire territory of the North American continent.
The first of the companies — the" London Virginia Company "(Eng.
Virginia Company of London) — received the rights to the southern, the second — the" Plymouth Company " (Eng. Plymouth Company) - to the northern part of the continent.
Despite the fact that both companies officially proclaimed the main goal of spreading Christianity, the license granted them the right to "search and extract gold, silver and copper by all means".
On December 20, 1606, the colonists set sail on board three ships and after a difficult, almost five month voyage, during which several dozen people died of hunger and disease, in May 1607 they reached the Chesapeake Bay.
Over the next month, they built a wooden fort, named after the king Fort James (the English pronunciation of the name James).
The fort was later renamed Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in America. [2]
The official historiography of the United States considers Jamestown the cradle of the country, the history of the settlement and its leader, Captain John Smith of Jamestown, is covered in many serious studies and works of fiction.
The latter, as a rule, idealize the history of the city and the pioneers who inhabited it, (for example, the popular cartoon Pocahontas).
In fact, the first years of the colony were extremely difficult, in the famine winter of 1609-1610, no more than 60 out of 500 colonists survived, and, according to some evidence[3], the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive the famine.
An American stamp issued for the tercentenary of the founding of Jamestown
In the following years, when the issue of physical survival was no longer so acute, the two most important problems were strained relations with the indigenous population and the economic feasibility of the colony's existence.
To the disappointment of the shareholders of the London Virginia Company, neither gold nor silver was found by the colonists, and the main commodity produced for export was ship's wood.
Despite the fact that this product was in a certain demand in the metropolis, which had exhausted its forests, the profit, as well as from other attempts at economic activity, was minimal[4].
The situation changed in 1612, when the farmer and landowner John Rolfe managed to cross a local variety of tobacco grown by Indians with varieties imported from Bermuda.
The resulting hybrids were well adapted to the Virginia climate and at the same time met the tastes of English consumers.
The colony acquired a source of reliable income and for many years tobacco became the basis of the economy and exports of Virginia, and the phrases "Virginia tobacco", "Virginia blend" are used as characteristics of tobacco products to this day[5][6].
Five years later, the export of tobacco amounted to 20,000 pounds, a year later it was doubled, and by 1629 it reached 500,000 pounds[5].
John Rolfe rendered another service to the colony: in 1614, he managed to negotiate a peace with a local Indian chief.
The peace treaty was sealed by a marriage between Rolf and the chief's daughter, Pocahontas.
In 1619, two events occurred that had a significant impact on the entire future history of the United States.
This year, Governor George Yeardley decided to transfer part of the power to the House of Burgesses, thereby establishing the first elected legislative assembly in the New World.
The first meeting of the council was held on July 30, 1619[7].
In the same year, the colonists acquired a small group of Africans of Angolan origin.
Although they were not formally slaves, but had long contracts without the right to terminate, it is customary to count the history of slavery in America from this event[8].
In 1622, almost a quarter of the colony's population was destroyed by rebellious Indians.
In 1624, the license of the London Company, whose business had declined, was revoked, and from that time Virginia became a royal colony.
The governor was appointed by the King, but the colony council retained significant powers.
The settlement of New England[edit / edit wiki text]
The ship "Mayflower", which transported the" pilgrim fathers " to the New World.
Painting by William Halsall, 1882.
In September 1620, the ship "Mayflower" arrived on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts with 102 Calvinist Puritans ("Pilgrim Fathers").
This event is considered the beginning of the purposeful colonization of the continent by the British.
They concluded an agreement between themselves, called the Mayflower Agreement.
It reflects in the most general form the ideas of the first American colonists about democracy, self government and civil liberties.
Later, similar agreements were concluded between the colonists of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Robert W. Weir.
The pilgrim fathers board the ship.
1844.
After 1630, in the Plymouth Colony — the first colony of New England, which later became the Massachusetts Bay Colony, new English Puritan settlers founded at least a dozen small towns.
The immigration wave of 1630-1643 brought about 20 thousand people to New England, at least 45 thousand more settled in the colonies of the American south or on the islands of Central America.
