The Spanish
The French Huguenots were the first to settle in what is now the United States. They started a settlement on the northeast coast of Florida, but were over run and massacred by the Spanish in 1565 under Pedro Menendez. Spain and Portugal were close rivals. To remove any cause of a quarrel between them over lands which they might find, Pope Alexander VI issued a "bull"(1) in 1493 drawing an imaginary line north and south in the Atlantic ocean. The next year a "demarcation line" was fixed by a treaty between Spain and Portugal 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. All lands discovered to the west of this line were to be Spain's, all east were to be Portugal's. Everybody took it for granted that a heathen nation had no rights of any sort where a Christian people were interested. It was some time before any one contested seriously the claims for Spain and Portugal.
The Spanish established the first fort in the United States, St. Augustine and continued to hold Florida and the Gulf coast as far west as Mobile bay until 1763 when they ceded it to England.
The defeat of the Spanish fleet "150 ships christened the Invincible Armada", by the English in 1588 is a landmark in the history of England and of the United States. Though this did not end warfare between the two countries, it was a blow to Spanish power and prestige from which Spain never recovered. England was now on her way to become the mistress of the seas. England and France, thenceforth, for many years made most of the history of North America.
The French
First among Europeans to become really acquainted with the vast inland lake and river country of North America were the French. Very soon after the first voyages were made across the Atlantic, fishermen from Brittany and Normandy came across the ocean for the catches that could be obtained on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. They made no attempt, however, to explore or to occupy the continent itself.
During the reign of the great French monarch, Henry IV, and attempt to found a New France began in earnest. Under the leadership of De Monts, Port Royal in Nova Scotia was started in 1604. But the great empire-builder for France was Samuel de Champlain. In 1608 he founded Quebec, which for a century and a half was the capital of France in the New World. In 1609 Champlain, accompanied by some Algonquin Indians from Canada, undertook to explore the waters of the lake which is named after him. Near the southern end of the lake, his party got into a fight with some Iroquois Indians and defeated them with the help of this "thunder and lighting"- otherwise gunpowder and shot - which the Iroquois had never seen.
This affair gained for Champlain the support of the Canadian Indians, but thereafter the Iroquois were the unrelenting enemies of the French - and the Iroquois were the ablest and strongest of the North American Indians. So this little battle on the shore of Lake Champlain changed the history of America. If it had not occurred, Champlain might have kept on down the Hudson and to the Atlantic coast, then unoccupied except for a weak little English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
The French went on to explore most of the inland water ways, form the Great Lakes, down the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Controlling the largest portion of North America. In 1699 a settlement was made at Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico and in 1718 New Orleans was founded.
The English
Sir Humphrey Gilbert tried to found a colony in Newfoundland, but on his return(1583) his little ship sank, carrying him down. Then Sir Walter Raleigh undertook the planting of a settlement farther south, in the region which received the name Virginia, in honor of the "Virgin Queen." Settlers came over in 1584, who landed on the coast of what is now North Carolina. Here was born the first white child of English parentage in the New World, as far as we know, Virginia Dare. These colonists disappeared, for England gave so much attention to keeping off the Spanish Armada that no aid was sent to Raleigh's settlers until it was too late.
Attempts were now made to form companies for the purpose of colonizing Virginia. This name was applied to the whole Atlantic seacoast from Nova Scotia to Cape Fear. The promoters of such colonizing enterprises had to get permission from the king. A grant for such a colony was known as a "charter'" or a "patent." Most of the English colonies were established under such charters given by the king to some man or group of men. It was therefore the English people, rather than English monarchs, that were responsible for founding colonies in North America. The government itself did not establish or support them. Yet the character and policies of English monarchs had much to do with the course of events.
Many people were not satisfied with the extent to which the "Reformation" in England had gone. Those who wished greater changes, so as to make the forms and customs of the English church still less like the Catholic, said they wished to "purify" it, and called themselves Puritans.
