Ap us history class informational meeting- june 2017 Welcome to apush!! This class does not start in September- it starts now

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__________ Emancipation Proclamation __________ Mexican-American War

__________ Inauguration of Hayes __________ Ku Klux Klan established

__________ Assassination of Lincoln __________ Wilmot Proviso

__________ Fugitive Slave Acts __________ Dred Scott Decision

__________ Homestead Act __________ First Battle of Bull Run

__________ 13^th Amendment __________ Feminist organization splits

__________ National economic depression

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The pacific expansionist who rejoiced in the bloodless annexation of Texas was shortly mocked by the resultant war with the aggrieved recent owner of that disputed country. The War with Mexico was in turn the cause of a new territorial ambition which, though it resulted merely in the acquisition of New Mexico and Upper California, was directed for a time toward the annexation of Mexico and fell short of it only though a slight turn of events. This ambition marked a momentous change both in the policy and in the ideal of American expansionism… the enlargement of territorial aim was probably due less to philanthropy than to a consideration of national self-interest… Yet the expansionism of the Mexican War anticipated the ideology of the white man’s burden by accepting the obligation to the darker peoples. Expansionists contemplated not merely the regeneration of the Mexicans but a whole series of civilizing enterprises among the lesser breeds.

-Albert K. Weinberg, Manifest Destiny, 1935

B.

An old age was dying, a new age being born; and such stormy transitions always bear harshly upon party structures. Facing the new issues which the war created, both Whigs and Democrats showed the strain. Being in power the Democratic Party suffered the most. A few years earlier it had seemed homogenous and closely knit. Actually, it was composed of disparate interests bound together by very loose ties and ready to quarrel the moment a sufficient motive appeared; and now the war revealed its essential lack of unity. A powerful body of Northern Democrats, their greatest strength lying in New England and upper New York, stood opposed to any expansion of slavery. A still more powerful body of Southern Democrats, counting may Northern supports, held that slavery had the right to spread through any areas where climate and other conditions favored it. Alongside these two bodies stood a vigorous array of Democrats, their principal strength in the northwest, who were not unwilling to allow slavery to grow if by some compromise free soil grew with equal or greater celerity.

Explain the differences between Interpretation A and Interpretation B:

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Specific Historical Evidence to Support A (NOT mentioned in passage):

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Specific Historical Evidence to Support B (NOT mentioned in passage):

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APUSH SUMMER 2017- pg 54

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Had the economic systems of the North and South remained static or changed slowly without effecting immense dislocations in the social structure, the balance of power might have been maintained indefinitely by repeating the compensatory tactics of 1787, 1820, 1833, and 1850… But nothing was stable in the economy of the United States or in the moral sentiments associated with its diversities. Within each section of the country, the necessities of the productive system were generating portentous results… the Northeast was daily enlarging, agriculture in the Northwest was being steadily supplemented by manufacturing, and the area of virgin soil open to exploitation by planters was diminishing with rhythmic regularity… Given an irrepressible conflict which could be symbolized in such unmistakable patterns by competent interpreters of opposing factions, a transfer of the issues from the forum to the field, from the conciliation of diplomacy to the decision to arms was bound to come.

-Charles A. Beard, The Rise of American Civilization, 1933

B.

Thus war came when the American people for the first time refused to abide by a national election. The parties which had been promoting the cohesive attitudes had broken down… The social, economic, and cultural differences had been so used by the political operators as to produce secession and civil war. War broke out because no means had been devised to curb the extravagant use of the divisive forces. Statesmanship seemed poverty-stricken. The work of the nationalists who sought to find a formula with which to overcome the divisive attitudes was vain. Too few even saw the need for the formula; they ran heedlessly down the path to disruption. The war was the product of the chaotic lack of system in ascertaining and directing the public will, a chaos exploited with little regard for the welfare of the general public by irresponsible and blind operators.

