Part 1. From the 16th century to the American Revolution

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

LECTURE 2

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What other names of the U.S.A. do you know?

2. How can the U.S. area be compared with other countries’ ones?

3. Why do many people think the U.S.A. consists of 51 states?

4. What is the political division of the U.S.A.?

5. How does the geography of the U.S.A. vary across its immense area?

6. What rivers (deserts) play an important role in the economy of the U.S.A.?

7. In what way do the major cultural regions of the U.S.A. differ?

8. What were the reasons of serious pollution problems the U.S.A. faced in the second half of the 20^th century?

9. What advances the process of the U.S. regions’ Americanization?

10. What role was played by New England and the Middle Atlantic states in the 19th-century American expansion?

11. What gives the South its unmistakable identity?

12. What Western states don’t share with the rest the West 's concern over the scarcity of water?

13. What has encouraged Midwesterners to direct their concerns to their own domestic affairs, avoiding matters of wider interest?

14. What are the attractions of the Sunbelt?

This lecturetells us how the U.S.A. developed from colonial beginnings in the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived, until modern times. The lecture consists of three parts.

Part 1 covers the period between the colonization of America and ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1789.It describes:

· European exploration of North America

· colonial America

· the American Revolution

· the 1st and the 2nd Continental Congresses, the Constitutional Convention,

· the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights

Key Words and Proper Names: acquisition of land, amendment, cannibalism, cash crop, exchange of species, indentured servants, indigenous tribe, indigo, mariner, militia, mob, nobles, the pursuit of happiness, plunder the wealth, persecution, redeemer nation, scarce, self-governance, slave trade;

the Boston Massacre, the Chesapeake Bay, John Cabot, Colony of Roanoke, the Battles of Lexington, Concord and of Saratoga, Delaware, the Great Awakening, Francis Drake, Jamestown, Federalists and Anti-federalists, the Intolerable Acts, the London Virginia Company, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mayflower Compact, Nova Scotia, Pilgrims and Puritans, Pocahontas, Plymouth Colony, the Quakers, the Royal Proclamation, Squanto and Samoset, the Stamp Act, the Sugar and Currency Acts, the Tea Act, the Townshend Act.

European Exploration: It is well known that America was discovered by Ch. Columbus in 1492. But as history tells us, Columbus was not the first European to reach the continent. Scandinavians traveled to North America from Greenland in the 11th century and set up a short-lived colony in Nova Scotia. There is also a speculation that an obscure mariner had traveled to the Americas before Columbus and provided him with maps for his later claims. Some said European fishermen had discovered the fishing waters off eastern Canada by 1480.

However, the first recorded voyage to North America was made by John Cabot or Giovanni Caboto, an Italian navigator in the service of England, who sailed from England to Newfoundland in 1497.

Interesting to know: On 5 March 1496 King Henry VII of England gave J. Cabot letters patent with the following charge:...free authority, faculty and power to sail to all parts, regions and coasts of the eastern, western and northern sea, under our banners, flags and ensigns, with five ships or vessels of whatsoever burden and quality they may be, and with so many and with such mariners and men as they may wish to take with them in the said ships, at their own proper costs and charges, to find, discover and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of pagans and infidels, in whatsoever part of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians.

What distinguishes Columbus’s first voyage from all other early voyages of the past is the following: less than two decades later the existence of America became known in Europe. Columbus’s voyages led to a relatively quick, general and lasting recognition of the existence of the New World by the Old World, to the Columbian exchange of species (both those harmful to humans, such as viruses, bacteria, and diseases, and beneficial ones, such as tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and horses), and the first large-scale colonization of the Americas by Europeans.

The voyages also inaugurated ongoing commerce between the Old and New Worlds.

Before Columbus, several flourishing civilizations had existed in the Americas for centuries. The earliest inhabitants of America may have arrived over 25,000 years before Columbus. There were discovered remains from the first large building projects, dating back to 500 B.C. - 500 A.D., consisting of large ceremonial earthworks or mounds.

These structures proved that by 1492 American civilizations had reached a level of culture, which included personal wealth, fine buildings, expert craftsmanship, and religions.

The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native inhabitants of America. Up to 80% of indigenous Americans may have died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox, and many tribes and cultures were completely eliminated in the course of European westward expansion.

Colonial America: Starting with the late 16th century, England, Scotland, France, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands began to colonize eastern North America. European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups; they established small colonies and traded with the indigenous peoples.

But, only the English established colonies of agricultural settlers, who were interested less intrade and more in the acquisition of land. That fact was decisive in the long struggle for control of North America.

