In fact, already from the first trip of Columbus and acquaintance with the natives of the islands of the West Indies, a bloody history of interaction between the native inhabitants of America and Europeans began to take shape. Caribs were exterminated - allegedly for their commitment to cannibalism. They were followed by other islanders for refusing to perform slave duties. The first witness of these events, the outstanding humanist Bartolome Las Casas, was the first to tell about the atrocities of the Spanish colonialists in his treatise “The Shortest Reports on the Destruction of the Indies”, published in 1542. The island of Hispaniola “was the first where Christians entered; here the beginning of the extermination and death of the Indians was laid. Having devastated and devastated the island, the Christians began to take away the wives and children from the Indians, forced them to serve themselves and used them in the most bad way ... And the Indians began to look for means by which they could throw the Christians out of their lands, and then they took up arms ... Christians on horseback, armed with swords and spears, mercilessly killed the Indians. Entering the villages, they did not leave anyone alive ... ”And all this for the sake of profit. Las Casas wrote that the conquistadors "came with a cross in their hand and an insatiable thirst for gold in their hearts." Following Haiti in 1511, Diego Velazquez conquered Cuba with a detachment of 300 men. The natives were destroyed mercilessly. In 1509 an attempt was made to found two colonies on the coast Central America under the leadership of Olons de Ojeda and Diego Niques. The Indians objected. 70 of Ojeda's companions were killed. Died from wounds and diseases and most of Nikuez's companions. The surviving Spaniards near the Gulf of Darien founded a small colony "Golden Castile" under the leadership of Vasco Nunez Balboa. It was he who, in 1513, with a detachment of 190 Spaniards and 600 Indian porters, crossed the mountain range and saw the wide Gulf of Panama, and beyond it the boundless southern sea. Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama 20 times, built the first Spanish ships for navigation in the Pacific Ocean, discovered the Pearl Islands. The desperate hidalgo Francisco Pizarro was part of the detachments of Ojeda and Balboa. In 1517, Balboa was executed, and Pedro Arias d "Aville became the governor of the colony. In 1519, the city of Panama was founded, which became the main base for the colonization of the Andean Highlands, about the fabulous wealth of whose countries the Spaniards were well aware of. In 1524-1527 In 1528, Pizarro went to Spain for help, returned to Panama in 1530, accompanied by volunteers, including four of his half-brothers. Alvarado and Almagro fought through the ridges and valleys of the Andes.The prosperous state of the Incas with a highly developed general culture, the culture of agriculture, handicraft production, water conduits, roads and cities was defeated, untold riches were captured.The Pizarro brothers were elevated to a knighthood, Francisco became a marquis In 1536, he founded the new capital of the possession, Lima. war and the destruction of the recalcitrant.

