The discovery of America should be attributed to 1492, when Christopher Columbus reached the shores of a new continent, which in the future was named America, in honor of the traveler from Florence - Amerigo Vespucci.

Columbus himself did not even suspect that he had discovered a new continent, but only believed that he had found a sea route to rich Asia. In total, Columbus organized four expeditions to open lands, each of which was sponsored by the Spanish crown.

Already in 1507, the new lands received the status of a new continent and were named America or the New World.

The conquest of America.
As soon as the Europeans landed on the shores of the New World, they became aware that the new lands were already inhabited by fairly advanced civilizations. So on the territory of then known America, the empire of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas already existed.

Conquest of the Aztecs

Hernan Cortes became the man who conquered the Aztec civilization - it fell first. With a small army, Cortes entered the capital city of the empire - Tenochtitlan, which after suffered from an outbreak of smallpox. By deceit, the Spaniards captured the ruler of the empire. After a short war, in 1521 Cortes completely captures the capital, which leads to the speedy fall of the Aztec state. In the future, the city of Mexico City will be built on the site of the Aztec capital.

Conquest of the Incas

Inspired by the successes of Cortes, another Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, moved with a small detachment of people to Peru, to the state of the Incas.

Already in the twenties, the Incas began to suffer from diseases introduced by Europeans - measles and smallpox, from which whole millions died. The weakened empire could not withstand the onslaught, although it fiercely resisted. Pizarro first executed the Inca ruler Atahualpa, and in 1536 captured the capital, the city of Cusco. The Incas were finally conquered only in 1572.

Mayan conquest

At the time of the arrival of Europeans, the Mayan civilization was already on the verge of its collapse, mired in internal strife. In 1528, the Spaniards begin the conquest of the Mayan civilization under the leadership of Francisco de Montejo. It took them as much as 170 years to completely capture the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Maya lived.

The conquest of America was accompanied by massacres of the local population - the Europeans slaughtered everyone who opposed them, as well as the elderly, women and children.

As a result of the conquest of America by Europeans, three empires were destroyed: Maya, Incas and Aztecs, as well as tens of millions of local residents were destroyed.

And, thus, did not have a significant impact on the historical and political processes both in the Old and New Worlds.

Travels of Columbus[ | ]

Colonization of South and Central America in -XVII centuries[ | ]

Chronology of the most important events:

• - Christopher Columbus lands on the island.
• - Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda reach the mouth of the Amazon.
• - Vespucci, after the second journey, finally comes to the conclusion that the open continent is not part of India.
• - After a 100-day jungle trek, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and reaches the Pacific coast for the first time.
• - Juan Ponce de Leon goes in search of the legendary fountain of youth. Having failed in reaching the object of search, he, nevertheless, discovers deposits of gold. Names the Florida peninsula and declares it a Spanish possession.
• - Fernando Cortes enters Tenochtitlan, captures the Emperor Montezuma, thereby starting the conquest of the Aztec empire. His triumph leads to 300 years of Spanish rule in Mexico and Central America.
• - opens Peru.
• - Spain establishes a permanent military base and settlement in Jamaica.
• - Francisco Pizarro invades Peru, destroys thousands of Indians and conquers the Inca Empire, the most powerful state of the South American Indians. A huge number of Incas die from chickenpox brought by the Spaniards.
• - Spanish settlers found Buenos Aires, but after five years they were forced to leave the city under the onslaught of the Indians.

• - Founding of Bogotá.
• - The first printing press in the New World opens in Mexico City.
• - Opening of the Grand Canyon.
• - Hernando de Soto reaches the banks of the Mississippi.
• - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago.
• - The first universities are founded in Lima and Mexico City.
• - The book "Chronicle of Peru" by Pedro Cieza de Leon was published, describing the history and geography of South America for the first time.
• - Founded St. Augustine - the first settlement of Europeans in the territory of the modern United States.
• - Founding of Rio de Janeiro.
• - Refoundation of Buenos Aires.
• (or according to other sources) - Founding of Santa Fe, the capital of the Spanish colony of New Mexico (now a US state).

At the end of the 18th century, there were just under 4 million people of European ancestry in South America.

Colonization of North America (XVII-XVIII centuries)[ | ]

Late 18th century North America numbered 4.5 million inhabitants of European origin.

But at the same time, the balance of power in the Old World began to change: the kings spent the streams of silver and gold flowing from the colonies, and had little interest in the economy of the metropolis, which, under the weight of an inefficient, corrupt administrative apparatus, clerical dominance and lack of incentives for modernization began to lag behind the rapidly developing economy of England. Spain gradually lost the status of the main European superpower and mistress of the seas. Many years of war in the Netherlands, huge funds spent on the fight against the Reformation throughout Europe, the conflict with England hastened the decline of Spain. The last straw was the death of the Invincible Armada in 1588. After the English admirals, and in more a fierce storm destroyed the largest fleet of the time, Spain retreated into the shadows, never recovering from this blow.

Leadership in the "relay race" of colonization passed to England, France and Holland.

English colonies[ | ]

The well-known chaplain Gakluyt acted as the ideologist of the English colonization of North America. In and 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I of England, made two attempts to establish a permanent settlement in North America. The reconnaissance expedition reached the American coast in 1584 and named the open coast of Virginia (eng. Virginia - "Virgin") in honor of the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I, who never married. Both attempts ended in failure - the first colony, founded on Roanoke Island off the coast of Virginia, was on the verge of collapse due to Indian attacks and lack of supplies and was evacuated by Sir Francis Drake in April 1587. In July of the same year, a second expedition of 117 colonists landed on the island. It was planned that ships with equipment and food would arrive in the colony in the spring of 1588. However, for various reasons, the supply expedition was delayed by almost a year and a half. When she arrived at the place, all the buildings of the colonists were intact, but no traces of people, with the exception of the remains of one person, were found. The exact fate of the colonists has not been established to this day.

At the beginning of the 17th century, private capital entered the business. In 1605, two joint-stock companies received licenses from King James I to establish colonies in Virginia. It should be borne in mind that at that time the term "Virginia" denoted the entire territory North American continent. The first of these companies was the London Virginia Company. Virginia Company of London) - received the rights to the south, the second - the "Plymouth Company" (eng. Plymouth Company) - to the northern part of the continent. Despite the fact that both companies officially proclaimed the spread of Christianity as the main goal, the license received granted them the right to "search and mine gold, silver and copper by all means."

On December 20, 1606, the colonists set sail on three ships and after a difficult, almost five-month voyage, during which several dozen people died of starvation and disease, in May 1607 they reached the Chesapeake Bay (Eng. Chesapeake Bay). Over the next month, they built a wooden fort, named after King Fort James (English pronunciation of the name Jacob). The fort was later renamed Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in America.

The official historiography of the United States considers Jamestown the cradle of the country, the history of the settlement and its leader, Captain John Smith (Eng. John Smith of Jamestown) is covered in many serious studies and works of art. The latter, as a rule, idealize the history of the city and the pioneers who inhabited it (for example, the popular cartoon Pocahontas). In fact, the first years of the colony were extremely difficult, in the hungry winter of 1609-1610. out of 500 colonists, no more than 60 survived, and, according to some accounts, the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism in order to survive the famine.

American stamp issued for the tercentenary of the founding of Jamestown

In subsequent years, when the issue of physical survival was no longer so acute, the two most important problems were strained relations with the indigenous population and the economic feasibility of the existence of the colony. To the disappointment of the shareholders of the London Virginia Company, neither gold nor silver was found by the colonists, and the main commodity produced for export was ship timber. Despite the fact that this product was in some demand in the metropolis, which depleted its forests in order, the profit, as well as from other attempts at economic activity, was minimal.

The situation changed in 1612, when the farmer and landowner John Rolfe (Eng. John Rolfe) managed to cross a local variety of tobacco grown by the Indians with varieties imported from Bermuda. The resulting hybrids were well adapted to the Virginia climate and at the same time suited the tastes of English consumers. The colony acquired a source of reliable income and for many years tobacco became the basis of the economy and exports of Virginia, and the phrases "Virginia tobacco", "Virginia blend" are used as characteristics of tobacco products to this day. Five years later, tobacco exports amounted to 20,000 pounds, a year later it was doubled, and by 1629 it reached 500,000 pounds. John Rolfe rendered another service to the colony: in 1614 he managed to negotiate peace with the local Indian chief. The peace treaty was sealed by marriage between Rolf and the leader's daughter, Pocahontas.

In 1619, two events took place that had significant influence for the whole further history USA. This year Governor George Yardley George Yeardley) decided to transfer part of the power Council of Burghers(English) House of Burgesses), thus founding the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. The first meeting of the council took place on July 30, 1619. In the same year, a small group of Africans of Angolan origin was acquired by the colonists. Although formally they were not slaves, but had long-term contracts without the right to terminate, it is customary to count the history of slavery in America from this event.

In 1622, almost a quarter of the population of the colony was destroyed by the rebellious Indians. In 1624, the license of the London Company, whose affairs had fallen into decay, was revoked, and from that time Virginia became a royal colony. The governor was appointed by the king, but the colony council retained significant powers.

Settlement of New England[ | ]

Canada [ | ]

In 1497, several expeditions to the island of Newfoundland, associated with the names of the Cabots, laid the foundation for the claims of England to the territory of modern Canada.

In 1763, under the Treaty of Paris, New France came into the possession of Great Britain and became the province of Quebec. British colonies there were also Rupert's Land (the area around Hudson Bay) and Prince Edward Island.

Florida [ | ]

In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for control of Havana, which the British occupied during Seven Years' War. The British divided Florida into East and West and began to attract immigrants. For this, the settlers were offered land and financial support.

In 1767, the northern boundary of West Florida was substantially moved, so that West Florida included parts of the present-day territories of the states of Alabama and Mississippi.

During the American Revolutionary War, Britain retained control of East Florida, but Spain was able to take over West Florida through an alliance with France at war with England. Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 between Great Britain and Spain, all of Florida was ceded to Spain.