The first Englishmen also hoped to find gold or a passage through the Americas to the Indies. Other early English explorers such as Francis Drake arrived in the Americas to plunder the wealth of the Spanish settlers.

English migrants came to America for two main reasons. The first reason was religious tied to the English Reformation. Groups of colonists came to America searching for a) either an asylum to practice a religion without persecution or b) a refuge to begin a new and holier settlement where complete theological agreement could be found.

The second reason for English colonization was economic, because between 1530 and 1680 the population in England doubled andthe land became scarce. Many of England’s largest landholders fenced the lands, and raised sheep for the expanding wool trade. The result was a growing number of poor, unemployed, and desperate English men and women. They were recruited by rich Americans and became indentured (contracted) laborers. American landowners even paid for a laborer’s passage to America if he signed the contact to serve them for several years.

The main waves of settlers in North America came in the 17th century. At first, most immigrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants. Between the late 1610’s and the American Revolution, the British shipped about 50,000 convicts to its American colonies. So, as you see as you see from the above said, the colonists who came to the New World were not a homogeneous mix; they belonged to different social and religious groups and came to the new continent for different reasons. And they created colonies with very different social, religious, political, and economic structures.

Early colonial attempts: The first permanent European settlement in North America was founded by the Spanish, it was at Saint Augustine, Fla., in 1565.

The first English attempt made in 1586, notably the Colony of Roanoke, resulted in failure. The “Lost” Colony of Roanoke was established off the coast of today's North Carolina by Sir Walter Raleigh. The second resupply ship, delayed for several years by circumstances in England, found no trace of the colonists, discovering only the mysterious word “CROATOAN” carved on a tree. Over a hundred men, women, and children had disappeared in the middle of their daily tasks.

England made its first successful efforts only at the start of the 17th century. It was Jamestown, established in 1607 in a region called Virginia, on a small river near the Chesapeake Bay.

All in all, the British settled Jamestown, Va. (1607); Plymouth, Mass. (1620); Maryland (1634); and Pennsylvania (1681). The English took New York, New Jersey, and Delaware from the Dutch in 1664, a year after English noblemen began to colonize the Carolinas.

By 1733, English settlers had founded 13 colonies along the Atlantic Coast, from New Hampshire in the North to Georgia in the South (Fig.3).

Fig. 4. 13 British colonies along the Atlantic Coast of North America

Historians typically recognize four regions in the lands that later became the eastern United States. They are: New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay and the Southern Colonies.

The Thirteen Colonies’ territory ranged from what is now Maine (then part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay) in the north to Georgia in the south. They are listed in geographical order, from the north to the south. Thus, New England included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut; the Middle Colonies – Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware; the Chesapeake Bay – Virginia, Maryland; and the Southern Colonies – North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Now let’s discuss some of these colonies in detail.

The Chesapeake Bay region: The first truly successful English colony was Jamestown or Virginia established in 1607 in a region called Virginia (named in honor of Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”). It lay on an island in the James River, near its Chesapeake Bay estuary. The venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold.

Archaeological findings have indicated that the entire region was struck by the most severe drought in centuries. American Indians were not very willing to give away their corn, and the colonists, without a harvest, starved; they named the winter the Starving Times. Only a third of the colonists survived the first winter. In fact, source documents indicate that some even turned to cannibalism. However, the colony survived, in large part due to the efforts of an enigmatic figure named John Smith. He behaved like an uncompromising, autocrat of the colony. His motto was “ No work, no food.” He put the colonists to work, and befriended Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, who was able to supply the colony with more food. John Smith had saved the colony, but it had yet to turn a profit.

Gold was nowhere to be found. Finally, in 1612, John Rolfe with the help of the above mentioned Pocahontas, who became his wife, introduced the cultivation of tobacco as a cash crop. The new product earned fabulously high profits in the first year, and substantially lower but still extraordinary ones in the second year.

By the late 17th century, Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco. As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade with England. New, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations. Tobacco cultivation was labor-intensive. To provide this labor, the colonists first relied on white indentured servants, but starting with 1619 turned into the slave trade, which was already bringing large numbers of Africans to the sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean. Starting with 1676, African slaves rapidly replaced indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. Tobacco continued to be the mainstay of the region’s economy for two centuries.

New England: The next successful English colonial venture was founded by two separate religious groups. Both demanded greater church reform and elimination of Catholic elements remaining in the Church of England. But whereas the Pilgrims sought to leave the Church of England, the Puritans wanted to reform it by setting an example of a holy community.

