European Colonization of the Americas and What It Meant

Chloe Chandler European resolution of what would move over-up the ghost North the States was motivated by various reasons, including the desire for unearthly license, pull ahead, or a contingency to start over. The colonies were be by religious themes want freedom to practice their trusts without interference from England, destined servants, debtors seeking a clean slate, rigtlers hoping to find a get and good deal who were brought to the States involuntarily as slaves from Africa. The establishment of European colonies in North the States meant dealing with the indigen American common peoples who had already embodyd in the state for centuries.More often than not, settlers treated the essential peoples as lesser worlds and savages, and tensions amidst immanent-borns and Europeans led to legion(predicate) inhumane acts and cobblers lasts, startleicularly deaths of the homegr suffer peoples. incline colonization took approximately a(prenominal) trial and delusion attempts to begin with they were commensurate to establish the noted thirteen colonies that would eventu everyy go on to get under ones clamber the coupled States of America. Despite the sly assertion that in 1492, capital of Ohio sailed the ocean blue and became the starting person to display the refreshful World, he was not the prime(prenominal) foreigner to set hoof in what would decease North America.Aside from the indigenous nations that had already been in the Americas for centuries, in that location was anformer(a)(prenominal) group of people to find America before Columbus. The Vikings were the first to discover what would become North America. However, the Vikings did not remain in the area and their discovery of North America became something of a Viking legend. In 1492 an explorer named Christopher Columbus set out to find a crude travel plan to Asia in ordinate to maximize the efficiency of the spice mountain amidst Asia and Europe. Instea d of discovering a shorter route to Asia, Columbus stumbled across the new-fashioned military man that would come to be known as America.Though his discovery is referred to as the new world, there were countless groups of domestic-born American tribes who had been accompaniment in America for centuries and had their own cultures and slipway of life. Columbus did not arrive in the new world with an open promontory regarding the native cosmoss. Like umpteen people at the time, Columbus regarded those with a peel color diametric from his own to be inferior. On Columbus second part to America, he wrote a letter to the queen regnant and Queen suggesting that they subjugate a puffy portion of the Native American population. Their Highnesses allow see that I can give them as much gold as they desire nd as some(prenominal) slaves as they choose to send for, all hea consequentlys (Columbus first letter, 1493) After the monarchy refused this suggestion, Columbus proceeded to enslave the native peoples regardless. 1,200 natives were taken from their homes and enslaved by Columbus. 560 of these natives were forcibly sent on a beam to Spain where 200 of them died of illness during the trip (Weatherford). In 1584, Sir Walter capital of North Carolina schematic the settlement of Roanoke on an island off of contemporary North Carolina. Roanoke became the first European closure effected in America.The charter to establish Roanoke was granted to Raleigh by the Queen Elizabeth I with the intentions of discovering riches in America as nearly as having a base from which the privateers she had fit could raid Spanish ships. The habituation of Roanoke survived for lead categorys before mysteriously disappearing, earning it the statute title the baffled dependency. One of the most(prenominal) comm just held beliefs regarding Roanokes fate, is that trouble with the native populations led to the deaths of several(prenominal) settlers, time the rest peri od integrated into the Native lifestyle quite than face starvation or death by new(prenominal) means.In 1534 Jacques Cartier, an explorer for France, founded the stoppage refreshing France in the area of present- twenty-four hours Canada and the northerly US. The french had a best(p) relationship with the native inhabitants than any(prenominal) of the some other countries that had, or would colonize the Americas. The French cognise that trouble with the natives could be detrimental and that a positive relationship with them could be beneficial. The French treated the natives with respect instead of viewing them as savages or lesser beings same the Spanish and British did.The French established a polite concern carcass of fur with the Native Americans. The Frenchs respect for the indigenous peoples would later be rewarded by the natives serve come up in the French and Indian struggle between the compound French and the colonial British. A group of French Protestants c alled the Huguenots settled in what would become the southerly US, tho were eventually killed or driven apart by colonial Spain to the south. In 1624, the Dutch settled the area of present day New York and New Jersey. They named their settlement New Amsterdam. The Dutch remained in the area until 664 when the British took over the colonies and renamed part New York and part New Jersey. The British also gained the colony of New Sweden from the Dutch, which went on to become a part of current Delaware. By the year 1600 the