American history (Full all chapters) Summary

Timeline of Events

After the conquest of Mexico, the Spanish moved north to explore the southern reaches of North America. In 1539-43 Henando De Soto attempted to invade and conquer Florida. In the southwest, Francisco De Coronado launched an expedition in search of the seven cities of Cibola. When he found only impoverished Zuni towns, he continued on to discover the Grand Canyon, encountered the Pueblo peoples, and even reached southern Kansas.

Spain established St. Augustine as a fort to secure the coast of Florida and subjugate nearby peoples. St. Augustine was the first permanent European settlement in North America, and provided a foothold that Spain used to control the Florida peninsula for the next two centuries.

When a Spanish military leader led an expedition to establish a trading outpost and fort among the Acoma people in New Mexico, and brutally seized supplies, murdered, and raped those who resisted, the Acoma people rose in revolt. The Acoma killed eleven Spanish soldiers. In retaliation the Spanish looted their land and massacred 800 men, women, and children. Then, confronted by a widespread revolt, the Spanish retreated.

James promoted England as a colonial as well as a commercial and political power. Seeing a variety of benefits in the establishment of colonies in America, King James encouraged continued settlement in North America. He also, however, intensified persecution of Puritans and Presbyterians and exerted his "divine right" to rule. He thus increased the power of the state through colonization, while pursuing policies that assured many emigrants would be religious exiles.

Under a charter from James I, the Virginia Company of London established the first permanent English colony at Jamestown in the spring of 1607. Disorganized and without focus, the colonists sought gold rather than worry about food production. As a result, less than half of the settlers survived the first winter. Reinforcements, stronger discipline, and better organization enabled the colony to survive.

The first permanent French colony in North America was established at Quebec by Samuel de Champlain. Isolated and very small, the settlement survived only by establishing an alliance with the Huron to protect it against the Iroquois.

Interested in the New World for commercial rather than spiritual purposes, the Dutch established a trading post on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the river Dutch explorer Henry Hudson had named for himself in 1609. It became the basis of the Dutch colony known as New Netherlands. From there the Dutch government expanded its fur trading stations throughout the middle Atlantic.

The first Africans in the English New World colonies were brought to Virginia as slaves. Chesapeake planters began to import African slaves to replace indentured servants, whom they had to free after a given time and who thus were less profitable.

The Virginia Company tried to make the colony of Virginia work. In 1617 the company established the headright system. They also formed the House of Burgesses, a local legislative body that was given the power to make laws and levy taxes, though both could be vetoed by the governor or nullified by the company. By providing the incentives of land and local self-government, the company attracted a wave of new immigrants through 1622.

Separatist Puritans left England to establish their own churches, spread the gospel, and, by example, purify the Anglican church. First they went to Holland, but then decided to make a pilgrimage to America – hence the name Pilgrims. They established their own government, and, after a harsh initial winter, worked hard to establish an orderly and thriving town on the coast of Massachusetts south of the current site of Boston.

Growing demand in England for Virginian tobacco caused an escalation of prices and a boom in production. The boom came to an end in the 1660s when overproduction and oppressive duties imposed by England cut demand and prices dramatically. This decline in the market triggered a social and economic crisis in the Chesapeake colonies.

The Dutch government established its presence in the Atlantic by chartering the Dutch East India Company. The company established a monopoly in the slave trade and plundered the coast of Brazil and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. It also took over Hudson river trading posts and set up new trading posts along the central coast of North America. The rising power of the Dutch in the Atlantic would eventually force the English to challenge them.

The rapid influx of settlers to Virginia between 1617 and 1622 dramatically increased pressure on Indian lands. Colonists occupied lands the Indians had cleared and were still using. Alarmed, the Indian leader Opechancanough formed an alliance and launched a surprise attack on the settlers, killing nearly a third of the local population. The English waged war against the Indians, killing hundreds and, by destroying their crops and houses, leaving the survivors without food or shelter.

The massacre of 1622 convinced James I that the Virginia Company was badly managed. He dissolved the company and took over the colony. James I allowed the House of Burgesses, led by a governor, to remain. He also established the Church of England in the colony. Virginia became the model for all subsequent royal colonies.

King Charles I, a strong supporter of the Anglican church, was also sympathetic to the Roman Catholic church and used his influence to push Anglican doctrine back towards Catholic doctrine. Appalled, a vocal Puritan minority in Parliament protested. Charles responded by dissolving Parliament and ruling by "divine right" for ten years. Having thwarted the Puritans in government, he then appointed William Laud to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud launched a campaign to oust hundreds of Puritan ministers from their pulpits. Charles’ and Archbishop Laud’s action convinced thousands of Puritans it was time to leave England. Those who stayed would later rise up in the English Civil War.

