Discussions of early English colonization have often focused exclusively on the perspectives of the colonists and the colonial promoters and organizers, such as the commercial joint-stock companies. Beyond their role in the issuance of charters, the English Crown and its related bodies, such as the Privy Council, are given little consideration or confined to roles as secondary figures within the greater colonial narrative. The problem lies in the fact that imperial involvement and the politics of empire are frequently excluded from the English colonial narrative by scholars. In Sovereignty and Possession in the English New World, historian Ken MacMillan redresses this problem by discussing the efforts of the English Crown to legitimize its …show more content…
In his writings, Dee drew upon historical arguments, such as the settlement of portions of the North Atlantic by King Arthur, the unification of England by the Welsh Tudors, and the journeys of John Cabot, as giving the British precedent over the Spanish. Dee also drew upon the idea that possession was based on physical presence, territorial control, and religious law, stating it was the Crown’s obligation and right to evangelize and settle the unreached portions of North America. Building upon the idea of settlement as indicating possession, the English crown began issuing charters or royal letters patent to further colonization. Although these charters are often viewed as the distribution of authority by the Crown, MacMillan argues that they reflected the Crown’s direct authority and involvement in the colonizing process. In order to receive a patent, one had to justify the specific reasons for colonization, forcing one to go directly before Crown-appointed officials, such as Privy Councilors, to explain one’s endeavors. Prepared by royal officials, many charters would draw upon the language of Roman law to address the ideas of imperial and dominative rights, conferring authority upon colonizers while maintaining their subjectivity to the …show more content…
MacMillan clearly demonstrates that the colonial narratives of the major imperial powers, including France, Spain, and England, are interwoven and that these powers actively competed for control of the New World, seeking to assert their right to colonize. One could argue that MacMillan’s work is representative of an emerging trend in the historiography which seeks to challenge the traditional American narrative by framing colonization within a much more international and imperial context. Aligning with the arguments of Macmillan, the historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman argues that “American was international before it became national.” The colonization of the Americas involved extensive interaction and negotiation between the European powers and their colonies. In contrast to MacMillan though, Kupperman also interweaves the involvement of the diverse groups of colonists and Indian polities into the narrative, fostering a continental history alongside the Atlantic perspective. Historian Alan Taylor also adopts the approach of looking at colonization in more broad and fluid terms, including discussions of imperialism and European powers. Taylor even extends the importance of imperial competition into discussions of conflict in the eighteenth century, past the time range in which
Although the only explanation we were presented regarding the reasoning or motives of this colonization was the vague answer of Gold, God and Glory. Which from a general perspective is correct, although similar to various topics in history, there is much more then what we have originally thought. Likewise, Taylor explains how, “until the 1960s, most American historians assumed that the “the colonists” mean English-speaking men confined to the Atlantic seaboard.” Overall, after much research and information from various sources, I will explain the overall motives these countries had and how they intertwine with one another.
Between the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the most important change that occurred in the colonies was the emergence of a society quite different from that in England. Changes in religion, economics, politics, and social structure illustrate this Americanization of the transplanted Europeans.
In this book, Kupperman is telling a well-known event in remarkable detail. She intentionally uses last three chapters of the nine to tell the Jamestown’s history. The first six are in relation to how Jamestown came to be. The first chapter deals with political, national and religious conflicts during this period and how it motivated the English to venture West. The second is titled,” Adventurers, Opportunities, and Improvisation.” The highlight of this chapter is the story of John Smith, and how his precious experience enabled him to save ”the Jamestown colony from certain ruin.” (51) He is just an example of the “many whose first experiences along these lines were Africa or the eastern Mediterranean later turned their acquired skills to American ventures.” (43) Chapter three discusses the European and Native American interaction before and during this period. “North America’s people had had extensive and intimate experience of Europeans long before colonies was thought of, and through this experience they had come to understand much about the different kind of people across the sea.” (73) This exchange of information happened because a lot of Europeans lived among the Natives (not as colonist or settlers), and Natives were brought back to Europe. The people in Europe were very fascinated with these new people and their culture. Chapter four analyzes this fascination. It starts off talking about Thomas Trevilian, an author of “an elaborate commonplace book,” that showed “the English public was keenly interested in the world and in understanding how to categorize the knowledge about all the new things, people, and cultures of which specimens and descriptions were now available to them.
Idea of God’s providence permeated throughout the thoughts and writings of the leaders of the early English colonists to America. Contemporaries take for granted the religiosity of the New England colonists, but for the Chesapeake Bay, especially around Jamestown, God’s providence gave explanations for why certain things happened the way that they did and acknowledged the presence of God everywhere that they went. The settlers of the Chesapeake Bay area were discoverers, adventurers, (primarily) men who sought wealth, riches, and authority in a land untouched; a “land as God made it” while those who chose to lead New England came for very different reasons and saw themselves as the chosen, the ones tasked with carrying onward and outward, to escape persecution and conduct their lives and religion the way that they wanted to. Out of these differences, there developed two separate, but connected, understandings of and uses for God’s providence.
