This chapter emphasizes the European settlement of North America. The Spanish, French, and English established settlements that would later be sections of the United States. French and Spanish settlers mixed with the Indian population when building communities more than the British did. Differences in economies, ideological outlooks, and events in England also accounted for differences between the British colonies in the Chesapeake, New England, and the South. The colonists of New England built the most vital communities. Various self-government systems were set up but they were not democratic. Conflicting views in England as well as rivalry with France brought an attempt at tighter centralization of control under royal authority. Native Americans tried to use differences and rivalries to keep their cultures intact and limit their rivals. A series of wars weakened Indian control east of the Appalachians.
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
- List the European colonies established in North America and compare them in terms of community structure.
- Compare the English colonies to each other in terms of location, reasons for establishment, economy, governmental structure, and ideology.
- Explain the various conflicts between European countries represented in North America, between Indians and Europeans, between English colonies and the government at home.
- Outline the impact on the Indians of the different European plantings of colonies in North America.
- Explain how various English conflicts over religion from Henry VIII to William and Mary partly affected the settlement of North America.
