European colonization of Latin America. History of the colonization of America. Ancient peoples of Mexico and Central America

Centuries after the Indians, and to their great regret, European ships appeared on the horizon. The first European colonizers after the Vikings in America were the Spaniards. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator and merchant, who received the rank of admiral and flotilla from the Spanish crown, was looking for a new trade route to rich India, China and Japan.

He sailed to the New World four times and swam to the Bahamas. On October 13, 1492, he landed on an island called San Salvador, set up the banner of Castile on it and drew up a notarial deed about this event. He himself believed that he sailed either to China, or to India, or even to Japan. For many years this land was called the West Indies. The Arawaks, the first natives of these places he saw, he called "Indians." The rest of Columbus' life and difficult fate was connected with the West Indies.

At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, a number of other European nations began to explore the paths of the Western Hemisphere. Navigator of the English king Henry VII Italian John Cabot(Giovanni Caboto) set foot on the coast of Canada (1497-1498), Pedro Alvares Cabral assigned Brazil to Portugal (1500-1501), Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa founded Antigua, the first European city on a new continent, and went to the Pacific Ocean (1500-1513). Ferdinand Magellan, who served the Spanish king in 1519-1521, circled America from the south and made the first trip around the world.

In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller, a geographer from Lorraine, proposed that the New World be named America in honor of the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci who replaced the fallen Columbus. The proposal has strangely taken hold, and the development of the mainland is already proceeding alternately under two names. Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish conquistador, discovered the Florida peninsula in 1513. In 1565, the first European colony was formed there, and later the city of St. Augustine. In the late 1530s, Hernando de Soto went to the Mississippi and reached the Arkansas River.

When the British and French began to explore America, Florida and the southwest of the continent were almost entirely Spanish. The gold that Spain brought from South America eventually became one of the reasons for the loss of her world domination. Buying everything that a far-sighted state needs to develop and strengthen, Spain was defeated during the first serious crisis. The power and influence of Spain in America began to decline after September 1588, when the Anglo-Dutch fleet destroyed and captured the ships of the Spanish Invincible Armada.

The British settled in America on the third try. One ended in a flight home, the second ended in the mysterious disappearance of the settlers, and only the third, in 1607, became successful. The trading post, named Jamestown after the king, was inhabited by the crews of three ships under the command of Captain Newport and also served as a barrier to the Spaniards, who were still rushing into the interior of the continent. Tobacco plantations turned Jamestown into a wealthy settlement, and by 1620 there were already about 1,000 people living in it.

Many people dreamed of America not only as a land of fabulous treasures, but as a wonderful world where you are not killed for a different faith, where it doesn’t matter what party you are from ... Dreams were also fueled by those who received income from the transportation of goods and of people. In England, the London and Plymouth companies were hastily created, which from 1606 were involved in the development of the northeast coast of America. Many Europeans with their whole families and communities moved to the New World with the last money. People arrived and arrived, but they were still not enough to develop new lands. Many died on the way or in the first months of American life.

In August 1619, a Dutch ship brought several dozen Africans to Virginia; the colonists immediately bought twenty people. Thus began the Great White Business. During the 18th century, about seven million slaves were sold, and no one knows how many of them died during the long voyage and were fed to sharks.

On November 21, 1620, a small galleon "May Flower" moored to the Atlantic coast. 102 Puritan-Calvinists came ashore, stern, stubborn, frantic in faith and convinced of their chosenness, but exhausted and sick. The beginning of the conscious settlement by the British of America is counted from this day. The mutual treaty, called the Mayflower Treaty, embodied the ideas of the early American colonists about democracy, self-government and civil liberties. The same documents were signed by other colonists - in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.

In the early years of the 17th century began the great migration of Europeans to North America. A weak brook of several hundred English colonists in a little over three centuries turned into a full-flowing stream of millions of immigrants. Due to various circumstances, they left to create a new civilization on a sparsely populated continent.

