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The Jamestown Colony was the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was established on May 14, 1607, and allowed England to engage in the competition for land in the New World.
The English expedition to find a permanent settlement in North America was led by Christopher Newport, and was financed by the Virginia Company of London.
The early years of the settlement were pretty disastrous because of disease, lack of a food supply, and the motives for finding gold and other sources of income for England rather than focus efforts of surviving.
Relations were mixed with the Native Americans during the first years, until a prolonged period of peace came with the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. John Rolfe was responsible for the economic boom in Virginia from planting tobacco from the West Indies that planted better than native Virginia tobacco.
By 1619, the first African slaves were being used to harvest tobacco, and were brought by an English ship that captured and stole them from a Portuguese ship in the West Indies. This would lead to the use of slaves in North America for the next almost three centuries.
In his Pulitzer Prize winning 1997 book Guns, Germs, and Steel, author and professor Jared Diamond attempts to answer the question of why the general sweep of world history has been dominated by native Europeans, rather than native Americans or Africans or Asians.
His analysis attempts to answer a question like "Why did Spanish explorers discover and conquer the Aztecs, rather than the other way around?"
The link above is part 1 of a three part Discovery Channel documentary based on Diamond's book.
While Diamond's thesis goes much deeper than the focus of this page, it attempts to give a definitive answer to the question of "Why Europe?"
Bartolome de las Casas was a 16th century Spanish friar who traveled to the "New World" in the early years of Spanish exploration and eventually colonization.
He first went over as a missionary looking to spread the Christian faith, but later became a sharp critic of the brutal Spanish colonial policies.
His contemporary condemnation of Spanish colonial practices has made him a treasured primary source for many modern historians. The above website collects his writings and gives significant details about his life.
The popular policies of mercantilism in 16th-18th century Europe were undoubtedly one of the most powerful ideologies behind exploration and expansion. This link from the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics gives an in-depth explanation of mercantilism from an economic point of view.
Test Question Which of the following was not a goal of the Spanish colonial system in the Americas in the 16th through 18th centuries?
A - accumulation of wealth by conquering native populations
B - expanding the influence of the Roman Catholic Church
C - educating native populations to govern Spanish cities in the Americas
D - advancing Spanish interests in the global climate of competition
ANSWER: C
1492: An Ongoing Voyage The Library of Congress offers a wide-ranging view of European voyages to the New World.
Indigenous Peoples Day reimagines Columbus Day and changes a celebration of colonialism into an opportunity to reveal historical truths about the genocide and oppression of native peoples in the Americas.
The idea for was born in 1977 at a United Nations-sponsored conference on discrimination against indigenous populations.
South Dakota, Hawaii and Alaska as well as many communities have changed the Columbus Day holiday's name to honor indigenous people.
Ferdinand Magellan was Portuguese explorer who set out from Spain in 1519 to find a western sea route to the Spice Islands.
Because Magellan was denied many times by King Manuel of Portugal to set on a voyage of the Spice Islands, he moved to Spain to seek support for his journey.
King Charles I of Spain granted Magellan his support in 1519, and shortly after, Magellan departed with 5 ships and hundreds of men. Upon reaching South America, Ferdinand Magellan began to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean, finally discovering the Strait of Magellan in October of 1520.
Magellan and his men made it across the Pacific Ocean by March of 1521, landing in the island of Guam and later in the Philippines.
Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe and discovery of the Strait of Magellan was extremely important for Europeans because they had finally found a new route to reach the Pacific lands that provided much needed spices.
By the late 15th century Europe was in the midst of the Renaissance, the cultural rebirth that had followed the Middle Ages. This same period was also the Age of Encounter, a time when explorers from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England set out to find easier trade routes to China and India. This time of exploration was led by such navigators as Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Vasco de Gama, Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan, and Francis Drake. These men believed they were the first Europeans to encounter the New World, though historians have since shown that the Vikings reached the continent nearly 500 years earlier. These voyages during the Age of Encounter produced contact with native peoples that would prove to have devastating effects on these populations, and connected various countries in ways that would transform the world.
Lesson summary
In this lesson, students will explore the travels and discoveries of important Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English explorers during the 15th and 16th centuries. After viewing short videos about Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Vasco da Gama, Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan, and Francis Drake, students will examine two paintings that depict Columbus landing in the New World and read excerpts from a letter recounting some of John Cabot’s adventures. Students will consider what the letter might foretell about the opportunities in the New World. The lesson will conclude with students writing a dialogue between three of the explorers debating important issues of their day.
African traditions of slavery/traffic in slaves for centuries before Portuguese sailed to Africa were not based on race and slaves typically served in households
In the 16th century plantations in South America (Brazil) and the Caribbean growing sugar required workers
Native Indians were not able to do this hard work due to diseases
In 1518 the Spanish brought the first boatload of African Slaves directly to the New World
Africans were not susceptible to the ‘white man’s’ disease, most likely from years of Trans-Saharan trade they were able to build up immunity.
An estimated 11 million people were shipped to the Western Hemisphere
The 10 week journey is also referred to as the "Middle Passage”
Approximately 15 of every 25 people /slaves died on voyage
Slavery and the Origins of Racism article by Lance Selfa from the International Socialist Review, argues that the economic basis of slavery as domination preceded slavery as a purely racial institution.
Slavery and the Southern Economy during the Antebellum Period This lecture discusses the importance of slavery to the economy in the southern states, which contributes to the reason that slavery survived in the United States for years after it had been disbanded in European nations.
The Middle Passage: Documentary about the Middle Passage, name given to the voyage of slave ships from Africa to the Americas.
Njinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba (1583-1663)
TEST QUESTION During the most active years of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from the late 15th through the middle of the 19th century, the region that saw the highest number of slaves imported was:
One major reason that European explorers looked to the west was that the Ottoman Turks in 1453 C.E., blocked the Middle East trade route to Italy. Europeans had to find a new way to acquire goods such as silks and spices upon which they have become dependent.
Europe had turned inward following its confrontations with the Muslim world in the Crusades. Following the consolidation of monarchical power and discovery of riches in the East by overland explorers such as Marco Polo, there was growing impetus to expand and seek out new markets and trading partners. Portugal led the way, followed closely by Spain.
Not powerful enough to expand within Europe or confront the growing Ottoman Empire in the East, they sailed south on improved ships using new navigational tools. In search of "God, Glory and Gold" and a way around the Muslim stranglehold on the spice trade, they traveled further afield, eventually rounding the Cape of Good Hope and reaching the Far East. A series of fortresses were built along the West and East coasts of Africa, into India and the East Indies in order to facilitate trade.
All these ventures went under the guise of serving to rescue non-Christian souls from eternal damnation first and foremost, and though this was used as a justification for their expansion and conquests, many Europeans firmly convinced themselves that what they were doing was beneficial. Though written in 1899, Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden is a sarcastically written response to this 'justification' of Western nations imposing themselves on 'lesser races'.
Europeans began trading in captured African slaves almost immediately, mostly for use as domestic servants in Europe. In search of an alternate route to the lucrative East Indies trade, Columbus enlisted the sponsorship of the Spanish to chart a new course there by sailing west - inadvertently opening up the so called New World to a restless Europe in search of adventure and profit. Before too long the Spanish and Portuguese were forced to compete with the English, Dutch and French for the spoils, eventually ceding North America, India and most of the West Indies to these upstarts.
Test Question
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