Unit 2The Colonial Era

(1620-1763)

*Mercantilism*

Mercantilism—practice of creating and maintaining wealth by carefully controlling trade, as in countries using colonies for financial resources

Salutary NeglectSalutary neglect—the unoffical British policy in the 17th and 18th centuries of loosely enforcing laws in the colonies. England passed laws that restricted colonial trade (Navigation Acts). These laws required colonial goods go to England first, or pay taxes on the cargo, or only be sent on British ships.

Why? LOYALTY! The British did not want to upset the colonists especially with war with France just around the corner.

The Triangular TradeA pattern of colonial trade in which slaves were bought in Africa with New England rum and then traded in the West Indies for sugar or molasses, which was brought back to New England to be manufactured into rum. Slaves were exchanged on one leg of the triangular trade in a journey known as the Middle Passage

The Thirteen ColoniesWe group the 13 Colonies into three groups: New England, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies.The inhabitants of each region lived very different lives.Proprietary Colony=given to a single person or group by the British crown with permission to govern the colony. Carolana (NC and SC began under the Lord Proprietors then became a Royal ColonyRoyal Colony=run by the king and officials appointed by the king

New England Colonies

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Connecticut

Rhode Island

New England ColoniesOriginally settled by Puritan Separatists at Plymouth (Pilgrims!).

Eventually another Puritan group settled Massachusetts Bay Colony, with its first major city at Boston.

Connecticut was settled (1636) by men looking for more religious freedom than was allowed in Massachusetts.

Rhode Island (1636) founded by Roger Williams; he was also looking for religious freedom (sense a theme?)

New Hampshire (1691) was settled by farmers.

$$$ Economically $$$• Limited by rough land• fishing & whaling• furs• lumber• shipping and trading with England (Boston)

Middle Colonies

New York

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Delaware

Middle ColoniesNew York was taken over from the Dutch in 1674.

New Jersey was also taken from the Dutch. It served as a proprietary colony and later a royal colony.

The biggest proprietary colony was Pennsylvania. Its land was given to William Penn by King Charles II in 1681. Penn was a Quaker.

Delaware was once part of Pennsylvania, but it eventually independently governed itself.

$$$ Economically $$$• Land was better than New England• Economy was mix of agriculture (wheat) and trade. • Trade flourished in port cities like New York and Philadelphia

Southern ColoniesMaryland

Virginia

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Southern Colonies

Virginia started with the Lost Colony and eventually Jamestown in 1607. Virginia relied heavily on the cash crop tobacco, and developed a social structure that included large plantation owners at the top with owners of smaller farms, servants and slaves below.

Maryland was given to the family of Lord Baltimore in 1632. Baltimore was a Catholic and saw the New World as a place to escape religious persecution.

Southern ColoniesCarolina was founded in 1629 as a single proprietary colony. It eventually split in to the colonies of NC and SC (much wealthier).

South Carolina cultivated the cash crops rice and indigo (used for dyes). Its biggest city, Charleston, became a thriving trade city and the only city that could rival the great trade centers of the north.

Georgia was a proprietary colony. Its creator, James Oglethorpe, wanted a colony where the poor of England could get a new start.

The colony failed and was eventually turned over to the crown as a royal colony.

Southern Colonies$$$ Economically $$$• Long growing seasons and fertile soil along Atlantic Coastal plain: Agricultural economy• Cash crops such as indigo, cotton, rice, tobacco grown.• Lack of large cities like the north.• Largest farms called plantations• Slave labor used to harvest cash crops.

The French

and Indian War

• Part of a larger global war known as the Seven Years’ War• Pitted France, French colonists, and their Native American Allies against Britain, the colonists, and their Native American Allies• The two sides fought for control over their possessions in North America; especially controlling the St. Lawrence River, the Ohio, and the Great Lakes.

1754-1763

The French and Indian War (cont.)The British lost several battles early in the conflict, most notably in the Ohio Country (in and around modern day Pittsburgh).

George Washington served for the British during those defeats as a lieutenant colonel.

The British would eventually gain the upper hand in the war in the final years of the 1750s.

France allied itself with Spain, but it wasn’t enough. Britain would get its victory, but it would come at a cost …

Results

1. The Treaty of Paris (1763) expands the British empire, gaining all of New France and Florida

2. The huge cost of the war leads to British government attempting to impose taxes on the colonies

In review …• Mercantilism guided the relationship between the Britain and her

colonies.• Salutary neglect allowed the colonies to develop with less influence

from Britain. It also allowed the colonists to ignore British laws.• The triangular trade was a series of trade routes between regions.

The regions would trade goods they had in abundance for goods they needed. The middle passage was the leg of the trade in which slaves were brought to the Americas from Africa.

• The 13 Colonies are grouped into three regions: New England, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies. These regions were very different and colonies within each region differed from each other.

• Great Britain won the French and Indian War, but it was costly. Britain attempted to tax its colonists to pay for the war.