Colonies in North America
Mar 31, 2015
Colonies in North America
Competing in North America
• Colony: region controlled by a foreign country• French, English, Dutch want a claim in the
New World
New France
• Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec• New France includes Great Lakes and
Mississippi River valley• New France is very large but has few
inhabitants• Main activity of colony is the fur trade
New England
• Lost colony of Roanoke, NC• The Settlement at Jamestown, VA (1607)– Early years very difficult; many die, but settlement
takes hold• Puritans/Pilgrims settle Plymouth Rock, MA
(1620)– Puritans/Pilgrims – group
persecuted for religion
New Netherland
• In 1609, Henry Hudson explores waterways for Dutch
• Dutch claim land in (now) New York– Then NYC was called New Amsterdam
• Dutch focus on fur tradenot on settlement– Welcomed settlers from
other lands
The Caribbean
• English, Spanish, and French also start colonies in Caribbean
• Large cotton, sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans
England Victorious
• The English beat the Dutch– New Netherland splits northern and
southern English colonies• In 1664, English force Dutch colonists to surrender
control
– By 1750, about 1.2 million English settlers in 13 colonies• GA as a buffer zone to protect from Spanish attack
England Victorious continued
• England Battles France– English settlers, pushing west, collide with French– French and Indian War – French and Native
Americans fight against the British• “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”
– In 1763, France loses to Britain, gives up its American colonies
Native Americans
• Natives Fall to Disease– Wars are less deadly to Indians than European
diseases• Smallpox was the most deadly
– Colonists use enslaved Africans to work in place of Native Americans