Thirteen colonies[edit / edit wiki text]
Within 75 years after the appearance of the first English colony of Virginia in 1607, 12 more colonies emerged — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The first colonists of North America did not differ in any single religious beliefs or equal social status.
For example, shortly before 1775, at least a third of the population of Pennsylvania was already made up of Germans( Lutherans), Mennonites and representatives of other religious beliefs and sects.
English Catholics settled in Maryland, French Huguenots settled in South Carolina.
The Swedes settled Delaware, Polish, German and Italian artisans preferred Virginia.
From among them, hired workers were recruited by farmers.
The colonists often found themselves defenseless against Indian raids, one of which served as the impetus for the uprising in Virginia in 1676, known as the Bacon Rebellion.
The uprising ended in vain after Bacon's unexpected death from malaria and the execution of 14 of his most active associates.
Since the middle of the XVII century, Great Britain tried to establish full control over the economic operations of the American colonies, implementing a scheme in which all industrial goods (from metal buttons to fishing vessels) were imported to the colonies from the mother country in exchange for raw materials and agricultural goods.
Under this scheme, English entrepreneurs, as well as the English government, were extremely uninterested in the development of industry in the colonies, as well as in the trade of the colonies with anyone other than the mother country.
Meanwhile, American industry (mainly in the northern colonies) has achieved significant success.
Especially American industrialists succeeded in building ships, which allowed them to quickly establish trade with the West Indies and thereby find a market for domestic manufactory.
The English Parliament considered these successes so threatening that in 1750 it issued a law prohibiting the construction of rolling mills and ironworking workshops in the colonies.
The foreign trade of the colonies was also subjected to harassment.
In 1763, the shipping laws were passed, according to which goods were allowed to be imported and exported from the American colonies only on British ships.
In addition, all goods intended for the colonies had to be loaded in Great Britain, regardless of where they were transported from.
Thus, the metropolis tried to put all the foreign trade of the colonies under its control.
And this is not counting the many duties and taxes on goods that the colonists personally imported home.
Prerequisites of the War of Independence[edit / edit wiki text]
By the second half of the XVIII century, the population of the American colonies was increasingly acting as a community of people who were in confrontation with the mother country.
The development of the colonial press played a significant role in this.
The first American newspaper appeared in April 1704, and by 1765 there were already 25 of them.
The Stamp Duty Law, which hit American publishers hard, added fuel to the fire.
American industrialists and merchants, who were extremely dissatisfied with the colonial policy of the metropolis, also showed discontent.
The presence of British troops (who remained there after the Seven Years ' War) on the territory of the colonies also caused dissatisfaction of the colonists.
Demands for independence were increasingly voiced.
Feeling the gravity of the situation, both Great Britain and the American bourgeoisie were looking for a solution that would satisfy the interests of both the mother country and the colonies.
So, in 1754, on the initiative of Benjamin Franklin, a project was put forward to create a union of the North American colonies with their own government, but headed by a president appointed by the British king.
Although the project did not provide for full independence of the colonies, it caused an extremely negative reaction from the British government.
All this became the prerequisites for the War of Independence of the United States.
Canada[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: History of Canada
In 1497, several expeditions to the island of Newfoundland, associated with the names of the Cabots, marked the beginning of England's claims to the territory of modern Canada.
In 1763, under the Treaty of Paris, New France passed into the possession of Great Britain and became the province of Quebec.
Rupert's Land (the area around Hudson Bay) and Prince Edward Island were also British colonies.
Florida[edit / edit wiki text]
In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for control of Havana, which the British occupied during the Seven Years ' War.
The British divided Florida into East and West and engaged in attracting immigrants.
To do this, the settlers were offered land and financial support.
In 1767, the northern border of West Florida was significantly moved, so that West Florida included parts of the modern territories of the states of Alabama and Mississippi.
During the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain retained control of East Florida, but Spain was able to capture West Florida thanks to an alliance with France, which was at war with England.
According to the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1783 between Great Britain and Spain, all of Florida was ceded to Spain
Islands of the Caribbean region[edit / edit wiki text]
The first English colonies appeared in Bermuda (1612), the islands of St. Kitts (1623) and Barbados (1627) and were then used to colonize other islands.