The first English immigrants to settle in what is now the United States crossed the Atlantic much later than the flourishing Spanish colonies in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. Like everyone who moved then to the New World, they arrived in small, overcrowded ships. The journey took 6 to 12 weeks, food was scarce, and many settlers died of disease. Storms and storms often hit ships, people died at sea.

Most European immigrants left their homeland for greater economic opportunities, often coupled with a desire for religious freedom or a determination to escape political pressure. In 1620-1635. economic turmoil swept the whole of England. Many people lost their jobs, even skilled artisans barely made ends meet. These troubles were exacerbated by crop failures. In addition, the cloth industry that was developing in England required an increase in the supply of wool, and so that the looms would not stop, the sheep began to graze on communal lands taken from the peasants. The impoverished peasants were forced to seek their fortune overseas.

On the new land, the colonists encountered, first of all, dense forests. Indian tribes lived there, many of which were at enmity with white newcomers. However, the latter would hardly have been able to survive without friendly Indians, from whom they learned to grow local varieties of vegetables - pumpkin, squash, beans and corn. Virgin forests, stretching for almost 2 thousand km along the eastern coast of the North American continent, provided them with an abundance of game and fuel. They also provided material for the construction of houses, ships, the manufacture of household utensils, as well as valuable raw materials for export.

The first permanent English settlement in America was the fort and settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607. The area soon became prosperous thanks to the cultivation of tobacco, which the colonists sold in London. Although the new continent had enormous natural wealth, trade with Europe was vital, since the colonists could not yet produce many goods themselves.

Gradually, the colonies became self-supporting societies with their own outlets to the sea. Each of them has become a separate, independent organism. But, despite this, the problems of trade, navigation, industrial production and finance went beyond the boundaries of individual colonies and required a joint settlement, which subsequently led to the federal structure of the American state.

Settlement of the colonies in the XVII century. required careful planning and management, and was also a very costly and risky undertaking. The settlers had to be transported by sea over a distance of almost 5 thousand km, supplied with household items, clothing, seeds, tools, building materials, livestock, weapons and ammunition. In contrast to the policy of colonization that was pursued by other states, emigration from England was not in charge of the government, but of private individuals whose main motive was to make a profit.

Two colonies - Virginia and Massachusetts - founded privileged companies: the "Massachusetts Bay Company" and the "London Company of Virginia". Their funds, created by contributors, were used to supply and transport the colonists. Wealthy immigrants who arrived in the New Haven colony (later part of Connecticut) paid their own way, supported their families and servants. New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, North and South Carolina, New Jersey and Pennsylvania originally belonged to the owners of the English nobility (gentry), who populated the land granted to them by the king with tenants and servants.

The first 13 colonies that would become the United States were (from north to south): New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia .

Georgia was founded by a group of people led by James Edward Oglethorpe. They planned to send debtors from English prisons to America to create a border colony that would block the way for the Spaniards in the south of the continent. Meanwhile, the colony of New Netherland, founded in 1621 by the Dutch, in 1664 went to England and was renamed New York.

Many moved to America for political reasons. In the 1630s the despotic rule of Charles I gave impetus to migration to the New World. Then the revolution in England and the victory of the opponents of Charles I, led by Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s. forced many cavaliers - "the king's people" - to try their luck in Virginia. The despotism of the petty German princes, especially in matters of faith, and the numerous wars that took place in their possessions, contributed to the intensification of German immigration to America in the late 17th and 18th centuries.

Men and women, even if not too interested in a new life on American soil, often succumbed to the persuasion of recruiters. William Penn circulated in the press about the opportunities and benefits that awaited those wishing to move to Pennsylvania. Judges and jailers were persuaded to give the prisoners a chance to move to America instead of carrying out the sentence.

Only a few colonists could go overseas with their families at their own expense to start a new life there. Ship captains received a large reward for selling contracts but hiring the poor to work in America. In order to take more passengers on board, they did not disdain anything - from the most unusual promises and promises to kidnapping. In other cases, the costs of transporting and maintaining settlers were borne by colonization agencies such as the London Company of Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay Company. Settlers who signed a contract with the company were obliged to work for it as a laborer or contracted servant (servant) for a certain period - usually from four to seven years. At the end of the term, the servants could receive a small piece of land. Many of those who arrived in the New World on such terms soon found that, while remaining servants or tenants, they did not begin to live better than in their homeland.

