APUSH Unit 2 Notes

Time Period: 1607–1754

1. Comparing European Colonial Empires

The Spanish Empire
• Main goal: Extract wealth — first through gold & silver, later through cash crops like
sugar and tobacco.
• Encomienda system: Indigenous people forced into slave labor on Spanish-owned
land. Encomenderos did not own the land itself.
• Hacienda system: Gradually replaced encomienda; plantation owner did own the land;
indigenous laborers tied to it through debt repayment. Still coerced labor.
• Missions: Catholic churches at center of organized settlements; used to maintain social
and economic control over indigenous people.
• Pueblo Revolt (1680): Spanish tried to suppress Pueblo beliefs and kill medicine men.
Pueblo rebelled, killed hundreds of Spaniards, destroyed every church. Spanish returned
~12 years later and retook control but accommodated some Pueblo cultural practices
(land grants, lenient on traditional beliefs).
• Syncretism: Many indigenous people blended Christianity with their own traditions (e.g.,
Virgin of Guadalupe). Spanish priests disapproved and pushed back.
• Spanish Caste System (Casta): Race-based social hierarchy; pure Spanish at top,
indigenous and enslaved Africans at bottom; mixed-race people in between based on
proportion of 'white blood.'

The French & Dutch Empires

• Relatively few colonists — mostly men; focused on trading posts, not permanent
settlements.
• Emphasized cooperation with indigenous groups, not control over them.
• French fur trade: Allied and intermarried with indigenous groups to satisfy European
demand for beaver fur and other goods.
• French missionaries: Sent but far less coercive than Spanish; few forced conversions.
• Dutch (New Amsterdam): Primarily economic motives; fur trade focus; no interest in
converting natives; attracted merchants from many cultures — over a dozen languages
spoken in the streets.

The British Empire

• Far more colonists than French or Dutch; came to build a separate English
society, not partner with indigenous peoples.
• 4 reasons English came to America:
◦ Social mobility: Primogeniture laws (only oldest son inherits land) pushed younger sons to
seek land in the colonies.
◦ Economic prosperity: Jamestown (1607) founded by men seeking gold; eventually found
wealth through tobacco.
 ◦ Religious freedom: Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England; Separatists
(Pilgrims) wanted full separation; King James I's persecution pushed both groups to the
New World.
◦ Improved living conditions: Population growth + enclosure movement (wealthy claimed
public land) left poor farmers with no options in Britain.

Quick comparison: Spain grabbed the New World (imposed control). France & Dutch shook
hands with it (partnered for profit). Britain shoved it away (built a separate society).

2. The 4 British Colonial Regions

New England (Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay)
• Settled by Pilgrims (1620) and Puritans (1630s); immigrated as families to create a
religious society.
• Mayflower Compact: Agreement to form a simple majority-rule government —
unusually democratic for its time.
• Massachusetts Bay Colony: All freemen who owned property could vote; town hall
meetings; BUT only strict Puritans were considered freemen.
• Economy: Subsistence farming (rocky soil, harsh winters); export economy based on
fur, timber, and fish.
• Character: Religiously homogeneous (English Puritans); very little tolerance for other
beliefs.

Middle Colonies (NY, NJ, DE, PA)

• Key features: Diversity and trade.
• New York: Excellent seaports and rivers; fertile soil; grain exports; many cultures living
and trading together.
• Pennsylvania: Founded by Quaker William Penn as a refuge for religious dissenters;
highly democratic; elective representative assembly chosen by landowners; unusually
fair treatment of indigenous peoples early on.
• Attracted diverse populations; rapid economic growth; grain and crop exports.

Chesapeake & North Carolina (Virginia, Maryland)

• Jamestown (1607): First English settlement; single men seeking gold; switched to
tobacco after near-starvation — tobacco made the colony wealthy.
• Large plantation-style land plots; colonists spread out and isolated
geographically.
• Labor: Started with indentured servitude (work for years, then freedom + land); African
slavery gradually replaced it starting in 1619.
• Virginia House of Burgesses: Representative government for landowners — one of
earliest examples of self-governance in the colonies.
Southern Colonies & British West Indies
• British West Indies: Long warm seasons near equator; sugarcane most profitable crop;
massive plantations; enslaved Black population outnumbered whites 4 to 1.
• Barbados Slave Code: Stripped all rights from enslaved workers; granted planters
complete power; brutal punishments.
• South Carolina: Supplied food to West Indies; West Indian planters moved in and
brought slave codes; shifted to rice and indigo; rice cultivation expertise came from
enslaved Africans.
• Rigid social hierarchy: Small number of elite planters at top; common white planters in
middle; enslaved Black majority at bottom. Elite planters dominated local politics.

3. Colonial Economics & Trade

Triangular Trade
• One of many transatlantic trade routes; routes roughly formed a triangle.
• Basic cycle: New England rum → West Africa (traded for enslaved people) → Middle
Passage to British West Indies (traded for sugar/molasses) → back to New England to
make rum.
• American Indians were also sold into slavery by the millions, especially after
Metacom's War.

Effects of Trade with Indigenous Groups

• Introduced European goods (metal tools, firearms, cloth) → fundamentally altered
native economies and power dynamics between groups.
• Continued spread of European diseases like smallpox → devastated indigenous
populations.