In 1535 - 1537. a detachment of 500 Spaniards and 15,000 porter Indians, led by Almagro, made a very difficult long raid through the tropical Andes from the ancient Inca capital of Cusco to the city of Co-kimbo south of the Atacama Desert. During the raid, about 10 thousand Indians and 150 Spaniards died from hunger and cold. But more than a ton of gold was collected and transferred to the treasury. In 1540, Pizarro commissioned Pedro de Valdivia to complete the conquest of South America. Valdivia crossed the Atacama Desert, reached the central part of Chile, founded a new colony and its capital Santiago, as well as the cities of Concepción and Valdivia. He ruled the colony until he was killed by the rebellious Araucans in 1554. The southernmost part of Chile was examined by Juan Ladrillero. They passed the Strait of Magellan from west to east in 1558. The contours of the South American mainland were determined. Attempts were made to deep reconnaissance in the interior of the mainland. The main motive was the search for Eldorado. In 1524, the Portuguese Alejo Garcia, with a large detachment of Guarani Indians, crossed the south eastern part Brazilian plateau, went to the tributary of the Parana River - r. Iguazu, discovered a grandiose waterfall, crossed the Laplata lowland and the Gran Chaco plain and reached the foothills of the Andes. In 1525 he was killed. In 1527 - 1529. S. Cabot, who at that time was in the service in Spain, in search of a "silver kingdom" climbed high up La Plata and Parana, organized fortified towns. The townships did not last long, and no abundant silver deposits were found. In 1541, Gonzalo Pizarro, with a large detachment of 320 Spaniards and 4,000 Indians from Quito, crossed the eastern chain of the Andes and went to one of the tributaries of the Amazon. A small ship was built and launched there, a team of 57 people, led by Francisco Orellana, was supposed to scout the area and get food. Orellana did not return back and was the first to cross South America from west to east, sailing along the Amazon to its mouth. The detachment was attacked by Indian archers, who were not inferior in courage to men. The myth of Homer about the Amazons received a new registration. Travelers in the Amazon first encountered such a formidable phenomenon as a pororoka, a tidal wave that rolls into the lower reaches of the river and can be traced for hundreds of kilometers. In the dialect of the Tupi-Guarani Indians, this stormy water shaft is called "amazunu". This word was interpreted by the Spaniards in their own way and gave rise to the legend of the Amazons (Sivere, 1896). The weather favored Orellana and his companions, they also made a voyage by sea to the island of Margarita, on which the Spanish colonists had already settled. G. Pizarro, who did not wait for Orellana, with a thinned detachment, was forced to storm the ridge again in the opposite direction. In 1542, only 80 participants in this transition returned to Quito. In 1541 - 1544. the Spaniard Nufrio Chavez with three companions again crossed the South American mainland, this time from east to west, from southern Brazil to Peru, and returned the same way.

Centuries after the Indians, and to their great regret, European ships appeared on the horizon. The first European colonizers after the Vikings in America were the Spaniards. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator and merchant, who received the rank of admiral and flotilla from the Spanish crown, was looking for a new trade route to rich India, China and Japan.

He sailed to the New World four times and swam to the Bahamas. On October 13, 1492, he landed on an island called San Salvador, set up the banner of Castile on it and drew up a notarial deed about this event. He himself believed that he sailed either to China, or to India, or even to Japan. For many years this land was called the West Indies. The Arawaks, the first natives of these places he saw, he called "Indians." The rest of Columbus' life and difficult fate was connected with the West Indies.

At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, a number of other European nations began to explore the paths of the Western Hemisphere. Navigator of the English king Henry VII Italian John Cabot(Giovanni Caboto) set foot on the coast of Canada (1497-1498), Pedro Alvares Cabral assigned Brazil to Portugal (1500-1501), Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa founded Antigua, the first European city on a new continent, and went to the Pacific Ocean (1500-1513). Ferdinand Magellan, who served the Spanish king in 1519-1521, circled America from the south and made the first trip around the world.

In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller, a geographer from Lorraine, proposed that the New World be named America in honor of the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci who replaced the fallen Columbus. The proposal has strangely taken hold, and the development of the mainland is already proceeding alternately under two names. Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish conquistador, discovered the Florida peninsula in 1513. In 1565, the first European colony was formed there, and later the city of St. Augustine. In the late 1530s, Hernando de Soto went to the Mississippi and reached the Arkansas River.

When the British and French began to explore America, Florida and the southwest of the continent were almost entirely Spanish. The gold that Spain brought from South America eventually became one of the reasons for the loss of her world domination. Buying everything that a far-sighted state needs to develop and strengthen, Spain was defeated during the first serious crisis. The power and influence of Spain in America began to decline after September 1588, when the Anglo-Dutch fleet destroyed and captured the ships of the Spanish Invincible Armada.

The British settled in America on the third try. One ended in a flight home, the second ended in the mysterious disappearance of the settlers, and only the third, in 1607, became successful. The trading post, named Jamestown after the king, was inhabited by the crews of three ships under the command of Captain Newport and also served as a barrier to the Spaniards, who were still rushing into the interior of the continent. Tobacco plantations turned Jamestown into a wealthy settlement, and by 1620 there were already about 1,000 people living in it.