Historians have estimated that about half of the colonists who lived south of New England came to America on the basis of a contract. Although the majority honestly fulfilled their obligations, some fled from the owners. Many fugitive servants, however, managed to get land and to acquire a farm - in the colony where they settled, or in neighboring ones. Bonded service was not considered shameful, and the families that began their lives in America from this half-slavish position did not sully their reputation. Even among the leaders of the colonies there were people who were servants in the past.

There was, however, a very important exception to this rule - the African slave trade. The first blacks were brought to Virginia in 1619, seven years after Jamestown was founded. In the beginning, many "black" settlers were considered indentured servants who could "earn" their freedom. However, by the 1960s In the 17th century, as the demand for workers on the plantations increased, slavery began to take hold. Blacks began to be brought from Africa in shackles - already as life-long slaves.

Most of the colonists in the XVII century. were English, but there were a small number of Dutch, Swedes and Germans in the mid-Atlantic colonies. In South Carolina and other colonies, there were French Huguenots, as well as Spaniards, Italians, and Portuguese. After 1680 England ceased to be the main source of immigration. Thousands of people fled from war-torn Europe. Many left their homeland to get rid of the poverty generated by the pressure of the authorities and large landlords who owned estates. By 1690, the American population reached 1/4 million people. Since then, it has doubled every 25 years, until it exceeded 2.5 million people in 1775.

American settlements were grouped into geographical "sections", depending on natural conditions.

New England on northeast(Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine) was an agriculturally secondary area: thin soil, poor vegetation, mountainous, uneven terrain, short summers and long winters. Therefore, its inhabitants solved other problems - they used the power of water and built mills and sawmills. The presence of timber contributed to the development of shipbuilding, convenient bays favored trade, and the sea served as a source of enrichment. In Massachusetts, the cod fishery alone immediately began to bring high profits. The Massachusetts Bay settlement played an important role in the religious development of all of New England. The 25 colonists who founded it had a royal charter and were determined to succeed. During the first 10 years of the existence of the colony, 65 Puritan priests arrived there, and due to the religious convictions of the leaders of the colonists and with their support, the power of the church was strengthened there. Formally, the churchmen did not have secular power, but in fact they led the colony.

In the south, with its warm climate and fertile soil, a largely agrarian society developed. AT mid-Atlantic colonies Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York - nature was more diverse: forests, valleys suitable for agriculture, bays where such large port cities as Philadelphia and New York grew up.

Society in the mid-Atlantic colonies was much more diverse and religiously tolerant than in New England. Pennsylvania and Delaware owe their success to the Quakers, who set out to attract settlers of many faiths and nationalities. Quakers dominated Philadelphia, and there were other sects in other parts of the colony. Immigrants from Germany proved to be the most skilled farmers, they also knew weaving, shoemaking, carpentry and other crafts. Through Pennsylvania, the bulk of Scottish and Irish immigrants arrived in the New World. Equally mixed was the population of the colonies of New York, which perfectly demonstrates the multilingualism of America. By 1646 along the river. The Hudson was settled by the Dutch, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, British, Scots, Irish, Germans, Poles, immigrants from Bohemia, Portugal, Italy. But these are only the forerunners of millions of future immigrants.

Eastern states- Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia - differed greatly from New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies in their predominantly rural character. The first surviving English settlement in the New World was Jamestown, Virginia.

A distinctive feature of the first stages of colonial history was the absence of strict control from the British authorities. While the colonies were being formed, they were actually left to their own devices. The British government was not directly involved in their founding (with the exception of Georgia), and the political leadership of the colonies, it began gradually and not immediately.

Since 1651, the British government has from time to time passed regulations regulating certain aspects of the economic life of the colonies, which in most cases benefited only England, but the colonists simply ignored the laws that harmed them. Sometimes the British administration tried to force their implementation, but these attempts quickly failed.