Explain the differences between Interpretation A and Interpretation B:

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Specific Historical Evidence to Support A (NOT mentioned in passage):

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Specific Historical Evidence to Support B (NOT mentioned in passage):

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APUSH SUMMER 2017- pg 55

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“The Emancipation Proclamation was a turning point for African Americans during the American Civil War”

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After careful consideration of our own case, I do not hesitate to condemn the arbitrary arrests and the arbitrary interference with the freedom of the press in States which were not the theatre of the war and where the courts were open [as well as other instances of blatant disregard for the Constitution] … I am convinced that all of this extrajudicial procedure was inexpedient, unnecessary, and wrong: that the offenders should have been prosecuted according to law, or, if their offenses were not indictable, permitted to go free… While I have not lighted upon an instance in which the President himself directed an arrest, he permitted them all; he stands responsible for the casting into prison of citizen of the United States on order as arbitrary as the lettres-de-cachet of Louis XIV.

-James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, 1893-1906

B.

Lincoln’s primary task as a politician was to create a national Republican Party and to mold it into a serviceable tool for the national welfare. The party which nominated him and put him into the White House was an unorganized conglomeration of opposition groups… The mandate of the Republican Party was far from clear, and even had Lincoln attempted to conform to its vague provisions, it would have furnished no practical guide to the political situation which confronted him. There as, in fact, no national Republican Party… Lincoln made no effort to assume leadership in legislation. He had, indeed, no legislative program to promote, and face none of the problems of the legislative leaders who needed to bargain and cajole, to coerce and to compromise to get support for a bill. On the other hand, he had a war to conduct and needed the support of an integrated national party to bring it to a successful conclusion… Fully aware of the contending factions, Lincoln delayed calling Congress into session until four months after his inauguration… this act gave the party a program and brought conciliators and compromisers among the politicians into line… Lincoln had, indeed, built a national party. He had used the patronage, the prestige of his position, the army, and skillful popular appeals to subordinate the state parties and mold them into national unity.

Explain the differences between Interpretation A and Interpretation B:

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Specific Historical Evidence to Support A (NOT mentioned in passage):

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Specific Historical Evidence to Support B (NOT mentioned in passage):

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APUSH SUMMER 2017- pg 58

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“Republicans betrayed their roots by accepting the Compromise of 1877”

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The native population was concentrated in three highly developed civilizations. Between AD 300 and 800, the Mayas built remarkable cities in the rain forests of the Yucatán Peninsula (present-day Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico). Several centuries after the decline of the Mayas, the Aztecs from central Mexico developed a powerful empire. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, had a population of about 200,000, equivalent in population to the largest cities of Europe. While the Aztecs were dominating Mexico and Central America, the Incas based in Peru developed a vast empire in South America. All three civilizations developed highly organized societies, carried on an extensive trade, and created calendars that were based on accurate scientific observations. All three cultivated crops that provided a stable food supply, particularly corn for the Mayas and Aztecs and potatoes for the Incas.

The population in the region north of Mexico (present-day United States and Canada) in the 1490s may have been anywhere from under 1 million to more than 10 million. In general, the native societies in this region were smaller and less sophisticated than those in Mexico and South America. One reason for this was the slowness of the northwest spread of corn cultivation from Mexico. Some of the most populous and complex societies in North America had disappeared by the 15^th century, for reasons not well understood. By the time of Columbus, most people in the Americas in what is now the United States and Canada lived in semi-permanent settlements in groups seldom exceeding 300 people. The men spent their time making tools and hunting for game, while the women gathered plants and nuts or grew crops such as corn, beans, and tobacco.

In Europe, a rebirth of classical learning prompted an outburst of artistic and scientific activity in the 15^th and 16^th centuries known as the Renaissance. Several of the technological advances during the Renaissance resulted from Europeans making improvements in the inventions of others. For example, they began to use gunpowder (invented by the Chinese) and the sailing compass (adopted from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese). Europeans also made major improvements in shipbuilding and mapmaking. In addition, the invention of the printing press in the 1450s aided the spread of knowledge across Europe.