In 1606, King James I issued a charter to two groups of Englishmen, one called the London Company and the other the Plymouth Company. To them he gave the right to establish colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. The London Company was given the southern part and the Plymouth Company was given the northern part. It was understood that neither company might plant any settlement within a hundred miles of the other's. This charter provided that a council for each company in England should have the power to regulate the government of its colonies and that the colonists should enjoy the same rights as Englishmen in England.
Virginia
In 1607 the London Company sent out a little group, numbering a few over a hundred, in three small vessels. They started a settlement about thirty miles up the James River and called it Jamestown.
In 1619 the London Company instructed Governor Yeardley to give the people of Virginia a voice in the making of their own laws. Two representatives from each town and plantation were chosen to form a House of Burgesses. It was the beginning, even if on a small scale, of self-government in the English colonies. A few years later in 1624, King James recalled the London Company's charter and made Virginia a royal colony. King James got the idea that the members of the London Company were altogether too liberal in their views.
Massachusetts
The Mayflower and the Speedwell, with English settlers who were living in Holland for freedom of worship, obtained permission form the London Company to settle in Virginia. The Speedwell had to turn back, and the captain of the Mayflower took the Pilgrims to the shores of Cape Cod bay. They had no legal right to settle here, but they saw nothing else to do. Later they made arrangements with the successors of the original Plymouth Company, in whose territory they actually were.
The landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth harbor on the wintry day of December 21, 1620, is the beginning of New England. On the very day that the pilgrims first saw the New England coast, they assembled in the cabin of the Mayflower and drew up the famous "Mayflower Compact." in it they agreed to abide by such laws as the majority should think necessary; at the same time they asserted their loyalty to the king of England. They never obtained a charter from the English government. For seventy years their government, in an unusual sense, was their own - a real democracy. In 1691 Plymouth was formally united with the stronger neighbor, Massachusetts and its separate government came to an end.
In 1629 king Charles issued a royal charter to the "Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England." It gave the officers of the company almost independent power over their colony. To make themselves still more secure, they took their charter along with them to the New World. They could set up what was really a miniature republic - and with the king's permission.
In 1630, John Winthrop, one of the major leadres in the Plymouth Company, brought over a large group of settlers. He founded the town of Boston, which at once became one of the most important settlements in the New World. In all, probably 10,000 settlers left England for Massachusetts before the year 1640.
New Hampshire
In 1623 two groups of English settlers, sent by Captain John Mason, arrived in what is now
called New Hampshire (after John Masons home County of Hampshire) and established a fishing
village near the mouth of the Piscataqua River. New Hampshire would remain an English colony
throughout the colonial period even though, at various times, it came under Massachusetts
jurisdiction.
Connecticut
Reports came that there was very good land out in the Valley of the Connecticut River. Under the leadership of John Oldham and William Pyncheon, settlers went down to the fertile regions in the neighborhood of Springfield, Windsor, and Wethersfield (1636). A company from Plymouth and also a few Dutchmen had set up trading posts in the same neighborhood. A short time later, Reverend Thomas Hooker led his whole parish into that region and founded the town of Hartford. In 1638 a company sent from England settled in Saybrook and New Haven.
In 1639 the settlements at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield combined under a constitution of their own which they called the Fundamental Orders. Without any authority except their own needs. They drew up the first written constitution in history formed by a people for their own use.
In 1662 King Charles II gave a charter to the colony of Connecticut which united under its authority all
the Connecticut towns. It was an exceedingly generous document, and allowed the people of the colony
to exercise virtually complete freedom in the election of their own officers.
Rhode Island
Roger Williams founded the town of Providence at the head of the Narragansett Bay in 1636, after having to flee the colony for declaring that the land belong to the Indians and that the colony had no just title to it unless the Indians were paid for it. He also insisted that it was wrong for the authorities to use any compulsion in matters of religion. Everybody, he said, should have full "soul liberty." Nobody should be compelled to support a church against his will, or be required to belong to a church in order to vote.