The relative political independence of the colonies was largely due to their remoteness from England. They became more and more "American" rather than "English". This trend was reinforced by the mixing of different national groups and cultures - a process that has been going on all the time in America.

The history of the country is inextricably linked with its literature. And, thus, studying, it is impossible not to touch on American history. Each work belongs to a particular historical period. So, in his Washington, Irving talks about the Dutch pioneers who settled along the Hudson River, mentions the seven-year war for independence, the English king George III and the first president of the country, George Washington. In order to make parallel connections between literature and history, in this introductory article I want to say a few words about how it all began, because those historical moments that will be discussed are not reflected in any works.

Colonization of America 15th - 18th century (brief summary)

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
An American philosopher, George Santayana

If you are asking yourself why you need to know history, then know that those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

So, the history of America began relatively recently, when in the 16th century people arrived on the new continent discovered by Columbus. These people were of different skin colors and different incomes, and the reasons that prompted them to come to the New World were also different. Some were attracted by the desire to start a new life, others sought to get rich, others fled from the persecution of the authorities or religious persecution. However, all these people, representing different cultures and nationalities, were united by the desire to change something in their lives and, most importantly, they were ready to take risks.
Inspired by the idea of ​​​​creating a new world from scratch, the first settlers succeeded in this. Fantasy and dream become reality; they, like Julius Caesar, they came, they saw and they conquered.

I came, I saw, I conquered.
Julius Caesar

The first Americans probably wandered over from Asia about 14,000 years ago.
Steve Wiengand

Over the next 5 centuries, these tribes settled on two continents and, depending on the natural landscape and climate, began to engage in hunting, cattle breeding or agriculture.
In 985 AD, the warlike Vikings arrived on the continent. For about 40 years they tried to gain a foothold in this country, but yielding in superiority to the indigenous people, in the end, they abandoned their attempts.
Then, in 1492, Columbus appeared, followed by other Europeans, who were attracted to the continent by greed and simple adventurism.

Columbus Day is celebrated on October 12 in America in 34 states. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492.

Spain got a head start in the Americas, mainly because the aforementioned Italian named Columbus was working for the Spanish and got them enthusiastic about it early on. But while the Spanish had a head start, other European countries eagerly sought to catch up.
(Source: U.S. history for dummies by S. Wiegand)

At first, meeting no resistance from the local population, the Europeans behaved like aggressors, killing and enslaving the Indians. The Spanish conquerors, who plundered and burned Indian villages and killed their inhabitants, were especially cruel. Following the Europeans, diseases also came to the continent. So the measles and smallpox epidemics gave the process of extermination of the local population a stunning speed.
But from the end of the 16th century, powerful Spain began to lose its influence on the continent, which was greatly facilitated by the weakening of its power, both on land and at sea. And the dominant position in the American colonies passed to England, Holland and France.

The colonialists managed to gain a foothold on the continent, for which they thank God every fourth Thursday of November. Thanksgiving is a holiday to celebrate their first year in a new place.

Almost half of the Viceroyalty of New Spain founded by them was located where the states of Texas, California, New Mexico, etc. are located today. The name of the state of Florida is also of Spanish origin - this is how the Spaniards called the lands known to them in the southeast North America. The colony of New Netherland arose in the valley of the Hudson River; further south, in the valley of the Delaware River, is New Sweden. Louisiana, which occupied vast territories in the basin of the Mississippi, the largest river on the continent, was the possession of France. In the XVIII century. the northwestern part of the continent, modern Alaska, began to be developed by Russian industrialists. But the most impressive success in the colonization of North America was achieved by the British.

For immigrants from the British Isles and from other countries of Europe across the ocean, wide material opportunities opened up, here they were attracted by the hope of free labor and personal enrichment. America also attracted with its religious freedom. Many Englishmen moved to America during the period of revolutionary upheavals in the middle of the 17th century. Religious sectarians, bankrupt peasants, and the urban poor left for the colony. All sorts of adventurers and adventurers also rushed across the ocean; cited by criminals. The Irish and Scots fled here when life in their homeland became completely unbearable.

