Europeans Compete in North America
Spain was getting rich and powerful off of their new colonies and resources in the
Americas. This cause jealously and other European countries to scramble for land in the
New World. Religious wars also help to fuel exploration and expansion.
The Reformation
In Europe there was a Protestant Reformation where a man names Martin Luther
demanded that the Catholic Church reform its practices of exploitation. The Catholic
Church had been controlling the empires of Europe, behind the scenes, for centuries and
it was not willing to give up its power. This led to Luther, and other protesters, creating
new protestant churches. This plunged Europe, into a long series of wars, between the
Catholics and Protestants.
As the appeal of the reformation increased throughout Europe, economic tensions
increased as well. Rulers in Sweden, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Scotland, and the
Netherlands all split from the Catholic Church.
Protestants in England found a backer in King Henry VIII. He was married to Lady
Catherine of Aragon, daughter of King Ferdinand and Isabella. Lady Catherine had failed
to produce a male heir, which was a problem because there would be no smooth
transition of the throne after Henry’s death. Because of this Henry wanted to remarry.
Under Catholic law divorce was not permitted. Henry asked the Pope to annul this
marriage, something that had happened in the past with other rulers. The Pope declined
and refused. This caused Henry to split from the Catholic Church in 1533 and set up a
National Protestant church, which he named the Church of England.
Religious tensions created by the reformation led to wars amongst the European Nations.
Because alliances shifted so often, European countries found that they could not depend
on other countries for their security.
Spain was unwilling to depend on other countries for trade so they supported Columbus’s
voyage to discover new trade routes. This became a very common practice and ensured
security for the nations.
All of the European Nations were looking for gold. This gold was to pay for the war
debts and strengthen their armies. In Spain, one fifth of all of the gold or money made or
found went directly to the king.
This type of tribute or taxation was called Mercantilism.
Mercantilism held that colonies existed to make the home country wealthy and
powerful.
The Spanish Armada
In 1558 Mary the 1st, queen of England, died. She was a Catholic. Mary was replaced by
Elizabeth I, who was a protestant. This led to problems on the European stage. The
Spanish King, Phillip II wanted to make England a Catholic nation again. This idea, was
placed into his head by the Catholic Pope. Also there were some issues between the two
countries because of stuff that was happening on the open seas. English ships had benn
raiding Spanish ships, stealing their gold.
In 1588 King Phillip sent 130 warships to England, which was known as the Spanish
Armada.
On May 19, the Invincible Armada set sail from Lisbon on a mission to secure control of
the English Channel and transport a Spanish army to the British isle from Flanders. The
fleet was under the command of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and consisted of 130 ships
carrying 2,500 guns, 8,000 seamen, and almost 20,000 soldiers. The Spanish ships were
slower and less well armed than their English counterparts, but they planned to force
boarding actions if the English offered battle, and the superior Spanish infantry would
undoubtedly prevail. Delayed by storms that temporarily forced it back to Spain, the
Armada did not reach the southern coast of England until July 19. By that time, the
British were ready.
On July 21, the English navy began bombarding the seven-mile-long line of Spanish
ships from a safe distance, taking full advantage of their long-range heavy guns. The
Spanish Armada continued to advance during the next few days, but its ranks were
thinned by the English assault. On July 27, the Armada anchored in exposed position off
Calais, France, and the Spanish army prepared to embark from Flanders. Without control
of the Channel, however, their passage to England would be impossible.
Just after midnight on July 29, the English sent eight burning ships into the crowded
harbor at Calais. The panicked Spanish ships were forced to cut their anchors and sail out
to sea to avoid catching fire. The disorganized fleet, completely out of formation, was
attacked by the English off Gravelines at dawn. In a decisive battle, the superior English
guns won the day, and the devastated Armada was forced to retreat north to Scotland.
The English navy pursued the Spanish as far as Scotland and then turned back for want of
supplies.
Battered by storms and suffering from a dire lack of supplies, the Armada sailed on a
hard journey back to Spain around Scotland and Ireland. Some of the damaged ships
foundered in the sea while others were driven onto the coast of Ireland and wrecked. By
the time the last of the surviving fleet reached Spain in October, half of the original
Armada was lost and some 15,000 men had perished.
