1492-1783
Herbert Eugene Bolton, Ph.D.
Professor of American History in the University of California and Thomas Maitland Marshall, Ph.D.
Professor of History in Washington University
The Macmillan Company
1920
Preface
This book represents an attempt to bring into one account the story of European expansion in North America down to 1783. Text-books written in this country as a rule treat the colonization of the New World as the history, almost solely, of the thirteen English colonies which formed the nucleus of the United States. The authors have essayed to write a book from a different point of view. It has been prepared in response to a clear demand for a text written from the standpoint of North America as a whole, and giving a more adequate treatment of the colonies of nations other than England and of the English colonies other than the thirteen which revolted. This demand is the inevitable result of the growing importance of our American neighbors and of our rapidly growing interest in the affairs of the whole continent, past as well as present.
The book is divided into three main parts: I. The Founding of the Colonies; II. Expansion and International Conflict; III. The Revolt of the English Colonies. The keynote is expansion. The spread of civilization in America has been presented against a broad European background. Not only colonial beginnings but colonial growth has been traced. This method accounts for the development of all geographical sections, and shows the relation of each section to the history of the continent as a whole. When thus presented the early history of Massachusetts, of Georgia, of Arkansas, of Illinois, or of California is no longer merely local history, but is an integral part of the general story. The colonies of the different nations are treated, in so far as practicable, in the chronological order of their development, the desire being to give a correct view of the time sequence in the development of the different regions.
A principal aim of the authors has been to make the book comprehensive. The activities of the Dutch and Swedes on the Atlantic mainland are given a large setting in both Europe and the New World. The account of French expansion in North America has been extended beyond the conventional presentation to embrace the West Indies, the founding of Louisiana, and the advance of the French pioneers across the Mississippi and up its tributaries, and up the Saskatchewan to the Rocky Mountains. The story of English expansion embraces not only the thirteen colonies which revolted, but also the Bermudas, the West Indies, Hudson Bay, Canada, and the Floridas. The treatment of the new British possessions between 1763 and 1783 aims to present in one view the story of the expansion of the whole English frontier, from Florida to Hudson Bay.
The Spanish colonies of North America, in particular, have been accorded a more adequate treatment than is usual in textbooks. To writers of United States history the Spaniards have appeared to be mere explorers. Students of American history in a larger sense, however, know that Spain transplanted Spanish civilization and founded vast and populous colonies, represented to-day by some twenty republics and many millions of people. The notion, so widely current in this country, that Spain “failed” as a colonizer, arises from a faulty method. In treating Spain’s part in the New World it has been customary, after recounting the discovery of America, to proceed at once to territory now within the United States—Florida, New Mexico, Texas—forgetting that these regions were to Spain only northern outposts, and omitting the wonderful story of Spanish achievement farther south. This book being a history of the colonization of North America, Spain’s great colonies in South America, now powerful nations, fall beyond our geographical limits.
When approached from a new viewpoint many familiar things appear in a new light. Hitherto, for example, the inter-colonial wars in North America have been regarded mainly as a struggle between France and England, and as confined chiefly to the Canadian border. By following the larger story of European expansion, however, it becomes plain that there was an Anglo-Spanish and a Franco-Spanish, as well as a Franco-English struggle for the continent, not to mention the ambitions and efforts of Dutch, Swedes, Russians, and Danes. In nearly all the general inter-colonial wars the Caribbean area and the Carolina-Florida frontier were scenes of frequent conflicts quite as important as those waged on the Canadian border. Between France and Spain a border contest endured for more than a century and extended all the way from the Lesser Antilles to the Platte River. The Anglo-French contest ended in 1763; but the Anglo-Spanish conflict, which began in the sixteenth century, endured to the end of the eighteenth and, in the hands of the American offspring of Spain and England, to the middle of the nineteenth century.
Some teachers may for special reasons wish to treat the development of the colonies of a single nation as a continuous movement, or in longer periods, less frequently broken by happenings in the colonies of other nations. This can be done conveniently by grouping the chapters in the desired order. A continuous account of Spanish expansion is given in Chapters II, III, XIII, XVI, and XXI. A connected story of French America is told in Chapters IV, XIV, XV, XX. By omitting these and Chapter IX a continuous narrative of English expansion is obtained.