Many people dreamed of America not only as a land of fabulous treasures, but as a wonderful world where you are not killed for a different faith, where it doesn’t matter what party you are from ... Dreams were also fueled by those who received income from the transportation of goods and of people. In England, the London and Plymouth companies were hastily created, which from 1606 were involved in the development of the northeast coast of America. Many Europeans with their whole families and communities moved to the New World with the last money. People arrived and arrived, but they were still not enough to develop new lands. Many died on the way or in the first months of American life.

In August 1619, a Dutch ship brought several dozen Africans to Virginia; the colonists immediately bought twenty people. Thus began the Great White Business. During the 18th century, about seven million slaves were sold, and no one knows how many of them died during the long voyage and were fed to sharks.

On November 21, 1620, a small galleon "May Flower" moored to the Atlantic coast. 102 Puritan-Calvinists came ashore, stern, stubborn, frantic in faith and convinced of their chosenness, but exhausted and sick. The beginning of the conscious settlement by the British of America is counted from this day. Mutual agreement, called the Mayflower, embodied the ideas of the first American colonists about democracy, self-government and civil liberties. The same documents were signed by other colonists - in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.

After the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Europeans began to actively conquer new and uncharted lands. This was not always pleasing to the local population, but their opinion was not taken into account. Streams of colonists rushed in search of happiness and a new life.

In the middle of the 16th century, almost the entire territory belonged to the Spanish crown. The huge incomes received from trade and lease of land did not allow competitors in the face of other countries to enter new lands. In this regard, the dominance of the Spaniards was observed in America.

The kings and their entourage, pumping huge wealth from the colony, did not pay attention to its needs. The position of Spain on the world stage began to gradually weaken. The last blow was dealt to her in 1588, when the Invincible Armada was destroyed. With the death of the fleet, a crisis began in the country, from which it was never able to recover.

In this difficult period for Spain, England, as well as France and Holland, begin to take the first place in world politics.

The emergence of English colonies

The British - this is the second stage of the conquest of the new continent and the redistribution of property. The first British reconnaissance expedition went to the new continent and arrived there in 1584. The open lands were named Virginia. But two groups of colonists could not take root on them, one of which was expelled by the Indians, and the second disappeared without a trace.

The beginning of the 17th century is marked by the entry of two private companies into the process of colonization. By order of the king, the northern territories were assigned to the Plymouth Company, and the southern lands to the London Virginia Company. The proclaimed goal was to spread Christianity among the local population, and the true goal was to extract as much gold, copper and silver as possible, with which the Indians are rich.

In 1607, three ships moored ashore in the Chesapeake Bay area. The colonists within a month erected the walls of the fortification, which later received the name Jamestown. In the history of America - this settlement is idealized, but its existence was not cloudless. Hunger, cold and Indian attacks led to the death of a huge number of pioneers, out of 500, 60 of them remained. In the winter, cases of cannibalism were witnessed.

Precious metals were not found, but Virginia became the main supplier of high quality tobacco. Native Americans in this region peacefully coexisted with the colonists and even became related to them.

In 1619, the decision was made to purchase the first group of black slaves, which marked the beginning of a long period of slavery in the country.

If in the 30s of the 17th century two colonies appeared in North America: Massachusetts and New York, then in the 40s there were already five of them: Maryland, Roll Island, Connecticut, Delaware and New Hampshire. In 1653, a new settlement of North Carolina appears, and 10 years later - South Carolina. New Jersey was founded in the mid-1970s. In 1682, Pennsylvania appeared, and already in 1732, the last colony, Georgia, was founded.

French colonization of North America

In the development of new lands, France did not lag behind the British. By the beginning of the 18th century, five large provinces had formed. This period of time is considered the heyday of French colonization. Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Novaya Zemlya and Louisiana belonged to the second most powerful world power.

