During the reign of James I, the regions that today constitute the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia were populated , which in the second half of the 16th century had only been the scene of raids by corsairs such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake, more involved in actions against Spain than in any foundational objective.
The true colonization of the territory did not begin until the beginning of the 17th century, as a result of the joint efforts of the Crown and private individuals. At the end of 1606, the London Company sent three ships to the Chesapeake Bay, whose crews founded the village of James-town the following year, some 30 miles up the James River. The settlers were led by John Smith, who enjoyed the favor of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, who allowed them to settle. To make the new colony profitable, they introduced tobacco cultivation in 1612.
Arrival of the First Pilgrims
In the fall of 1620 a group of pilgrims arrived (pilgrims) who, coming from England but refugees in Holland, victim of the religious persecution of the Anglicans, managed to set sail for America on the ship Mayflower and found the town of Plymouth in New England . Their beginnings were hard, since they lacked the most elementary things, but in November 1621 they received a ship with provisions, they got a good corn harvest and with the turkey and deer hunting they organized a Thanksgiving to God party ( Thanksgiving ) for having been able to subsist, a tradition that the American people maintain to this day.
Later, in 1628, Puritans arrived from England and founded the towns of Boston, Salem and others near the former colony. They were led by John Winthrop and their people came with abundant provisions and tools that allowed them to organize a rich colony. Instead they introduced a deep religious intolerance, a reflection of the English situation.
Catholic colonization
There were other colonies, such as those in Connecticut and Rhode Island , but these were initiated by tolerant people with a democratic spirit. In 1632, King Charles I of England promoted a Catholic colonization, although in the spirit of religious tolerance, at whose head he placed Lord Baltimore, to whom he granted the land between the Potomac River and the 40th parallel in exchange for the symbolic price of two Indian arrows per year. It was the son of Lord Baltimore who, in 1649, proclaimed the Toleration Act, one of the first laws of religious toleration in the American colonies. In honor of Henrietta Mary, wife of the king, these lands were baptized with the name of Maryland . With the same tolerant and democratic spirit, Charles II granted William Penn, son of the conqueror of Jamaica, the lands located south of New York, which welcomed men of different religions and nationalities (Quakers, English, Dutch and even Swedes). For this coexistence he founded the city of Philadelphia ("city of brotherly love" in Greek), granting equal rights to the whites and Indians of the region. This experience inspired some thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment, such as Voltaire. In his honor, the fraternal colony was named "Penn's Jungle", Pennsylvania .
Actions of the English Crown to contain the Spanish Advance
The English Crown intervened directly in the Anglo-Saxon colonization of other territories. Carlos II wanted to reward faithful men, during the turbulent years, his father, Carlos I, and granted lands located further south, called Carolina in memory of the real promoter by the French Huguenots who tried to settle in the territory, which in the 18th century was divided into North Carolina and South Carolina.
To prevent the northward advance of the Spanish from Florida and at the same time carry out humanitarian work, the philanthropist James Oglethorpe earmarked the lands south of the Savannah River for the impoverished and indebted people of England. George II granted him lands that were called Georgia in honor of said monarch. Its beginnings were difficult due to the endemic malaria of that swampy region, but rice cultivation was soon introduced and, with the arrival of black slaves, the colony began to prosper.
The Thirteen Colonies
In the eighteenth century, the configuration of early North America consisted of thirteen colonies:New Jersey, Delaware, New York, New Hampshire, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. in which in the mid-eighteenth century lived about a million and a half inhabitants.
Political-administrative structure of Saxon America
At the pinnacle of political power in the thirteen colonies was a governor appointed directly by the Crown. Both in the colonies of royal promotion and those fostered by private initiative, the communities of residents of the towns and villages were endowed with certain powers such as electing legislative assemblies, with broader powers than the Hispanic councils. This tradition of self-government in British America dates back to the pact that the Mayflower pilgrims signed to set themselves up as a government, endow themselves with equal laws for all and for the common good. The incipient democracy was limited by the fact that in order to exercise the right to vote it was necessary to own land, although the right to criticize and to be heard was, in principle, enjoyed by all citizens. These assemblies not only passed laws, but also exercised local executive power, albeit by delegation from the governor. What was progressive about these local assemblies was that citizens always enjoyed freedom of speech, opinion, assembly and the press (when it appeared in the 18th century).
Settlers rooted in America
The Anglo-Saxon colonization took place a century after the Hispanic one and, consequently, its institutions had a more modern structure; on the other hand, they enjoyed, at least initially, greater autonomy from the metropolis, which allowed them to develop without major limiting controls. In addition —a very important fact—, the colonizers did not aspire to return to the Old World enriched, but rather, fugitives from a situation of religious, economic and political intolerance, they wanted to put down roots in America. All these factors gave the Saxon colonies characteristics that can still be detected today in the socioeconomic fabric of the US and Canada.
Territorial property regime of Saxon America
British America inherited some of the agrarian structures of England at the time. With the development of cultivation and marketing techniques, these structures caused society to be divided into aristocratic landlords and capitalist merchants on one side, and small merchant and artisan landlords on the other. Agricultural property, the fundamental wealth of the country, varied its characteristics according to the type of soil, crops and population. Thus, in Virginia, the Carolinas and Maryland (southern lands), plots of land of up to 100 acres were offered per immigrant who covered the cost of travel from the Old World, plus 50 acres for each child brought.
Origin of Latifundismo en laamérica Saxono
After a certain time the system failed, since it gave rise to fraudulent speculations that already at the beginning of the 18th century had made possible the formation of a new class of landowners who leased most of their land. This gave rise to the appearance of latifundismo and a deep social differentiation, one of whose manifestations was the proliferation of squatters or illegal land occupants. In the central colonies, farmers paid rent for the land to the Crown or to private owners, depending on whether they were owners or tenants. In an essentially agricultural country, this led to innumerable social frictions and violent clashes over the collection of these rents, as well as a caste society led by landowners attached to the Crown.
However, this situation had a positive aspect, since the farmer, pressured by income, had to diversify his sources of income and resort to the artisanal production and marketing of his own products in a family economy regime.
Communal Lands
In the New England territories, the local assemblies granted the new farming communities a piece of land, the town (six square miles), free of taxation for a certain time. In the center of the lot the villa was built, and in the center of it a communal house that served as a church and town hall at the same time, and around which the neighbors built their houses. These received a plot of land for their cultivation according to certain hierarchies, since the best lands were for the officials elected by the community and the men of the church. Communal lands were also left for pasture, firewood, and fodder. The communal property of these lands disappeared at the beginning of the 18th century, when agrarian property was consolidated. The new settlers had to buy or lease their lands without the right to use the communal lands, which became exclusive to the first settlers.
Specialization of Economic Activities
Another important aspect of English colonization was regional agricultural specialization. New England was more devoted to ranching, and since agriculture was not too lavish, it turned to trade and industry. The colonies of the center specialized in the cultivation of cereals, especially wheat, which they exported to the Antilles, where it could not be cultivated due to the climate. The southern colonies began to stand out in the system of large single-crop plantations that gave rise to plantation capitalism, whose production was destined for international trade, based on a workforce that soon became the slave labor of black Africans. . The first extensive and wealthy crop was tobacco, in Virginia, which dominated until the subsequent cotton boom.