In this settlement of Providence he started the first Baptist church in America and put into practice his convictions in regard to the separation of "church and state." He set up no religious requirements for voting of office-holding. In this, he was the pioneer among all civilized people. Williams's doctrines on the relations of government and religion are now the established policy of our states and our nation.
In 1644, Roger Williams obtained from the leaders of Parliament in England a charter uniting the
settlements around Narragansett Bay under the name of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. This
charter gave the Rhode Islanders full self-government.
Maryland
Maryland was founded by the Catholics. This happened during the reign of Charles I, when not the Puritans, but all faiths except the Episcopal, or Church of England, were persecuted in England. The first settlement in Maryland (1634), was made on the Potomac River, and was named St. Mary's. Before the colonists settled, they bought the land from the Indian owners, paying for it in axes, cloth, and such trinkets as caught the fancy of the Indians.
With a generosity very unusual for that day, all Christians were permitted to settle in Maryland. The
famous Toleration Act passed by the Maryland Assembly in 1649 was the first occasion in the New
World when such a policy was definitely written down in law. It declared: "No person or persons
whatsoever within this Province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be in any
ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for, on in respect of, his or her religion."
New York
The Dutch claimed all the territory between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers, and called it New Netherland. The settlement on the island now called Manhattan, then named New Amsterdam. This island was purchased from the Indians in 1626 with cloth and trinkets worth $24. One hundred and fifty miles up the river, where Albany now is, they established another important trading post, which they called Fort Orange (1623).
Into this same region came some Swedes. In 1638, a few colonists sent out by the Swedish West India Company started a settlement near the present location of Wilmington, At first the Dutch did not offer any objections, but later, under the famous Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, an expedition was undertaken which overpowered the Swedish settlement (1655). Thus New Sweden came to an end, for the mother country was not able to give any assistance to the colony on the Delaware.
In order to get the land occupied, the Dutch West India Company, which had charge of New Netherland, offered a large estate fronting on the Hudson River to anyone who would bring over to New Netherland a colony of fifty or more persons. Such a man was called a patroon. In this way, the Holland obtained a colony with a population of 1600, although the people were not all Dutch. Indeed, it was said that eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam.
All these Dutch settlements were in territory which England claimed on the ground that Cabot's discovery(2) gave England the title to all North America. Both England and holland were Protestant in religion, but were great rivals in commerce. This rivalry led to war.
The English finally decided to seize the Dutch colony in North America. In 1664 an English fleet sailed
into the harbor of New Amsterdam. Without a shot being fired and not a drop of blood shed, the colony
was turned over to the English. One reason why there was no fight was that the Dutch West India
Company had ruled the people with such an iron hand that they were glad to get out from under that rule.
Governor Peter Stuyvesant stormed and threatened in an effort to induce the people to withstand the
English, but without success. New Amsterdam and New Netherland were renamed the town and
Province of New York, since the king's brother James, then Duke of York, had been given the territory.
New Jersey
The Duke of York gave to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George the region between the Delaware River
and the Hudson River. This was named New Jersey, in honor of Carteret, who had been governor of the
island of Jersey off the coast of England. Carteret's nephew came over with a company of English
settlers and founded the town of Elizabeth (1665). Berkeley (1674) became tired of the responsibility of
governing and sold out the half which was called West Jersey to a party of English Quakers, among
whom William Penn was prominent. A few years later the Quakers bought East Jersey from the heirs of
Carteret. Under them the colony made considerable progress.
Pennsylvania
William Penn suffered persecution, receiving no sympathy for his new religion even from his father, Admiral Penn of the English Navy. William Penn decided that he would undertake the "Holy Experiment" of setting up a "free commonwealth" in the New World, where his own sect and all other denominations could live in freedom and comfort. He proposed that the king give him a grant of land to settle a debt which the king owed to Penn's father. The king was perfectly willing to do so, since it cost him nothing, and named the land Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods, in honor of the Admiral.