Caribbean Islands[ | ]

The first English colonies appeared in Bermuda (1612), St. Kitts (1623) and Barbados (1627) and were then used to colonize other islands. In 1655, Jamaica, taken from the Spanish Empire, was under the control of the British.

Central America[ | ]

In 1630, British agents founded the Providence Company. (Providence Company), whose president was the Earl of Warwick, and the secretary was John Pym, occupied two small islands near the Mosquito Coast and established friendly relations with the locals. From 1655 to 1850, England, and then Great Britain, claimed a protectorate over the Miskito Indians, but numerous attempts to establish colonies were of little success, and the protectorate was disputed by Spain, the Central American republics and the United States. The objections from the United States were caused by fears that England would gain an advantage in connection with the proposed construction of a canal between the two oceans. In 1848, the capture of the city of Greytown (now called San Juan del Norte) by the Miskito Indians, with the support of the British, caused great excitement in the United States and almost led to war. However, by signing the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, both powers pledged not to strengthen, colonize, or dominate any part of Central American territory. In 1859, Great Britain transferred the protectorate to Honduras.

The first English colony on the banks of the Belize River was established in 1638. In the middle of the 17th century, other English settlements were established. Later, British settlers began harvesting logwood, from which a substance used in the manufacture of textile dyes was extracted, which was of great importance for the wool-spinning industry in Europe (see article Belize#History).

South America [ | ]

In 1803, Britain captured the Dutch settlements in Guiana, and in 1814, under the Treaty of Vienna, officially received the lands, united in 1831 under the name of British Guiana.

In January 1765, British captain John Byron explored Saunders Island at the eastern tip of the Falkland Islands and announced that it was annexed to Great Britain. Captain Byron named the bay on Saunders Port Egmont. Here in 1766 Captain McBride founded an English settlement. In the same year, Spain acquired French possessions in the Falklands from Bougainville and, having consolidated its power here in 1767, appointed a governor. In 1770, the Spanish attacked Port Egmont and drove the British off the island. This led to the fact that the two countries were on the brink of war, but a later peace treaty allowed the British to return to Port Egmont in 1771, while neither Spain nor Great Britain abandoned their claims to the islands. In 1774, in anticipation of the impending American Revolutionary War, Great Britain unilaterally abandoned many of its overseas possessions, including Port Egmont. Leaving the Falklands in 1776, the British installed a commemorative plaque here to confirm their rights to this territory. From 1776 until 1811, a Spanish settlement remained on the islands, administered from Buenos Aires as part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. In 1811, the Spaniards left the islands, also leaving a tablet here to prove their rights. After declaring independence in 1816, Argentina claimed the Falklands as its own. In January 1833, the British again landed in the Falklands and notified the Argentine authorities of their intention to restore their power on the islands.

Timeline of the founding of the English colonies[ | ]

1. 1607 - Virginia (Jamestown) - In 1674 captured by the Indians
2. 1620 - Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Settlement)
3. 1626 - New Amsterdam (New York since 1664)
4. 1633 - Maryland
5. 1636 - Rhode Island
6. 1636 - Connecticut
7. 1638 - Delaware
8. 1638 - New Hampshire
9. 1653 - North Carolina
10. 1663 - South Carolina
11. 1664 - New Jersey
12. 1682 - Pennsylvania
13. 1732 - Georgia

French colonies[ | ]

Portuguese colonies[ | ]

Dutch colonies[ | ]

Swedish colonies[ | ]

Russian colonies [ | ]

Scottish colonies[ | ]

Courland colonies[ | ]

Mexican colonies[ | ]

The Spanish crown eventually entrusted Mexico to govern

AT

last quarter of the 16th century up to 400 fishing boats from different countries gathered annually in the waters of Newfoundland. The few English ships were well armed, and English captains arrogated to themselves the right to act as judges in disputes and clashes between fishermen off Newfoundland. The island itself was of little interest to Europeans before the “great” discovery of Frobisher, but when he brought his “golden” cargo to England, Newfoundland received a double meaning in the eyes of the British: he guarded shortest way in "Katay" and behind it lay Frobisher's "golden country".

Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of the Queen's favorite Walter Raleigh, received from Elizabeth a patent "for the discovery and management of Newfoundland." Gilbert, based on the right of Cabot's first discovery of the island, declared him English proficiency despite the protests of the French government. France disputed English rights to Newfoundland until 1713, when, at the Peace of Utrecht, she finally renounced her claims. He transported 250 people on five ships from England to the island and tried to establish the first English overseas colony of Newfoundland on the southeast coast (August 5, 1583). The attempt was unsuccessful: the colonists lacked everything except fish and fuel; sickness began among them. The discontent threatened to turn into a mutiny, and Gilbert ordered the ears of the discontented to be cut off, but in the end he relented and took the colonists back to England. On the way back he died in a storm. Another quarter of a century passed before English sailors founded the first permanent fishing village on the eastern edge of the island. From this village grew the largest port city of Newfoundland, its capital - St. John's.

Virginia Map B.M. Dept. of Prints and Drawings

Walter Raleigh (Raleigh) was a poor English nobleman who dreamed of a dizzying career. He had neither wealth nor nobility, but he firmly believed that the path to both lay for a beautiful young man through the chambers of the "virgin" Queen Elizabeth. With intricate inventions, he drew attention to himself and became one of her favorites. Raleigh dreamed of the countless riches of India, the treasures of Mexico or Peru, the country of Eldorado. His brother Gilbert was looking for the "golden country" at the Northwest Passage. Raleigh decided to look for her across the ocean, directly to the west. He received a royal patent for the colonization of the territory of North America north of the Spanish possessions, that is, from Florida.

In 1584, Raleigh sent two small ships across the ocean for reconnaissance under the command of Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. They reached America At 35°N. sh., where there are almost no convenient harbors. The captains visited two islands located near the Pamlico lagoon and Albemarle Bay (at 36 ° N), and the adjacent mainland coast. Returning to their homeland, they described the Indians as a people "wild and lazy, brave and hospitable, curious and trusting, very inclined to exchange the products of their country for English goods, especially for hardware”, and praised the beauty of the country, the mildness of its climate, the fertility of the soil. Then the stingy queen became generous, and Raleigh was able to immediately equip a second expedition, already on five ships, under the command of Richard Greenville for the colonization of the newly discovered country. The grateful favorite named the future English colony Virginia ("Virgin", from the Latin virgo - virgin), in honor of his patroness.

In 1585, Greenville founded on about. Roanoke, at the southern entrance to Albemarle Bay, the first English settlement off the North American mainland, while he returned back. 180 people settled at this point, mostly squandered nobles who dreamed of immediate enrichment. And the "savages" immediately recognized what god the "civilized" English worshiped and, mocking them, passed on tales of the richest gold deposits in their country and the pearly shoals off their coasts. After several months of futile searches, the colonists became so angry that they began to attack the Indians with weapons in their hands. They stopped delivering food in exchange for British goods. In the spring of 1586, the colonists went to the extreme. Suddenly, a flotilla appeared on the shore Francis Drake, returning to England after another pirate raid on the Spanish colonies. Drake took the settlers and delivered them to Europe. The pirates brought with them only a small cargo of tobacco, and Raleigh and other trendsetters began to spread smoking in England.

Shortly after the colony was evacuated, Greenville arrived there on three ships. Not knowing what happened, he left 15 people in the deserted colony in order to keep his property for Raleigh. All those left were killed by the Indians. In early 1587, Raleigh repeated his attempt at mass colonization of Virginia. A new batch of settlers arrived on three ships - more than 200 people. But when the Anglo-Spanish war broke out, the new colony was abandoned to its fate, and all the settlers either starved to death or perished in a skirmish with the Indians. After that, Raleigh and his high patroness cooled off to such an unprofitable project.

In the summer of 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold on one ship he went straight west from England, trying to keep as far as possible at 50 ° N. ch., but the wind carried it to the south. He crossed the ocean without encountering a single island, and reached the mainland at 42°N. sh. A long and narrow sickle-shaped peninsula forms a bay in this place, open to the north. He saw large schools of cod there and named the peninsula Cape Cod ("Cape Cod"). Rounding it from the south, Gosnold walked west along the coast for about 200 km and was fascinated by the nature of the new country. He landed on the mainland and on about. Martha's Vineyard, Gosnold named the island (about 200 km²) "Martha's Vineyard" because of the abundance of wild grapes there. separated from it by the narrow strait of Vineyard. The Indians warmly welcomed the first Europeans, fed them, pointing out the best lands for hunting and fishing. Therefore, Gosnold, returning to his homeland at the end of the same year, enthusiastically described the region of the New World he had discovered. From him the English learned that across the ocean, a few weeks' journey away, there is a country with a mild climate and meek inhabitants, convenient for the resettlement of the "surplus" population of Old England. And Gosnold's story did not rule out the possibility that a sea passage leading to the Pacific Ocean begins beyond the new country.

In 1603, a ship was sent in search of this passage under the command Martina Pringle, which reached America a little north of Cape Cod and explored the coast of the Gulf of Maine for about 150 km. In 1605, the northern coast of the Gulf of Maine, dotted with islands, explored George Weymouth, who had previously searched in vain for the Northwest Passage at higher latitudes.

In 1606, two companies were organized for the colonization of North America, which unexpectedly "approached" England - London and Plymouth. Under the charters of King James I Stuart, these companies were given the right to establish colonies in North America between 34 and 45°N. sh. - from sea to sea. Later, the descendants of the English colonists based their rights on this and to all the western lands of the mainland. The companies pledged to spread Christianity among the "wild". Most of the royal charters repeated the following provision: "The colonists and their descendants remain English in every respect: they enjoy all the privileges within the American settlements in the same way as if they had remained in their homeland." Referring to this thesis, the Americans in the XVII and in the first half of the XVIII century. opposed the arbitrariness of the metropolis, and in the second half of the XVIII century. based their claim to independence.

