The Colonization Of The Americas

I. Settlement before 1607

A. Indigenous settlement

Although there is some ambiguity in the anthropological record, it seems that the first human settlers to the American continent crossed the Bering strait between modern day Russia and Alaska somewhere around 14,000 years ago. These Siberian tribes gradually descended throughout North and South America later becoming known as American Indians. It is not excluded, however, that there are many other peoples who came from Pacific Islands, parts of Asia, and other areas. We simply do not know all the peoples who came to the American continent over the millennia to settle.

What is clear, however, is that these peoples formed great civilizations which lasted for millennia. The Aztecs, the Incas, the Comanches, and thousands of other tribes which inhabited the Americas spoke varied languages, built monuments, towns, roads, had sophisticated trading networks, practiced diplomacy, waged war, etc. However, in part because of the destruction wrought by European settlement, there is only sparse record of these civilizations.

B. Important Dates in European Settlement

1000 A.D. - The Viking Leif Ericson explores the east coast of North America and sights Newfoundland, in modern-day Canada, establishing a short-lived settlement there.

1492 - Christopher Columbus makes the first of four voyages to the New World, funded by the Spanish Crown, seeking a western sea route to Asia. On October 12, sailing the Santa Maria, he lands in the Bahamas, thinking it is an outlying Japanese island.

1497 - John Cabot of England explores the Atlantic coast of Canada, claiming the area for the English King, Henry VII. Cabot is the first of many European explorers to seek a Northwest Passage (northern water route) to Asia.

1499 - Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, sights the coast of South America during a voyage of discovery for Spain.

1507 - The name "America" is first used in a geography book referring to the New World with Amerigo Vespucci getting credit for the discovery of the continent.

1513 - Ponce de León of Spain lands in Florida.

1517 - Martin Luther launches the Protestant Reformation in Europe, bringing an end to the sole authority of the Catholic Church, resulting in the growth of numerous Protestant religious sects.

1519 - Hernando Cortés conquers the Aztec empire.

1519-1522 - Ferdinand Magellan is the first person to sail around the world.

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazano, sponsored by France, lands in the area around the Carolinas, then sails north and discovers the Hudson River, and continues northward into Narragansett Bay and Nova Scotia.

1541 - Hernando de Soto of Spain "discovers" the Mississippi River.

1565 - The first permanent European colony in North America is founded at St. Augustine (Florida) by the Spanish.

1587 - The first English child, Virginia Dare, is born in Roanoke, August 18.

1588 - In Europe, the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English results in Great Britain replacing Spain as the dominant world power and leads to a gradual decline of Spanish influence in the New World and the widening of English imperial interests.

1606 - The London Company sponsors a colonizing expedition to Virginia.

II. English Colonization

We shall see that the founding of the United States was inspired by a hefty dose of capitalism and religion.

A. Joint Stock Companies

Once the new world had been discovered, there was a wave of colonization by European countries, primarily by England, Spain, Portugal, and France. Each claimed different areas of the Americas, and each had their own approach. In the case of England, they employed "joint-stock companies" as a means of settlement. The English joint stock companies were "closed corporations" in the sense that admission was necessary if a merchant wished to trade within the area over which the guild had control. The guilds often sought a charter from the crown which gave legal recognition to the trade rights it claimed. Certainly, these joint-stock companies had a great economic component, because they provided a means of raising capital for colonial construction. Borrowing from 15th century Italian financial techniques, joint stock companies pooled investors' capital resources to expand operations and distribute risk. In the great English commercial development in the 16th century, a corporate entity licensed by the crown with certain trade privileges was merged with this capital-pooling device. The result was the emergence of the great English trading companies of the late 16th early 17th century which were a tool of commercial and colonial expansion.

A joint-stock company is a type of corporation. Corporation, in this sense, is a body or association of persons upon whom the crown conferred rights and powers appropriate for carrying out certain public functions. Such institutions as guilds, boroughs, ecclesiastical bodies, and educational institutions benefited from incorporation. The grant of corporate status was expressed in a legal charter which imposed duties and responsibilities as well as powers. The crown could regulate relations among and within social groups and exercise control over the internal affairs of the realm. In addition, the charter could grant land, the right to convey title on it's

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