Highlands Ranch High School - Mr. Sedivy
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

- World History -
Colonial America and
The American Revolution

Colonial Development

Now, there are strong monarchs - monarchs who wanted lots of power, and, there are people who believe in natural rights. What will happen? In other words, what will the new ideas of the Enlightenment bring, and why?

Colonial America
Who Settled First and Why?

Left: John Winthrop, founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Right: The seal of the colony, featuring a Native American who says, "Come Over and Help Us."

English Joint Stock Companies
English Joint Stock companies founded Jamestown in 1607. They failed because they looked for gold, didn't farm, and they were right by contaminated water. They came during spring and everything looked great, so they didn't plan for winter. Many died the first winter.

Old engraving of the first day at Jamestown.

John Smith, who had made the trip over in chains, saved them. He said, "Work or Starve." So, they started farming, and the food went to everyone. The company sent over 50 women to help repopulate Jamestown.

Left: Captain John Smith was 26 years old when he arrived with the third group of settlers to establish a colony in Jamestown. Right: Pocahontas became the first heroine, allegedly saving Smith's life in 1608.

Pilgrims
The Pilgrims weren't called Pilgrims until 150 years later. These Puritans called themselves "Saints." The Saints left England because they were persecuted against. They went to the Netherlands, but they didn't want their kids growing up not being Englishmen. They got some backing and came to the New World. The "Pilgrims" came with others, "Strangers," who couldn't wait to get away from them.

Male passengers on the Mayflower signed a compact promising to
write and obey "just and equal laws ... for the general good of the colony."
Although women weren't allowed to sign, the compact brought
an element of democracy to America.

They arrived in November 1619, and did not land at Plymouth Rock. They signed the Mayflower Compact before they got off the boat. This was the first democratic government in the New World. It was signed to get the Strangers and Pilgrims to work together through the winter so they wouldn't starve. In the spring, the "Strangers" took off.

Puritans
The Puritans settled in Massachusetts. They had more money and better equipped than the Pilgrims. They brought 18 ships worth of supplies. In 1630 they brought 1,000 ships and by 1642 they had 20,000 people. The Puritans were very strict. They were mean to anyone who wasn't just like them. If someone messed up, they were banished.

ROBERT WALKER: Oliver Cromwell is shown wearing the sash that symolized
his cause in the English Civil War.

Oliver Cromwell was a Puritan with violently antipapist views. He is said to have been packing his household to emigrate to Massachusetts when the policies of England's King Charles I, toward the Roman Catholic Church, compelled him to stay and fight. Charles was beheaded and Cromwell, a country squire, became dictator of England.

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