Key Vocabulary:
Motivation: the reason to do something, like a drive or desire

Culture: the way a group of people lives, including social, economic and political characteristics

Consequences: the results of some action- History is a series of cause and effect!

Video Clip:
Christopher Columbus

Video Clip:
Exploration and Competition

Other Notes:
Columbus believed that the world was round and that he could get to Asia by sailing WEST rather than EAST. The nation that controlled that trade route would become ridiculously wealthy and powerful (a good thing when the European nations were trying to beat each other up and take each other's stuff). Of course, it was difficult for some monarchs (Kings and Queens) to believe in his ideas. He was finally financed by the King and Queen of Spain, so even though he was Italian, he sailed for Spain!

Gold, God and Glory are referred to as the "3 G's of Exploration".

Extra Links:
"Christopher Columbus, the Man and the Myth"- an exhibit by the Library of Congress worth looking at.

Here is the letter that Columbus sent back to the King and Queen of England- sounds like he was making some of this stuff up!

Key Vocabulary:
Voluntary- by choice

Involuntary- forced against will

Video Clip:
Colonial Slavery

Other Notes:
The "voluntary" migrants would have been those seeking a better life who CHOSE to come to the Americas. The "involuntary" migrants would have been those from Europe and Africa forced to come to the Americas- Europeans in trouble with the law (criminals sent for indentured servitude) and Africans forced into slavery!

Related Sites:
Spain claims most of the "New World"- click here to learn more about the Spanish conquests!

This link gives you some primary source readings about the motivations to settle in these colonies!

Other Notes:
The motivations and resources available provided for the development of 3 colonial regions along the Atlantic Coast of North America.

Video Clips:

English Colonization in the New World

Joint Stock Companies

Related Sites:
Click here to learn more about what was going on in Europe during the Age of Exploration!

This link examines the history around the Mayflower.

Key Vocabulary:
Puritans: These were "religious outcasts" in England. They spoke against the national religion and advocated hard work, thrift, individual relationships with God, personal reading of the Bible. They accused the King (who was in charge of the Anglican Church) of being too worldly and selfish-- so the king didn't really like these folks either!

Persecution: to single a person or group of people out, usually based on cultural differences, and then treat them unfairly.

Covenant Community: Covenant means an agreement- so this would describe that the community of the Puritans was based on an agreement by the people to work together. Later this forms a direct democracy, where all of the men in the church take part in decisions.

Video Clips:
Puritanism

Mayflower Compact

Related Sites:
The Puritans were not the only ones being persecuted in Europe. Click here to learn more about this persecution.

Try reading the Mayflower Compact by clicking here. You can really get the idea how important religion was to them.

Video Clip:

Founding of Rhode Island

Other Notes:

Video Clip:

Founding of Pennsylvania

Video Clip:
Jamestown

Other Notes:
First of all, the Joint Stock Companies were used predominantly by England. The King of Spain could personally finance exploration and colonization. The King of France could personally finance exploration and colonization. The King of England however, was not quite so rich. So, the English Kings would grant charters (legal licenses) to these companies who would then finance the colony. The King would of course raise revenue by taxing the company and keeping a share, and the company would then split the rest of the wealth. It was no risk to the King, and was the best way for England to spread an empire!

Jamestown nearly failed as it suffered a "starving time". The original settlers were looking for gold, and had little time for farming and hunting. Naturally, hunger set in. Captain John Smith stepped up, ran the settlement in a military fashion, and held to a simple rule- if you don't work, you don't eat! The men got the point, and Jamestown survived the "starving time".

There were several battles with the local Powhatan Indians. Eventually a truce was agreed on with the help of a young girl who served as an interpreter- Pocahontas.

Jamestown was surviving, but not turning a profit. The plug was about to be pulled when John Rolfe, working on an idea, found a strain of tobacco which grew well in Virginia! Tobacco became the "brown gold" the colonists were looking for- and tobacco turned Jamestown and later Virginia into a very wealthy colony!

Related Sites:
Click here for a more comprehensive history of Jamestown- celebrating its 400th anniversary.

Learn more about John Smith using this link!

Learn more about John Rolfe here!

Key Vocabulary:
House of Burgesses: the elected assembly of Virginia- the first elected assembly in the New World.

Video Clip:

House of Burgesses

More Links:
Here is more on the first elected assembly in the "New World".

Video Clip:

Colonization of the South

Other Notes:
Let's re-emphasize, Virginia was founded by a joint stock company looking to make a profit. The early settlers were looking to make money and get rich! There was no real drive for religious freedom in Virginia- it seemed there was more interest in money than in the Church.

The cavaliers would have been the early large landowners; given the best land along the coastal plains. These large pieces of land were what later became the plantations. The poor farmers were given the less fertile and poorer soil of the mountains and foothills.

Video Clip:

Indentured Servants

Key Vocabulary:
Plantation: a large farm that typically uses slave labor to grow a cash crop

Video Clip:

Tobacco and Slaves

Other Notes:
The first slaves were actually accidentally brought to Jamestown on a Portuguese slave ship. The Portuguese dominated the West-African slave trade, and sold slaves to the islands in the Caribbean where they were used on sugar plantations. In 1619, one of these ships was blown off course and limped into Jamestown needing repairs. In exchange for those repairs, the settlers of Jamestown accepted the slaves.

Later, learning from how well African slaves worked on the sugar plantations, slavery was adapted to tobacco plantation farming...

Other Notes:
A key problem to the origin of the land conflict came from the religious beliefs of the Indians during the Age of Colonization. Most Indian groups did not believe that an individual could actually own something as permanent as the land. Land should be respected and used to sustain life, and the people should live in harmony with the environment. Europeans however, believed that land should be owned and environment should be controlled in order to gain wealth. This essential misunderstanding led to many violent conflicts.

The most violent conflicts came between the Spanish and the Indians as the Spanish were interested in harvesting the gold and other natural resources, many times using the Indians as slave labor.

The British, in general, viewed the Indians as more of a nuisance and wished for them to simply move away and take their lands.

The French, who did not come in such large numbers, did not pose as much of a threat to the Indians. The French looked to the Americas as a source of trade- utilizing the Indians to bring them the resources (especially furs).

Most Indians detested these foreign invaders and attempted to stop the flow. Even though Indians outnumbered these early colonizers, the Europeans had superior technology. The Native Americans fell to their guns and diseases.

Video Clips:
Native Americans

Effect of Colonization on the Native Americans

Other Notes:
Here's how the Triangle Trade worked:
Manufactured goods, rum and iron were sent from Europe to the West Coast of Africa. There, the West African Kings would exchange their slaves for these goods. The slaves would then travel to the Caribbean where they would work on sugar plantations. Sugar from the plantations would be taken to the New England Colonies where it could be turned into rum. New England would then ship the rum and other raw materials back to Europe, where the process would begin again.