20 December 1606 three small vessels (20–100 tons) of the London Company under common command Christopher Newport left England with 105 male colonists on board, and after a long voyage in rough seas, entered the Chesapeake Bay and the river in the spring of 1607, which was named James in honor of King James (James); on the shore they laid the first English settlement on the American mainland - Jamestown (May 14, 1607). Newport then climbed over 200 km in a small vessel up the James to the rapids, the first achievement by the British of the Falls Line. The new colony retained its former name - Virginia. Most of the Virginian settlers left England voluntarily. They belonged to the dominant, state church - Anglican (Episcopal). These were "gentlemen" - losers - "lazy and vicious people: their relatives sent them overseas to save themselves from shame, in the hope that they would get rich or die in a few years." Such Virginians were similar in many respects to the Spanish hidalgos and the Portuguese fidalgos who rushed across the ocean after the discovery of America. The working element in the colony was temporary "white slaves" - the poor from the British Isles, temporarily (for 7-10 years) enslaved by the London Company.

Among the first Virginians, there were sometimes people of a different type - energetic and not averse to work. Such was one of the founders of Virginia, a shareholder of the London Company, John Smith. In his own words, though not always credible, he had previously served as a soldier in the war against the Spaniards in the Netherlands and in the war against the Turks in southeastern Europe. There he remained on the battlefield, wounded among the dead; he was found by the Turks and sold into slavery in the Crimea; he killed his master and went to the Don to the Russians. He then wandered for several years in Europe and North Africa, returned to his homeland, and from there went to New World. This adventurer became not only the first ruler of the colony, but also the first Anglo-American "patriot". Smith said: "Let the settlers die again and again, and I will constantly bring more and more." He tried to teach the work of lazy and idle noblemen: "Not only silver and gold, but the products of the earth and everything that is found, gives the country a price." In 1607 - 1609. D. Smith explored the James basin and surrounding areas, and discovered the river. York. He was the first to cross the Falls Line and probably reached the Blue Ridge. In 1609, he left Virginia forever, but continued to be interested in the colony: he compiled its first map, wrote the General History of Virginia (1624).

The London company sought to find the shortest route to China; she needed high profits, the extraction of gold and silver, and Virginia could not provide this. Seven ships with 300 new settlers, among whom were many exiles and criminals, set off from England to Virginia. The London Company in 1609 offered the Lord Thomas West Delaware be ruler for life of all her American dominions. The Lord went there, but after a few months he returned to his homeland. The bay to the northeast of the Chesapeake (39 ° N) and a small peninsula between these bays are named after him. Because of the mass of idlers and villainous settlers, the colony immediately acquired such notoriety that some Englishmen agreed to go to the gallows rather than to Virginia: “A terrible shame has fallen on this most beautiful country; it was considered a suitable place of exile for the greatest swindlers."

For the new colony, it was most profitable to cultivate tobacco, since the fashion of tobacco smoking began to spread in Western and Central Europe. Farming in Virginia was almost not practiced, and very little attention was paid to cattle breeding. The Indians were supposed to deliver food to the colonists. If they didn't, the colonists plundered their villages. Very soon, the British introduced slavery in the interests of the tobacco planters. In 1620 the Dutch brought the first Africans to the colony and sold them profitably at Jamestown. Strong, accustomed to the humid and hot climate of West Africa, they turned out to be excellent workers and brought great profits to their masters. In the following years, slaves began to be imported in such large quantities that there were more of them in Virginia than free people. Economically, the colony, though slowly, but still developed. More than a thousand new settlers arrived from England every year. Tobacco rose in price as smoking became more widespread in Europe.

The English, like the Dutch, in contrast to the Spaniards, Portuguese and French, tried not to mix with the natives and maintained the "purity of their race." During the first years of colonization, the peace between the British and the Indians was not disturbed. But the demands of the colonists became excessive. They brazenly seized the lands of the Indians, deceived and robbed them. In 1622 the Indians revolted against their oppressors. At the same time, but on a signal, they attacked the settlers, scattered in small groups in the Jamestown area, and killed about 350 colonists, but many "whites" escaped in the village. The Virginians responded with a war of extermination against all Indians. Having dealt with the surrounding inhabitants, they set about separate tribes, obliging them to provide hostages. Since that time, the colonialists began to pursue an "Indian policy", which is frankly expressed by the cynical phrase: "Only a dead Indian is good."

the Limut company, for an appropriate amount of money, allowed the Puritans, persecuted in their homeland, to settle in the vast territory of the New World allotted to it. They equipped the Mayflower vessel (May Flower, 100 tons). Puritans often called themselves pilgrims, because in this mortal world they considered themselves wanderers who came from non-existence and aspired to the "heavenly homeland." But for the duration of their earthly existence, they needed an earthly homeland. And so, in September 1620, 120 pilgrims, including women and children, set off across the ocean on the "May Flower" to look for New England. More than two months passed before the Pilgrims saw the American coast at Massachusetts Bay. In the rain and snow, the ship sailed along the coast until it reached an uninhabited island; a day later, the pilgrims explored the harbor, which seemed to them excellent. In the surrounding area they found good water and Indian fields planted with maize. This day is called "ancestral" in the USA, in memory of the ancestors of "one hundred percent" northern Americans (Yankees), who then took possession of their new homeland - New England. On December 25, 1620, the first houses were laid in "New Plymouth", on the northwest shore of Cape Cod. A few weeks later, the colonists organized themselves in a military way - a fortress was built on a hill near Plymouth and guns were placed on its walls. The first winter in New England was severe and claimed many lives. In the spring, the Puritans laid out gardens and began to sow grain. About a rich harvest, as a joyful event, they informed their European co-religionists in order to attract them to New England. Soon a second batch of colonists arrived there. For the first two years, the pilgrims cultivated the land together, and the products were divided among themselves. But already in the spring of 1623 they switched to "individual farming."

These pious, persecuted Puritans in England behaved no better towards the Indians than the followers of the mainstream Anglican Church in Virginia or than the "damned papists" (Catholics) in tropical America. As soon as the Pilgrims received reinforcements from across the ocean, they, citing an imaginary conspiracy, organized a massacre of defenseless Algonquin Indians who lived near Massachusetts Bay. Hundreds of Indians were captured in their wigwams (dwellings) and killed. The unprovoked massacre so terrified the Algonquins that they left the country of their fathers and went west. The Christians hurried to announce the victory over the "pagans" to their European friends, and one of them wrote to New England: "How wonderful it would be if, before you kill the Indians, you converted some to Christianity."

After pushing the Indians inland, the Puritans began to settle in small groups along the coast and took up fishing. By 1624 fishing villages stretched for 50 km north of Plymouth, and the first English fishermen appeared in a vast bay, later called Boston. They were joined by farmers who founded larger settlements there. This is how the first English Puritan colony of Massachusetts appeared in America. Bigots and hypocrites ruled there, but, unlike the Virginians, these colonists were zealous masters and good workers. Striving for a stable settled life in their new homeland, the Puritans bred all kinds of plants, except for tobacco: it was allowed to be sown only in small quantities "as a medicine." Puritans and other sectarians rushed in the 30s. 17th century in large numbers to New England to avoid persecution royalty Old England and its servant - the Episcopal Church. Newcomers settled in old settlements or founded new ones, among which Boston soon stood out.

Thus, on the eastern coast of North America, in two regions separated by a distance of about 1000 km, two English colonies arose: the first was southern, slave-owning Virginia, settled by the dregs of the classes that dominated England in the 17th century, adherents of the Episcopal Church and Africans. -slaves; the second - the northern cell of New England, Massachusetts, settled mainly by bourgeois elements, supporters of "free labor", according to religion, sectarians persecuted in their homeland. Those Southerners were soon called Virginians; these northerners are Bostonians or Yankees. But, no matter how different they were in their characters, their former profession, their religious views, they began the same way: they sprinkled the land of their new homeland with Indian blood. The English colonies were cut off from each other by a long coastal strip, where New Netherland appeared on the river. Hudson, at the mouth of which New Amsterdam arose, and New Sweden on the shores of the narrow Delaware Bay: Fort Christiania, inhabited by Swedish and Finnish peasants, grew there. Thus, the eastern coast of North America was colonized by representatives of many European nationalities: in the north - the French, and with them the Bretons and Basques, then the British (Bostonians), Dutch, Swedes and Finns, again the British (Virginians) and in the south - Spaniards.

The Swedish colony did not last long - less than 30 years - and was conquered by the Dutch (in 1655). Thereafter, New Netherland became a very serious threat to English dominance on the east coast of North America. The issue was resolved in Europe by the second Anglo-Dutch war (1667). The Dutch were victorious at sea, their fleet penetrated the Thames and burned the suburbs of London. Charles II Stuart hastened to make peace. England has lost her last possessions in the Moluccas; both sides retained their strongholds on the Gold Coast, very important for Christian merchants of "pagan" Africans. The Netherlands secured Suriname in South America, England ceded Suriname to Holland in a treaty of July 31, 1667, and it became a colony called Netherlands Guiana. November 25, 1975 Suriname gained independence. but abandoned in favor of England from their possessions in North America, which seemed less profitable. Charles II, three years before the transfer to the English hands of New Amsterdam, "upfront" presented it to his brother, the Duke of York. After the conclusion of peace, the city was renamed New York; the whole new "mid-Atlantic" colony began to bear this name.

further than all Europeans deep into the mainland of North America, to the Great Plains (up to 41 ° N), at the end of the 16th century. penetrated by the Spaniard Antonio Gutierrez de Humaña.Gutierrez seems to be the only conquistador who, in Spanish documents of the late XVI - early XVII in. directly called the "robber and murderer", since he robbed and killed the Indians, without having official permission to open and conquer the country. From the upper river Pecos, his small detachment, which included several Indian porters, moved to the northeast. Probably, in search of gold and silver, they traveled along the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, earning their living by hunting buffalo, crossed the upper Arkansas at 38 ° N. sh. and small rivers in the upper reaches of the river. Republican, Kansas tributary. Here, in a quarrel, probably due to disagreements about the further direction of the route, in late 1593 or early 1594, Gutiérrez killed the second commander. Discipline in the detachment fell, among the Indian porters, nervousness and gloomy distrust of the leader sharply increased. However, the group continued to move to the northeast and, having passed through the Great Plains for about 1000 km, reached the middle course of the river. Platte, a western tributary of the Missouri, at about 100° W. d.; in other words, the Spaniards were the first to reach the geographic "heart" of the continent. The wide river blocked the way to the north, the bison began to come across less and less, and Gutierrez decided to return. One night, six Indians deserted from the detachment, intending to return home as soon as possible, but only one named Husepe, and even then after a year of wandering on the prairie as a slave of the Anache Indians. The further fate of the group became known a few years later: shortly after the six escaped, the remaining Indians surrounded the Spaniards and killed everyone, including Gutierrez, but spared only Alonso Sanchez, who later became their leader. He told this to a monk who happened to meet him in an Indian village. Troops were sent for Sanchez, but he was "lost" on the prairies.