The later years of the Renaissance were a time of intense religious zeal and conflict. The Roman Catholic Church that had once dominated Western Europe was threatened from without by Ottoman Turks who were followers of Islam and from within by a revolt against the Pope’s authority.

Europe was also changing politically in the 15^th century. Small kingdoms, such as Castile and Aragon, were uniting into larger ones. Enormous multiethnic empires, such as the sprawling Holy Roman Empire, in central Europe, were breaking up. Replacing the small kingdoms and the multiethnic empires were nation-states, countries in which the majority of people shared both a common culture and common loyalty toward a central government. The monarchs of the emerging nation-states, such as Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain; Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, and similar monarchs of France, England, and the Netherlands, depended on trade to bring in needed revenues and on the church to justify their right to rule. They used their power to search for riches abroad and to spread the influence of their version of Christianity to new overseas dominions.

Columbus spent eight years seeking financial support for his plan to sail west from Europe to the “Indies.” Finally, in 1492, he succeeded in winning the backing of Isabella and Ferdinand. The two Spanish monarchs were then at the height of their power, having just defeated the Moors in Granada. They agreed to outfit three ships and to make Columbus governor, admiral, and viceroy of all the lands that he would claim for Spain. After sailing from the Canary Islands on September 6, Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas on October 12. His success in reaching lands on the other side of the ocean brought him a burst of glory in Spain. But three subsequent voyages across the Atlantic were disappointing- he found little gold, few spices, and no simple path to China and India.

Spain and Portugal were the first European kingdoms to claim territories in the Americas. Their claims overlapped, leading to disputes. The Catholic monarchs of the two countries turned to the pope in Rome to resolve their differences. In 1493, the pope drew a vertical, north-south line on a world map, called the line of demarcation. The pope granted Spain all lands to the west of the line and Portugal all lands to the east.

In 1494, Spain and Portugal moved the pope’s line a few degrees to the west and signed an agreement called the Treaty of Tordesillas. The line passed through what is now the country of Brazil. This treaty, together with Portuguese explorations, established Portugal’s claim to Brazil. Spain claimed the rest of the Americas. However, other European countries soon challenged these claims.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest:

Spanish dominance in the Americas were based on more than a papal ruling and a treaty. Spain owed its expanding power to its explorers and conquerors (called conquistadores). Feats such as the journey across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the circumnavigation of the world by one of Ferdinand Magellan’s ships (Magellan died before completing the trip), the conquests of the Aztecs in Mexico by Hernan Cortes, and the conquest of the Incas in Peru by Francisco Pizzaro secured Spain’s initial supremacy in the Americas. The conquistadores sent ships loaded with gold and silver back to Spain from Mexico and Peru. They increased the gold supply by more than 500%, making Spain the richest and most powerful nation in Europe. Spain’s success encouraged other nations to turn to the Americas in search of gold and power. After seizing the wealth of the Indian empires, the Spanish instituted an encomienda system, with the king of Spain giving grants of land and natives to individual Spaniards. These Indians had to farm or work in the mines. The fruits of their labor went to their Spanish masters, who in turn had to “care” for them. As Europeans’ diseases and brutality reduced the native population, the Spanish brought enslaved people from West Africa under the asiento system. This required the Spanish to pay a tax to their king on each slave they imported to the Americas.

England’s earliest claims to territory in the Americas rested on the voyages of John Cabot, an Italian sea captain who sailed under contract to England’s King Henry VII. Cabot explored the coast of Newfoundland in 1497. England, however, did not follow up Cabot’s discoveries with other expeditions of exploration and settlement. Other issues preoccupied England’s monarchy in the 1500s, including Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1570s and 1580s, under Queen Elizabeth I, England challenged Spanish shipping in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Sir Francis Drake, for example, attacked Spanish ships, seized the gold and silver that they carried, and even attacked Spanish settlements on the coast of Peru. Another English adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh, attempted to establish a settlement at Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast in 1587, but the venture failed.