August, 1920.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE FOUNDING OF THE COLONIES
I. THE BACKGROUND AND THE DISCOVERY
Growth of Geographical Knowledge
Portuguese Discoveries
Columbus and the Discovery of America
II. THE FOUNDING OF NEW SPAIN (1492-1543)
Spain during the Conquest
The Occupation of the West Indies
Beginnings of Colonial Administration and Policy
Exploration of the Mainland Coasts and the Search for a Strait
The Mayas and the Nahuas
The Conquest of Central America
The Conquest of the Valley of Mexico
The Spread of the Conquest
Explorations in the Northern Interior and on the Pacific
The Establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Spain
III. THE EXPANSION OF NEW SPAIN (1543-1609)
Old and New Spain under Philip II
The Mines of Northern Mexico
The Settlement of the Atlantic Seaboard
Foreign Intrusions in the Atlantic
The Philippines and California
The Founding of New Mexico
Spanish Achievements in the 16th Century
IV. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH COLONIES (1500-1700)
The French Background
Early Explorations and Colonizing Efforts
Acadia
The St. Lawrence Valley
Reorganization and the Iroquois Wars
The West Indies
Opening the Upper Lake Region and the Mississippi Valley
V. THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH EXPANSION (1485-1603)
The Tudor Period
Commercial Expansion
The Elizabethan Sea-dogs
The Search for a Northwest Passage
Attempts at Colonization
VI. THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AND INSULAR COLONIES (1603-1640)
England under the Early Stuarts, 1603-1640
The Colonial Administrative System of the Early Stuarts
The Founding of Virginia
The Founding of Maryland
The Bermudas
Guiana
The Lesser Antilles
The Providence Island Company
VII. THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND (1606-1640)
The Puritan Movement in England
The Plymouth Colony
Colonizing Activities on the New England Coast
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
Expansion of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Rhode Island
Settlements in the Connecticut Valley
VIII. THE ENGLISH COLONIES DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (1640-1660)
Politics, Administration, and Expansion
New England Development
Virginia and Maryland
IX. THE DUTCH AND SWEDISH COLONIES (1609-1664)
Dutch Expansion
New Netherlands
The Dutch and the Swedes on the Delaware
Absorption of New Netherlands by the English
X. THE OLD ENGLISH COLONIES UNDER THE LATER STUARTS (1660-1689)
Colonial Policy and Administration
Machinery of Government
Misrule and Rebellion in Virginia
Discontent in Maryland
Royal Interference in New England
XI. EXPANSION UNDER THE LATER STUARTS (1660-1689)
New York
The Jerseys
Pennsylvania
The Insular Colonies
The Carolinas
Western Trade and Exploration
Hudson’s Bay Company
XII. THE ENGLISH MAINLAND COLONIES AT THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY
New England
New York and East New Jersey
Colonies along Delaware River and Bay
The Chesapeake Bay Region
South Carolina
EXPANSION AND INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT
XIII. THE SPANISH ADVANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Spain and the Colonies in the Seventeenth Century
Frontier Administration
The Missions
The Jesuits in Sinaloa and Sonora
Efforts to Occupy Lower California
The Settlement of Chihuahua
New Mexico in the Seventeenth Century
Coahuila Occupied
First Attempts in Eastern Texas
The Struggle with Rivals in the West Indies
The Struggle with the English on the Carolina Border
XIV. THE WARS OF THE ENGLISH AND SPANISH SUCCESSIONS (1684-1713)
The Preliminary Struggle for the Northern Fur Country
The War of the English Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession
The Peace of Utrecht
XV. THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA AND THE FAR NORTHWEST (1699-1762)
The Founding of Louisiana
Louisiana under the Company of the Indies
Louisiana under the Royal Governors
The Trans-Mississippi West
The Advance Toward New Mexico
The Far Northwest
XVI. TEXAS, PIMERÍA ALTA, AND THE FRANCO-SPANISH BORDER CONFLICT
(1687-1763)
Northeastward Advance of the Spanish Frontier
The Founding of Texas
War with France
The Expansion of Texas
The Franco-Spanish Border
Pimería Alta
The Jesuits in Lower California
XVII. THE ENGLISH ADVANCE INTO THE PIEDMONT (1715-1750)
The Westward Movement
Defence of the Northern Frontier
Reorganization of the Carolinas
The Founding of Georgia
The German and Swiss Migration
The Scotch-Irish
Significance of the Settlement of the Piedmont