The south of North America is washed by the waters Gulf of Mexico. Floating on it, the Spaniards discovered the peninsula Florida, covered with dense forests and swamps. Now it is a well-known resort and a place to launch American spacecraft. The Spaniards came to the mouth of the largest river in North America - Mississippi falling into Gulf of Mexico. In Indian Mississippi - "big river", "father of the waters." Its waters were muddy, uprooted trees floated along the river. To the west of the Mississippi, wetlands gradually gave way to drier steppes - prairies where herds of bison roamed like bulls. The prairie stretched all the way to the foot of rocky mountains stretching from north to south throughout the North American continent. The Rocky Mountains are part of a huge mountainous country of Cordillera. Cordillera go to the Pacific Ocean.

On the Pacific coast, the Spaniards discovered peninsula california and gulf of california. Falls into it colorado river- "red". The depth of her valley in the Cordillera amazed the Spaniards. Under their feet was a cliff 1800 m deep, at the bottom of which a river flowed like a barely noticeable silvery snake. For three days people walked along the edge of the valley grand canyon, looking for a descent down and could not find.

The northern half of North America was mastered by the British and French. In the middle of the 16th century, the French pirate Cartier discovered bay and St. Lavrentie river In Canada. The Indian word "Canada" - a settlement - became the name of a huge country. Moving up the St. Lawrence River, the French reached Great lakes. Among them is the world's largest fresh lake - Upper. On the Niagara River, which flows between the Great Lakes, a very powerful and beautiful Niagara Falls.

Natives of the Netherlands founded the city of New Amsterdam. Now it is called New York and is the largest city United States of America.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the first British colonies appeared on the Atlantic coast of North America - settlements whose inhabitants grew tobacco in the south, grain and vegetables in the north.

Thirteen (13) colonies

Systematic colonization of North America began after the approval of the Stuart dynasty on the English throne. The first British colony, Jamestown, was founded in 1607 in Virginia.Then, as a result of the mass migration of the English Puritans overseas, the development of New England.First Puritan colony in what is now the state Massachusetts appeared in 1620. In subsequent years, immigrants from Massachusetts, dissatisfied with the religious intolerance that reigned there, founded colonies Connecticut and Rhode Island. Massachusetts seceded from Massachusetts after the Glorious Revolution New Hampshire.

On the lands north of Virginia, granted by Charles I to Lord Baltimore, a colony was founded in 1632 Maryland.On the lands located between Virginia and New England, the Dutch and Swedish colonists were the first to appear, but in 1664 they were captured by the British. New Netherland was renamed a colony New York, and to the south of it a colony arose New Jersey. In 1681, W. Penn received a royal charter for the lands north of Maryland. In honor of his father, the illustrious admiral, the new colony was named Pennsylvania. Throughout the XVIII century. separated from her Delaware. In 1663, the settlement of the territory south of Virginia began, where colonies later appeared. North Carolina and South Carolina. In 1732, King George (George) II allowed the development of land between South Carolina and Spanish Florida, which were named in his honor Georgia.

Five more British colonies were founded on the territory of modern Canada.

In all the colonies there were various forms of representative government, but the majority of the population was deprived of the right to vote.

Economy of the colonies

The colonies differed greatly in types of economic activity. In the north, where small-scale farming prevailed, household crafts associated with it developed, foreign trade, shipping and sea crafts were widely developed. Large agricultural plantations dominated in the south, where tobacco, cotton, and rice were grown.

