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Here are the Study Guide questions for your reference.

1. What did societies in Europe, Africa, and the Americas have in common on the eve of the Columbian voyages in 1492? What were significant differences between these societies?  How did both similarities and differences facilitate European colonization of the Americas?
2. How did slavery exist prior to 1500 in Europe, Africa, and the Americas? Describe ‘unfree’ labor in early Colonial America.  How did slavery and race become related in English Colonial America?  How did slavery vary by region/colony?  Describe slave culture and explain how slaves resisted bondage.
3. Why did the Spanish, French, and Dutch (NOT the English) establish colonies in the Americas (the entire hemisphere)? Be sure to include the original goal of these enterprises.  What was the institutional structure and purpose of the first colonial establishments?  Where did these imperial powers establish their colonies and why?  What were the similarities and differences in colonial approaches?  What explains these differences and similarities?
4. Compare and contrast the English colonies in the New England region and the Chesapeake region. Include motivations, governance, settlement patterns, society, demographics, political participation, and relationships with Indians.
5. What caused the American Revolution? What events, ideas and developments drove many (not all) colonials together in protest to the British Parliament? What did the “revolutionaries” plead for from King George III in the Olive Branch Petition and subsequently the Declaration of Independence?  Why would they make these demands and why did they do it the way they did?
6. How did the structure of the newly independent United States change from 1776 to 1787? Explain the ideological, political, and governmental shift for the Framers from the Declaration of Independence to the S. Constitution?  Be sure to explain the conflicts that led to the change and occurred during the process of transforming the national government.

 

Colonial History of colonial America and Columbian Voyages.

The ever-growing connectivity of the globe, globalization, is not a new phenomenon, but it largely intensified when Western Europeans found the wealth of the East. This paper focuses on the history of Columbian voyages of 1492, the European colonization of the Americas, and the pre-colonial existence of slavery before 1500 in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.

Question 1

The societies in Europe, Africa, and the Americas had many similarities before Columbian voyages; their cultures were varied, rich and intelligent, and constantly adapted to the changing conditions. African societies significantly mirrored the societies in the Americas; this is seen in its many cultures across deserts, grasslands and woods, extensive trading networks and the struggle for resources. Over decades, climate changes have altered farming practices and pushed diverse communities to fight for war domination and engage in a large trading network throughout the continents, common among the different societies in Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Significant differences were seen in many African societies. Politically structured many of them into big empires such as the Ghana Kingdom in West Africa. Family organization and African cultures differ significantly from those in Europe and the Americas. Especially in matrilineal rather than patrilineal (Mann, 2019). The rights and heritage, for instance, were derived from the mother. The form of transportation and farming techniques in Europe were much different from the ones in Africa and the Americas on the Eve of Columbus Voyage. The similarities and differences significantly contributed to the colonization of the Americas; for example, the presence of Kingdoms such as Ghana and Dahomey in West Africa facilitated the acquisition of slaves from Africa by the Europeans, which they transported to the Americas. The expansion of the farming system and Transportation in European societies contributed to the colonization of the Americas as they were looking for raw materials (Fritze, 2018).

Question 2

According to Thiaw and Mack, (2020), different American Indian communities lived in a diversity of social systems in the years well before European colonizers in the Americas. These political and social institutions incorporated various types of slavery or compelled labor centered on enslaving war prisoners, imposing slavery into the empire's class order, or compulsory tributes payment of commodities or labor. In contrast to what emerged in the New World later, American Indian enslavement typically worked within a flexible parentage structure. Unlike in other parts of the Atlantic World, in the centuries preceding the trans-Atlantic slave trade, slavery in Continental Europe did not prevail. Labor agreements, convictions and feudalism flourished instead. Slavery predominated before or during the trans-Atlantic slave trade in many western and central African civilizations. When several African kingdoms, small or medium-sized states or ethnic groups came into the war, persons from one African group were routinely slaved by the other communities as foreigners. According to Calvao (2016), unfree labor in colonial America refers to relationships in which people work against their choice through the risk of misery, arrest, legal constraint or other great misery for themselves or their dependents. The European entrance into the Americas led to the Atlantic slave trade, whereby Africans were shipped to the Americas for enslavement. They were working without good working conditions. Unfree labor runs between the 15th and 19th centuries, and it is regarded as the largest unfree labor in the history of the United States. Slavery was little more than just a labor system, and it also affected every area of the colonial mind and society. It has given the European colonists an inflated sense of their rank because of its asymmetrical connection. The freedom of English people got more significant and consistent compared with America's unfree black enslaved class. The English colonial enacted laws that limited the economic status of slaves, which later created racial divides; these laws created some forms of racial hierarchy that was largely based on race in English colonial America. The import of African slaves, particularly in the North American colonies, went to the south and necessitated substantial labor forces in tobacco, rice and, subsequently, Cotton planting economies. North American slave populations tend to live a bit longer, as opposed to the high mortality rates of slaves witnessed in sugar plantations in the Caribbean region. South America, areas such as Brazil took a large chunk of slaves. Throughout all places, slaves rejected slavery and sought liberty through violent protests and revolts. Sabotaging, escape and sluggish labor paces on the farms were some of the less violent tactics of resilience used by the slaves.