Mercantilism
• Definition: State-driven economic system aimed at maintaining a favorable balance of
trade — maximize exports, minimize imports.
• Wealth measured in gold & silver; limited total supply in the world, so exports =
wealth in, imports = wealth out.
• Colonies' purpose: Serve the imperial parent economy as suppliers of raw materials
and buyers of finished goods.
• Navigation Acts: Forced colonial economies to trade only with Britain; stripped
colonists of economic autonomy.
• Salutary neglect: Britain's distance + distraction of wars with France = lax enforcement
of Navigation Acts; colonists got used to ignoring British laws — a tension that grew over
time.
4. European-Indigenous Relations
Beaver Wars (17th Century)
• Iroquois Confederacy sought to expand into Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes
after depleting local beaver populations.
• France allied with many indigenous groups; Dutch and British allied with the
Iroquois — reflects French cooperation vs. British separation attitudes.

Two Responses to European Intrusion

• Accommodation: After the Pueblo Revolt, Spanish returned and offered land grants,
appointed a Pueblo representative, and allowed more religious tolerance — not out of
generosity, but to avoid another uprising.
• Conflict & Removal — Metacom's War (King Philip's War): Wampanoag chief
Metacom forged alliance with neighboring tribes to resist New England settlers pushing
west. Attacked and destroyed ~12 Puritan towns. Eventually Metacom was captured and
killed. Resistance greatly weakened after massive Wampanoag losses.

5. Slavery in the British Colonies

Development of Slavery
• Slavery present in all British colonies, but increased going from north to south.
• Indentured servitude was the early dominant labor system — workers signed
contracts for years of labor, then received freedom and land.
• African slavery gradually replaced indentured servitude.

Bacon's Rebellion (1676)

• As Virginia land became scarce, freed indentured servants received poor frontier
land (some already promised to indigenous groups).
• Governor Berkeley disenfranchised these landless farmers.
• Nathaniel Bacon led attacks on indigenous settlements and then turned on
Berkeley, who fled.
• Bacon died of illness; Berkeley crushed the rebellion with militia.
• Key consequence: Wealthy planters got nervous about indentured servants and
switched heavily to African slavery as a more controllable labor force.

Chattel Slavery & Slave Codes

• Chattel slavery: Enslaved people defined as property (like farm equipment); became
the dominant form of slavery in British colonies.
• New laws to protect the institution:
◦ Virginia: Children of enslaved women were also slaves permanently.
◦ Maryland: Laws prohibited intermarriage of whites and Blacks.
 ◦ South Carolina (from Barbados Slave Code): Brutal punishments; complete planter
control.

Resistance by Enslaved People

• Covert resistance: Maintaining family structures in secret; working slowly; breaking
tools; preserving African cultural traditions (e.g., cowry shells found in slave quarters).
• Stono Rebellion (1739): Group of recently imported slaves in South Carolina attacked
along the Stono River, killed white colonists, burned homes. Militia suppressed them.
Result: slave codes made even more severe throughout South Carolina.

6. Colonial Society & Culture

Diversity of the Population
• German immigrants (~6%): fled religious persecution and economic hardship.
• Scots-Irish (~7%): many settled on Appalachian frontier; no fans of British
government.
• Other European groups (~5%).
• People of African descent (~20%): largest minority; heavily concentrated in
southern colonies.
• Big idea: This diversity is one of the most fundamental roots of American identity.

Unifying Movements
• The Great Awakening (1730s+): Religious revival; preachers like Jonathan Edwards &
George Whitfield encouraged emotional, individual responses to faith (fainting, shouting,
etc.). First mass movement affecting colonists everywhere — created a shared national
identity and challenged religious elites.
• The Enlightenment: European intellectual movement emphasizing rationality; ideas
from Locke and Rousseau (natural rights, social contract) crossed the Atlantic via print
culture and shaped American political philosophy.
• Both movements: Emphasized individual power and encouraged suspicion of elites —
inherently democratic tendencies.

Anglicization of the Colonies

• Early colonial society had no titled nobility and more opportunity for social
mobility than Britain.
• By end of period, colonies increasingly resembled British culture:
◦ Wealthy New England/middle colony merchants resembled English nobility in
customs and dominance.
◦ Southern elite planters dominated local politics like English aristocrats.
◦ Land scarcity created a growing landless poor class — very British.
 • All colonies shared same basic government structure: Governor + two-house
legislature (same as England); local governments gave colonists a taste for self-rule and
autonomy.

7. Growing Tensions with Britain

1. Territorial Tensions
• Colonial population booming → land scarce → colonists wanted to push west into
Ohio River Valley.
• Britain opposed this: Feared reigniting conflicts with indigenous peoples and sparking
war with France (spoiler: it did — French and Indian War, Unit 3).
• British government blocked western expansion → colonial resentment grew.

2. Desire for Self-Rule

• Salutary neglect gave colonists long periods of independence in economic and
political decisions.
• Impressment: Britain forced American colonists (especially in seaports) to serve in the
Royal Navy during wars — colonists deeply resented this.
• 1747 Boston Riot: Colonists rioted for 3 days to resist impressment for King George's
War — sign that colonists had developed their own sense of natural rights.

3. Trade Restrictions
• Growing colonial population = more imports from Britain, but British demand for
American goods was saturating.
• Colonists needed new trade partners but Navigation Acts restricted trade to
Britain only.
• Response: Colonists began smuggling goods to outside buyers. Worked fine under
salutary neglect, but British crackdowns increased resentment.
• Big idea: Colonists were getting used to acting autonomously — British attempts to
enforce control set the stage for Unit 3 conflicts.