Queen Elizabeth’s decisive defeat of the Invincible Armada made England a world-class
power and introduced effective long-range weapons into naval warfare for the first time,
ending the era of boarding and close-quarter fighting.
These ships faced off against English ships which were smaller and faster. This led
to their defeat off the French coast. Not even half of the Spanish ships returned
home and the defeat was regarded as a huge religious and military victory. This
shifted the power in Europe. Spain once was the dominant power on the seas and
now they had lost half of their navy. This allowed countries like France and
England to seek out new colonies for themselves. Leading them to search for lands
in the Americas.
New Voyages
Columbus started a movement and desire to sail west. An Italian explorer named John
Cabot decided that if he sailed on a more Northern course, it would be shorter and faster.
The Northern Voyages
England was interested in Cabot’s ideas. They funded him and he left England with 1
ship in 1497. He crossed and explored the North Atlantic around the area of
Newfoundland. Cabot set out on a second trip in 1497 and ended up exploring the North
American coast maybe as far south as the Chesapeake Bay. We say Maybe because his
ships disappeared without a trace. Cabot’s voyages made Europe realize that the land
that they were exploring was not Asia but a whole different body of land. This led to
France and Holland funding their own expeditions in search of new lands for colonies.
These explorations were focusing on what is called the Northwest Passage.
The Northwest Passage was a sea route which was sought after where a route was
discovered which allowed passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific that passed
through or around North America.
An English explorer named Henry Hudson made four voyages in search of the
Northwest Passage. He explored the Arctic Ocean but did not find anything of real value
or interest. The English gave up on him but he was then financed by the Dutch. On his
third voyage Hudson reached was is now New York and explored up the river there.
That river still bears his name today. The English sponsored a 4th voyage, which he
reached the Hudson Bay. He had to stop due to frozen waters and they had to spend the
winter in a very cold harsh environment. This upset his men and they mutinied. They
took Hudson and six others and set them adrift on a small boat. They were never heard
from again.
These voyages changed the way that the European rulers looked at North America. They
started forgetting about the gold and realized that the land was full of other resources that
could be just as lucrative like timber.
France and the Netherlands in North America
European countries began to compete for land and trade routes to North America in the
1600’s. England, France, and the Netherlands sent explorers to stake their claims.
New France
The French began to settle colonies in North America in the early 1600s. in 1603 Samuel
de Champlain made the first of 11 voyages to explore and map the lands along the St.
Lawrence River. In 1608 he established a city, along the St. Lawrence, which he named
Quebec. He then ventured east, in 1609, and explored the large lake in present day
Vermont and New York which bears his name. His exploration and activities gave the
French an influence in the region, which lasted for 150 years.
The French colony was named New France. This colony was much different from New
Spain. In New Spain they wanted gold, silver, and other precious minerals. The French
found that they could earn more money from fishing and animal furs, mainly beaver. The
Spanish enslaved the Native Americans and forced them to work. The French traded
with the Natives and learned a lot about trapping and hunting. Beaver fur was highly
sought after in Europe and the French trappers worked along side the Natives to trap and
skin the animals. This relationship was started during the first days of Champlain’s
colony. He set up a trading post and encouraged the natives to bring animal pelts in.
This established a working relationship with the natives and allowed Quebec and
Montreal to become busy centers of commerce.
The fur trade created a new breed of men in the Americas. Many trappers became very
wealthy working for the fur companies. They spent large amounts of time alone, or in
small groups, traveling deep into the wilderness to find and acquire pelts from the Native
Americans. Many of these men ended up marrying Indian women and starting families.
Many times these marriages were for trade deals which established relationships with
local tribes.
In the later part of the 1600s the French colonists began to farm on a larger scale. One of
the main reasons for this was that the fur trade industry was on a decline. Also the Indian
Wars had disrupted the fur trade even more. King Louis XIV sent 3,000 new settlers,
including many single women, to New France. When these new settlers arrived the
population began to expand which would have required more food to feed the people.
New France reached a population of about 5,000 colonists by 1672.
