English America's Development

1500-1733

At 1610, the Spanish were in Santa Fe.

In 1608, the French were in Quebec.

In 1607, the English were present in Jamestown, Virginia.

Imperial Stirrings in England

In the 1530s, King Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church, sparking the English Protestant Reformation and escalating the conflict with Catholic Spain.

Elizabeth gives England new life.

Francis Drake sailed across the world in 1580 while robbing people and bringing back a ship laden with Spanish loot. He made nearly 4,600% in profit. Spain's empirical dreams and fighting spirit had been diminished by the English fleet's victory over the Spanish Armada, ensuring English naval supremacy in the North Atlantic.

On the cusp of an empire, England

Many people lost their homes as a result of an economic depression that struck England in the latter half of the 1500s. This prepared the way for the English to begin emigrating to North America, along with the Spanish-English peace treaty.

England founds Jamestown.

King James I of England granted a joint-stock company called the Virginia Company of London a charter for a colonization in the New World in 1606. On May 24, 1607, the company arrived in Jamestown. Captain John Smith gained control of the town in 1608 and ordered the locals to form a line. Only 60 of the 400 immigrants to Virginia by 1609 made it through the "starving winter" of 1609–1610.

Conflict of Cultures in the Chesapeake

With military forces and supplies, Lord De La Warr arrived in Jamestown in 1610. As soon as he began raiding and setting Indian villages on fire, the First Anglo-Powhatan War broke out. The Second Anglo-Powhatan War, which took place in 1644, resulted in another Indian defeat. The English believed the Powhatan people to be extinct by 1685.

A New World for Indians

The largest killer of Indians and their cultures was disease. A particularly harsh weapon was used on aged Indians, which caused civilizations to disappear.

Virginia: Tobacco's Child

The First Anglo-Powhatan War was put an end in 1614 when John Rolfe wed Pocahontas. Virginia established self-government in 1619. The House of Burgesses was a gathering that the settlers called with permission from the London Company. Because King James I didn't have faith in the House of Burgesses, he declared Virginia an English colony in 1624 and placed it under his direct rule.