The French monarchy first showed interest in exploration in 1524 when it sponsored a voyage by an Italian navigator, Giovanni da Verrazano. Hoping to find a northwest passage leading through the Americas to Asia, Verrazano explored part of North America’s eastern coast, including the New York harbor. French claims to American territory were also based on the voyages of Jacques Cartier (1534-1542), who explored the St. Lawrence River extensively. Like the English, the French were slow to develop colonies across the Atlantic. During the 1500s, the French monarchy was preoccupied with European wars as well as with internal religious conflict between the Roman Catholics and French Protestants known as Huguenots. Only in the next century did France develop a strong interest in following up its claims to North American land. The first permanent French settlement in America was established by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 at Quebec, a fortified village on the St. Lawrence River. Other explorers extended French claims across a vast territory. In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette explored the upper Mississippi River, and in 1682, Robert de La Salle explored the Mississippi basin, which he named Louisiana (after the French king, Louis XIV).

During the 1600s, the Netherlands also began to sponsor voyages of exploration. The Dutch government hired Henry Hudson, an experienced English sailor, to seek westward passage to Asia through northern America. In 1609, while searching for a northwest passage, Hudson sailed up a broad river that was later named for him, the Hudson River. This expedition established Dutch claims to the surrounding area that would later become New Amsterdam (and later New York). The Dutch government granted a private company, the Dutch West India Company, the right to control the region for economic gain.

Unlike the Spanish, the English settled in areas without large native empires that could be controlled as a workforce. In addition, many English colonies came in families rather than as single young men, so marriage with natives was less common. Initially, at least in Massachusetts, the English and the American Indians coexisted, traded, and shared ideas. American Indians taught the settlers how to grow new crops such as corn and showed them how to hunt in the forests. They traded various furs for an array of English manufacturing goods, including iron tools and weapons. But peaceful relations soon gave way to conflict and open warfare. The English had no respect for American Indian cultures, which they viewed as primitive or “savage.” For their part, American Indians saw their way of life threatened as the English began to take more land to support their ever-increasing population. The English occupied the land and forced the small, scattered tribes they encountered to move away from the coast to inland territories. They expelled the natives rather than subjugating them.

The French, looking for furs and converts to Christianity, viewed American Indians as potential economic and military allies. Compared to the Spaniards and the English, the French maintained good relations with the tribes they encountered. Seeking to control the fur trade, the French built trading posts throughout the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes region, and along the Mississippi River. At these posts, they exchanged French goods for beaver pelts and other furs collected by American Indians. Because the French had few colonists, farms, or towns, they posed less threat to the native population than did other Europeans. In addition, French soldiers assisted the Huron people in fighting their traditional enemy, the Iroquois.

North American tribes saw themselves as groups distinct from each other, not as part of a larger body of Native Americans. As a result, European settlers rarely had to be concerned with a unified response from the Native Americans. Initially the European goods such as copper pots and guns had motivated the natives to interact with the strangers. After the decimation of their peoples from the violence and disease of the Europeans, the Native Americans had to adopt new ways to survive. Upon observing the Europeans fighting each other, some tribes allied themselves with one European power or another in hopes of gaining support in order to survive. A number of tribes simply migrated to new land to get away from the slowly encroaching settlers. Regardless of how they dealt with the European invasion, Native Americans would never be able to return to the life they had known prior to 1492.

Although recent archeological evidence suggests that the first human beings may have come to the Americas by sea, it seems most likely that the first humans to come in significant numbers did so by crossing the Bering Land Bridge during the Pleistocene Ice Age some 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. Little evidence of these first Americans exist, but we know that they survived by hunting animals such as huge mastodons, giant armadillos, and prehistoric bison. By the 9^th century BCE, people had wandered into the Central Valley of Mexico, the site of an immense lake that attracted vast amounts of game. Thus, civilizations emerged in the area that is today Mexico City.