In 1655, Jamaica, taken from the Spanish Empire, was under the control of the British.
Central America[edit / edit wiki text]
In 1630, British agents founded the Providence Company, whose president was the Earl of Warwick and secretary was John Pym, occupied two small islands near the Mosquito Coast and established friendly relations with the locals.
From 1655 to 1850, England, and then Great Britain, claimed a protectorate over the Miskito Indians, but numerous attempts to establish colonies were unsuccessful, and the protectorate was disputed by Spain, the Central American republics and the United States.
The objections from the United States were caused by fears that England would gain an advantage in connection with the proposed construction of a canal between the two oceans.
In 1848, the capture of the city of Greytown (now called San Juan del Norte) by the Miskito Indians with the support of the British caused a great stir in the United States and almost led to war.
However, by signing the Clayton Bulwer Treaty of 1850, both powers pledged not to strengthen, colonize or dominate any part of the territory of Central America.
In 1859, Great Britain transferred the protectorate to Honduras.
The first English colony on the banks of the Belize River appeared in 1638.
In the middle of the XVII century, other English settlements were created.
Later, British settlers engaged in harvesting the wood of the campesha tree, from which a substance was extracted that was used in the manufacture of dyes for fabrics and was of great importance for the wool spinning industry in Europe (see the article Belize#History).
South America[edit / edit wiki text]
In 1803, Britain seized the Dutch settlements in Guiana, and in 1814, under the Treaty of Vienna, it officially received the lands united in 1831 under the name British Guiana.
In January 1765, British captain John Byron explored Saunders Island on the eastern tip of the Falkland Islands archipelago and announced its annexation to Great Britain[9].
The bay on Saunders was named by Captain Byron as Port Egmont.
Here, in 1766, Captain McBride founded an English settlement.
In the same year, Spain acquired French possessions in the Falklands from Bougainville and, having consolidated its power here in 1767, appointed a governor.
In 1770, the Spaniards attacked the Port of Egmont and drove the British from the island.
This led to the fact that the two countries were on the verge of war, but a later peace treaty allowed the British to return to the Port of Egmont in 1771, while neither Spain nor Great Britain abandoned their claims to the islands[9].
In 1774, on the eve of the impending War of Independence of the United States, Great Britain unilaterally left many of its overseas possessions, including the Port of Egmont.
Leaving the Falklands in 1776, the British installed a memorial plaque here to confirm their rights to this territory.
From 1776 to 1811, a Spanish settlement remained on the islands, ruled from Buenos Aires as part of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata.
In 1811, the Spaniards left the islands, also leaving a tablet here to prove their rights.
After the declaration of independence in 1816, Argentina declared the Falklands its own.
In January 1833, the British landed on the Falklands again and notified the Argentine authorities of their intention to restore their power on the islands.
Chronology of the founding of the English colonies[edit / edit wiki text]
1607 Virginia (Jamestown) 1620 — Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Settlement) 1626 — New York 1633 — Maryland 1636 — Rhode Island 1636 — Connecticut 1638 — Delaware 1638 — New Hampshire 1653 — North Carolina 1663 — South Carolina 1664 — New Jersey 1682 Pennsylvania 1732 — Georgia
Notes[edit / edit wiki text]
↑ Information on the "Lost Colony" on the website of the National Park Service (English).
^ The chronology of the settlement on the site of the historical society of Jamestown (dead link with 05-09-2013 (841 days) — history, copy) (English).
↑ Historical journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, ↑ Information about the "Virginia Company of London" on the website of the National Park Service (English).
↑ Go to page: 1 2 Information on the website of the society of protection of monuments and the history of Virginia (English).
Доклад Report by Captain Powell, Library of Congress of the United States (eng.) ↑ http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/1stASSLY.html Information on the website of the US National Park Service] (English) ↑ Information on the website of the Virginia Society for the Protection of Monuments and History (English) ↑ Go to: 1 2 Graham Pascoe & Peter Pepper.
Getting it right: The real history of the Falklands/Malvinas.
<img src="//ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" title="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;" />
Source — "https://ru.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Английская colonization of America&oldid=72915159"
Categories: History of England History of Great Britain History of the USA Colonization of America
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