The last Spanish treasure hunter on the American Prairies was Juan Oñate who organized a colonization expedition on behalf of the authorities. In the spring of 1598, he led her into the deserts and mountains of the upper Rio Grande basin, where many, starting with Coronado, unsuccessfully tried to find precious metals. For three years, Oñate "pacified" the Indians, settled the lands and searched - with the same "success" - for gold and silver. Having suffered a fiasco, he went east to the prairies, hoping to find something there; the guide of the expedition was the Indian Husene, a companion of Gutierrez. Oñate reached the river. Canadian also descended along it for 700 km, i.e., traced almost the entire length, and then went to the middle course of the river. Arkansas, but, of course, did not find even signs of precious metals. Empty-handed, he returned back and "merited" the wrath of his superiors. But his journal contained important information - a description of the examined territory and its inhabitants. Onyato put an end to the legends about the countries of the "Seven Cities" and "Kivira". According to the ex-sailor, an unknown participant in the campaign, probably at the beginning of 1601 a drawing was drawn up - the first cartographic document that has come down to us about the central part of North America. The real result of the search for the fantastic "Seven Cities" and no less mythical treasures turned out to be grandiose: joining the Spanish possessions - first formal, and then actual - a territory of about 1 million km². The center of this New Mexico was built in 1609 in the upper reaches of the river. Pecos Fortress Santa Fe ("Holy Faith").

Despite the sad fate of the first French colonies in Canada, the fur trade grew and brought great profits to monopoly trading companies. Henry IV understood that it was possible to secure the "country of furs" for France only through its systematic colonization. However, it was necessary to make sure that agriculture and settled life were possible there, and that the death of the first French colonies was due to accidental causes. To explore Canada in 1603, an expedition was organized, the funds for which were given by a trading company that received a monopoly on buying furs; merchants included an experienced sailor in it Samuel Champlain, sailing on French and Spanish ships in the Atlantic Ocean and in the American Mediterranean Sea. He was also entrusted with the management of topographic surveys. New France and a description of its shores. Champlain went there for reconnaissance. At the end of May, he entered the mouth of the river. St. Lawrence, on the pinasse climbed the Saguenay and on the main river on July 2 reached the place where Cartier reached. The country seemed to him suitable for colonization.

Champlain, leading the expedition1, explored Acadia (Nova Scotia). Having landed on about. Cape Breton, he went around with an inventory of the entire coast of Acadia and the opposite mainland coast of the Bay of Fundy.

From the middle of May 1604, Champlain, leading the expedition, The composition of his expeditions in different years included Indians and French, Flemings and Basques, Catholics and Huguenots, nobles and merchants, recruited "white slaves", fugitive criminals and monks. explored Acadia (Nova Scotia). Having landed on about. Cape Breton, he went around with an inventory of the entire coast of Acadia and the opposite mainland coast of the Bay of Fundy. In the southwest of Acadia, he rebuilt the Port Royal (Annapolis). Leaving with him 80 people, he sent expeditionary ships to France. Wintering was very hard: half of the settlers died of scurvy. In the summer of 1605, after the ships returned from France, Champlain continued to survey the east coast of the mainland to the southwest, up to and including Cape Cod Bay: in doing so, he discovered the two best harbors in Massachusetts Bay - Boston and Plymouth, thus completing , the discovery of Jean Alphonse. Having then bypassed the long and narrow peninsula of Cape Cod, he finally established its outlines, and the following year he discovered about. Nantucket and the strait between it and the mainland (41°30"N).

April 13, 1608 Champlain was sent to the river. St. Lawrence and on July 3 founded Quebec there, which in the language of the Iroquois means "narrowing." He tried to maintain good relations with the local Wyandot Indians, who were close in language to the Iroquois, but hostile to them (the French half-contemptuously called the Wyandots Huron from Hure - boar's head). Champlain learned their language, made an alliance with them, and exploited their hostility towards the Iroquois for his own purposes, guided by the simplest principle: lead me to new places, I will help you fight.

Since 1609, Champlain was no longer dependent on temporary monopolists. With the help of Huron guides, on July 3 he began to explore interior areas North America. He trusted his new allies more than the French colonists, among whom there were many "restless elements." At the very beginning of the campaign, he sent away all the French, except for two, the most reliable, and with a group of Hurons on a large canoe went up the river. St. Lawrence to the mouth of its southern tributary the Richelieu, and along the latter to a large flowing lake, which since that time has been known by his name (in English pronunciation Champlain). In doing so, he discovered the Adirondack Highlands, rising above the western shore of the lake, and the Green Mountains (Green Mountains), stretching a short distance from its eastern shore. Champlain mapped and described the lake and its region.

hunting grounds in the upper reaches of the river St. Lawrence belonged to the Hurons. More numerous Iroquois roamed south. When Champlain arrived in Canada, the Iroquois again began to move from south to north, displacing the Hurons and their neighbors, the Algonquins. The first French colonists, led by Champlain, took part in the internecine Indian wars on the side of the Algonquins and Hurons, among whom they first settled. Then the Iroquois became the mortal enemies of the French. According to a number of French historians, this led to the loss of all of Canada by France. Just at this time, the Dutch appeared off the coast of America. In 1610 they arranged on the river. Hudson trading post for buying furs. The Iroquois became allies of the Dutch and the British who later replaced them in the fight against the French. In addition, the British "exceeded the French in generosity: while the French king paid the Hurons 50 francs for the scalp of an Englishman, English king gave twice as much for a French scalp ”(E. Reclus).

1609 to 1615 Champlain sailed almost every year from France to the river. St. Lawrence, where he collected information about the interior of North America. Stories of a sea somewhere to the northwest or west of Quebec were confirmed by the hundreds of Indians that Champlain encountered. (The French confused reports of Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes.) Three routes seemed to lead to this sea, beyond which Champlain dreamed of China and India. But one, northwesterly path up the Saguenay through gloomy desert regions led to a labyrinth of rivers and lakes where the most reliable guides seemed useless. Another went up the Ottawa, the third, southwestern, along the river. St. Lawrence to its origins.

In search of the Western Sea, Champlain sent his "youngsters" (young colonists) along with the Indians. Among them stood out Etienne Brule: 16-year-old boy, having received no education, in 1608 he arrived in New France with Champlain. Since 1610, Brule, buying furs, lived in the forests among the Indians, hunted with them, moved from one tribe to another and learned to speak fluently in various local dialects of the Iroquois and Algonquian languages. It was the first typical North American woodland tramp (coureur des bois), The bulk of the forest vagabonds were people who did not have the means to buy popular goods and the necessary equipment. They took all this from the merchants, pledging to repay the debt immediately upon their return. The hike of forest vagrants usually lasted two or three weeks along rivers and lakes. They bypassed non-navigable areas, carrying boats with a load on their shoulders, sometimes over long distances, so they tried to take the load lighter, reducing its weight due to the supply of food, and, therefore, they were always starving. In the last quarter of the XVII century. the number of forest vagrants exceeded 600 people. whose name has come down to us, a hunter and fur buyer, a tireless prospector and explorer, to use old Russian terms.

In the summer of 1615, Champlain and Brule set out in canoes with ten Huron rowers from Quebec to the mouth of the Ottawa, climbed along it and its tributary the Mattawa to Lake Nipissing, and from there along the French River (French River) went to a large bay (Georgian Bay listen)) are parts of Lake Huron. It is believed that in the summer of 1610 Brule and another forest tramp reached him, and with them or in their footsteps - a monk Joseph Le Caron. From Huron, Champlain, having parted from Brule, turned southeast and, having discovered Lake Simcoe in early September, reached Ontario and made sure that it was from its northeast corner that the river flows. St. Lawrence. Then Champlain went south to Lake Oneida, where the rapids river originates. Oswego, which flows into Ontario. After a skirmish with the Iroquois, he was forced to retreat and returned to Quebec, passing into total about 1600 km.

Brûlée got to Ontario before Champlain and crossed the lake in a canoe. South of Ontario, he learned of Champlain's skirmish with the Iroquois, collected 500 Hurons and hastened to help, but arrived at the place after Champlain's retreat. Then Brûlée turned south and came to a river through a hilly forest country. Following down its course, in late autumn he reached a long and narrow sea ​​bay with extremely indented banks, into which several large and many small rivers flowed. The hilly country that Brule crossed is the Appalachian Plateau and the Allegheny Mountains; a large river, the course of which he traced, is the Susquehanna (about 1000 km); bay - Chesapeake; the strip of land separating the bay from the ocean is the Delaware Peninsula.