Around 7,500 BCE, the Western Hemisphere entered a much drier epoch- with monumental consequences. Decreased rainfall led to a decline in forage and a limited supply of water, so the numbers of large animals declined markedly. Human beings consequently turned to hunting smaller animals and to scrounging vegetation to exist. In the face of this crisis, people developed agriculture in order to survive. Over millennia, particularly with the return of a wet cycle, they domesticated various crops, with the most important being maize, or corn. This hardy crop grew in almost all areas of Mexico, and the grain became the mainstay of the Indian diet. Farmers also produced staples such as beans and squash. Eventually, the Spanish would introduce these plants to Europe, but in the meantime the crops led to the development of thriving societies in Mexico.

By this era, the single lake that had covered the valley floor had turned into a series of smaller lakes that provided an excellent location for developing cultures. Indeed, the Indians called the region the Valley of Anáhuac, which means “land near the water.” Rich alluvial soil and a reliable source of water meant abundant harvests, which allowed for the growth of a major city- Teotihuacán- in central Mexico. The city occupied about 12 square miles and may have contained as many as 100,000 inhabitants. The metropolis thrived until about 650 CE, when northern tribes attacked and burned the city. Nevertheless, the area continued to support vast numbers of people, including the Tolteca-Chichimeca (Toltecs) whose culture and religion would influence that of the Aztecs.

The Aztecs, members of a larger group known as the Chichimecs, entered the Valley of Anáhuac late in the pre-Columbian era. Like many of those who came before them, the Aztecs found the fertile valley attractive, but as recent arrivals they also found that the more desirable lands had already been claimed. They gained some acceptance by serving as mercenaries during various tribal wars, but their violent customs, such as human sacrifices, mutilation of their enemies, and most notably the perverse skilling of a Culhuacán princess, led to retributions. Forced onto a small island, the Aztecs developed a close-knit insular society that, combined with the propensity for warfare, allowed them to establish a kingdom by 1376. They expanded their influence, and by 1500 they had created an empire that extended throughout central and southern Mexico. The capital city was Tenochtitlan, located on an island in Lake Texococo.

In September of 1519, Spanish explorers arrived in the region- two years later they conquered the Aztecs. With the destruction of Tenochtitlan in 1521 the Aztec regime collapsed, and the Europeans assumed control over the area. They, too, built their capital in the attractive Central Valley. Since then, Mexico City has grown to become one of the world’s largest metropolises.

When Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they were amazed that none of the native had developed the use of the wheel. To the ethnocentric conquerors, this failure revealed a cultural inferiority. In reality, the Mexican tribes had discovered the wheel, but since they had no domesticated draft animals, they had little use for the innovation. Horses had at one time lived on the continent, but by the time recognizable cultures emerged in Mexico, the animals had become extinct. Oxen and cattle did not exist in the New World. The wheel, then, served as a child’s toy.

Still, the Indians built impressive cities and temples, relying on rafts to transport huge building stones and intensive human labor to put them in place. The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán offers an excellent example of the Indians’ architectural skills. With a base of more than 7,000 feet, the structure rises 200 feet. This massive monument served as the foundation for a temple to the Sun God, one of the most important Meso-American deities.

Native Americans produced splendid examples of stone work- both on a huge scale and in intricate pieces of detailed art- but at the same time of the Conquest, they had developed only limited metallurgy. They did not use bronze, iron, or steel. They relied on pottery, stoneware, and baskets for utensils and containers. For weapons they used stone-tipped arrows and obsidian war clubs. When Europeans arrived with their coats of armor, Castilian swords, and horses dressed in mail, the Indians found themselves at a sharp disadvantage. The people of Mexico, on the other hand, had learned to extract gold and silver from ore. Consequently, the Aztecs stood vulnerable because they had not developed modern weaponry, but the capital they had built contained treasures the Spanish desired.