Slavery in the colonies

Growing production required workers. The presence of undeveloped territories to the west of the borders of the colonies doomed to failure any attempts to turn the poor whites into wage labor, since there was always an opportunity for them to go to free lands. The Indians could not be forced to work for the white masters. Those of them who were tried to be made slaves quickly died in captivity, and the merciless war waged by the settlers against the Indians led to the mass extermination of the red-skinned natives of America. The problem with the labor force was solved by the massive importation of slaves from Africa, who were called blacks in America. The slave trade became the most important factor in the development of the colonies, especially the southern ones. Already by the end of the XVII century. Negroes became the predominant labor force and, in fact, the basis of the plantation economy in the south. material from the site

The Europeans were looking for a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Englishman Henry Hudson tried to sail along the northern American coast between the mainland and the islands lying to the north. Canadian arctic archipelago. The attempt failed, but the Hudson opened a huge Hudson Bay- a real "ice bag", on which ice floes float in the summer.

In the spruce and pine forests of Canada, the French and the British hunted fur-bearing animals, bartered their skins from the Indians. In the middle of the 17th century, the English Hudson's Bay Company arose to buy furs. The company's agents penetrated deep into the mainland, bringing information about new rivers, mountains, lakes. At the end of the 18th century, Alexander Mackenzie and his companions on canoes made of birch bark made a trip along the rivers and lakes of northern Canada. They hoped that the cold river, later named after Mackenzie will lead to the Pacific Ocean. The traveler himself called it the "river of disappointment", realizing that it flows into the Arctic Ocean. Mackenzie went to his homeland, to Scotland, a country in the north of the British Isles, to study geography. Returning, he climbed the river valleys and crossed over the Rocky Mountains. Having passed the mountain passes of the Cordillera, Mackenzie began to descend along the rivers flowing to the west, and in 1793 he was the first to reach the Pacific coast.

General history. History of the New Age. Grade 7 Burin Sergey Nikolaevich

§ 23. North America in the 17th century

Beginning of the colonial period

After the discovery of America by Columbus, the Spaniards conquered the southern part of North America, including a large part of the current US territory (west of the Mississippi River). The remaining spaces of North America until the beginning of the 17th century. inhabited by small Indian tribes. The fact that the Indians lived there significantly less than in Latin America is associated with a more severe northern climate, with a lower (albeit rather high) fertility of the lands of North America. For these reasons, the Spaniards were in no hurry to move north: they were quite satisfied with the huge territories captured in Latin America.

Departure of the Puritans from the Dutch port of Delft on the Mayflower. Artist A. van Bren

Meanwhile, the north Atlantic coast of America attracted the attention of rapidly developing England. After the defeat of the Spanish "Invincible Armada" (1588), England began to feel much more confident in the vast oceans than before. The first attempts to establish English settlements in the New World were made at the end of the 16th century, but they all ended in failure.

May 1607 was the beginning of the British colonization of North America. Then, on its Atlantic coast, at the mouth of a river unknown to Europeans, 120 settlers landed, sent by the London Trading Company. She had been granted rights to the area a year earlier by King James I (James in English). In his honor, the settlers named the unfamiliar river James, and the fort they built at its mouth - Jamestown. The first colony of England on American soil was named Virginia.

Why did the British prefer to develop the "free" spaces of North America, and not oust the Spaniards from the warmer and more fertile southern lands?

The time between this significant event and the declaration of independence of the United States of America (1776) is called by Americans the colonial period of their history, that is, the period of colonial dependence on England. During these 170 years, unique an event in world history: a completely new civilization arose.

New English colonies on American soil. The life of the first settlers in unfamiliar lands turned out to be much more severe than it seemed from distant Europe. In the swampy area, people were mowed down by malaria, and the stocks of clothing and food brought with them were rapidly drying up. Sometimes the settlers were helped with advice and food by their Indian neighbors. But often this neighborhood led to bloody conflicts.

By the spring of 1610, out of 500 settlers who arrived in Virginia in three years, 60 sick and exhausted people remained alive. The rest died of disease or perished in skirmishes with the Indians. Yet the colonization of North America continued. In 1620, members of the Puritan community, who 12 years earlier had fled from religious persecution from England to Holland, decided to move to America. They hoped that in Virginia they would be able to freely practice their religion and, as it were, become English again.