Spanish had established an expansive imperium in America from present-day atomic number 20 to present day Florida, and down into substitution America. The Spanish seek to fatten their pudding stone in the search of a profit and also to spread their Catholic faith. The Spanish obtained this vast empire by destroying the native peoples that stood between them and conquest.The three well-known cultures that were decimated during the Spanish conquest of the Am ericas were the Aztecs, the Maya and the Inca. In 1565, the Spanish attacked and took the Frenchs colonial settlement of assemble Caroline, killing 200 settlers. The Spanish then renamed the settlement St. Augustine. The Spanish desire for track downing out would later cause tension between colonial Spain and colonial Britain. In 1606, queen crowd I of England sold charters to the Plymouth ships company and to the capital of the United business leaderdom Virginia Company. The charter was divided between the devil companies, giving the Plymouth Company the northern half in the current-day Maine area.The colony established by the Plymouth Company did not watch over and was soon abandoned. With their Southern half of the charter, The London Virginia Company established the colony of Jamestown, Virginia which would become the first overseas position colony to succeed. The colonists of Jamestown faced many hardships in their first few years. The settlers of Jamestown arrived in the area at an inopportune time, as the area was experiencing a severe drought that made the nicety of crops impossible. The lack of food resulted in many colonists dying of starvation.Aside from the drought, the settlers also experienced encounters from the native tribes who did not welcome their presence. legion(predicate) settlers were killed by the Native Americans in the area, particularly in the long-standing rivalry that ensued between colonists and the neighboring tribes and resulted in the deaths of colonists and natives alike. Many other colonists died of diseases as a result of their malnutrition (Wolfe). When trouble with the neighboring Powhatan tribe finally subsisted, the colonists were introduced to the idea of using tobacco as a bills crop.With the mental hospital of tobacco as a cash crop the colony was finally able to succeed, though a darker issue arose from this success. As the tobacco trade became more than and more successful for the colony, the issue aro se of how to work the field while spending the least tot of money on labor. Thus began Americas dark explanation of slavery. some(prenominal) colonies were founded in battle array to seek religious freedom that was not offered in England. In 1620, a group of Protestants called the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts.The Pilgrims chose to settle in America in effectuate to be able to freely practice their religion. Nine years later, another(prenominal)(prenominal) religious group called the Puritans established a colony called the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans were unaccepting of other religions and established their colony in vagabond to be able to practice their religion and also to be able to reserve other religions out. In 1681, yet another colony was established for religious regions. William Penn, a Quaker, founded the colony of Pennsylvania in gear up to create a haven where Quakers could live and practice their beliefs in peace.In 1670, the establishm ent of the colony of Carolina was funded by a private group of Englishmen who were seeking to make a profit off of the colony. Carolina was settled but ab initio failed because no one had any motif to move to the area. The colony of Carolina finally succeeded at once farmable land was found in present-day Charleston. The establishment of South Carolina was motivated by the desire for profit, rather than for religious reasons as was the case in some of the other colonies.The motivations of the Carolinian settlers became apparent in their actions. Since they were profit-driven rather than being driven by religion as with some of the other colonies, the colonists of Carolina were most raise in how to maximize profits and did not mind if other people were diminished in order for their businesses to flourish. The Carolinian settlers came mainly from the British colony of Barbados, and they brought African slaves along with them. organism profit motivated, South Carolina began a trad ing relationship with the Caribbean Islands.Among the items traded were Native Americans that had been kidnapped and enslaved by the Carolinians in order to trade them to the Caribbean. Alongside their atrocities perpetrate against the natives, the settlers of Carolina also brought in slaves from Africa to work in rice fields once they persistent that slaves were cheaper to maintain than apprenticed servants. In 1733, the southern colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe in order to separate the colony of Carolina from the Spanish-populated Florida area due to tensions between Spain and Britain.These tensions were caused by Spains desire to be ever-expanding, and their history of attacking and taking over colonies that were close by. The English helped add to this tension done the practice of English privateers frequently raptorial Spanish ships, thieving their gold or supplies and killing anyone in the way. Since the idea of active in a colony created as a buffer be tween two rivaling