In the spring of 1617, Brule's detachment went north to Quebec. On the way he was attacked by the Iroquois; the Hurons fled, and Brule managed to escape, but after several days of wandering through the forests, in order not to die of hunger, he relied on the nobility of the Iroquois he accidentally met, the rumors about the "fierce" of which, obviously, he himself did not really believe. The Iroquois not only fed the lonely Frenchman, but gave him a guide to the country of their enemies - the Hurons. Among them, Brule lived for two years and only in 1619 returned to Quebec.

In 1621, Brule and another woodland vagabond, Grenoll, were sent by Champlain to reconnoiter the northern coast of the Huron. They discovered the North Strait there, a chain of the Manitoulin Islands, separating it from the main basin of the lake, the river. St. Marys, flowing from the "Great Upper Lake" into the North Channel, and the rapids on this river (Sault Ste. Marie). Apparently, they were the first in a few years - no later than 1628 - to pass along the eastern and northern shores of Lake Superior to 90 ° 30 "W: in this area (at 48 ° N) there are Lake Brule and the Brule River, which flows into the western part of Lake Superior, but illiterate forest vagrants could not write a sufficiently sensible account of this great discovery. “On the other side of the Freshwater Sea [Lake Huron] lies another very vast lake, which flows into that waterfall [Sault Ste. Marie] The named lake and the Freshwater Sea together stretch ... for four hundred leagues [about 1800 km], in a row testifying." Brule gives a fairly precise definition of the length of the northern coastline of the two Great Lakes, counting from the southeast corner of Huron to the western corner of Lake Superior, the largest body of freshwater on earth. and make an accurate map of his path, and the discovery of Lake Superior is often attributed to the Jesuits. It is only known about the further fate of Brule that in 1633, being among the Hurons, he somehow turned them against him and was killed in June.

Between 1634 and 1638 Champlain's "youngster" went in search of the salty Western Sea Jean Nicolet, an experienced sales agent. From the mouth of the St. Marys, he turned southwest and across the narrow Strait of Mackinac discovered the great Lake Michigan. On an Indian canoe, he went along the northern coast of Michigan to a long and narrow bay (Green Bay), followed it in a southwesterly direction to the river (Fox), which flows into the bay from the south, climbed this river to the headwaters. From the local Indians, Nicole learned that very close to him in the west is " big water': he thought that we are talking about the sea.

According to a more reliable version, from the headwaters of Fox, he moved west and almost imperceptibly crossed a low and short watershed to the river. Wisconsin, and this river brought him to the "Big Water", as the Indians called the river flowing south. Mississippi. Nicolet did not investigate it. He was under the impression, perhaps from the misunderstood stories of the local Indians, that the Mississippi was a comparatively short river flowing into the South Sea. And, returning to Quebec, he reported that he had discovered a navigable river, along which one could easily and quickly reach the Pacific Ocean. According to another version, dating back to the Jesuits, Nicolet stopped at the headwaters of the Fox and did not go further.

After the founding of Quebec, hundreds of French hunters and buyers and dozens of Jesuit monks headed inland. The laity mined furs, the Jesuits "won" souls, distributing among the Indians catholic faith. Their success in the matter of religious propaganda was not great, but in an effort to turn to the "true path" it is possible large quantity"misguided pagans", the Jesuits made major discoveries in the center of North America, though less than they attributed to themselves.

In 1628 the French government, at the urging of the Jesuits, banned evangelical worship in the colony. Because of this, Huguenot Protestants, the most enterprising and wealthy part of the French population, began to move to the English colonies. The persecution of the Huguenots greatly hindered the growth and economic development of Canada. French Catholic immigration to North America has always been negligible. While there were only 3,000 "whites" in Canada, in New England, whose colonization began almost a quarter of a century later, in 1640 there were already 24 thousand "whites" living.

First of all, the Jesuits carried out work among the lakeside Hurons. In 1634, three monks went to them, including Jean Brébeuf.In one village of the Hurons in January 1636, he saw and was the first to describe in detail the warehouse of human bones and their use in everyday life; the bones belonged to the slain Iroquois. Canadian forests are impenetrable in spring; the "fathers" were to travel "in the Indian way", taking boats up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. Catholic writers very colorfully describe the journeys of the Jesuits, surrounding them with an aura of martyrdom and even holiness. It must be said, however, that the conditions of their movement were the same as those of forest vagabonds, in whose lives it is very difficult to find signs of holiness: how many times did they have to haul their boats out onto dry land and carry them on their backs through the thickets of the banks in order to get around the rapids! With bloody legs, in rags, swollen from mosquito bites, exhausted by deprivation and fatigue, they finally reached the Huron camps ... Staying in dark, smoke-stained wigwams, teeming with insects ... was continuous torment ”(G. Bemer). However, the Hurons were not so terrible, and the Jesuits gradually gained confidence in them. After six years of propaganda, the Black Cassocks rounded up large numbers of Hurons into permanent settlements and established several mission stations near Lake Huron.

Jean Brebeuf is credited with the discovery of the fifth of the Great Lakes - Erie - in 1640. However, the first news of Niagara Falls - between Erie and Ontario - dates back to 1648. The Jesuit Paul Raguenaud was the first to report about the waterfall of "terrible height". In 1641–1642 Jesuit Isaac Zhog in a mission founded at the rapids of Sault Ste. Marie, he collected valuable information about the Sioux Indians who lived west of Lake Superior, and about the ways to them through this lake and "up the river (Missouri) that crosses their country." In the 40s. the Iroquois war broke out against the Hurons and the French allied with them, which lasted a quarter of a century. From 1648, the Iroquois, instigated by the British and Dutch, destroyed one by one all the Jesuit stations, killed all the French who fell into their hands, including Brébeuf and other "men in black cassocks", whom they especially hated, as well as their Protestant allies. Most of the Hurons were exterminated. Only a few hundred managed to escape to Quebec and settle in the area; the other part became part of the various tribes of the union of the Iroquois, their mortal enemies.

The attempts of the Jesuits to "convert" the Indians and create in Canada a special "state within a state" under the supreme authority of the Pope ended in complete failure. The colonial authorities (at the direction of the mother country) forced the "fathers" to resettle the converted Indians closer to the French villages and tried to turn them into Frenchmen as quickly as possible. The authorities favored marriages between "redskins" and "paleskins". This policy, vodka, smallpox and syphilis spread by the colonialists, as well as Dutch and English firearms in the hands of the Iroquois, led to the fact that most of the Indians in New France died out. But there is a new ethnic group French-Indian mestizos, which gave rise to a number of outstanding forest vagrants, thanks to whom the French and British discovered and explored the gigantic inland regions of North America.

The Jesuits sought to get away from the French colonial authorities. With the help of Indian and Métis guides, they completed the discovery of the Great Lakes and were the first Europeans to settle along their shores. Following in the footsteps of French forest vagabonds, who, buying furs, were able to find the sites of the most remote Indian tribes, the Jesuits often became pioneer explorers of the interior of North America and in the second half of the 17th century. entered the Mississippi basin.

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Western European colonization of "new" lands in the XVI-XVII centuries. - this is very important process exploration of the American continent. Europeans moved to uncharted lands in search of a better life. At the same time, the colonialists faced resistance and conflicts with the local residents - the Indians. In this lesson, you will learn how the conquest of Mexico and Central America took place, how the civilizations of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas were destroyed, and what are the results of this colonization.

Western European colonization of new lands

background

The discovery of new lands was associated with the search for new Europeans sea ​​routes to the East. The usual trade communications were cut by the Turks. Europeans needed precious metals and spices. The progress of shipbuilding and navigation allowed them to make long sea voyages. Technological superiority over the inhabitants of other continents (including the possession firearms) allowed the Europeans to make rapid territorial conquests. They soon discovered that the colonies could be a source of great profits and get rich quick.

Events

1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas partition colonial possessions between Spain and Portugal. The dividing line ran across the Atlantic Ocean from north to south.

1519 - about five hundred conquistadors, led by Cortes, landed in Mexico.

In 1521, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was captured. A new colony, Mexico, was founded on the conquered territory. ( about the Aztecs and their ruler Montezuma II).

1532-1535 - Conquistadors led by Pizarro conquer the Inca Empire.

1528 - the beginning of the conquest of the Mayan civilization. In 1697, the last Mayan city was captured (resistance lasted 169 years).

The penetration of Europeans into America led to massive epidemics and the death of a huge number of people. The Indians were not immune to the diseases of the Old World.

1600 - The English East India Company was created, which equipped and sent ships to the "Spice Islands".

1602 - Dutch East India Company established. From the government, the company received the right to seize land and manage the local population.

By 1641, most of the fortresses of Indonesia were in the hands of the Dutch.

1607 - City of Jamestown founded, first English settlement in the New World.

1608 - The French establish the colony of Quebec in Canada.

17th century - The French colonized the Mississippi River valley and founded the Louisiana colony there.

1626 - The Dutch found New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island (future New York).

1619 - English colonists bring the first group of slaves into North America.

1620 - English Puritans found the colony of New Plymouth (north of Jamestown). They are considered the founders of America - the Pilgrim Fathers.

End of the 17th century - in America there are already 13 English colonies, each of which considered itself a small state (state).

Members

Conquistadors - Spanish conquerors who participated in the conquest of the New World.

Hernan Cortes- Spanish nobleman, conquistador. Led the conquest of the Aztec state.

Francisco Pizarro- conquistador, led the conquest of the state of the Incas.

Conclusion

In the 16th century, two major colonial empires emerged - the Spanish and the Portuguese. The dominance of Spain and Portugal in South America was established.

The colony was headed by a viceroy appointed by the king.

In Mexico and Peru, the Spaniards organized the mining of gold and silver. Trade in colonial goods brought great profits. Merchants sold goods in Europe 1000 times more expensive than the price at which they were bought in the colonies. Europeans got acquainted with corn, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, molasses, cotton.

Gradually, a single world market took shape. Over time, a slave-owning plantation economy developed in the colonies. The Indians were forced to work on the plantations, and from the beginning of the 17th century. - slaves from Africa.