Colonies of the Netherlands

Other European countries did not remain aloof from the race for new territories. From the east, the ships of the Netherlands Flotilla approached the shores of North America. Already in 1614, new lands appeared on the map called New Netherland, and ten years later the first settlers appeared. The main place of their deployment was the Governor's Island, on which the city of New Amsterdam later grew. In the second half of the 17th century, it was transferred under the auspices of the British crown.

Swedish colonies

The beginning of the Swedish conquest of new lands is considered to be 1638, when two ships went on an expedition. The long journey and torment along the way were made up for by the opening of the free coast, where Fort Kristina was founded, securing the right to own territories for Sweden. Wilmington will later appear on this site.

The appearance of Russians in North America

The Russian Empire could not remain aloof from the mass campaign of Europeans to unexplored lands. In 1784, a large fleet landed in the Aleutian Islands. A little more than ten years later, a Russian-American company appears, mining and marketing expensive fur. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, the region had a capital - Novo-Arkhangelsk, and it itself passed into the department of the East Siberian Governor General. The basis of the colonists was the local tribes of the Aleuts.

Only 80 kilometers separated Russian lands from American California. This caused concern on the part of England and America, so in 1824 two Conventions were signed at once, which fixed clear boundaries between Russia and these two powers. In 1841, the southernmost settlement of Fort Ross was sold to one of the wealthy Mexican settlers. For Alaska, the United States had to pay 7 million 200 thousand dollars. Since 1867, this section of the Russian colonies has gone to the buyer.

The relationship between the settlers and the Indians

From the colonization of the new continent, the Indians suffered the most. tribes of america. With the arrival of more and more new settlers, their usual way of life is radically changed. Many colonists believed that they had more rights to use this land and showed obvious aggression. The standard of living of the Indians was much lower than the European one, so no one listened to their opinion, and the lands were indiscriminately taken away. Due to diseases brought by Europeans, constant clashes and real extermination, the number of Indians was inexorably declining.

One of the most warlike tribes in North America was the Iroquois. They constantly attacked the settlements of the colonists. In civilian life, the Iroquois were farmers, and also engaged in hunting and fishing. All the settlements of this tribe were surrounded by a high palisade, which created an obstacle to their capture. The Iroquois were called "scalp hunters". It is still not known where the colonists from the second expedition to Virginia went.

The Apache tribes were considered the most cunning and insidious. They very quickly mastered riding horses when this noble animal was introduced by the Spaniards. The Apaches robbed not only the white colonists, but also their relatives, not disdaining the loot

Among the natives there were tribes who not only provided assistance to the settlers, but also sought to learn everything new from them. These included the Seminole and Cherokee, the Creek and Choctaw, and the Chickasaw. Among the Indians of these tribes, there are many actors, writers, military men, and so on.

Despite the fact that part of the natives of America accepted European culture and adapted to the conditions of life, this process was very painful. A five dollar reward was paid for the head of a killed Indian, and the resettlement of entire tribes was carried out by force. All these measures led to the partial assimilation of the natives and to their mass extermination.

