Colonial Trade

A term of historic significance, both to the old world and the new, was the term Columbian exchange with its tie to the 1492 voyage of exploration of Columbus. The era of empire and settlement leading to the important exchange of goods flowing east brought a wealth of raw materials and goods. A host of new plants were introduced, including corn, tobacco, sugar cane, and potatoes. These crops, plus the introduction of codfish, had potential to increase food supply. Flowing west across the ocean were newly introduced domestic animals (Lustig, 2019). Making their way as well was a host of communicable diseases such as smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and others. The calculated loss of population in New World cultures has been estimated at up to 90% (“Genocide of Indigenous Peoples,” n.d.).

An 1878 depiction of tobacco cultivation at Jamestown, ca. 1615.

While population overall was relatively stable in Europe, urban populations grew considerably. London’s population increased from 674,000 in 1700 to 860,000 in 1800[Couldn’t find source for this]. This increase required development in trade, manufacturing, and agriculture. The economic growth led to expansion in colonization to the new world.

The London Company received a charter from King James 1 and subsequently established a foothold on the North American shores naming it in honor of their monarch, Jamestown, in 1609. It was abandoned briefly in 1610. The colony initially struggled, but its establishment was stabilized when improved strains of tobacco were developed and cultivated, by 1619 providing a good cash crop. It was abandoned again in 1699. Continued charters by England and other countries established beachheads of settlement and developing colonization throughout the New World (McCusker & Menard, 1998).

Merchants and traders brought a steady flow of new goods for a growing consumer economy, with an increased standard of living in the 18th century. Beside food goods, furniture, clocks, toys, china, soap, glassware, cotton cloth, clothing, and shoes were all in great demand. Purchases of prepared foods and ready-made clothing were a sign of growing prosperity. A demand for new products and changing fashions were indicative of a growing trend of expendable wealth. New manufacturing techniques, the growth of trade guilds, and improved transportation from distant markets facilitated the economic growth and improved standard of living, particularly in England and France (McCusker & Menard, 1998).

Colonial Settlements

Resource extraction, trade, and economic growth were important reasons for the colonial development and expansion. People left the lands of their birth and set out for new homes, new opportunities, and fortunes in the New World. European explorers from Christopher Columbus onward steadily marked out new territories for those who occupied the thrones at home, for those who sought a better life, for those who went as indentured servants, and for those seeking opportunity to worship in freedom according to their conscience (McCusker & Menard, 1998).

British Settlements

The Massachusetts Bay Colony, established by English Puritans in 1629 and centered in Boston, was the first of 20 settlements and plantations in the following 40 years. These settlements were largely comprised of religious dissidents escaping religious intolerance at home. So both Protestant and Catholics found a place on these shores to live and worship as they wished.

Samoset comes “boldly” into Plymouth settlement; woodcut designed by A.R. Waud and engraved by J.P. Davis (1876)

Those settling near the eastern coast established mostly small agricultural holdings and communities where life as it was in England was replicated to the degree possible. Labor for the most part was provided by land owners and indentured servants; thus slaves were not as economically viable as for large agricultural plantations to the south. Given that so many Native Americans had died off from contact with whites even before the Puritans arrived, large areas of land suitable for agriculture were vacated and subsequently occupied by the new settlers (McCusker & Menard, 1998).

Those Native Americans who lived in their native territories were perceived as threats to the colonialists and in possession of lands the English settlers desired. Over time the general strategy was to massacre and exclude native peoples. Quakers sought rather to live in good relations with their native neighbors. To the south, Native Americans were enslaved and sent to the Caribbean or to work on rice plantations in the Carolinas. Rarely did intermarriage take place between the British settlers with Native Americans, a distinction from a general practice for the Spanish and French settlers. Racial distinction among English settlers was an entrenched feature of their occupation of the New World from the beginning (Harvey, 2016).

French Settlements

The French had a different geographical entre into the New World with a different strategy for settlement and relations with native peoples. The French early on saw profits in sugar production in current-day Haiti. This luxury good gained popularity in the 15th century, and the French were to control 40% of the sugar production as well as 50% of the coffee production, another product that would see growth in popularity in Europe. Both crops were grown using slave labor to plant and harvest. Much of the wealth of the homeland was directly tied to the colonial sugar trade, as French merchants resold this much desired product for huge profits. The financial fortunes of the French were driven by these slave colonies (Pritchard, 2007).

French colonization also was a major European presence in the interior of the North American continent, controlling the Mississippi basin from its mouth all the way to Quebec. The French pursued the fur trade with Native Americans, although this trade was not as lucrative as Caribbean sugar production. Colonial outposts in French-controlled territories were administered directly by the Crown, with the military overseeing the fishermen, fur traders, and farmers who made up its inhabitants. The nature of this kind of production was such that the French traders and fishermen were required to keep close relationships with Native American peoples, living among and marrying with native women, which ensured a state of mutual economic interdependence. In spite of their relative success, financial support from the home country was necessary to maintain colonial operation abroad (Pritchard, 2007).

Spanish Settlements

Spanish administration of the New World settlements, as was true of the French, was controlled from the homeland, with efforts to maintain a monopoly of trade by permitting only Spanish merchants to operate between the colonies. Moreover, all trade in either direction passed through a single Spanish port, as the rich ore from American mines brought rich profits when sold to East Asian markets. Other trade goods brought across to the Old World were hides and slaves (Lilly, 2009).

Slaves from Guinea digging for gold and silver in mines for the Spanish in Hispaniola, circa 1617.

