TB+Chapter+2+Notes

// Chapter 2 Notes  // In the 1500’s England had no hopes of matching Spain’s ever-growing territories. It had focused it attention on gaining power and influence for the English monarch which was King Henry VIII’s push for the English Protestant Reformation. It was also making a strong effort to holds its homelands together as Ireland was predominately Catholic and turned for Spain for help but it never came. The English hired pirates or privateers who preyed on Spanish treasure ships. The British attempted to build a colony on the coast of Newfoundland but was destroyed by natives. They tried again on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. Spain saw these attempts as an attack on their New World monopoly and the English Reformation as an attack on Catholicism. Philip II of Spain put together a huge “Armada” of heavy Spanish galleons, in hopes of conquering England and ending the Protestant reforms there. In the 1500’s many small tenant farmers were forced off their land because they were unable to pay rents. A joint stock company, the Virginia Company of London received its charter and order from James I to start the settlement in the New World. They built a small colony named Jamestown. The settlers were of poor health, hungry, and ill prepared. De La Warr arrived in 1610 and refused to let any colonists leave so the diseases continued to decimate the colony’s population. The First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1614 ended De La Warrs’ raids on native villages. Eight years later, the Second Anglo-Powhatan War ended in total defeat for the natives who were forced off their lands and were separated native lands from European lands. Powhatan were mostly killed by European diseases, were not functioning as a well organized army like white settlers, and were no longer needed by settlers once they knew how to grow their own crops. European epidemics destroyed cultures as it killed the wisest village elders. Many tribes were all but destroyed so many tribes were forced to merge. Virginia’s biggest and most profitable crop was tobacco which was planted all over Jamestown. Tobacco needs a large crop rotation system and lots of cheap labor. In 1619, a Dutch ship appeared off the coast of Jamestown and 20 slaves were sold there. In 1619, the London Company allowed the House of Burgesses which caused the king to revoke the charter and bankrupt the company. It was put under direct control of the English king. Lord Baltimore wanted Maryland to look more like pre-Reformation England, where Catholic landlords held huge tracks of lands. However, it was opened itself to all Christians but did not welcome Jews or Atheists.