Convinced that to purify the Anglican church they needed to leave England, 900 Puritans led by John Winthrop emigrated to Massachusetts Bay to create a "new" England. They established their own government. By requiring that those who could vote and hold office be members of a Puritan congregation, the Puritans linked church and state into a religious Commonwealth. About ten thousand Puritans and as many non-Puritans followed them to the "City Upon a Hill" by 1640.

King Charles I favored his friends with extensive land grants in North America. He made Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland. As proprietor, Baltimore sold lands and encouraged settlement by Catholic refugees from persecution in England, as well as Protestants. The colony prospered during the tobacco boom. When religious friction between Catholics and Protestants threatened the peace of the colony, Lord Baltimore pressured the assembly to pass a Toleration Act. In general, though, Maryland would experience similar economic and social developments as its neighbor Virginia.

As Puritans moved into the Connecticut River valley they encroached on the lands of the small Pequot tribe. The Pequots resisted by attacking settlers. The Puritans and their Indian allies retaliated by launching a brutal attack against the main Pequot town. Five hundred were killed and survivors were hunted down and sold into slavery.

Puritan theology upheld the sole authority of the minister to interpret the Bible for the congregation. By such meditation, each individual reaffirmed his or her participation in the covenant between the congregation and God. In 1635, the Puritans banished Roger Williams for challenging the establishment of the church and its power over members. He went on to found Rhode Island. Similarly, Anne Hutchison was tried for heresy in 1637, by arguing that she could directly communicate with God through his revelation, thus diminishing the role of the minister. Anne Hutchison moved first to Rhode Island, and then to Long Island, where she was killed in an Indian raid in 1643. Rhode Island continued to prosper as a democratic-minded enterprise.

1640s      Puritan Revolution in England

The Five Nations of the Iroquois of New York launched a long-term war against neighboring tribes to gain control of the fur trade between the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes. In the course of their efforts they nearly destroyed several tribes, and the remaining members of several more migrating west. When those refugees regrouped and formed an alliance with the French, they gradually weakened the Iroquois. The Iroquois were eventually forced to give up their plans to monopolize the fur trade and agreed to the Grand Settlement in 1701.

In the midst of political revolution, Parliament took action to wrest control of trade on the North Atlantic from the Dutch. Drawing on the theory of mercantilism, they excluded Dutch ships from trade within the British system, compelled the colonies to ship certain goods to London, and raised import duties. English goods, produced in English colonies, were traded through the English capital in English ships, which provided more money for English people.

When the dictatorial Oliver Cromwell died, Parliament re-instituted the monarchy, calling Charles II to the throne. The brief period of Puritan rule had ended, and the Church of England was restored.

The decline in the price of tobacco in the 1660s set in motion a number of forces that would lead to widespread social and political discord in Virginia. Lower returns on tobacco farming eliminated the opportunity for success for all but the largest planters. Freedmen were forced to become tenants or farm laborers with no prospect of social mobility. As some planters recouped losses with rents from tenants, economic differentiation and social and political tensions increased.

In search of more land, disgruntled freedmen, yeoman farmers, servants, and laborers on the Virginian frontier launched an Indian war in 1675. When challenged by Governor Berkeley, Nathaniel Bacon, leader of the freedmen, rebelled against Berkeley and took over the colony. His sudden death enabled the governor to regain the upper hand. He defeated the rebel army and had its leaders executed. In response to the rebellion, the elite would dramatically change both the labor system upon which they relied and their style of political leadership. For this reason, Bacon’s Rebellion was a pivotal event in Virginia’s history

The demand for land by Puritans in New England created similar pressures as in Virginia. Though some Indians were drawn into "praying towns" that the Puritans founded to convert them, many resisted this effort. In 1675, Metacom, leader of the Wampanoag tribe, formed an alliance of local tribes and launched an attack against Puritan settlement across the New England frontier. After two years of bitter fighting, the Puritans prevailed after nearly destroying the Indian population.

In the seventeenth century Spanish settlers and missionaries moved into what is today New Mexico and established a tribute and forced labor system to control the Indians. The pueblos in which the Indian people lived were severely threatened. An Indian priest Popé launched a rebellion against the Spanish that they were unable to quell for a decade. Finally, a compromise was reached. The Indian people accepted Spanish rule, and in return the Spanish allowed them to practice their own religion, helped them to defend themselves against nomadic invaders, and did away with the forced labor system.

As social and political pressures intensified in many New England towns and villages, an increasing number of Puritans became convinced that their calling was endangered. More began to see in the behavior of others the influence of evils spirits or spiritual forces. In Salem in 1692, these pressures boiled over when frustrated townsmen charged over two hundred people in the town with witchcraft. Things got quickly out of hand when local judges, accepting unsubstantiated evidence for indictments, arrested 175 people, put on trial many of them, and convicted and executed 20, nineteen of whom were women. This was the most serious, but also the last outbreak of alleged witchcraft in New England.