The “Aztec calendar,” which developed among several tribes and was perfected by the Mayans of the Yucatan Peninsula, remains one of the enduring symbols of the pre-Columbian world. As agriculture emerged, scientific calculation of the seasons became imperative. This need led to the study of astronomy that revealed the solar year and resulted in the creation of calendars containing 365 days. Like most cultures, the Indians associated significant years with religious events. For instance, the first year of the Mayan era is rooted in mythology and is the same year as the Europeans 3133 BCE.

Although the Mayans believed specific dates would not repeat themselves for almost 375,000 years, other tribes believed in a more cyclical universe. Certain years therefore took on special meaning, and to the Toltecs, Ce Acatl became particularly important. According to tradition, the son of a great war chief was born that year, and he took the name Ce Acatl Topiltzin (“Prince of Ce Acatl”). An enlightened leader for 20 years, he incurred the wrath of powerful priests who forced Topitzin into exile in the Yucatan in 987. Legend held that this fair-skinned, bearded warrior, who became deified, would return to reclaim his throne. Prophets foretold that the banished prince would come from the East during one of the years of Ce Acatl. Five centuries later, Ce Acatl fell in 1519, the year Fernando Cortés sailed from the East to land in Mexico. For many Indians, the prophecy had been fulfilled.

Prehistoric human beings developed agriculture in different regions of the world, including Meso-America. Often faced with famine, these people turned to wild grasses, fruits, and grains for sustenance. Over time, individuals took particular care of the more productive vegetation, in essence creating hybrids of certain plants. Maize became the most important crop in Mexico, and it served as the foundation for an agricultural society. Mesoamericans used terraces to increase productivity, and in the Central Valley chinampas, of floating gardens, took on special importance. Workers built rafts out of branches and piled lake sediment onto them. Irrigation was unnecessary, and the rich soil produced bountiful harvests. The natives also developed grinding stones (of a small scale because of the lack of animal power) to turn the corn into meal. Corn meal served as a staple for pre-Columbian Indians, and with a dependable, readily stored food supply the population of the Valley grew and complex civilizations emerged.

These societies created social order, but they also facilitated the numerous conquests that characterize early Mexican history. Centralized cultures proved most vulnerable to assault. For one thing, they generally produced, or controlled, some form of wealth (in this case, the rich Central Valley) that made them attractive targets to other tribes or kingdoms. Also, the concentration of power in a major city made it easier for invaders to deal their enemies a fatal blow. Moreover, for the vast majority of people in a stratified society, it mattered little who was in control. Power descended from above, and the masses often found that their daily lives continued unchanged simply because a new dynasty had gained control. The Teotihuacanos thus gave way to the Toltecs, who fell before the Aztecs, who succumbed to the Spanish. Indeed, the Spaniards found the nomadic tribes north of the Valley much more difficult to defeat; some of them resisted conquest throughout the colonial period and well into the 19^th century. The heart of Mexico, however, fell rather easily.

ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS

Aztec Religion

The following information provides some insight into the religion of the Indians who occupied Mexico and will bring their society to life. The material also helps explain how the Spanish conquered the Aztec Indians with relative ease.
Aztecs believed that every 52 years the sun died. As the sun set behind the western mountains on the fateful last day of the epoch, the Aztecs destroyed their old calendars and extinguished all fires in the Valley of Mexico. Then they waited in terror- either the sun would be reborn at dawn or the world would freeze in an eternal night. In the morning, as the sun began to rise in the east, the Indians held the New Fire Ceremony on a mountain-top shrine. Using a razor-sharp obsidian dagger, a priest cut upon the chest of a sacrificial victim and pulled out the still-beating heart. The priest then inserted wood kindling into the gaping chest cavity and attempted to light it with a fire stick. If the flame ignited, the sun would be reborn and the world would continue to live for another 52 years.