Question 3

The main reason for the Dutch, Spanish, and French establishing colonies was as follows: For the fur trade to be set up, the French colonized North America. The French missionaries went to North America to transform the Americas into Catholics. Dutch colonization was first intended to locate a passage to Asia via North America, but the Netherlands seized the New Netherland area following discovering lucrative fur trade. Initially, French colonies consisted of fur dealers, traders and missionaries, and by 1772 less than 5,000 people were living there; the Netherlands (Dutch) was equally small, with around half of its inhabitants being the Netherlands. French-occupied Quebec, French and Dutch interacted with Native Americans and built a better relationship than Spanish and English; this helped their trading goals.

Question 4

While the colonies of New England and the colonies of Chesapeake shared a strong hostility to the Indians, their theological uniformity and economic plans diverged. Chesapeake colonies were not religious, and the economy was a major motivation for them. New England colonies were mainly practicing Puritan religion, and they were looking for religious freedom, which was a major motivation for invasion. They wanted separation from Catholics in England. Both regions were merged when colonized by the British. New England colonies were very strict in terms of marriage arrangements. Chesapeake colonies settled around Virginia, Maryland, New Jerseys and some parts of Pennsylvania, while New England colonies settled around Massachusetts Bay (Bacon, & Norton, 2019).

Question 5

In the battle over North America, Britain and France clashed in the French and Indian war. They seized control of the North American provinces in French possession located east of the Mississippi River following the British victory. Until then, the British chose to leave the American colonies largely independently. Britain started more control over the colonies under the leadership of King George III. This war left the British financially unstable; to generate revenues, they placed taxes on commodities such as tea, paper and other imported goods. People responded through resistance and being hostile to the British, which later grew and extended to other areas such as Boston and Massachusetts. The British responded by sending troops to such areas and enacting some Acts to divide the colonies but instead unite them; fighting erupted. The colonies declared independence on 4th July 1776. The tax system, Intolerable Act, led to protests from the colonials against the British parliaments. The revolutionaries pleaded to the King not declared a formal war, citing their loyalty to the British and citizenship. It is important because it prevented a war between the thirteen colonies and the British, which could have jeopardized the independence declaration (Bailyn, 2017)

Question 6

State conflicts or even local revolts were threatening the benefits of the revolution to be destroyed. Shortly afterward, the nationalists headed by James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Wilson, started to strive to expand the national govt. The Articles of Confederation and the Perpetual Union of States were submitted for adoption to the States following over one-year deliberation and negotiation in the Continental Congress. It would be nearly four years before all thirteen States had approved the document, the latter on 1st March 1781 by Maryland, and implemented it (Vile, 2017).  The provisions foresee that a single-house legislature, a weak central government, no federal taxing powers, a lack of common currency, and state vote would lead ultimately to its failure. In 1784 congressional committee advocate for the abolition of 18th-century slavery, and it was finally banned in the year 1787. There was a revolution in Massachusetts. The majority of people in the United States believed that there was a need for a strong national government, reducing the small rebellions.

In conclusion, colonial America has resulted in societal changes in today's America and the rest of the world, and it is a history that people need to keep learning.