Exploring the Mississippi
Economic and religious motives led to the establishment of New France. This also led to
its expansion. In 1670 the population had reached 5,000 so people began to set out to
look for new areas to settle and thrive. Jacques Marquette, and French missionary, had
founded two missionaries along the Great Lakes, in what is present day Michigan. The
fur industry had been so lucrative that the trappers had been so successful that the beaver
population was greatly diminished. Almost to the point of extinction in some areas. This
led to further exploration.
In 1673, Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, a fur trader, decided to paddle their canoe
along the shores of Lake Michigan to what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. From there
they made their way west until they reached the Mississippi River. They then traveled
downstream believing that it could be the long sought after Northwest Passage. They
arrived at the Mississippi River junction with the Arkansas River. They were convinced
that if they continued along the same route they would eventually arrive in the Gulf of
Mexico so they decided to return home. They did not find the Northwest Passage but
they did however discover and map a river route into the heart of North America. Later
exploration of this route was completed by Rene’ Robert Cavelier in 1682. He reached
the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France. He named this
region Louisiana, in honor of King Louis XIV.
New Netherland
The Dutch had land claims in North America because of the exploration done by Henry
Hudson. They had funded his trip so he claimed the area that he discovered for them,
which was all of the Hudson River area. In 1610 Dutch traders arrived in that area and
immediately began to trade with the Native Americans. This trading was so profitable
that the Dutch West India Company decided to establish a permanent colony in that
area which came to be known as New Netherland.
A few years later, in 1642, about 300 settlers arrived and settled at Fort Orange which
was a fur trading post. Fort Orange was later renamed Albany.
In 1626 another group of settlers arrived. They decided to settle at the mouth of the
Hudson River, on an island, establishing a new colony. The Governor of this colony,
named Peter Minuit, purchased the island from the local Native Americans. These
colonists named their new home New Amsterdam. This colony grew quickly and by
1653 it had a population of about 800 people. This area was seized by the English in
1664 and it was renamed after the King of England’s brother, the Duke of York. It was
called New York.
Impact on Native Americans
The Natives provided animal pelts for both the Dutch and French. In exchange the
Europeans gave them manufactured goods like cloth, iron pots and tools, and guns.
This relationship had a grave effect on the Native Americans. The guns were used by the
Indians to attack each other. This led to the Indian Wars between the Iroquois and
Hurons. The animal trapping led to a shortage of food and the absence of animals in the
food chain. Also the Indians were ravaged by disease. When the fur trade began to
diminish the Native American’s value to the colonists began to decrease. However, the
Native Americans did have something even more valuable then the furs, that the colonists
wanted, their land.
First English Settlements
The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony was an attempt to establish
a permanent English settlement in North America. It lasted from 1587 to 15
90?
The expedition was funded by a private citizen, Sir Walter Raleigh. He provided the
funds as an investment thinking that a colony in America would lead to riches and a
base, which would allow privateers, pirates, to raid Spanish ships.
The colony was made up of 115 men and women. Their leader was a man named
John White. White was eventually appointed Governor.
They built shelter and set up workshops and a garrison. They found it very hard to
feed themselves and relied upon the natives, in the area, for food. At first this
worked, but the Indians soon became annoyed and had little food to trade the
colonists. When the colonists started hunting game on native land the Native
Americans became aggressive and violent.
Desperate for supplies the colonists pleaded for John White to return the England to
tell of their desperate situation and ask for aid. White vowed to return within 6
months. When White reached England he was informed that he could not return to
the colony because England was at war with Spain and every ship was needed to
find against the Spanish armada. White did not return to the colony until 3 years
later.
When he arrived he found no sign of the settlers. Before he left he had instructed
the colonists to carve a maltese cross in a nearby tree if they had been forced to
move by violent means. White looked for the cross but found none. Instead, White
found a single word carved onto a tree, CROATOAN. This was the name of an island
near by which had natives living on it which had traded with the colonists. Upon
further examination of the site, it was found that the buildings and fortifications had
been dismantled not torn down. This meant that their departure had not been
hurried. Also, there was no sign of a battle. This led White to believe that the
colonists had traveled to Croatoan island to live with the Indians.
There was a bad storm forming and White’s men refused to go any further and
investigate. They left the next day, with no true answer to what had happened and
where the settlers had gone.