The Puritan ship "Mayflower" ("May flower") moored on the coast north of Virginia, in the yet undeveloped regions. This vast territory would later be called New England, and several colonies would spring up on it. And then, still on board the Mayflower, the Puritans entered into an agreement providing for the creation of an independent republic on the new land, headed by an elected governor. But the Puritans, who called their colony New Plymouth, did not seek formal independence from England. They wanted only religious freedom and independence in the internal affairs of the colony.

The Puritans who arrived in the Mayflower

Ten years later, in New England, north of New Plymouth, another colony arose - Massachusetts. The spirit of religious intolerance reigned in this colony, reminiscent of Calvinist Geneva. Many "apostates" had to flee Massachusetts, just as the Puritans themselves had fled from England. Massachusetts claimed to be the "main" colony, more than once encroached on the territories of neighboring settlements, and sometimes captured them.

In 1632, Charles I granted Lord Baltimore the territory north of Virginia. At the same time, the king granted the lord proprietor practically unlimited rights. The new colony was named Maryland, and a special type of proprietary colonies, that is, belonging to a certain person or persons, originates from it.

The number of British colonies in America grew. In addition to the southern colonies (Virginia and Maryland) and northern New England, the so-called median colonies arose between them. Part of this area as early as the 1620s. occupied by the Dutch, who founded the colony of New Netherland. But during one of the Anglo-Dutch wars, the British recaptured it (1664) and renamed it New York. The main city of this colony, named the same, eventually turned into one of the largest industrial, commercial and financial centers in the world.

William Penn

In 1682, the son of an English admiral, William Penn, founded another of the middle colonies - Pennsylvania. People from the German states preferred to settle in it. Favorable conditions were created in the colony for people who professed different religions (Penn himself was a Protestant). When Pennsylvania was founded, Penn not only managed to avoid conflict with the Indians, but also concluded an agreement on good neighborly relations with them. And for the lands occupied by the colonists, the Indians were even paid (although not too much).

Reception at the Penn House in honor of the signing of a treaty of good neighborliness with the Indians

Early American society

Around the middle of the XVII century. in the North American colonies of England, a peculiar society began to take shape with its own social structure forms of management and economic traditions. At the top of this society were relatively large landowners and wealthy merchants, the former predominating in the south, and the latter in New England. "In the middle" was a rather heterogeneous stratum: medium and small traders and farmers, teachers, priests, experienced artisans. At the bottom rungs of the social ladder were poor farmers and artisans, as well as nomadic farmers, tenant farmers and rural wage laborers.

The most impoverished and disenfranchised group of the population were servants, or white indentured servants (“bondage” in Arabic means “receipt, obligation”). They were immigrants from Europe who, not having the means to resettle in America, sold themselves for a while to the captains of the ships sent there. And upon arrival in the New World, the captains resold them to local landowners on the basis of an auction (that is, to the one who offers the highest price). Servants entered the service of the farmers who paid for them and worked out their “value” within a specified period (usually 5–7 years). After that, they received from the former owners 50 acres of land (an acre is equal to 4.05 thousand square meters), agricultural implements and became completely free.

The system of bonded service gradually became obsolete. In the South by the end of the 17th century. it almost disappeared: the servants were replaced by a cheaper and more profitable labor force - Negro slaves. The reasons for their enslavement were purely economic. The labor of white servants was unproductive. Attempts to enslave the Indians were also unsuccessful: they fell ill and died from unusual loads. But the unpretentious and hardy Negroes became an almost ideal workforce for the young colonial bourgeoisie.

And why can one call the planters (big landowners) of the South the bourgeoisie? After all, Negro slaves worked on their tobacco and rice plantations. But only the form of their exploitation was slavish. Slaves served with their labor the capitalist market that had developed early in North America. Therefore, the planters themselves acted in the role of capitalist owners-producers.

What was the originality of early American society (in comparison with contemporary European society)?

Social contradictions and conflicts

Clashes between the colonists and the Indians, in which at first tens and hundreds of people died on both sides, gradually became more and more rare. There was no soil left for them: the Indians retreated to the west, and the colonists remained for quite a long time within the territory located along the Atlantic coast.

