Early British Colonization of America

The Early British Colonization of America

• Mercantilism was a system where a country would benefit by creating colonies that would supply materials and markets for their goods.
• Spain established the first colony in the New World in 1492, while England under QE1 planned to establish a colony in 1585 on Roanoke Island, Virginia.
• Sir Richard Grenville organized the first English venture of 600 settlers in Roanoke Island in 1585, which was abandoned due to tensions with the local tribes.
• Sir Walter Raleigh made a second attempt of British colonization in 1587 in Virginia, but the colonists became known as "The Lost Colony" after they disappeared without a trace.
• English merchants formed a joint-stock company, the Virginia Company of London, which was granted a charter by James I to settle the land between present-day North Carolina and the Potomac River.
• In 1607, English colonists founded Jamestown, which encountered 30 tribes of Native Americans who spoke a common Algonquian language.
• The colony faced various problems, including low, swampy land, unhealthy water, hostile Native Americans, and tensions among settlers over food shortages and work assignments.
• Captain John Smith rose to leadership in 1608, stabilized the colony, and returned to England for medical treatment in 1609.
• "The Starving Time" occurred during the winter of 1609-1610, where only sixty of 500 colonists were still alive due to food shortages and disease.
• The Virginia Company sent more supplies and offered fifty acres of free land in 1610, and introduced indentured servitude in 1618.
• The first slave ship arrived in Virginia in 1619, and by 1644, three hundred African slaves lived in Virginia.
• The House of Burgesses was established in Virginia, where male settlers elected representatives to the colonial government, and John Rolph became a successful tobacco planter who married Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan. However, Native Americans attacked and killed 347 Jamestown settlers in 1622, and King James I cancelled the Virginia Company's charter due to mounting trouble.