Exploring the History of Early European Colonies in America

Study Notes

Overview of the Early European Colonies

The colonial territories of France, Britain, and Spain in North America are shaded on the map, and the colonial territories of Spain and Portugal in South America are shaded on a separate map.
The Spanish colonies were the first and most dominant European power in South America, and they collected and exported wealth by conquering and enslaving native people, with profitable gold and silver mines. They also attempted to convert the natives to Catholicism.
The Portuguese colonies in East Brazil imported enslaved Africans and forced them to grow cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and coffee, while racial mixing was common.
The French colonies focused on fur trading, and some settlers intermarried with native women, leading to fewer settlers and a less significant impact on the natives than the Spanish or English. The Jesuits attempted to convert the natives to Catholicism.
The Dutch built a trading empire in the New World but were more successful in the Eastern spice trade.
The Spanish colonies used the encomienda system, granting large landholders the "right" to native labor if they converted the natives to Christianity and provided protection. The Spanish colonies also developed a caste system based on place of birth and blood.
The Spanish colonies used the viceroyalty system to oversee their territories in the Americas, with four viceroyalties: New Spain, Peru, Rio de la Plata, and New Granada.
Juan de Oñate established the colony of New Mexico for Spain, seeking mythical riches of gold but never finding them. Bartolomé de las Casas was a Dominican friar who stood up for the natives against the mistreatment at the hands of the Spanish.
The English colonies are divided into regions on the map, including New England, the Chesapeake (Virginia and Maryland), the middle colonies, and the South and West Indies.
The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco, while the colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies based on exporting staple crops like rice and indigo, depending on the labor of enslaved Africans.
The New England colonies developed around small towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce, while the inhabitants tended to be homogenous - all practicing the same religion and from England.
Individual colonies are described by their date of settlement, region, government, important features, and key people, such as Virginia's House of Burgesses, New York's Peter Stuyvesant, Maryland's Act of Toleration, Rhode Island's Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, Connecticut's Fundamental Orders, and Pennsylvania's Quakers.