Before the American Revolution, the trends of colonial history remained rather consistent. The European superpowers continued to expand, reaping exponential benefits from the nations in which they colonized. Thomas Bender argues that the American Revolution was not just a revolution for the people of the continental United States, but was rather the starting point of a continuous global revolution that inspired social change and governmental autonomy for the colonized people. Bender examines global trends in Central and South America, as well as Europe before America’s Declaration of Independence to demonstrate that prior to the American Revolution, the great powers of Europe ruled with minimal backlash, exploiting weaker nations for increased
In the 1600’s there was the foundations of representative government. In the 1600’s the colonists came up with something called a democracy. A democracy is a government in which people rule themselves. The colonists had voted for many certain laws. They ruled themselves by using the laws of society. The carter named “Magna Carta” was a character of liberties which was agreed by King John of England, it had made the king obey the same laws as the citizens. Protestantism is a branch within Christianity; this was mostly participated during the 16th century. These were people who had reformed certain practices in the Catholic churches. On November 11, 1620 the Mayflower Compact was signed. The Mayflower Compact is a legal contract which was agreed to have fair laws to protect the good.
Daniel Richter's Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, turns many heads as Richter changes the traditional outlook of the Westward expansion all the way to the American Revolution by viewing certain events through the eyes of the Native Americans who were settled in this land years before the new colonizations started. It was not easy to try and make a complete work about the different perspectives that the Natives had, due to the fact that many sources are works from Europeans or they were filtered by them. Richter explains that Native people sketch out elaborative paintings in their house or on barks of living trees, many of these sources obviously have not lasted long enough for us to examine. This book, however gives great detail and fully analyzes the "aggressively expansionist Euro-American United States" (p. 8-7) that rose from what belonged to Indian Country. Richter challenges you to compose a new framework of the Indian and European encounters reforming the "master narrative" of early American colonization from the Native point of view.
MacMillan, Ken. “Sovereignty “More Plainly Described”: Early English Maps of North America, 1580-1625.” Journal of British Studies 42, no. 4 (2003). Accessed 2 November 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/376461.
Economic concerns of the British caused the colonization of British North America. Such economic concerns included the opportunity to acquire gold, silver, a North American waterway that would lead directly to China and the Indies, and the prospect of countering Spain's dominance in North America (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition to these economic reasons for colonization, the English were also seeking to obtain the essential "raw materials" in America that they had been previously buying from other European countries for exorbitant amounts of money and gold (Boorstin et al. 34). Great Britain also sought to solve other economic problems through American colonization. For example, England needed to replenish some of its diminishing materials and assets, generate another "market" to export its cargo and merchandise, maintain its powerful navy and "merchant marine" through business with new American colonies, and to provide a new place for the unemployed to settle rather than escalating populace/crime and the economic burden in its own cities (Boorstin et al. 34).
In the early 1600’s England need money once again, and this time it decided to by settling the new land to the west of them. Instead of actually funding these colonial expeditions, England would issue charters to joint – stock companies. These companies consisted of wealthy English investors who would all give some money to finance the trips and would share in the riches if they succeeded or lost their money of they failed. Most of the time the benefits of their investments would outweigh the risks. For England, this was a win-win situation. Since England did not pay for the voyages or the colonies themselves, England wouldn’t lose the money if they failed. If the companies succeeded, England was entitled to a percentage of the profits and became its ultimate authority.
Taylor, Alan American Colonies: The Settling of North America, New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2001. pg. 1685-1730
Exploration and establishment of colonies in the New World were seen as a symbol of power and potential wealth among European nations. Portugal, Spain, and France made their claims early. Beginning in the early 1600s, groups of people unhappy with their treatment in England sought after a new home. There were two types of English colonies that settled in the New World: those searching for religious freedom, and those searching for profit. Massachusetts and Virginia are examples of each. Although settled for different reasons, both colonies were similar in their initial struggles, eventual trade routes, and growing populations. Religious persecution was a main deterrent from remaining in England. Puritans, a religious group aside from the
Cook, Don. The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760-1785. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.
During the 1600’s the New England and Chesapeake regions were beginning to settle and colonize. While both came from English origin and had dreams of wealth and freedom, differences began to form just as they settled and by the 1700s the two regions will have evolved into two distinct societies. Because of the exposure to different circumstances both regions developed issues that were unique from one another and caused them to construct their societies differently. Therefore, the differences socially, politically and economically in the two regions caused the divergence.
Colonization of the Americas was done by both the Spanish and English in the late 1400s to late 1500s respectively. They had quite a few similarities such as the hardships they encountered in their homelands that embarked them on their journeys to explore and even, in some ways, their rule over the new land had some likeness as well. The differences between them lie in the specifics of their exploration and their relationship with the Indian groups who already inhabited the space they took over. Even though each group had different motives and goals for their expedition, it is evident that both groups had their share of major conflicts with the native peoples and defining characteristics of their societies.