Ch.3, Sec.1- The Conquistadores

Cortes and the Aztec

• The leader of the Aztec Empire was Moctezuma II in 1519.

• Hernan Cortes was a conquistador who wanted to conquer the Aztecs.

• Cortes also uses an American Indian woman named Malintzin, also known as Malinche, to be his interpreter. Together, they pinned the enemies of the Aztec against them. Moctezuma II sent gifts of gold and other valuables to keep Cortes away from the capital city, Tenochtitlan, but it only encouraged him more.

• After 3 weeks of fighting and Moctezuma II being killed in battle in November 1519, Cortes had conquered the Aztecs. They also died of several diseases like smallpox.

Pizarro’s Conquest of the Inca

• Pizarro had heard rumors that there was golden cities in South America, so he went to what is now Peru. After several weeks, he reached the Incan Empire.

• Atahualpa was the leader of the Incans, but was not worried about Pizarro because his people had already suffered from smallpox and were involved in a civil war.

• Pizarro kidnaps Atahualpa, so he promises to fill a large room with gold and silver for his release. The Incans filled a room with 24 tons of gold and silver, but Pizarro killed him anyway. Pizarro then conquered the Incan Empire.

Conquistadores in Florida

• Juan Ponce de Leon set out in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth. In 1513, he reached a land he named Florida. He then got into fights with local American Indians. Since he also didn’t find gold or the Fountain of Youth, he decided to go home. He then returned in 1521 and founded a settlement, but was wounded in a battle with Indians. His crew took him to Cuba, where he died.

The Quest for Gold

• Hernando de Soto believed there was a kingdom in Florida as rich as the Incan Empire, so he went in search of it in 1539. He searched through North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. He was the first European to cross the Mississippi River. After not finding any gold by 1542, he decided to return home. He never made it home; he became sick and died at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

• Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed along the coast of present day California searching for gold and a sea route to China. He did not find either one before he died in 1543, but he did give Spain a claim to the Pacific Coast of North America.

Sec.2- Spanish America

• The Council of the Indies was formed in 1524 to govern the Americas from Spain. They wrote laws, selected officials, and judged legal cases.

• From 1503-1660, Spanish treasure fleets carried 200 tons of gold and 18,600 tons of silver to Spain, making Spain very wealthy.

Ruling New Spain

• The Catholic Church played an important role in ruling New Spain. The Royal Orders for New Discoveries was issued, declaring that spreading Christianity was the main reason for founding new settlements and the priests were ordered to teach American Indians about Christianity.

The Economy of New Spain

• The encomienda system was established, giving Spanish settlers the right to tax local American Indians or make them work. In exchange, these settlers were supposed to protect and teach them. They were also expected to convert them to Christianity. However, most treated the Indians like slaves, and many of them died of disease and exhaustion. The Indians also resisted the encomienda system, which led to the importation of African slaves to New Spain in 1501.

Colonial Society

• Spanish law divided society into classes based on birthplace and race.

• The peninsulares were white Spaniards born in Spain. They usually held the highest government offices in Spanish America.

• Criollos were people born in the Americas to Spanish Parents.

• Last were the Mestizos, who had both Spanish and American Indian parents.

Sec.3- Religious and Political Changes in Europe

The Protestant Reformation

• In 1517, Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation. People involved in this were known as Protestants. The printing press also played a major role in starting and spreading the Protestant Reformation. The reformation also led to violence, with French Catholics fighting French Protestants, known as Huguenots.

• In 1534, King Henry VIII founded the Church of England, or Anglican Church and made himself the head of it.

Conflict Between Spain and England

• King Phillip II of Spain sent troops to the Netherlands and tries to drive the Protestants out of England. Queen Elizabeth I of England, a Protestant, wanted peace between the Catholics and Protestants. To avoid war she used sea dogs, that were English sailors whom she encouraged to raid Spanish treasure ships. When asked about this, she pretended the government had nothing to do with it.

• The most successful sea dog was Sir Francis Drake. His crew was the first English people to sail around the world.