XVIII. ENGLISH COLONIAL SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
General Features
New England Industry
The Middle Colonies
The Southern Colonies
Labor Systems
Features of Society
Barbados, the Leeward Isles, and Jamaica
XIX. THE ENGLISH COLONIAL SYSTEM (1689-1763)
The First Reorganization of William III
William’s Second Reorganization
The Colonial System During the Reign of Anne
The Colonial System Under the Whigs
XX. A QUARTER-CENTURY OF CONFLICT: THE EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH
(1715-1763)
Spain and the Powers, 1715-1739
The War of Jenkins’ Ear
The War of the Austrian Succession
The Approach of Another Conflict
The French and Indian War
XXI. THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE: THE OCCUPATION OF ALTA CALIFORNIA AND
LOUISIANA BY SPAIN (1763-1783)
Readjustment in Spanish North America
The Russian Menace
The Founding of Alta California
Northern Explorations
Louisiana under Spain, 1762-1783
XXII. THE NEW BRITISH POSSESSIONS (1763-1783)
Provisions for Defence, Government, and the Fur Trade
The Occupation of the Floridas
Military Occupation of the Illinois Country
Land Speculation and Plans for Western Colonies
Trans-Alleghany Settlement
The Province of Quebec
The Northern Fur Traders
THE REVOLT OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES
XXIII. THE CONTROVERSY OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES WITH THE HOME
GOVERNMENT (1763-1775)
The Background of the Contest
Reforms of the Grenville Ministry
Repeal of the Stamp Act
The Townshend Acts
Beginning of Organized Resistance
The Tea Controversy
Lord North’s Coercive Policy
The First Continental Congress
XXIV. FROM LEXINGTON TO INDEPENDENCE (1775-1776)
The Opening of Hostilities
The Second Continental Congress
Progress of the War
The Loyalists
The Declaration of Independence
XXV. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE MIDDLE STATES (1776-1777)
The Contest for New York
The New Jersey Campaign
The Struggle with Burgoyne
The Contest for Philadelphia
XXVI. THE WAR AS AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEST (1778-1781)
The French Alliance
The War in the West
Spain in the War
The War on the Sea and the Dutch Alliance
XXVII. THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION (1778-1783)
The War in the South
The Yorktown Campaign
The Treaty of Peace
XXVIII. GOVERNMENTAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE REVOLUTION
The Second Continental Congress
Financial Affairs
State Governments during the Revolution
The Articles of Confederation
Governmental Reorganization
LIST OF MAPS
Portuguese Expansion and Magellan’s Voyage
The Four Voyages of Columbus
The Unification of Spain
The Development of the West Indies, 1492-1519
The Development of Central America, 1500-1543
The Development of Southern Mexico, 1519-1543
Explorations in the Northern Interior, 1513-1543
The Advance into Northern Mexico, 1543-1590
Spanish Florida
Explorations on the California Coast, 1542-1603
New Mexico in Oñate’s Time
Cartier’s Explorations, 1534-1542
The French in Canada in the Seventeenth Century
The Caribbean Area in the Seventeenth Century
La Salle’s Colony on the Texas Coast, 1684-1689
Settlements in Virginia, 1634
Settlements in Maryland, 1634
The Bermudas
Principal Settlements in Massachusetts, 1630
Settled Areas in New England, about 1660
Settled Areas in Virginia and Maryland, about 1660
Van Der Donck’s Map of New Netherland, 1656
New Sweden
The Delaware River Region, 1665-1774
The Southern Colonies, 1607-1735
Hudson’s Bay Company Posts
Settled Areas in New England and on Long Island, about 1700
Settled Areas in the Middle Colonies, about 1700
Settled Areas in the Southern Colonies, about 1700
Sinaloa and Sonora in the Seventeenth Century
A Dutch Map Illustrating the Insular Theory of California’s Geography (1624-1625)
New Mexico in the Seventeenth Century
The Beginnings of Coahuila and Texas
The Intercolonial Wars
The French in Louisiana and the Far Northwest
Texas in the 18th Century
Father Kino’s Map of Pimería Alta
Mainland Regions occupied by the English, 1700-1760
Principal Areas of German Settlement before 1763
The Areas Largely Populated by Scotch-Irish before 1763
The Western English Frontier, 1763
Alta California Settlements
The Spanish Frontier in the Later Eighteenth Century
The New British Possessions, 1763-1783
Boston with Environs During the Revolution
Northern New Jersey, New York and Its Environs during the Revolution
The Region of Burgoyne’s Invasion (1777)
Morristown, New Jersey, to Head of Elk, Maryland (1777)
The War in the South (1778-1781)