The colonies became a source of enrichment for the Europeans. This led to the rivalry of European countries for the possession of colonies.

In the XVII century, France and Holland pushed the Spaniards and Portuguese in the colonies.

In the XVI-XVIII centuries. England won the battle for the seas. It became the strongest maritime and colonial power in the world.

The lesson will focus on the Western European colonization of "new" lands in the 16th-17th centuries.

The great geographical discoveries radically changed the vector of development of the American continent. XVI-XVII centuries in the history of the New World is called conquista, or colonization (which means "conquest").

The natives of the American continent were numerous Indian tribes, and in the north - the Aleuts and Eskimos. Many of them are well known today. So, in North America, the Apache tribes lived (Fig. 1), popularized later in cowboy films. Central America is represented by the Maya civilization (Fig. 2), and on the territory modern state Mexico was the home of the Aztecs. Their capital was in modern capital Mexico - Mexico City - and was then called Tenochtitlan (Fig. 3). In South America, the Inca civilization was the largest Indian state.

Rice. 1. Apache tribes

Rice. 2. Maya civilization

Rice. 3. The capital of the Aztec civilization - Tenochtitlan

Participants in the colonization of America (conquests) were called conquistadors, and their leaders were called adelantados. The conquistadors were impoverished Spanish knights. The main reason that prompted them to seek happiness in America was the ruin, the end of the reconquista, as well as the economic and political aspirations of the Spanish crown. The most famous adelantodo were the conqueror of Mexico, who destroyed the Aztec civilization, Hernando Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, who conquered the Inca civilization, and Hernando de Sota, the first European to discover the Mississippi River. The conquistadors were robbers and invaders. Them main goal there was military glory and personal enrichment.

Hernando Cortes is the most famous conquistador, the conqueror of Mexico, who destroyed the Aztec empire (Fig. 4). In July 1519, Hernando Cortes landed with an army on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Leaving the garrison, he went deep into the continent. The conquest of Mexico was accompanied by physical extermination local population, plundering and burning the cities of the Indians. Cortes had allies from the Indians. Despite the fact that the Europeans surpassed the Indians in the quality of weapons, their numbers were thousands of times smaller. Cortes concluded an agreement with one of the Indian tribes, which made up the bulk of his troops. According to the treaty, after the conquest of Mexico, this tribe was to gain independence. However, this agreement was not respected. In November 1519, Cortes, together with his allies, captured the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. For more than six months, the Spaniards held power in the city. Only on the night of July 1, 1520, the Aztecs managed to expel the invaders from the city. The Spaniards lost all artillery, they were great human losses. Soon, having received reinforcements from Cuba, Cortes again captured the Aztec capital. In 1521, the Aztec kingdom fell. Until 1524, Hernando Cortés was the sole ruler of Mexico.

Rice. 4. Hernando Cortes

The Maya civilization lived south of the Aztecs, in Central America, on the Yucatan Peninsula. In 1528, the Spaniards began to conquer the Mayan territories. However, the Maya resisted for more than 169 years, and only in 1697 the Spaniards were able to capture the last city inhabited by the Maya tribe. Today, about 6 million descendants of the Maya Indians live in Central America.

A famous adelantado who conquered the Inca empire was Francisco Pizarro (Fig. 5). The first two expeditions of Pizarro 1524-1525 and 1526 were unsuccessful. Only in 1531 did he set off on his third expedition to conquer the Inca empire. In 1533, Pizarro captured the leader of the Incas - Atahualpa. He managed to get a large ransom for the leader, and then Pizarro killed him. In 1533, the Spaniards captured the capital of the Incas - the city of Cusco. In 1535, Pizarro founded the city of Lima. The Spaniards called the captured territory Chile, which means "cold." The consequences of this expedition were tragic for the Indians. For half a century in the conquered territories, the number of Indians has decreased by more than 5 times. This was due not only to the physical extermination of the local population, but also to the diseases that the Europeans brought to the continent.

Rice. 5. Francisco Pizarro

In 1531, Hernando de Soto (Fig. 6) took part in the campaign of Francis Pizarro against the Incas, and in 1539 he was appointed governor of Cuba and undertook conquest to North America. In May 1539, Hernando de Sota landed on the coast of Florida and marched to the Alabama River. In May 1541, he came to the coast of the Mississippi River, crossed it and reached the valley of the Arkansas River. He then fell ill, was forced to turn back, and died in Louisiana in May 1542. His companions returned to Mexico in 1543. Although contemporaries considered de Soto's campaign a failure, its significance was nevertheless very great. Aggressive attitude conquerors to the local population led to the outflow of Indian tribes from the territory of the Mississippi River. This facilitated the further colonization of these territories.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. Spain took over huge territories on the American continent. Spain held these lands for a long time, and the last Spanish colony was conquered only in 1898 by a new state - the United States of America.

Rice. 6. Hernando de Soto

Not only Spain colonized the lands of the American continent. At the end of the 16th century, England made two unsuccessful attempts to establish colonies in North America. Only in 1605 did two joint-stock companies receive a license from King James I to colonize Virginia. At that time, the term Virginia meant the entire territory of North America.

First London Virginia Company licensed to southern part North America, and the Plymouth Company - to the northern part. Officially, both companies set as their goal the spread of Christianity on the continent, the license gave them the right to search and mine gold, silver and other precious metals on the continent by all means.

In 1607, the city of Jamestown was founded - the first settlement of the British in America (Fig. 7). In 1619, two major events took place. This year Governor George Yardley transferred some of his powers to a council of burghers, thus establishing the New World's first elected legislative assembly. In the same year, a group of English colonists acquired Africans of Angolan origin and, despite the fact that they were not yet officially slaves, the history of slavery in the United States of America begins from that moment (Fig. 8).

Rice. 7. Jamestown - the first English settlement in America

Rice. 8. Slavery in America

The population formed colonies difficult relationship with Indian tribes. The colonists were repeatedly attacked by them. In December 1620, a ship carrying Puritan Calvinists, the so-called Pilgrim Fathers, arrived on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts. This event is considered the beginning of the active colonization of the American continent by the British. By the end of the 17th century, England had 13 colonies on the American continent. Among them: Virginia (early Virginia), New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Thus, by the end of the 17th century, the British had colonized the entire Atlantic coast of the modern United States.

At the end of the 16th century, France began to build its colonial empire, which stretched west from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the so-called Rocky Mountains, and south to the Gulf of Mexico. France colonizes the Antilles, and in South America establishes the colony of Guiana, which is still French territory.

The second largest colonizer of Central and South America after Spain is Portugal. It took over the territory that today is the state of Brazil. Gradually, the Portuguese colonial empire in the second half of the 17th century declined and gave way to the Dutch in South America.

The Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621, acquires a monopoly on trade in South America and West Africa. Gradually, in the 17th century, the leading place among the colonial powers was occupied by England and Holland (Fig. 9). Between them there is a struggle for trade routes.

Rice. 9. Possessions of European countries on the American continent

Summing up the results of Western European colonization in the 16th-17th centuries, the following can be distinguished.

social change

The colonization of America led to the extermination of the local population, the remaining natives were driven into reservations, subjected to social discrimination. The conquistadors destroyed the ancient cultures of the New World. Christianity spread along with the colonialists on the American continent.

Economic changes

Colonization led to the shift of the most important trade routes from the inland seas to the ocean. Thus, the Mediterranean Sea has lost its decisive importance for the economy of Europe. The influx of gold and silver led to a fall in the price of precious metals and a rise in the price of other commodities. Active development of trade in global scale stimulated entrepreneurial activity.

household changes

The menu of Europeans included potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa beans, chocolate. Europeans brought tobacco from America, and from that moment such a habit as tobacco smoking has been spreading.

Homework

1. What do you think caused the development of new lands?
2. Tell us about the conquests of the Aztec, Maya and Inca tribes by the colonists.
3. What kind European states were the leading colonial powers at the time?
4. Tell us about the social, economic and domestic changes that occurred as a result of Western European colonization.

1. Godsbay.ru ().
2. Megabook.ru ().
3. worldview.net().
4. Biofile.ru ().

1. Vedyushkin V.A., Burin S.N. Textbook on the history of the New Age, Grade 7, M., 2013.
2. Verlinden C., Mathis G. Conquerors of America. Columbus. Cortes / Per. with him. HELL. Dera, I.I. Zharova. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1997.
3. Gulyaev V.I. In the footsteps of the conquistadors. - M.: Nauka, 1976.
4. Duverger Christian. Cortes. - M.: Young Guard, 2005.
5. Innes Hammond. Conquistadors. History of the Spanish conquests of the XV-XVI centuries. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2002.
6. Kofman A.F. Conquistadors. Three Chronicles of the Conquest of America. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2009.
7. Paul John, Robinson Charles. Aztecs and conquistadors. The death of a great civilization. - M.: Eksmo, 2009.
8. Prescott William Hickling. Conquest of Mexico. Conquest of Peru. - M .: Publishing house "V. Sekachev, 2012.
9. Hamming John. Conquest of the Inca Empire. The Curse of a Lost Civilization / Per. from English. L.A. Karpova. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2009.
10. Yudovskaya A.Ya. General history. History of the New Age. 1500-1800. M.: "Enlightenment", 2012.

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Colonization of America

How did the colonization of America take place?

European colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th and 11th centuries, when western Scandinavian sailors explored and briefly settled small areas on the coast of modern Canada. These Scandinavians were Vikings who discovered and settled in Greenland, and then they sailed to the arctic region of North America near Greenland and down to neighboring Canada to explore and then settle. According to the Icelandic sagas, violent conflicts with the indigenous population eventually forced the Scandinavians to abandon these settlements.