The first English settlement in America appeared in 1607 in Virginia and was named Jamestown. The trading post, founded by members of the crews of three English ships under the command of Captain K. Newport, served at the same time as an outpost on the path of the Spanish advance to the north of the continent. The first years of the existence of Jamestown were a time of endless disasters and hardships: disease, famine and Indian raids took the lives of more than 4 thousand of the first English settlers of America. Ho, already at the end of 1608, the first ship sailed to England, carrying a cargo of timber and iron ore. In just a few years, Jamestown turned into a prosperous village thanks to the extensive plantations of tobacco previously cultivated only by the Indians laid there in 1609, which by 1616 became the main source of income for the inhabitants. Tobacco exports to England, which in 1618 amounted to 20 thousand pounds in monetary terms, increased by 1627 to half a million pounds, creating the necessary economic conditions for population growth. The influx of colonists was greatly facilitated by the allocation of a 50-acre plot of land to any applicant who had the financial means to pay a small rent. Already by 1620 the population of the village was approx. 1000 people, and in all of Virginia there were approx. 2 thousand
lovek. In the 80s. 15th century tobacco exports from two southern colonies- Virginia and Maryland rose to £20m.
The virgin forests, stretching for more than two thousand kilometers along the entire Atlantic coast, abounded with everything necessary for the construction of dwellings and ships, and the rich nature satisfied the needs of the colonists for food. The increasingly frequent calls of European ships into the natural bays of the coast provided them with goods that were not produced in the colonies. The products of their labor were exported to the Old World from the same colonies. But the rapid development of the northeastern lands, and even more so the advance into the interior of the continent, beyond the Appalachian Mountains, was hampered by the lack of roads, impenetrable forests and mountains, as well as the dangerous neighborhood with Indian tribes hostile to aliens.
The fragmentation of these tribes and the complete lack of unity in their sorties against the colonists became the main reason for the displacement of the Indians from the lands they occupied and their final defeat. The temporary alliances of some Indian tribes with the French (in the north of the continent) and with the Spaniards (in the south), who were also worried about the pressure and energy of the British, Scandinavians and Germans advancing from the east coast, did not bring the desired results. The first attempts to conclude peace agreements between individual Indian tribes and the English colonists who settled in the New World also turned out to be ineffective.
European immigrants were attracted to America by the rich Natural resources distant continent, promising the rapid provision of material prosperity, and its remoteness from the European citadels of religious dogmas and political predilections. Not supported by the governments or official churches of any country, the exodus of Europeans to the New World was financed by private companies and individuals, driven primarily by an interest in generating income from the transportation of people and goods. Already in 1606, the London and Plymouth companies were formed in England, which actively

Signing of the Mayflower Agreement
engaged in the development of the northeast coast of America, including the delivery of English colonists to the continent. Numerous immigrants traveled to the New World with families and even entire communities at their own expense. A significant part of the new arrivals were young women, whose appearance was met with sincere enthusiasm by the unmarried male population of the colonies, paying the cost of their "transportation" from Europe at the rate of 120 pounds of tobacco per head.
Huge, hundreds of thousands of hectares, plots of land were allocated by the British crown to the representatives of the English nobility as a gift or for a nominal fee. Interested in the development of their new property, the English aristocracy advanced large sums for the delivery of their recruited compatriots and their arrangement on the lands received. Despite the extreme attractiveness of the conditions existing in the New World for newly arriving colonists, during these years there was a clear lack of human resources, primarily for the reason that cruise only a third of the ships and people embarking on a dangerous journey overcame 5 thousand kilometers - two-thirds died on the way. He was distinguished by hospitality and new earth, which met the colonists with unusual frosts for Europeans, harsh natural conditions and, as a rule, the hostile attitude of the Indian population.
At the end of August 1619, a Dutch ship arrived in Virginia, bringing the first black Africans to America, twenty of whom were immediately bought by the colonists as servants. Negroes began to turn into lifelong slaves, and in the 60s. 17th century slave status in Virginia and Maryland became hereditary. The slave trade has become a permanent feature of commercial transactions between East Africa
and the American colonies. African chieftains readily traded their men for textiles, household items, gunpowder, and weapons imported from New England and the American South.
In December 1620, an event took place that went down in American history as the beginning of the purposeful colonization of the continent by the British - the Mayflower ship arrived on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts with 102 Calvinist Puritans, who were rejected by the traditional Anglican Church and did not later find sympathy in Holland. The only way to preserve their religion, these people, who called themselves pilgrims, considered moving to America. While still aboard a ship crossing the ocean, they entered into an agreement between themselves, called the Mayflower Compact. It is reflected in the general form the ideas of the early American colonists about democracy, self-government and civil liberties. These notions were developed later in similar agreements reached by the colonists of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and in later documents of American history, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Having lost half the members of their community, but surviving in a land they had not yet explored in the harsh conditions of the first American winter and the crop failure that followed, the colonists set an example for their compatriots and other Europeans, who arrived in the New World already prepared for the hardships that awaited them.
After 1630, at least a dozen small towns arose in Plymouth Colony, the first New England colony that later became the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in which the newly arrived English Puritans settled. Immigration wave 1630-1643 Delivered to New England approx. 20 thousand people, at least 45 thousand more, chose the colonies of the American South or the islands of Central America for their residence.
For 75 years after the appearance in 1607 on the territory of the modern USA of the first English colony of Virgie