William Penn knew how to advertise. He offered to sell land on very generous terms. He attracted settlers from many parts of the continent of Europe, as well as from America. In the fall of 1681 the first settlers from England arrived in the colony. The next year Philadelphia, the "City of Brotherly Love," was started. Pennsylvania prospered from the start. It grew very rapidly, and soon ranked nest to Virginia and Massachusetts in population and importance. Before many years Philadelphia was the most populous town in the colonies.
William Penn worked out a "Frame of Government" as a sort of constitution for his colonists, but told
them they might be governed by "laws of their own choosing." Not even in England did the people have
at that time as much share in their government. This freedom which Penn allowed his settlers was
abused, and mote than once he was greatly worried by reason for the squabbles that arose over the
administration of his province. "Be not so governmentish," he wrote them on one occasion.
Delaware
William Penn showed his high sense of honor and good judgment in his effort to set himself right with
the Indians. Shortly after his arrival, he entered into a treaty of peace with them which has been referred
to as the "only treaty never sworn to and never broken." To give him a direct outlet from his province to
the ocean, Delaware was put under his authority, and remained so until the Revolution, though the two
provinces had separate legislatures.
North and South Carolina
Some time before Philadelphia was founded, a beginning had been made of occupying the region south of Virginia. A few Virginia people settled in the northeastern part of what is now North Carolina in 1653, and ten years later another company came up to Cape Fear from the English island of Barbados. Just at that time (1663), King Charles II gave to several of his favorites the region between Virginia and Florida.
These people, who were known as the Lords proprietors, engaged the English philosopher, John Locke, to draw up a form of government for their colony. One is surprised that a man as intelligent as Locke was about many things should have made such a mess of this project. He wrote out what was known as the "Grand Model." It undertook to set up a feudal system worse than anything that then existed in Europe. The settlers ignored it. The result was that much of the colony, especially in the northern part, was almost without government some of the time. Its people, said one, "paid tribute neither to God nor to Caesar."
In 1670 the town of Charleston was begun. This became in time the most important settlement in the
colonies south of Philadelphia. The South Carolina people discovered that rice grew will there. Just as
slaves were found convenient to use in cultivating tobacco in Virginia, so the slaves were useful in
growing rice. Before long there were more black slaves than whites in South Carolina. In 1729 Carolina
was divided into two colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina. Long before that date, the proprietors
had given up their interest in the colonies, and turned over the control of them to the king.
Georgia
There still remained the stretch of land between the Savannah River and the Spanish settlement in Florida. Here was founded the last of the English colonies on the Atlantic coast - Georgia.
A big-hearted Englishman named James Oglethorpe was deeply affected by the experiences of people who were put into prison for not paying their debts. When they were released, they were in worse condition than before. He thought that in a new colony in America there might be found the chance for beginning over again. So he induced the king to grant to a board of trustees the district which he named after King George I.
In 1733 the first town in the colony was started, and named Savannah. After the actual occupation of Georgia by the English began, the Spaniards tried to drive them out. But Oglethorpe proved that he was a good general as well as a philanthropist, and the Spaniards finally concluded to let Georgia alone.
The poor debtors whom Oglethorpe brought to Georgia proved in most cases a worthless lot. The colony grew slowly. In fact, its only progress for a while was due to the coming in of some Scotchmen and Germans. The trustees to whom the colony had been granted gave it up to the king in 1752.
Foot Notes:
1. A papal "bull" is an edict or proclamation issued by a pope setting forth his judgment of giving instructions with reference to certain subjects.
2. The man who gave the English their claim to North America was John Cabot, an Italian in the service of King Henry VII. In 1497 he sailed from Bristol, England, straight across the Atlantic ocean, and sighted Cape Breton off the coast of Labrador.