The Aztecs, like other Mesoamerican civilizations, kept careful track of time. They maintained two separate calendars, each with 20-day months, in keeping with their base-20 number system. One calendar described the 365-day solar year with 18 months of 20 days, plus 5 “unlucky” days at the end of the year. The solar calendar served to preserve order in the universe, marking the times for planting and harvesting corn and for holding religious ceremonies. The second calendar had 13 months of 20-days and matched the 260-day human gestation period. This calendar helped maintain order in human lives and provided the basis for pre-Columbian astrology. Every 52 years, the calendars reached the new year simultaneously, an event marking the potential end of the world.

The New Fire Ceremony illustrates the reciprocal obligations between men and gods in the pre-Columbian world. The Aztecs offered human sacrifices to feed the gods, who responded by making corn grow to feed the people. Fear always remained, however, that the new fire would not ignite, that the capricious gods would withhold the rains and destroy all life. This morbid cosmology ultimately contributed to the defeat of the Aztec Empire. Montezuma, uncertain of his own moral legitimacy, imagined the Spanish conquistadors might themselves be gods. His hesitant behavior gave the Europeans a strategic opening, which they used to enlist Indian allies and to conquer the Indian civilization.
The Seven Cities of Cíbola:

Following Columbus’s voyages, the Spanish moved rapidly into the Caribbean and Mexico, but the occupation of what became the American Southwest occurred more slowly. Events in the 16^th century revealed both the imperative, and the impediment, to Spanish expansion in the New World. Myths played a role in encouraging Spanish exploration. However, once the legends of golden cities proved false, the reality of inhospitable terrain and hostile Indians delayed settlement.

The medieval imagination conceived that across the oceans lay lands inhabited by strange monsters, giant men, and warrior women. Europeans also dreamed of the Seven Cities of Cíbola, fabled for their enormous wealth. After Columbus discovered America, explorer ransacked the hemisphere in search of riches. The Caribbean colonies proved disappointing but Aztec treasures in Mexico renewed Spanish expectations.

In 1536, the adventures of Alvar Núnez Cabeza de Vaca and an African slave named Esteban caused the Spaniards to turn their attention to the north. In 1528, the men had landed in Florida as members of an ill-fated treasure hunt. Indians massacred most of their party, and the survivors made an incredible journey through the Gulf Coast region and into northern Mexico before coming across a Spanish expedition. In Mexico City, they related Indian stories of golden cities, and Esteban returned north with Fray Marcos de Niza to search for Cíbola. Scouting ahead, Esteban sent word to the friar that he had discovered the fabled treasure. The African then disappeared.

When Fray Marcos arrived back in Mexico City with his story, the viceroy commissioned Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to conquer the cities of gold. Departing in 1540, his expedition explored as far northeast as Kansas, but they found no treasure. Esteban’s city of gold turned out to be the dusty Zuni pueblos near what became Santa Fe, New Mexico. Some historians believe that Fray Marcos had made the report solely on the word of Esteban. Others conclude that Marcos saw the pueblos from a distance, and that seen at sunset the adobe buildings took on a golden glow. In his excitement, and reflecting the European faith that such cities existed, he believed he had surely found the mythical kingdom. Still other scholars suggest that the friar knew the treasure did not exist, but he hoped to encourage Spanish settlement in order to Christianize the natives. In any case, the disillusioned Coronado and his expedition returned home without the riches they had sought.

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  Corporate colonies, such as Jamestown, were operated by joint-stock companies, at least during these colonies’ early years.
  
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  Royal colonies, such as Virginia after 1624, were to be under the direct authority and rule of the king’s government.
  
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  Proprietary colonies, such as Maryland and Pennsylvania, were under the authority of individuals granted charters of ownership by the king.
  

Unlike the French and Spanish colonists, the English brought a tradition of representative government. They were accustomed to holding elections for representatives who would speak for property owners and decide important measures, such as taxes, proposed by the king’s government. While political and religious conflicts dominated England, feelings for independence grew in the colonies. Eventually, tensions emerged between the king and his colonial subjects. This selection summarizes the development of the English colonies.