Discovery of North American lands

Extensive European colonization began in 1492 when a Spanish expedition led by Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route on the Far East, but inadvertently moored to the lands that became known to Europeans as " New world". Moving through the northern part of Hispaniola on December 5, 1492, which was inhabited by the Taino people since the 7th century, Europeans founded their first settlement in the Americas. This was followed by European conquest, large-scale exploration, colonization and industrial development. During his first two voyages (1492-93), Columbus reached the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands, including Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1497, setting out from Bristol on behalf of England, John Cabot landed on the North American coast, and a year later, on his third voyage, Columbus reached the coast of South America. As a sponsor of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Spain was the first European power to settle and colonize most of North America and the Caribbean up to the southernmost tip of South America.

Which countries colonized America

Other countries, such as France, established colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America, on a number of islands in the Caribbean, as well as on small coastal parts South America. Portugal colonized Brazil, tried to colonize the coast of modern Canada, and its representatives settled for a long period in the northwest (east bank) of the La Plata River. In the era of great geographical discoveries, the beginning of territorial expansion by some European countries was laid. Europe was occupied with internal wars, and was slowly recovering from the loss of population as a result of the bubonic plague; therefore the rapid growth of her wealth and power was unpredictable at the beginning of the 15th century.

In the end everything western hemisphere came under the apparent control of European governments, leading to profound changes in its landscape, population, as well as changes in its flora and fauna. In the 19th century, more than 50 million people left Europe alone for resettlement in North and South America. The time after 1492 is known as the period of the Columbian exchange, the numerous and widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, population (including slaves), infectious diseases, as well as ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres, which followed the voyages of Columbus to North and South America.

Scandinavian voyages to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence. The Scandinavian colony in Greenland was established at the end of the 10th century and continued until the middle of the 15th century, with a court and parliamentary assemblies sitting in Brattalida and a bishop who was based in Sargan. The remains of a Scandinavian settlement at L'Anse-o-Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada were discovered in 1960 and have been dated around 1000 (carbon analysis showed 990-1050 AD); L'Anse-o-Meadows is the only settlement which has been widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian transoceanic contact. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It should also be noted that the settlement may be related to the failed Vinland colony founded by Leif Erickson around the same time, or more broadly to the West Scandinavian colonization of the Americas.

Colonial history of America

Early explorations and conquests were made by the Spanish and Portuguese immediately after their own final reconquest of Iberia in 1492. In 1494, by the Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world into two parts for exploration and colonization, from northern to southern border, cutting through the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of modern Brazil. Based on this treaty and based on earlier claims by the Spanish explorer Núñez de Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513, the Spaniards conquered large territories in North, Central and South America.

The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortes conquered the Aztec kingdom and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca empire. As a result, by the mid-16th century, the Spanish crown had gained control of much of western South America, Central America, and southern North America, in addition to the early Caribbean territories it had conquered. During the same period, Portugal took over land in North America (Canada) and colonized much of the eastern region of South America, naming it Santa Cruz and Brazil.

Other European countries soon began to challenge the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. England and France tried to establish colonies in the Americas in the 16th century, but failed. England and France succeeded in establishing permanent colonies in the next century along with the Dutch Republic. Some of these were in the Caribbean, which had already been repeatedly conquered by the Spaniards, or depopulated by disease, while other colonies were in eastern North America, north of Florida, which had not been colonized by Spain.

Early European possessions in North America included Spanish Florida, Spanish New Mexico, the English colonies of Virginia (with their North Atlantic offshoot, Bermuda) and New England, French colonies Akeydia and Canada, the Swedish colony of New Sweden, and the Dutch colony of New Netherland. In the 18th century, Denmark-Norway resurrected their former colonies in Greenland, while the Russian Empire established itself in Alaska. Denmark-Norway later made several claims to land ownership in the Caribbean starting in the 1600s.

As more countries gained interest in colonizing the Americas, the competition for territory became more and more fierce. The colonists often faced the threat of attacks from neighboring colonies, as well as native tribes and pirates.

Who paid for the expeditions of the discoverers of America?

The first phase is well funded European activities in North and South America began with the intersection Atlantic Ocean Christopher Columbus (1492-1504), financed by Spain, whose original goal was to try to find a new route to India and China, then known as the "Indies". He was followed by other explorers such as John Cabot, who was funded by England and reached Newfoundland. Pedro Alvarez Cabral reached Brazil and claimed it on behalf of Portugal.

Amerigo Vespucci, working for Portugal on voyages from 1497 to 1513, established that Columbus had reached new continents. Cartographers still use a Latinized version of their first name, America, for the two continents. Other explorers: Giovanni Verrazzano, whose voyage was funded by France in 1524; the Portuguese João Vaz Cortireal in Newfoundland; João Fernández Lavrador, Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real and João Alvarez Fagundes in Newfoundland, Greenland, Labrador and Nova Scotia (from 1498 to 1502, and in 1520); Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), Henry Hudson (1560-1611), and Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) who explored Canada.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from west coast New World. In fact, sticking to the previous history of conquest, Balboa claimed that the Spanish crown laid claim to the Pacific Ocean and all adjacent lands. This was before 1517, before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America, landing on the Yucatan coast in search of slaves.

These explorations were followed, in particular by Spain, by a stage of conquest: the Spaniards, having just completed the liberation of Spain from Muslim domination, were the first to colonize the Americas, applying the same model of European administration of their territories in the New World.

colonial period

Ten years after the discovery of Columbus, the administration of Hispaniola was transferred to Nicolás de Ovando of the Order of Alcantara, founded during the Reconquista (liberation of Spain from Muslim domination). As on Iberian Peninsula, the inhabitants of Hispaniola received new landowners-owners while religious orders led the local administration. Gradually, an encomienda system was established there, which obliged European settlers to pay tribute (having access to local labor and taxation).

A relatively common misconception is that a small number of conquistadors conquered vast territories, bringing only epidemics and their powerful caballeros there. In fact, recent archaeological excavations gave reason to believe the existence of a large numbering of the Spanish-Indian alliance in the hundreds of thousands. Hernán Cortés eventually conquered Mexico with the help of Tlaxcala in 1519-1521, while the Inca conquest was carried out by about 40,000 traitors of the same people, led by Francisco Pizarro, between 1532 and 1535.

How did the relations between the European colonists and the Indians develop?

A century and a half after the voyages of Columbus, the number of indigenous people in the Americas decreased sharply by about 80% (from 50 million in 1492 to 8 million people in 1650), mainly due to outbreaks of diseases of the Old World.

In 1532, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, sent the Viceroy to Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, to prevent the movement of pro-independence that arose during the reign of Cortés, who finally returned to Spain in 1540. Two years later, Charles V signed the New Laws (which replaced the Laws of Burgos of 1512) banning slavery and repartimiento, but also claiming ownership of American lands and considering all the people inhabiting those lands to be his subjects.

When in May 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued the bull "Inter caetera", according to which the new lands were transferred to the Kingdom of Spain, in exchange he demanded the evangelization of the people. So, during the second voyage of Columbus, Benedictine monks accompanied him along with twelve other priests. Because slavery was forbidden among Christians, and could only be applied to prisoners of war who were not Christians, or to men already sold as slaves, the debate over Christianization was particularly heated during the 16th century. In 1537, the papal bull "Sublimis Deus" finally recognized the fact that Native Americans possessed souls, thereby forbidding their enslavement, but did not end the discussion. Some argued that the natives, who rebelled against the authorities and were captured, could still be enslaved.

Later, a debate was held in Valladolid between the Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas and another Dominican philosopher, Juan Gines de Sepúlveda, where the former argued that Native Americans were creatures with souls, like all other human beings, while the latter argued the opposite and justified their enslavement.

Christianization of Colonial America

The Christianization process was brutal in the beginning: when the first Franciscans arrived in Mexico in 1524, they burned the places dedicated to the pagan cult, cooling off relations with much of the local population. In the 1530s they began to adapt Christian practices to local customs, including the building of new churches on the sites of ancient places of worship, which led to the mixing of Old World Christianity with local religions. Spanish Roman Catholic Church, needing native labor and cooperation, preached in Quechua, Nahuatl, Guaraní and other Indian languages, which contributed to the expansion of the use of these indigenous languages ​​and provided some of them with writing systems. One of the first primitive schools for Native Americans was one founded by Fray Pedro de Gante in 1523.

In order to encourage their troops, the conquistadors often gave away Indian cities for the use of their troops and officers. Black African slaves replaced local labor in some places, including in the West Indies, where the native population was close to extinction on many islands.

During this time, the Portuguese gradually moved from the original plan of establishing trading posts to extensive colonization of what is now Brazil. They brought millions of slaves to work their plantations. The Portuguese and Spanish royal governments intended to manage these settlements and receive at least 20% of all treasures found (in Quinto Real, collected by the Casa de Contratación government agency), in addition to collecting any taxes they might levy. By the end of the 16th century, American silver accounted for one-fifth general budget Spain. In the 16th century, about 240,000 Europeans landed at American ports.

Colonization of America in search of wealth

Inspired by the wealth the Spaniards derived from their colonies based on the conquered lands of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large Indian settlements in the 16th century, the early English began to settle permanently in America and hoped for the same rich discoveries when they founded their first permanent settlement. at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They were financed by the same joint-stock companies, such as the Virginia Freight Company, financed by wealthy Englishmen, who exaggerated the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this colony was the hope of finding gold.

It took strong leaders, such as John Smith, to convince the Jamestown colonists that in their search for gold, they need to forget about their basic needs for food and shelter, and about the biblical principle "he who does not work, neither shall he eat." The mortality rate was dismal and caused despair among the colonists.Many supply missions were organized to support the colony.Later, thanks to the work of John Rolfe and others, tobacco became a commercial export crop, which ensured the sustainable economic development of Virginia and the neighboring colony of Maryland.