The first settlers who came to America for religious reasons were the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims were a small Protestant sect based in England and the Netherlands. One group sailed on the Mayflower to the New World.

The Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims before disembarking, established precedents for the pattern of representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies. They established a small Plymouth Colony on December 21, 1620; which later merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. John Carver was their first leader and first elected colonial governor in American history. After his death his position was taken by William Bradford.

Like the settlers at Jamestown, the Pilgrims had a difficult first winter, having had no time to plant crops. Most of the settlers died of starvation, including the leader, John Carver. Later in 1621, the colonists enlisted the aid of Squanto and Samoset, two American Indians who had learned to speak some English. With the help of friendly Indians, the Pilgrims were able to build houses and raise food crops. That fall brought a bountiful harvest, and the first Thanksgiving was held. To show how the Pilgrims felt about the Indians’ help, they invited the Indians to share their first Thanksgiving feast.

The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers. They sought to reform the Church of England by creating a new, pure church in the New World. By 1640, 20,000 had arrived.

The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit, and politically innovative culture that is still present in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a " redeemer nation ". In search of religious freedom they fled England and in America attempted to create a " nation of saints " or a " City upon a Hill ": an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe.

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash crop-oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of self-supporting farmsteads, which traded only for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher economic standing and standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with agriculture, fishing, and logging, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, serving as the hub for trading between the southern colonies and Europe.

The political structure of the Puritan colonies is often misunderstood. Officials were elected by the community, but only white males who were members of a Congregationalist church could vote. Officials had no responsibility to “the people,” their function was to serve God by best overseeing the moral and physical improvement of the community. However, it was not a theocracy either — Congregationalist ministers had no special powers in the government. Thus, in the political structure of Puritan society one could see both the democratic form and the emphasis on civic virtue that was to characterize post-Revolutionary American society. Although some characterize the strength of Puritan society as repressively communal, others point to it as the basis of the later American value on civic virtue, and an essential foundation for the development of democracy.

Socially, the Puritan society was tightly knit. No one was allowed to live alone for fear that their temptation would lead to the moral corruption of all Puritan society. Because marriage took place within the geographic location of the family, during several generations many towns were more like clans, composed of several large, intermarried families. The strength of Puritan society was reflected through its institutions, specifically, its churches, town halls, and militia. All members of the Puritan community were expected to be active in all three of these organizations, ensuring the moral, political, and military safety of their community.

Two other colonies were founded in 1636 in New England. The Connecticut Colony was an English colony originally known as the River Colony; it was organized as a haven for those Puritans who were not happy with the strict morals and dominating religious hypocrisy in Massachusetts.

The Providence Plantation or the Rhode Island Colony was founded by Roger Williams, who preached religious toleration, separation of Church and State, and a complete break with the Church of England. R. Williams agreed with his fellow settlers on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule “in civil things” and “liberty of conscience”.

Both colonies became a home for many refugees from the Puritan community.

The Middle Colonies: The Middle Colonies were characterized by a large degree of diversity: religious, political, economic, and ethnic. They were called the Middle Colonies because they lay between New England and other colonies to the south.

The Middle Colonies consisted of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Maryland belonged both to the Middle Colonies and theChesapeake. The Dutch colony of New Netherland was taken over by the British and renamed New York but large numbers of Dutch remained in the colony. Many German and Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in Connecticut.

Pennsylvania, one of the most successful colonies, began when the Duke of York gave a large area to William Penn. In 1682, Penn started planning a colony called Pennsylvania. Penn belonged to a small religious group called the Friends, or Quakers. Pennsylvania was a colony where Quakers found freedom. Settlers came from all over Europe, many were from Germany. Penn also tried to be friendly with the Indians. He signed many peace agreements with his Indian neighbors. Pennsylvania soon became the largest and wealthiest colony. One part of the colony was later separated from Pennsylvania and became the colony of Delaware in 1701. Swedish people had ear­lier settled in Delaware and had brought a new idea to America - to build cabins made of logs.

The first group of Catholic settlers landed in America in 1634. They called their colony Maryland after Queen Mary, England's last Catholic ruler. One of the settle­ments was named after Lord Baltimore, the founder of the colony. Maryland became a prosperous colony of small farms and to­bacco plantations where crops were tended by workers who lived on the property. Later, more settlers came to live in the colony, and most of them were Protestants. So quarrels often broke out between Protestants and Catholics, and Lord Baltimore had a law passed that allowed all people to worship as they pleased.

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