Spanish colonialists settled in both Central and South American territory as well as California and Florida, where cattle ranching and farming were conducted. Spanish policy kept native populations in place, replacing native rulers with Spanish governors and priests. Concerted efforts were made to convert native peoples from indigenous religions to Catholicism while allowing their cultural practices and patterns of living to remain mostly as they were (Lilly, 2009).

Spanish administrators exacted tribute from native mining operations, exploiting local labor for Spanish profit. Like in French-controlled territories, there was widespread intermarriage between indigenous and colonial settlers. A stratified class system resulted that placed those of Spanish descent at the top, those of mixed racial (Spanish, African, and Native Americans) origins below, and nontribal Native Americans at the bottom. Class distinctions did not always equate to racial origin, and many of “mixed’ descent rose economically and found themselves creating a “purer” Spanish heritage as they adopted social practices of the elites. Regardless of individual economic condition, however, Spaniards remained atop the social hierarchy (Lilly, 2009).

Portuguese Settlements

Portuguese seamen were among the most capable of ship designers, mariners, and masters of navigation. Prince Henry, known as the “Navigator,” was the son of the king and queen of Portugal (1394–1460 CE). His goal was for Portugal to control the expansion of European influence into the Atlantic, dominating trade of slaves and access to gold mines in Africa. The first move was to colonize and take control of Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. The next stage was in Africa, to take away control of trade from the Muslims of North Africa and the Genoese. Portuguese explorers were in time to make it around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, and on to Calcutta, India, with its horde of treasured spices. For a time, Portugal had a monopoly on the spice trade (Diffie & Winius, 1985).

Slaves became the basis of expanding the growing of sugar in the Cape Verde Islands and would eventually move westward to Brazil in the newly discovered continent of South America beginning in the 1460s CE. Disputes over the control of developing regions of rich resources led to a papal settlement between Spain and Portugal. In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the globe longitudinally and gave territorial rights to the Portuguese Crown west of this Meridian between the Cape Verde Islands and Cuba, which when it was explored in 1501/1502 CE, gave Brazil to Portugal (Diffie & Winius, 1985).

By 1536, Martin Alfonso de Sousa established trading posts that led to permanent settlement for the purpose of sugar cane production. Initially sugar cane was produced by native laborers, but later by African slaves. Enforced labor created wealth for European colonists and the royal masters at home, much as was the case with Spain (Diffie & Winius, 1985).

Expansion Due to Seeking Free Religious Practice

Economic reasons were not the only drivers of colonial expansion. The desire for pursuing a religious life while maintaining preferred religious beliefs and practices was a major reason for emigration to the New World. This was true for Protestant (largely separatists and religious dissenters), Quaker, and Catholic believers as well. Religious upheavals in the 16th and 17th centuries involved those wishing to reform and “purify” the state Church of England (Dargo, 1996).

As Reformist ideas were seen as destabilizing and threatening to state unity, its proponents were persecuted, its ministers were prevented from preaching, and some who refused to recant their beliefs were burned as heretics. Some, who recognized that the established church would never sufficiently reform, left under the reign of James 1 for Leyden, Holland, to practice their faith openly. In 1620, about 100 Puritan Separatist Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower to found New Plymouth as a colony on what is now Cape Cod in Massachusetts. This was the first colonial settlement in New England (later disbanded in 1691). Subsequent Puritan groups founded Massachusetts Bay Colony and half a dozen others settlements in the next decade (Dargo, 1996).

William Penn is shown at center with the Delaware Indians at the time of the Treaty of Shackamaxon in 1682. This treaty formalized the purchase of land in Pennsylvania and cemented an amicable relationship between the Quakers and the Indians for almost a hundred years.

The Quakers also chafed under the Church of England because they could not enjoy the free practice of their faith. They left for the New World to settle in what would be Pennsylvania under William Penn. This colony would become a bastion of free religious practice and liberty of conscience. In his colony, religious tolerance was the law, and Penn even invited religious groups who suffered in Europe to come settle in his colony, although only Christians were permitted to vote and hold office (Dargo, 1996). Penn’s belief that “Religion and policy . . . are two distinct things, have two different ends, and may be fully prosecuted without respect on to the other” (“William Penn and American History,” n.d.) was an idea that would eventually become established as a founding principle of the colonies uniting as one nation.

The Catholics in England and Scotland were penalized under James I, a Presbyterian of Scottish origin who allowed them to live quietly without causing disturbance while adhering to the law until a series of attempts against the king’s life and the “Gunpowder Plot” in 1605 brought a new wave of anti-Catholic legislation and the implementation of a loyalty oath to the monarch (Dargo, 1996).

Lord Baltimore (George Calvert, former Secretary of State to James 1) was awarded land in the New World. He saw commercial advantage in the colonization of the Americas, while providing a refuge for English Catholics seeking religious freedom. He was awarded charters in both Canada and in what would become Maryland. When George died, the charter was granted to his son Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, who established the colony of Maryland as a refuge of religious freedom (Dargo, 1996).

In 1649, Maryland passed the Maryland Toleration Act, the first on North American soil to establish separation of church and state. It was intended to protect Catholic settlers as well as others who were Trinitarian Christians but did not adhere to the ways of the established Church of England. It became a sanctuary for English Catholics seeking religious freedom. A new approach to coexistence in an atmosphere of greater tolerance gradually emerged, with Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland offering freedom, if not to those of every religious persuasion, at least important strides toward that goal (Dargo, 1996).