England’s King James I chartered the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company that founded the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown in 1607.

Religious motivation, not the search for wealth, was the principal force behind the settlement of two other English colonies, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. Both were settled by English Protestants who dissented from the official government-supported Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. The leader of the Church of England was the monarch of England. The Church of England had broken away from the control of the pope in Rome, so it was no longer part of the Roman Catholic Church. However, it had kept most of the Catholic rituals and government structure. The dissenters, influenced by the teachings of Swiss theologian John Calvin, charged that the Church of England should break more completely with Rome. In addition, the dissenters adopted Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, the belief that God guides those he has selected for salvation even before their birth. England’s King James I, who reigned from 1603 to 1625, viewed the religious dissenters as a threat to his religious and political authority and ordered them arrested and jailed.

Radical dissenters to the Church of England were known as the Separatists because they wanted to organize a completely separate church that was independent of royal control. Several hundred Separatists left England for Holland in search of religious freedom. Because of their travels, they became known as the Pilgrims. Economic hardships and cultural differences with the Dutch led many of the Pilgrims to seek another haven for their religion. They chose the new colony in America, then operated by the Virginia Company of London. In 1620, a small group of Pilgrims set sail for Virginia aboard the Mayflower. Fewer than half of the 100 passengers on this ship were Separatists; the rest were people who had economic motives for making the voyage. After a hard and stormy voyage of 65 days, the Mayflower dropped anchor off the Massachusetts coast, a few hundred miles to the north of the intended destination in Virginia. Rather than going on to Jamestown as planned, the Pilgrims decided to establish a new colony at Plymouth.

A group of more moderate dissenters believed that the Church of England could be reformed. Because they wanted to purify the church, they became known as Puritans. The persecution of Puritans increased when a new king, Charles I, took the throne in 1625. Seeking religious freedom, a group of Puritans gained a royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company (1629). In 1630, about a thousand Puritans led by John Winthrop sailed for the Massachusetts shore and founded Boston and several other towns. A civil war in England in the 1630 drove some 15,000 more settlers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony- a movement known as the Great Migration.

The Virginia Company encouraged settlement in Jamestown by guaranteeing colonists the same rights as residents of England, including representation in the lawmaking process. In 1619, just 12 years after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia’s colonists organized the first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses.

Aboard the Mayflower in 1620, the Pilgrims drew up and signed a document that pledged them to make decisions by the will of the majority. This document, known as the Mayflower Compact, was an early form of colonial self-government and a rudimentary written constitution. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, all freemen- male members of the Puritan Church- had the right to participate in yearly elections of the colony’s governor, his assistants, and a representative assembly.

Despite these steps, most colonists were excluded from the political process. Only male property owners could vote for representatives. Those who were either female or landless had few rights; slaves and indentured servants had practically none at all. Also, many colonial governors ruled with autocratic or unlimited powers, answering only to the king or others in England who provided the colonies’ financial support. Thus, the gradual development of democratic ideas in the colonies coexisted with anti-democratic practices such as slavery and the widespread mistreatment of American Indians.

The king expected proprietors to carry out his wishes faithfully, thus giving him control over a colony. This first Lord Baltimore died before he could achieve great wealth in his colony while also providing a heaven for his fellow Catholics. The Maryland proprietorship passed to his son, Cecil Calvert- the 2^nd Lord Baltimore- who began implementing his father’s plan in 1634.

In both Maryland and Virginia, landowners saw great opportunities. They could get land, either by taking it from or trading for it with Native Americans, and Europeans had a growing demand for tobacco. However, they could not find enough laborers. For example, in Virginia, the high death rate from disease, food shortages, and battles with Native Americans meant that the population grew slowly. Landowners tried several ways to find the workers they wanted.