areas is not particularly appealing, Oglethorpe did not counter anyone to willingly settle in Georgia. This undefendable the question of how Georgia would be settled.The repartee became a solution to another of Englands issues what to do with their large number of debtors. At the time in England to be in debt meant to remain in prison house until the debt could be paying(a). James Oglethorpe pitied the debtors who could not pay their debts, and this mercy gave him an idea that would solve two problems at once. The colony of Georgia was populated by debtors in England who were given the choice of colonization or remaining in prison in England until their debts could be compensable. During the time of colonization, as many as 300,000 colonists were oblige servants (US-History. om). An destined servant was a person whose ride fare, housing and food were all paid by the person who hires them. In exchange, the indentured servant imageed into a contract and c oncord to work for their master for as many years as it took for their debt to be paid off. Indentured servants worked in fields or as house servants and often were not treated well. While indentured servants did enter into the contract voluntarily, it was only because they could not abide to go to America on their own and they desperately wanted a chance to start over in the new world.As it became too expensive to keep indentured servants, colonists who owned plantations began to look for cheaper ways to work their fields. Between 1500 and 1800, over half of the population of the colonies consisted of African slaves who were brought to America against their will (Brinkley, 18). Many colonists and slave owners viewed African slaves as primitives and just now regarded them as being human at all. The slaves were not given wages or promised freedom after a set number of years as with indentured servitude, but instead were regarded as the durable property of the person who purchased them.The colonists poor treatment of anyone with a skin color different from theirs was also exhibited in their treatment of the Native Americans. As aforementioned, some colonies such as South Carolina forcibly enslaved the native populations and sold them in order to make a profit. The colonists also encroached on the natives lands and were eager to expand westward without any regard for the natives homes or lands. Colonists frequently regarded the natives as savages who were uncivilized and, like the Africans, hardly human. During colonization, several wars broke out between the settlers and the Native Americans.The war between the Powhatan tribe and the Virginians began when the colonist Captain John Smith began stealing food and supplies from the Native Americans as well as kidnapping several of them. some other engagement caused by the mistreatment of the Native Americans was King Philips War which began as a result of the natives defending themselves when the English coloni sts began to penury that the natives be held under the English colonists rule (Umass. edu). Another dispute between colonists and natives known as Bacons Rebellion began when a native tribe attacked the plantation of a colonist who had not paid them for goods.Colonists then returned attack on the wrong tribe of natives. Several native chiefs were killed throughout the dispute and some not guilty and friendly natives were kidnapped by colonists (nps. gov). In conclusion, the new world was settled by many different kinds of people with many different motivations. Some settled in order to seek religious freedom, while others sought a profit, and some to escape their debt while others were brought to the colonies forcibly as slaves. Several colonies were only able to thrive by depending on the institution of slavery.The colonies also settled without any regard for the Native Americans who had already been vivification in the area. Many natives lost their lives in war with the colonis ts and many more lost their lives as a result of unfamiliar with(predicate) diseases brought over by the colonists. It took many failed colonies before the new world was settled by Europeans. After the colonization of Georgia in 1733, the English had established 13 English colonies in North America. They had also developed a successful economy grounded in tobacco, rice, and slavery.Sources Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation A elliptical History of the American People. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York, NY McGraw-Hill, 2012. Weatherford, Jack. Examining the Reputation of Columbus. Understanding Prejudice. demise change 2002. Accessed February 18, 2013. http//www. understandingprejudice. org/nativeiq/weather. htm. Wolfe, Brendan. Early Jamestown Settlement. Encyclopedia Virginia. Ed. Caitlin Newman. 13 Feb. 2013. Virginia ground for the Humanities. 29 Jan. 2013 Columbus, Christopher.Letter, The Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant angel Announcing His Discovery, 1493. Historic Docume nts. Independence Hall Association. United States History. Indentured Servitude. Accessed February 18, 2013. http//www. u-s-history. com/pages/h1157. html. King Philips War. University of Massachusetts. http//www. bio. umass. edu/biology/conn. river/ philip. html. McCully, Susan. Bacons Rebellion. redact by Jen Loux. National Park Service. Last modified June 1987. Accessed February 18, 2013. http//www. nps. gov/jame/historyculture/bacons-rebellion. htm.