Capture of blacks in Africa for transportation to America and sale into slavery

In the colonies of the South, Negro slaves from the end of the 17th century. more and more rebellions. But the number of their participants, as a rule, was insignificant, and the uprisings themselves were spontaneous and unorganized. Therefore, they were quickly and fairly easily suppressed by the white colonists. In addition, in the South there were severe laws against the protest of slaves, and only a few daredevils dared to rebel. In general, in the North American colonies of England, there has never been such acute social tension as in Europe. In North America, there was no main European conflict of that time - between the obsolete feudalism and the capitalism that was gaining strength.

However, there were exceptions. So, in 1676, the colonists of Virginia rebelled. They were dissatisfied with the restrictive measures of the British authorities, as a result of which, in particular, tobacco prices fell and many farmers went bankrupt. The local legislature demanded that Governor Berkeley of Virginia not infringe on their rights, especially the right to impose taxes. And although Berkeley quickly subjugated the legislature to his will, the conflict spilled out of it.

Tobacco plantation in Virginia

The uprising of the colonists was led by the planter Nathaniel Bacon. But he soon died of a fever (or was poisoned), and most of his supporters dispersed. Berkeley, who fled for a while from the capital of the colony - Jamestown, restored his power. But the very fact of a rather large uprising became a harbinger of the future struggle of the Americans for the expansion of their rights, up to complete independence.

In 1689–1691 A rebellion broke out in the New York colony. It was headed by the merchant Jacob Leisler. The colonists who seized power took advantage of the fact that the local governor fled the colony: he did not want to recognize the victory of the Glorious Revolution in England and the power of the new king William of Orange. In a similar situation, the rebels in Maryland seized power for a while.

But the success of these uprisings was short-lived. At the beginning of 1691, troops arrived from England. In New York, the uprising was severely suppressed, and Leisler himself was hanged. In Maryland, things turned out differently: the English king deprived Lord Baltimore of power and sent his own governor to the colony. True, at the same time, the land and other property rights of the lord proprietor were preserved. There were no reprisals against the rebels.

Summing up

In the North American colonies of England already during the 17th century. a peculiar society of the bourgeois type began to form. The desire of the colonists for independence was strengthened, and with it the foundations of their future conflict with England were strengthened.

social structure - the structure of this or that society, the correlation of all its classes, strata and other groups.

1620 Founding of the New Plymouth Colony by the Puritans.

1676 Bacon's uprising in Virginia.

1682 Founding of Pennsylvania.

(So ​​said before the execution of the colonist Arnold, one of the leaders of the Bacon rebellion in Virginia. 1676)

1. What, in your opinion, did the Europeans put into the concept of the "New World"? Is it just that the American continent was “newer” to them than Europe and Asia?

2. What was the main difference between the North American colonies of England and traditional colonies (for example, from the Spanish colonies in Latin America)?

3. Who are servers? Could such a social group have arisen anywhere else but North America?

4. Why were social contradictions in North America during the colonial period not as acute as in Europe?

1. The agreement concluded by the Puritans on board the Mayflower ship in November 1620, in particular, stated: “... we unite in a civil political body to maintain better order and security among us ... We will create such fair and equal laws for all , acts, ordinances and administrative institutions, as will become most suitable and in accordance with the general good of the colony and to which we promise to follow and obey. Try to deduce from these words the intentions of the Puritans. What kind of state (society) did they want to create?

2. The Code of Laws of the Colony of Massachusetts, adopted in December 1641, stated among other things: “It is forbidden to compel a person to participate in offensive wars outside the colony ... A person is obliged to participate only in wars provoked by the enemy, and defensive wars waged for our own sake and our friends…” Evaluate this law. In your opinion, was it realistic to observe it at that time and in those specific conditions?

North America In 1497, John Cabot's English expedition was the first in a series of French and English explorations of North America. Spain was very reserved about the study of the northern part of America, since all its resources were concentrated in the Central