In the early 1800s, throughout the Spanish empire, revolutions were taking one colony after another away to independence in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. The Spanish, already stretched thin, could no longer send troops, supply ships, or financial aid to remote Alta California. As a result, work got harder for the Indians at the missions, which had to become even more self-sufficient. Also, the padres had to rely more and more upon foreign (especially American) trade to keep the missions afloat. The harder work caused many Indians to rebel. Restrictions upon leaving the missions were tightened. Death rates soared. Many Indians began to see the mission system as a form of slavery from which they could not escape. Women sometimes aborted or killed their own children to keep them from this horrible life. In many ways, the life of the Indians on the missions in the 1820s and early 30s was comparable to slavery in the United States.

The Pre-Independence Mexican Indian Uprisings

The confusion and division in the governments
of both Spain and New Spain

Francis I of France

Giovanni de Verrazzano

New France

French la Nouvelle - France describes the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 to the cession of New France to the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763. At its peak in 1712 (before the Treaty of Utrecht), the territory of New France extended from Newfoundland to Lake Superior and from the Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. The territory was then divided in five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Louisiana.

In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni de Verrazzano explored the eastern shore and named the new lands Francesca, in honor of King Francis I of France. In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I. However, France was initially not interested in backing up these claims with settlement. French fishing fleets, however, continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, making alliances with Native American tribes that would become important once France began to occupy the land. French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur, especially beaver fur, which was becoming rare in Europe as the European beaver had almost been driven to extinction.

COLONIAL WARS
FRENCH EXPLORERS

travellers - - Contemporary actor costumed as a voyageur at a historic site in Minnesota!

Coureurs de Bois: Runner of the Woods

The coureurs des bois (runner of the woods ) or voyageurs (travellers) is the name given to the men who engaged in the fur trade directly with the Amerindians in North America from the time of New France up through the 19th century.

When the fur trade first began, First Nations and Inuit people brought the furs to the trading posts. They would arrive by canoe. The furs would be unloaded and traded for goods such as muskets, axes, knives, blankets, whisky and pots. It was not long before some of the men at the trading posts decided they would go inland and get the fur themselves. These were the people known as the coureurs de bois.

The coureurs de bois learned the ways of the woods from the First Nations. They were taught how to canoe, hunt and snowshoe. Canoes were made out of birch bark the way the Natives taught them. They dressed in the same kinds of clothes and ate the same food as the First Nation peoples. A typical meal consisted of pemmican, deer meat and dried corn and peas.

The silver birch tree was the most important resource for life in the woods. It was used to build and repair canoes on the journey. Shelters were built with the branches and the bark. The bark was also good for drawing maps on and for writing messages. The bark could even be eaten if there was no other food!

Map of New Netherlands (17th century)

Giovanni da Verrazano

Halve Maen

Henry Hudson

New Netherlands

(Dutch: Nieuw-Nederland, Latin: Nova Belgica or Novum Belgium) was the territory claimed by the United Provinces (the Netherlands) on the eastern coast of North America in the 17th century. New Netherland was part of the Dutch colonization of the Americas.

The coast was previously explored by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 whose expedition was financed by the citizens of Lyon, France, under the auspices of King Francois I. Despite this, the area was mostly ignored by Europeans for a long time afterwards.

In 1609, Henry Hudson set sail on an exploration trip commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, on the ship Halve Maen (Half Moon), to find a north-east passage to East Asia. However he found his intended route north of Norway blocked by ice and turned west instead, exploring the coast of North America and sailing up the Hudson River as far as the future Albany.

Hudson engaged in small-scale bartering with the Lenape and Mahican Indians he encountered, exchanging beads and metal goods in exchange for beaver pelts. At the time, fur trading, mainly from the Baltic Sea region and Russia, was a lucrative trade business in Europe. In 1610, the prospect of exploiting this new resource spurred a group of Dutch particuliere kooplieden (private merchant-traders) to send a follow up voyage to explore the river Hudson had discovered. A flurry of trade voyages to the region followed in the next several years under the command of such captains as Henrick Chistiaensen, Adriaen Block, and Cornelius Mey, after whom Cape May is named.

New Sweden, or Nya Sverige,

was a Swedish(-Finnish) colony in North America corresponding roughly to the networked region of urban sprawl around Philadelphia, containing such settlements as Finland, Lapland etc. in Delaware; New Stockholm (now Bridgeport) and Swedesboro in New Jersey, as well as others in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The colony existed from March 29, 1638, to September 1655.