The Spanish Armada

• King Philip gathered a huge fleet called the Spanish Armada of about 130 ships and 27,000 sailors to invade England, hoping to overthrow the Anglican Church and Queen Elizabeth. However, they are not going to be successful.

The Decline of the Spanish Empire

• Large amounts of gold and silver taken from the Americas led to inflation in Spain. Spainsh people then began to buy cheaper goods from other countries, further hurting their economy.

Sec.4- The Race for Empires

The Expansion of the French Empire

• In 1642, Montreal became the center of the fur trade for the French.

• In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette wanted to explore the Mississippi River. They sailed to present day Arkansas, but turned around to avoid the Spanish. Nine years later, Rene Robert de la Salle followed the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the Mississippi Valley for King Louis XIV of France. To honor the king, he named the region Louisiana. The North American territory was called New France.

New Netherland and New Sweden

• When Henry Hudson gave the Dutch a claim to the land between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers, they called that area New Netherland. This area included parts of what is now New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware.

• Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from local American Indians. There he founded the town of New Amsterdam.

English Settlements

• In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert received a patent to start a new English colony. He failed, and he drowned at sea in 1583. After that Sir Walter Raleigh landed in present day Virginia and North Carolina. He named the area Virginia. In 1585 he founded a colony on Roanoke Island. The settlers there had a hard time growing food and were fighting with Indians so Sir Francis Drake took them back to England.

• John White resettled on the colony in 1587, and his granddaughter, Virginia Dare, was the first English born citizen in the U.S. White left to return to England in the summer of 1587, and returned to Roanoke in 1590. All the people were gone and carved into a post was the word Croatoan.

Ch.4,Sec.1- The Virginia Colony

Settlement in Jamestown

• On April 26, 1607, 3 ships arrived with 105 male colonists in Virginia. There, the colonists founded their first settlement, named Jamestown after the English king. These men were not prepared to start a settlement, and just wanted to get rich quick and return to England. It also was in the middle of a swamp filled with disease-carrying mosquitoes. The water was also too salty to drink. By the time winter had arrived, two-thirds of them had died. John Smith helped improve the colony after he took it over in 1608.

The Powhatan Confederacy

• The Powhatan Confederacy, led by Wahunsoncock, brought food to the colonists and taught them how to grow corn. The colonists still at times would take food from them by force. In 1609, 400 more settlers arrived, but John Smith had to return to England due to an injury. Because of this, by the spring 1610, only 60 colonists were still alive.

• In 1612, John Rolfe introduced a sweet tasting tobacco that made a lot of money for them. Plus, individual colonists could now own their own land, which attracted new settlers and helped it survive.

War in Virginia

• John Rolfe married Pocahontas, Wahunsonacock’s daughter, in 1614. This made for peaceful relations for a while with the Powhatan. However, Pocahontas died in 1617 while visiting England with Rolfe, and Wahunsonacock died the next year. After this, the colonists no longer wanted to ally with the Powhatan. In 1622, colonists killed a Powhatan leader, so they responded by killing 350 men, women, and children, including John Rolfe. Survivors burned Indian villages, and fighting went on for the next 20 years.

Daily Life in Virginia

• Under the headright system, colonists who paid their own way to Virginia received 50 acres of land. They would also receive an additional 50 acres for every person they brought with them. They tried to persuade women to come to the colony, but men still outnumbered women 7 to 1.

Labor in Virginia

• Colonists called indentured servants signed a contract to work from 4 to 7 years for those who paid their ship fare to America. Disease killed many of them before their term had ended.

Bacon’s Rebellion

• In 1676, a group of former indentured servants led by Nathaniel Bacon attacked some peaceful American Indians. When the governor tried to stop Bacon, he and his followers burned Jamestown. This was known as Bacon’s Rebellion. After Bacon died of fever, the rebellion ended and the remaining 23 rebels were hanged. As a result of this rebellion, it became very hard to make peace with the Indians and more people began to turn to slaves rather than indentured servants.

