Colonization

In the sixteenth century, Spain and Portugal started to colonize different parts of America. For years they transported gold and other raw materials to Europe. The rumor spread throughout Western Europe and more countries started to look to the west. However, it took almost a century until England established it’s first colony. With several unsuccessful attempts, the English finally successfully settled its first colony in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, led by Sir Walter Raleigh. It took another 30 years until the Puritans settled in New England. Bad economical influence, rising population, lack of jobs and religious persecution forced the English to look for new lands. Although England was facing religious difficulties and were far behind Spain and Portugal, they were also one of the leading countries in the colonization of the New World. One of the reasons why England had such a big part in the English colonization was because of the Virginia Company. The colonies would never survive without the Virginia Company and their stockholders money. Between 1607 - 1609 over 900 people arrived to Virginia but only a few of them survived from the diseases and starvation. Virginia was named after the English “virgin” queen, Elisabeth; but before they were able to settle, the queen died. Jamestown was named after Elisabeth’s firstborn son, James I who would later on rule England. The purpose of the settlement in Virginia was to find gold and a passage to China, but once they realized that there were no gold to collect and no route to China, the investors became very disappointed. However, this was about to change, once they realized that the seed around Chesapeake Bay was ideal for growing tobacco plants. Tobacco was very popular in Europe and they made huge profits by shipping it cross the Atlantic. By the mid 1620s, they shipped over 200,000 pounds, and by 1700 they shipped approximately 35 million pounds to Europe. Even though James I, who ruled England wasn’t found of “the stinking weed,” let it continue because of the taxes and the survival of the colony. But growing tobacco wasn’t easy and required a lot of hard work. They therefore brought African slaves to do the work. By the end of the eighteenth century, almost 300 000 African slaves had been shipped to Virginia. The standards for being a slave in Virginia differed a lot compared to the Spanish colonies. In Virginia they were more treated as indentured servants and were baptized. Except from Africans, there were also a lot of indentured servitudes from England. At this time, England was over-populated and the standard of living was very poor for the low- and middle class. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This would also benefit England in the way that they got rid of the pressure from England and started to contribute instead of thieving. In fear of dying in England, the poor would sign a contract to a master, offering them their service and in return for their service; they were offered free passage from England, food, clothing, shelter and sometimes land. However, most of the indentured servants never lived through the whole contract due to diseases, war, starvation and by working to death. This system continued until 1670s. When more and more people finished their contract, it became harder for them to settle in Virginia. All the good lands near the water were taken and if they wanted land, they had to go further in to the land. They couldn’t settle there because of the natives who lived there and because of the bad location. Growing tobacco in these lands would not make a profit since it was too hard to transport it. People started to get angry and in 1676 a revolution broke out which lasted for almost a year. The Virginia Company then decided that it would be better to have indentured servants who had a contract until death. This was now the beginning of the slavery system that lasted for more than 200 years. The reason why Spain, Portugal and France were a century ahead of England had to do with that they were united while England were disunited and facing religious difficulties. In the mid sixteenth century, the English king, Henry the 8, wanted to divorce his wife to re-marry to get a son, a heir. The pope dismissed his case and it let to schism. He crowned himself to the head of the Church of England. This sent the English in various directions. They were busy to solve the problems in England, which led them behind the other countries. England then had many different Kings and Queens who all believed in different religious. The people in England were split and a catholic saw a protestant as traitors and that they would go to hell. This made a group of strongly believers to purify the church – The puritans. In the late sixteenth century a group of religious believers called Puritans wanted a reform. They believed that with hard work, they would help to depiction people and it would also help for personal salvation. The King of England, Charles I, threatened the Puritans. He dissolved the parliament, which were represented by the Puritans; and started to rule without one. This made the Puritans to look for new lands to practice their religion. Between 1630 and 1640, over 20,000 Puritans left Europe in the so-called “Great Migration” led by John Winthrop, and settled in New England. According to John Winthrop, the new society they would form, would be “as a city upon a hill”. A prime example for England and the entire world on how a society should run. When the Puritans arrived to New England, there were Natives living there. The Puritans claimed the ground and justified it by the belief of that if they didn’t work on the land, then it was acceptable to conquer it. With so many people immigrating to America, they also brought diseases with them, which killed a lot of Native Americans. The Puritans however, thought it was an act of God and a gift to the believers, to get hold of more land. This led to a war between the natives and the Puritans, where the latter were victorious. The reason why The Puritans settled in New England was because mainly because it was free, but also to build a bulwark, a shield against the Catholics in the north; the French. As all of us are different, we also strive for different things. In the beginning, the gold rumors that spread throughout Europe, made the people who hungered for money and power to look to the west. The Puritans, who had religious difficulties, strove for lands where they could practice their own religion and be inspired by hard work. Others were adventurers, who just wanted to seek for new lands. All of these elements together, were the ground of the English colonization of The New World.