By the middle of the 17th century, the Realm of Sweden had reached its greatest territorial extent and was on the verge of becoming one of the great powers of Europe. Sweden then included Finland along with parts of modern Russia, Poland, Germany, Estonia, and Latvia. They sought to extend their influence by creating an agricultural (tobacco) and fur trading colony to bypass French and British merchants. The New Sweden Company was chartered and included Swedish, Dutch and German stockholders.

English America

As Plymouth and other early New England sites connect the United States with the great European movement known as the Reformation, so the scene of Raleigh's settlements connects the American people with the powerful activating force known as the Renaissance. When energized by the Renaissance movement, the human spirit knew no earthly bounds nor recognized any limits to intellectual or physical endeavor. Thus, Raleigh, who was born a gentleman of only moderate estate, willed to be the favorite of a Queen, aspired to found an empire across the seas in the teeth of Imperial Spain and undertook in prison to write the history of the world! For the glory and enrichment of England, Sir Francis Drake pillaged the cities and mighty galleons of Spain and dared to sail around the globe. Sir Richard Grenville, shortly after his memorable voyages to Roanoke Island, gave the British Navy an immortal tradition by dueling for a day and a night with one small ship against a Spanish fleet of 53.

Truly heroic was the Roanoke Island colonial venture. Here, despite the hostility of Spain and Spanish Florida, the greatest naval and colonial power of that day, the agents of Sir Walter Raleigh and the subjects of Queen Elizabeth suffered, or died, in the first serious effort to begin the conquest of the larger part of the North American continent by the slow process of agriculture, industry, trade, and natural increase. The hardships of the first colony under Governor Lane, 1585-86, and the disappearance of the "Lost Colony" of 1587 taught the English the practical difficulties that would be attendant upon the conquest of the continent and enabled them to grow in colonial wisdom. Thus, the birth of Virginia Dare, in the "City of Raleigh in Virginia," August 18, 1587, first child of English parentage to be born in the New World, was a prophetic symbol of the future rise of a new English-speaking nation beyond the seas.

Jamestown, Va., commemorates the successful settlement of English America growing out of the dreams of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his elder half-brother. Fort Raleigh, because of the tragic mystery of the "Lost Colony," memorializes better than any other site the cost of early English colonial effort. To a certain degree it also commemorates a forgotten part of the price that England paid for English liberty. The colonists at Fort Raleigh were, in a sense, sacrificed that England might employ all her fighting strength against the juggernaut of Spain in the battle against the Armada. To relieve the Roanoke colony in 1588, in the place of Grenville's warships, only two small pinnaces (Small ships) could be spared, and these did not reach Roanoke. For the glorious victory over the Armada and for the gradual emergence of British sea power after 1588, England gave her infant colony in America.

THE ELIZABETHAN EXPANSION

-  Sir. Walter Raleigh -

The statesmen, merchants, and ship captains of Elizabethan England shared the adventurous and speculative spirit of the Spaniards and Portuguese who had established empires in the West after 1492. Religious zeal and both personal and national interests impelled Englishmen to compete with Spain and Portugal for a share in the exploration and development of the New World. Englishmen wondered if they could not find a northwest passage through the American continent which would divert the wealth of the Indies to England, or if they could not translate the mineral and agricultural wealth of North America into English fortunes as Spaniards had grown rich from the gold of Mexico and Peru.

On June 11, 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained from Queen Elizabeth a charter to discover and colonize "remote heathen and barbarous lands" not actually possessed by any Christian prince. In 1583, he ventured almost his entire fortune, as well as that of his wife, Anne Aucher, in an attempt to explore the northern part of North America and found a colony in the New World. The Queen herself displayed interest in the enterprise by giving Raleigh a good-luck token to send to William Gilbert just before the expedition sailed. Gilbert landed at St. John's, Newfoundland, , which he claimed for England, but on coasting south- ward he met with repeated misfortunes, turned away, and was himself drowned on the return voyage to England. He had insisted on sailing in one of his smaller ships. "I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." Among his last recorded words was the famous cry to his men in the larger boat, "We are as near to heaven by sea as by land." His last will and testament, dated July 8, 1582, makes clear that his ultimate purpose had been to found an English empire beyond the seas to be colonized by English people.

