U.

S History
Beginnings of Beginnings:
The Race to Colonize
 What is History?
“The past is useless. That explains why it is past.” -Wright Morrisimgres
A Timeline
1492-1754
Discovery,
Settlement,
Expansion
1660-1750
Colonial Society
1754-1776
Move to
Independence
1775-1783
American
Revolution,
Drafting the
Constitution
 Europe, 16th Century
What spurred European exploration?

- Crusades puts England in contact with

luxury goods
- new trade routes
- technological advances (compass &
astrolab)
- “nation states” and a competitive rivalry
- adventurous spirit from the Renaissance
The Age of Exploration
(stop at 2:10)
 Simply Spanish
-first colonization efforts by
Columbus (town of Isabella)
fails
-The English admire Spanish
industry, but horrified by
their treatment of natives
-It’s England’s arrival that we
date the beginnings of
American history
-Richard Hakluyt
 13 “New England” Colonies
Colony Date Founded By Reasons Importance

Plymouth 1620 Pilgrims Religious Freedom Mayflower Compact

Massachusetts Bay ----- 1630 Puritans, Mass Bay Religious Freedom; build a representative gov’t
Plymouth and Company “city on a hill” through election to general
Massachusetts Bay joined court
1691

New Hampshire & Maine 1622 John Mason, Sir Profit from trading and Colonists from Mass. move
Ferdinando Gorges fishing into area; by 1650s under
Mass. control
New Hampshire
Royal Charter from Charles
1679 II

Connecticut 1636 Thomas Hooker Expansion of trade, Fundamental Orders of

religious and political Conn: 1)any man owning
freedoms; limited property can vote, 2)
government limited power of governor
Recieves charter from king;
1662 becomes royal colony

Rhode Island 1636 Roger Williams buys land Religious Toleration Separates church and state,
froom Narraganetts unlike Mass. Bay colony
 American History

• first expeditions to America were unmarked (a secular effort with

no religious dimension)

• Colonists had to rely on England to supply food or grow their own;

hence England decided to send out whole families (Why?)

• the notion of using human unwanteds (criminals, religious

minorities) was accepted by the 1590s as practical

• Virginia Company forms in 1606; founds Jamestown in 1607

But...before that..

Webquest!

Who was Sir Walter

Ralegh [Raliegh]?
A Ghost Story?
John White and the Aid
 So. American History.

...raises 3 fundamental questions:

1. can a nation rise above the injustices of its
origins?
2. can said nation atone for those injustices?
3. have we forged a nation where righteiousness
succeeds over self interest, a city on the hill so to
speak?