Loading
Unit 2
6–8% of examBetween the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and the start of the French and Indian War, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Britain built very different colonies in North America. You'll compare Britain's colonial regions, follow the Atlantic trade that tied them to Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, and see how slavery, conflict with Native peoples and new religious and political ideas shaped colonial life. By 1754 British colonists felt proudly British but were also used to governing themselves, which set up the clashes of Period 3.
Longer videos that cover the whole unit. Good for a first pass or a final review.
Set the scene for 1607–1754: Spain already had a large American empire, and now England, France and the Netherlands raced to found colonies of their own, while Native nations dealt with newcomers, disease and changing trade. Knowing this rivalry, and what pushed many English people to leave home, such as a growing population, hard economic times and religious conflict, helps you explain why the colonies grew the way they did.
Key terms
Spain built missions and forts to convert Native people and pull wealth from the land, while France and the Netherlands sent few settlers and relied on the fur trade, alliances and intermarriage with Native peoples. England sent far more colonists, men and women looking for land, opportunity and religious freedom, so English colonies grew fast and pushed Native peoples off their land; Jamestown (1607), run by the Virginia Company, survived thanks to tobacco.
Key terms
New England, founded by Puritans, grew around small towns and family farms, plus fishing, shipbuilding and trade, and ran local affairs in town meetings. The Middle Colonies, such as Pennsylvania and New York, sold wheat and other grains abroad and drew settlers from many parts of Europe, which made them the most diverse and tolerant region. In the Chesapeake (Virginia and Maryland) and North Carolina, tobacco was grown first by indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans, while South Carolina, Georgia and the British West Indies grew rice and sugar on plantations where enslaved people were often the majority.
Key terms
An Atlantic economy linked Europe, Africa and the Americas: colonies shipped out goods like tobacco, sugar, rice, fish and lumber, while manufactured goods and enslaved Africans flowed in. Britain tried to control this trade through mercantilism, the idea that colonies exist to make the home country rich, and laws like the Navigation Acts, but colonists often got around the rules, and trade with Europeans also brought Native communities new goods and deadly diseases.
Key terms
European rivals and Native nations both cooperated and fought: the French, Dutch, British and Spanish armed Native allies, and Native groups often teamed up with Europeans against their own rivals. Fights over land led to wars like Metacom's War (King Philip's War, 1675–1676) in New England, and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for about twelve years, after which the Spanish made more room for Pueblo culture.
Key terms
Every British colony took part in the Atlantic slave trade, from New England farms with few enslaved workers to Chesapeake and Carolina plantations with many, while most Africans enslaved in the British trade were sent to the sugar islands of the West Indies. As slavery grew, colonies passed slave codes that defined it by race and made the children of enslaved mothers enslaved for life, and enslaved people resisted, openly in revolts like the Stono Rebellion (1739) and quietly by slowing work, running away and keeping their families and cultures alive.
Key terms
Trade, a shared print culture and British political ideas made the colonies more English over time (Anglicization), even as many European religions and ethnic groups made them more diverse. The First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, led by preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, and Enlightenment ideas about reason and natural rights encouraged colonists to question authority, and growing distrust of British officials over trade, frontier defense and self-rule laid the groundwork for later resistance.
Key terms
This skill topic asks you to compare: how were the Spanish, French, Dutch and British colonies alike and different, and how did New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake and the southern colonies differ in economy, labor, religion and government? Strong comparisons also explain why the differences existed, such as climate, the colonists' goals and their relations with Native peoples.
Key terms