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Wyatt's Notes — Qualifications

Periods 1-2 (1491-1754)

Period 1: 1491-1607

Native American Societies Before Contact

Before European contact, the Americas were home to diverse and complex societies with populations estimated between 50 and 100 million. Key regional cultures included:

  • North American Southwest: Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) built adobe dwellings and developed irrigation systems. The Mogollon and Hohokam cultures also thrived in the region.
  • Mississippi Valley: The Mississippian culture built large ceremonial centres at Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis) with mound-building, stratified social hierarchies, and extensive trade networks. Cahokia reached its peak around 1100 CE with a population estimated at 10,000-20,000.
  • Great Plains and Great Basin: Semi-nomadic societies relied on buffalo hunting and seasonal migration. These groups would later adopt horses introduced by the Spanish.
  • Northeast: Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy of five (later six) nations developed a sophisticated political alliance governed by the Great Law of Peace. The Confederacy featured a representative council system and collective decision-making.
  • Pacific Northwest: Societies such as the Chinook and Kwakiutl developed complex economies based on fishing (especially salmon) and potlatch ceremonial exchange systems.
  • Mesoamerica and South America: The Aztec Empire (central Mexico) and Inca Empire (Andes) controlled vast territories with advanced agricultural, architectural, and administrative systems.

European Exploration

Spanish Exploration:

  • 1492: Christopher Columbus, sponsored by Spain, landed in the Bahamas, initiating sustained European contact with the Americas
  • Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire (1519-1521) using military technology, alliances with Aztec enemies, and disease
  • Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire (1532)
  • Spanish established encomienda system: granted Native Americans to Spanish colonists in exchange for labour and Christianisation
  • Bartolome de Las Casas criticised Spanish treatment of Native Americans, leading to the New Laws of 1542 (weakly enforced)

Other European Explorers:

  • Portuguese established trading posts and plantations in Brazil (sugar cultivation)
  • French explored the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes (Jacques Cartier, 1534; Samuel de Champlain, 1608, founded Quebec)
  • English explorers (John Cabot, 1497; Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke colony, 1585-1587, the “Lost Colony”)
  • Dutch established trading networks in present-day New York (New Netherland, 1624)

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World following Columbus’s voyages.

  • From the Americas to Europe/Africa: Maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, cacao, beans, squash, chilli peppers. These crops dramatically increased European populations and agricultural productivity.
  • From Europe/Africa to the Americas: Wheat, sugar, rice, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, smallpox, measles, influenza, malaria, yellow fever. Diseases devastated Native American populations, killing an estimated 90% in some regions within a century of contact.
  • Impact: Disease was the most significant factor in European conquest. The population collapse of Native Americans facilitated European colonisation and disrupted existing societies and trade networks.

Period 2: 1607-1754

British Colonial Development

Chesapeake Colonies (Virginia and Maryland):

  • 1607: Jamestown founded by the Virginia Company, the first permanent English settlement. Early years marked by starvation, disease, and conflict with the Powhatan Confederacy.
  • 1612: John Rolfe introduced tobacco cultivation, which became the colony’s economic foundation
  • 1619: First representative assembly (House of Burgesses); first Africans arrived (likely as indentured servants, not yet chattel slavery)
  • Headright system (50 acres per person whose passage was paid) encouraged immigration
  • 1622 and 1644: Powhatan uprisings against English expansion
  • Maryland founded 1632 as a proprietary colony for Catholics (Toleration Act of 1649)
  • Shift from indentured servitude to chattel slavery by late 1600s (Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676, accelerated the transition as planters sought a more controllable labour force)

New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire):

  • 1620: Pilgrims (Separatists) landed at Plymouth; signed the Mayflower Compact (self-government based on consent)
  • 1630: Puritans (non-separating) founded Massachusetts Bay Colony under John Winthrop (“city upon a hill”)
  • New England society characterised by religious conformity, town meetings, subsistence farming, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade
  • Salem Witch Trials (1692): Reflection of social tensions, religious fervour, and gender dynamics
  • Rhode Island founded by Roger Williams (1636) as a haven for religious dissenters and separation of church and state
  • Connecticut founded by Thomas Hooker (1636); Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) — early written constitution

Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware):

  • New Netherland captured by the English (1664) and renamed New York
  • Pennsylvania founded by William Penn (1681) as a Quaker “Holy Experiment” with religious tolerance and fair treatment of Native Americans
  • Middle colonies characterised by ethnic and religious diversity, fertile farmland, and trade

Southern Colonies (South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia):

  • Carolina (later split into North and South Carolina, 1712) developed a plantation economy based on rice and indigo, with a majority-enslaved population
  • Georgia founded (1732) by James Oglethorpe as a buffer colony and a fresh start for debtors; initially banned slavery (reversed 1751)

Colonial Society and Culture

  • Family structure: New England had large, stable families with low mortality; Chesapeake had high mortality, skewed sex ratios, and family instability
  • Education: New England established public education early (Old Deluder Satan Act, 1647); Harvard founded 1636
  • Religion: First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) led by Jonathan Edwards (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”) and George Whitefield; challenged traditional authority and contributed to democratic ideas
  • Enlightenment ideas: John Locke’s natural rights philosophy, deism, and scientific rationalism influenced colonial intellectual life

Transatlantic Slavery

  • Triangle trade: Rum from New England to Africa, enslaved Africans to the Americas, raw materials (sugar, tobacco, rice) to Europe
  • Middle Passage: The horrific transatlantic voyage; mortality rates of 10-20%
  • By 1750, approximately 250,000 Africans had been brought to British North America
  • Slave codes (Virginia, 1705) codified racial slavery and restricted the rights of enslaved people
  • Stono Rebellion (1739, South Carolina): Largest slave uprising in colonial British America

Mercantilism

The British Navigation Acts (1651, 1660, 1663, 1673) restricted colonial trade to English ships and specified goods (enumerated commodities) that could only be exported to England. These laws aimed to ensure a favourable balance of trade for England but created tension with colonists who desired free trade.

Colonial Conflicts

  • King Philip’s War (1675-1676): Devastating conflict between New England colonists and the Wampanoag and their allies; resulted in significant Native American losses and lasting consequences for New England’s development
  • Bacon’s Rebellion (1676): Frontier settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon rebelled against Governor Berkeley’s administration; exposed class tensions and accelerated the shift from indentured servitude to African slavery
  • French and Indian War beginnings: Ongoing colonial rivalries between Britain and France set the stage for the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763)

Key Terms

Encomienda system, Columbian Exchange, headright system, House of Burgesses, Mayflower Compact, Puritan, Quaker, mercantilism, Navigation Acts, Middle Passage, Great Awakening, Stono Rebellion, Bacon’s Rebellion, King Philip’s War, triangular trade, chattel slavery

Exam Tips

  • Compare colonial regions (Chesapeake vs New England) for similarities and differences
  • Connect the Columbian Exchange to broader themes of demographic and economic change
  • Analyse how interactions between Europeans and Native Americans varied by region
  • Understand how colonial labour systems evolved from indentured servitude to racial slavery
  • Connect the First Great Awakening to later revolutionary ideas about individual liberty