Sec.2- The Pilgrim’s Experience

Puritans and Pilgrims

• The Puritans thought bishops and priests had too much power over church members and believed the bible was the most reliable source of authority. An extreme group of Puritans called Separatists formed their own church and cut all ties with the Church of England. They were then punished. One of these groups was the Pilgrims. They left England and went to the Netherlands, but the Pilgrims were afraid their children were learning the Dutch language and culture. They then returned to England and asked permission to settle in Virginia.

The Founding of Plymouth

• On September 16, 1620, a ship called the Mayflower left England with more than 100 men, women, and children. When the Pilgrims spotted land they realized they were outside of the boundaries of their English Charter.

• On November 21, 1620, 41 male passengers on the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact, which established the rules by which the Pilgrims would govern themselves. In late 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in present-day Massachusetts.

Pilgrims and American Indians

• Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to fertilize the soil with fish remains. He also helped them establish relations with Massasoit, the chief of the local Wampanoag Indians. The Pilgrims invited Chief Massasoit and 90 other Wampanoag guests to celebrate their harvest. This feast, held to thank God, became known as the first Thanksgiving. They ate wild turkeys and the feast lasted about 3 days.

Sec.3- The New England Colonies

• Between 1630 and 1640 tens of thousands of English men, women, and children left England. These Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Unlike Jamestown, they had a healthy climate, which led to fewer deaths.

Church and State in New England

• In 1636, Thomas Hooker founded Connecticut. In 1639, Hooker helped draft the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, resulting in him being called the father of American democracy.

Daily Life and Customs

• Puritans believed women had 3 main duties to fulfill in marriage: obey their husbands, have children, and run the household. Husbands were expected to treat their wives with the greatest love, gentleness, kindness, and tenderness. Education was also important because they wanted to be able to read the bible. In 1636, John Harvard founded Harvard College where they taught ministers.

Dissent in Massachusetts

• Roger Williams did not agree with the leadership of Massachusetts. Therefore, he started his own settlement called Providence. This later became Rhode Island.

The Salem Witch Trials

• A group of girls accused people of casting spells on them. The girls would scream and faint during the trial when a “witch” would enter the room, and they were pressured to confess to witchcraft. During this 19 people were put to death. A year later, they regretted their actions. Judge Samuel Sewall was one of the first to apologize for the wrong he had done.

Sec.4- The Southern and Middle Colonies

Tolerant Maryland

• Catholics came to America for the same reason as Protestants: escape religious persecution. In 1632, Cecilius Calvert, also known as Lord Baltimore, started a colony for English Catholics. He named it Maryland in honor of England’s queen Henrietta Maria. At first they focused on surviving, but before long they to were mainly just wanting to get rich. As Protestants began coming to the colony, religious conflicts came about. Therefore, Lord Baltimore presented a bill, Toleration Act of 1649, that made restricting the religious rights of Christians a crime.

The Carolinas

• South Carolina became one of the first colonies to depend mainly on slave labor. By 1730, there were twice as many slaves as white settlers in South Carolina, making it the only mainland colony with a higher population of slaves than whites.

Diversity in New York and New Jersey

• New Amsterdam was the center of the fur trade in New Netherland. In 1664, the English took New Netherland without a single shot being fired. It was then renamed New York.

The Pennsylvania Experiment

• The Quakers were founded by George Fox and supported nonviolence and religious tolerance for all people. They were persecuted in England and America, so Penn started his own colony for Quakers called Pennsylvania. He then named the capital Philadelphia, or City of Brotherly Love.

The Ideal of Georgia

• James Oglethorpe and other trustees founded the colony of Georgia, which they named after King George, and the city of Savannah. It was a colony for poor English citizens, some who were in jail for unpaid debts. Oglethorpe outlawed slavery and limited the size of land grants hoping to draw small farmers. He also gave poor colonists cattle, food, and land until they could provide their own. The settlers grew unhappy though, because they wanted slaves and larger farms. In 1752, Georgia became a royal colony with large farms and thousands of slaves.