Gilbert's heroic death must have deeply moved his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. The latter had voyaged with Sir Humphrey Gilbert in an expedition of 1578 and had fitted out a ship intended to participate in the great voyage of 1583 to Newfoundland. In 1584, when the Gilbert patent was to expire, Raleigh stood high in the favor of the Queen and received from her a charter which confirmed to him the powers formerly enjoyed by Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

Sir. Walter Raleigh

William Gilbert

Roanoke - Exploration of Roanoke Island, 1584

First English Settlement in the New World

On April 27, 1584, Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe left the west of England in two barks "well furnished with men and victuals," to explore the North American coast for Sir Walter Raleigh. Among the company of explorers was the enigmatical Simon Ferdinando, formerly the master of the ship Falcon under the captaincy of Raleigh, but also known as the "man" of the Queen's Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham. Ferdinando had sailed to the coast of America and back in 3 months' time in 1579. His knowledge of navigation was to make him a key figure in many of the Roanoke Island enterprises.

The party of explorers landed on July 13,1584, on the North Carolina coast, about 7 leagues above Roanoke Island, and took possession of the country for Queen Elizabeth "as rightfull Queene" with the further proviso that the land was to be for the use of Sir Walter Raleigh, according to the Queen's charter. Despite the passing of more than 350 years, Barlowe's description of the country is still basically true, if pardonably exuberant. They found it "very sandie and low toward the waters side, but so full of grapes {scuppernongs } as the very beating and surge of the Sea overflowed them, of which we found such plentie, as well there as in all places else, both on the sand and on the greene soil on the hils, as in the plaines, as well on every little shrubbe, as also climing towards the tops of high Cedars, that I thinke in all the world the like abundance is not to be found."

Queen Elizabeth I 

Born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace, London, England, an estate of her Father, King Henry VIII. Elizabeth's mother was Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth became Queen of England in 1558 and reigned until her death in 1603. Her reign is often called the Golden Age of England because it was a time of great achievement and prosperity.

Elizabeth succeeded in furthering England's interests in the face of foreign threats and religious unrest at home. Highlights of her reign include making the Church of England (a Protestant denomination) the state religion, while avoiding war with the powerful Roman Catholic nations of Europe; the English navy defeated of the Spanish Armada; English merchant ships challenged Spanish preeminence on the high seas; the first settlers were sent to America to open the way for a great colonial empire, and England's economy flourished. The English court became a center for writers, musicians, and scholars. English literature thrived during this period, with Francis Bacon composing his Essays, and William Shakespeare writing his great works of drama and poetry.

Elizabeth never married. She entertained both Protestant and Catholic suitors while committing to no one. She used her single status as a policy tool. By entertaining Catholic suitors she kept hostile Catholic monarchs at bay, and English Catholics loyal to her government. At one point it appeared she was interested in one of her subjects, Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. She avoided entering a marriage with Sir Robert because the match lacked any political benefits.

Problems at home marked the end of Elizabeth's reign. The Irish rebelled, the Earl of Essex lead a rebellion against the government, and the economy faltered. Elizabeth was the last legitimate decendant of Henry VIII. She was succeeded by James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Elizabeth's cousin Lord Darnley.

One of the most powerful women who ever lived was Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603). She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and was known as the Virgin Queen or Good Queen Bess. She was 25 years old when she became Queen and ruled England for 44 years until age 69. She was tall and slender with fair skin and had curly red hair.

In the 1500s there was an ongoing rivalry on the sea between the ships of England and Spain over control of trade in the New World. King Philip II of Spain decided to settle the question and put an end to English attacks on his ships by invading and conquering England. Philip assembled a huge fleet of warships known as the Spanish Armada and in 1588 sailed into the English Channel.

Below are the words Elizabeth spoke when she visited her troops in the field as they prepared for battle. During the nine-day battle, the smaller, more maneuverable English ships met the Spanish Armada and inflicted terrible losses. The Spanish ships that escaped the English ran into bad weather and only a few returned to Spain. Following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, England became the dominant world power and remained so for centuries.

Elizabethan era

 Spanish Armada, (ärmä´de) - 1588

The Spanish Armada of Great/Grand Armada (Old Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, "large and most fortunate fleet"; but called by the English, with ironic intention, la Armada Invencible, "the Invincible Fleet") was the largest fleet to date, sent by the Catholic King Philip II of Spain in 1588 in a failed attempt to bring an end to his war with England by forcing the English government to a peace advantageous to Spain. It was the largest battle of the Anglo-Spanish War, the first of several invasion attempts in the course of the war, and one of the most famous episodes in English history. The Spanish fleet was scattered by an English fire ship attack in the Battle of Gravelines, battered by storms, and driven back to Spain. Although there were several larger "Spanish Armadas," the term generally refers to the fleet assembled in 1588 because a large part of it was scattered and destroyed by a hurricane on its return.

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