12 more colonies arose - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The credit for founding them did not always belong to subjects of the British crown. In 1624, on the island of Manhattan in Hudson Bay [named after the English captain G. Hudson (Hudson), who discovered it in 1609, was in the Dutch service], Dutch fur traders founded a province called New Netherland, with the main city of New Amsterdam. The land on which this city developed was bought in 1626 by a Dutch colonist from the Indians for $24. The Dutch never managed to achieve any significant socio-economic development of their only colony in the New World.
After 1648 and up to 1674, England and Holland fought three times, and during these 25 years, in addition to hostilities, there was a continuous and fierce economic struggle between them. In 1664, New Amsterdam was captured by the British under the command of the king's brother Duke of York, who renamed the city New York. During the Anglo-Dutch War of 1673-1674. The Netherlands managed to restore their power in this territory for a short time, but after the defeat of the Dutch in the war, the British again took possession of it. From then until the end of the American Revolution in 1783 from r. Kennebec to Florida, from New England to the Lower South, the Union Jack flew over the entire northeast coast of the continent.

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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 to Far East, but inadvertently moored to the lands that became known to Europeans as the "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 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, and also on small coastal parts of 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 the 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.

Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere came under the apparent control of European governments, resulting in profound changes in its landscape, population, and 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 object world heritage UNESCO in 1978. It should also be noted that this 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 the northern to the southern border, cutting the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of modern Brazil. Based on this treaty and on the basis of earlier claims by the Spanish explorer Núñez de Balboa, discoverer of the Pacific 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 Tordesillas Treaty. 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, English colonies Virginia (with its North Atlantic offshoot, Bermuda) and New England, the French colonies of Acadia 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 of a well-funded European activity in the Americas began with the crossing Atlantic Ocean Christopher Columbus (1492-1504), financed by Spain, whose original goal was to try to find new way to India and China, at the time known as "Indy". 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 financed 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 Pacific Ocean from the western coast of the 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 in the Iberian Peninsula, the inhabitants of Hispaniola received new landowners-masters, 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 have suggested the existence of a large Spanish-Indian alliance numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Hernán Cortés finally 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 indigenous population of North and South America dropped 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 a viceroy to Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, to prevent the independence movement that had arisen 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 journey 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 process of Christianization was brutal at first: when the first Franciscans arrived in Mexico in 1524, they burned the places dedicated to the pagan cult, chilling 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.

At this time, the Portuguese gradually moved from original plan the establishment of trading posts to the 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 of Spain's total budget. 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, funded 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 like John Smith to convince the Jamestown colonists that in their search for gold they needed to put aside their basic needs for food and shelter, and the Biblical principle "He who does not work shall not eat." to an extremely high mortality rate was very unfortunate and a cause for 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 Virginia's settlement 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 the 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. Under favorable conditions for health (absence of disease) and a large number land and food, their number 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 broke the unity of Western Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which were often persecuted by the authorities. state power. 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, new colony Pennsylvania was given to William Penn as a settlement of the king's debt to his father. The government of this colony was founded 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. Very attractive were the good opportunity to 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 were captured and held as slaves from other tribes. 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 (due to better food, fewer diseases, easier work, and better medical care), so the number of slaves rose rapidly from birth to death, reaching 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 thirteen colonies/USA in a given time period:

• 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 great wealth in the form of land and resources commonly used by 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 greatly.

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 Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) co-hosted a traveling exhibit to recount the strategic alliances and violent conflicts between European empires (English, Spanish, French) and the indigenous peoples of the American North. The exhibition was presented in three languages ​​and different points vision. 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.