1583 - First attempt of British colonization failed at Newfoundland
1585 - Sir Walter Raleigh/Settlers landed on North Carolina's Roanoke Island - Vanished!
1588 - Defeat of the Spanish Armada by England
Early 1600's - Factors which led to English colonization:
1. Population increase
2. Economic depression
3. Primogeniture
4. Joint Stock Company
5. Religious Persecution
6. Peace with Spain
1604 - Treaty of Peace between England and Spain
1607 - Seeking gold, conversion of the Indians, and a passage to the Indies, the Virginia Company received charter from King James I to settle in the New World
- Charter guaranteed to the overseas settlers the rights of Englishmen (Foundation Stone of American Liberties)
- Jamestown settled on banks on the James River
Virginia Colony - saved from collapse by:
John Smith - Work=Food
John Rolfe - Perfected raising tobacco
- Tyranny of "King Nicotine"
1619 - Dutch warship sold 20 Black Africans to Jamestown
- House of Burgesses ( Rep. Assembly ) organized
1634 - Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore as a proprietary colony and as a refuge for persecute Catholics
- Developed tobacco economy based on white indentured servants
1649 - Maryland Act of Toleration: Guaranteed religious toleration to all Christians
1660 - Charles II restored to the English throne after Cromwell's 10 year rule
1670 - 8 lord proprietors create the Carolinas which prospered by developing close economic ties with the British west Indies
- Early Exports Included Indian slaves and rice
- Rice cultivation led to import of Africans slaves who were immune to malaria (but susceptible to sickle anemia)
- Charles Town became busiest seaport in the south which a rich aristocratic flavor
1712 - Poor and religious dissenters from Virginia became "Squatters "in the North Carolina where they developed a strong spirit of resistance to authority and aristocracy
- North Carolina was officially separated from South Carolina
1733 - Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe as a haven for debtors ( "The Charity Colony" ) and as a buffer against the Spanish in Florida and the French in Louisiana
- Savannah attracted missionaries like John Wesley who later founded the Methodist Church in England
* Common characteristics of the southern colonies:
1. Dominated by a plantation economy
2. Profitable staple crops like tobacco and rice
3. Slavery
4. Large acreage in the hands of a favored few
5. Established of churches and schools difficult
6. Some religious toleration
7. Tax-supported church of England dominant
8. " Soil Butchery" led to expansion westward