From the very beginning of the Virginia settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor was a large part of the immigrants, in search of a new life, who arrived in foreign colonies to work under contract. During the 17th century, wage laborers made up three-quarters of all European immigrants in the Chesapeake region. Most of the hired workers were teenagers, originally from England, with poor economic prospects in their homeland. Their fathers signed documents that gave these teenagers the opportunity to come to America for free and get unpaid work until they reach adulthood. They were provided with food, clothing, housing and training in agricultural work or household services. American landowners needed workers and were willing to pay for their passage to America if these workers served them for several years. By exchanging a passage to America for unpaid work for five to seven years, after this period they could begin an independent life in America. Many migrants from England died within the first few years.

Economic advantage also prompted the creation of the Darien Project, the ill-fated venture of the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s. The Darien project had as its object the control of trade through that part of the world, and thereby was to assist Scotland in strengthening her strength in world trade. However, the project was doomed due to poor planning, low food supplies, poor leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, and a devastating disease. The failure of the Darien Project was one of the reasons that led the Kingdom of Scotland to enter into the Act of Union in 1707 with the Kingdom of England, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and giving Scotland commercial access to the English, now British, colonies.

In the French colonial regions, sugar plantations in the Caribbean were the backbone of the economy. In Canada, the fur trade with the locals was very important. About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers. The vast majority became farmers, settling along the St. Lawrence River. With favorable conditions for health (absence of disease) and plenty of land and food, their numbers grew in geometric progression up to 65,000 by 1760. The colony was ceded to Great Britain in 1760, but there were few social, religious, legal, cultural and economic changes in a society that remained true to the newly formed traditions.

Religious immigration to the New World

Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as the settlers of the colonies of Spain and Portugal (and later, France) belonged to this faith. The English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, were more religiously diverse. The settlers of these colonies included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans and other nonconformists, English Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Jews of various ethnicities.

Many groups of colonists went to America in order to gain the right to practice their religion without persecution. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century disrupted the unity of Western Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which were often persecuted by state authorities. In England, many people came to the question of the organization of the Church of England towards the end of the 16th century. One of the main manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites, which they believed had no mention in the Bible.

A firm believer in the principle of government based on divine right, Charles I, King of England and Scotland, persecuted religious dissenters. Waves of repression led about 20,000 Puritans to migrate to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they established several colonies. Later in the same century, the new colony of Pennsylvania was given to William Penn as a settlement of the king's debt to his father. The government of this colony was established by William Penn about 1682, primarily to provide a refuge for persecuted English Quakers; but other residents were also welcome. Baptists, Quakers, German and Swiss Protestants, Anabaptists flocked to Pennsylvania. were very attractive good opportunity get cheap land, freedom of religion and the right to improve their own lives.

The peoples of the Americas before and after the start of European colonization

Slavery was a common practice in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans, as different groups American Indians captured and held representatives of other tribes as slaves. Many of these captives were subjected to human sacrifice in Native American civilizations such as the Aztecs. In response to some cases of enslavement of the local population in the Caribbean during the early years of colonization, the Spanish crown passed a series of laws prohibiting slavery as early as 1512. A new, stricter set of laws was passed in 1542 called the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Protection of the Indians, or simply the New Laws. They were created to prevent the exploitation of indigenous peoples by encomenderos or landowners by severely limiting their power and dominance. This helped to greatly reduce Indian slavery, although not completely. Later, with the arrival of other European colonial powers in the New World, the enslavement of the native population increased, as these empires did not have anti-slavery legislation for several decades. Indigenous populations declined (mainly due to European diseases, but also from forced exploitation and crime). Later, the indigenous workers were replaced by Africans brought in through the large commercial slave trade.

How were blacks brought to America?

By the 18th century, the overwhelming number of black slaves was such that Native American slavery was much rarer. The Africans who were taken on board the slave ships sailing to North and South America were mostly supplied from their African home countries by the coastal tribes, who captured them and sold them. Europeans bought slaves from local African tribes who took them prisoner in exchange for rum, weapons, gunpowder and other goods.

Slave trade in America

An estimated 12 million Africans were involved in the total slave trade in the islands of the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. The vast majority of these slaves were sent to the sugar colonies in the Caribbean and Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the number of slaves had to be constantly replenished. At best, about 600,000 African slaves were imported into the US, or 5% of the 12 million slaves exported from Africa. Life expectancy was much higher in the US (because of better food, fewer diseases, more easy work and the best medical care), so that the number of slaves grew rapidly from the excess of births over deaths and reached 4 million by 1860 according to the census. From 1770 to 1860, the natural growth rate of North American slaves was much higher than the population of any country in Europe, and was almost twice as fast as that of England.

Slaves imported into the thirteen colonies / USA for certain period time:

• 1619-1700 - 21.000
• 1701-1760 - 189.000
• 1761-1770 - 63.000
• 1771-1790 - 56.000
• 1791-1800 - 79.000
• 1801-1810 - 124.000
• 1810-1865 - 51.000
• Total - 597.000

Indigenous losses during colonization

The European way of life included a long history of direct contact with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and various domesticated birds, from which many diseases originated. Thus, unlike the indigenous peoples, the Europeans accumulated antibodies. Large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 brought new microbes to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Epidemics of smallpox (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), typhoid (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) swept America after contact with Europeans, killing between 10 million and 100 million people, up to 95% of the indigenous population of North and South America. Cultural and political instability accompanied these losses, which together greatly contributed to the efforts of various colonists in New England and Massachusetts to gain control of the great wealth in land and resources commonly enjoyed by the indigenous communities.

Such diseases have added human mortality to an undeniably enormous severity and scale - and it is futile to attempt to determine its full extent with any degree of accuracy. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary widely.

Others have argued that the large population differences after pre-Columbian history are the reason for treating the largest population count with caution. Such estimates may reflect historical population highs, while indigenous populations may have been at levels slightly below these highs, or at a time of decline just prior to European contact. Indigenous peoples reached their ultimate lows in most areas of the Americas in the early 20th century; and in some cases growth has returned.

List of European colonies in the Americas

Spanish colonies

• Cuba (until 1898)
• New Granada (1717-1819)
• Captaincy General of Venezuela
• New Spain (1535-1821)
• Nueva Extremadura
• Nueva Galicia
• Nuevo Reino de Leon
• Nuevo Santander
• Nueva Vizcaya
• California
• Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico
• Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824)
• Captaincy General of Chile
• Puerto Rico (1493-1898)
• Rio de la Plata (1776-1814)
• Hispaniola (1493-1865); the island, now included in the islands of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was under Spanish rule in whole or in part from 1492- to 1865.

English and (after 1707) British colonies

• British America (1607- 1783)
• Thirteen Colonies (1607-1783)
• Rupert's Land (1670-1870)
• British Columbia (1793-1871)
• British North America (1783-1907)
• British West Indies
• Belize

Courland

• New Courland (Tobago) (1654-1689)

Danish colonies

• Danish West Indies (1754-1917)
• Greenland (1814-present)

Dutch colonies

• New Netherland (1609-1667)
• Essequibo (1616-1815)
• Dutch Virgin Islands (1625-1680)
• Burbice (1627-1815)
• New Walcheren (1628-1677)
• Dutch Brazil (1630-1654)
• Pomerun (1650-1689)
• Cayenne (1658-1664)
• Demerara (1745-1815)
• Suriname (1667-1954) (After independence, still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1975)
• Curaçao and Dependencies (1634-1954) (Aruba and Curaçao are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire; 1634-present)
• Sint Eustatius and dependencies (1636-1954) (Sint Maarten is still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sint Eustatius and Saba; 1636-present)

French colonies

• New France (1604-1763)
• Acadia (1604-1713)
• Canada (1608-1763)
• Louisiana (1699-1763, 1800-1803)
• Newfoundland (1662-1713)
• Ile Royale (1713-1763)
• French Guiana (1763–present)
• French West Indies
• Saint Domingo (1659-1804, now Haiti)
• Tobago
• Virgin Islands
• Antarctic France (1555-1567)
• Equatorial France (1612-1615)

Order of Malta

• Saint Barthelemy (1651-1665)
• Saint Christopher (1651-1665)
• St. Croix (1651-1665)
• Saint Martin (1651-1665)

Norwegian colonies

• Greenland (986-1814)
• Danish-Norwegian West Indies (1754-1814)
• Sverdrup Islands (1898-1930)
• Land of Eric the Red (1931-1933)

Portuguese colonies

• Colonial Brazil (1500-1815) became a Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
• Terra do Labrador (1499/1500-) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
• Corte Real Land, also known as Terra Nova dos Bacalhaus (Land of the Cod) - Terra Nova (Newfoundland) (1501) claimed territory (settled periodically, from time to time).
• Portuguese Cove Saint Philip (1501-1696)
• Nova Scotia (1519 -1520) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
• Barbados (1536-1620)
• Colonia del Sacramento (1680-1705 / 1714-1762 / 1763-1777 (1811-1817))
• Sisplatina (1811-1822, now Uruguay)
• French Guiana (1809-1817)

Russian colonies

• Russian America (Alaska) (1799-1867)

Scottish colonies

• Nova Scotia (1622-1632)
• Darien Project on the Isthmus of Panama (1698-1700)
• City of Stuarts, Carolina (1684-1686)

Swedish colonies

• New Sweden (1638-1655)
• St. Barthelemy (1785-1878)
• Guadeloupe (1813-1815)

American museums and exhibitions of slavery

In 2007 the National Museum American history The Smithsonian Institution and the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) have co-hosted a traveling exhibit to recount the strategic alliances and bitter conflicts between European empires (English, Spanish, French) and the natives living in the American North. The exhibition was presented in three languages ​​and from different points of view. Artifacts on display included rare surviving local and European artifacts, maps, documents, and ritual objects from museums and royal collections on both sides of the Atlantic. The exhibition opened in Richmond, Virginia on March 17, 2007 and closed at the Smithsonian International Gallery on October 31, 2009.

A linked online exhibition is dedicated to the international origins of the societies of Canada and the United States, and to the 400th anniversary of the three permanent settlements at Jamestown (1607), Quebec (1608), and Santa Fe (1609). The site is available in three languages.