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America In The Colonial Era
America In The Colonial Era: The Colonies In Their Political Relations
In the early stages of discovery and conquest captains-general and governors were the foremost officers in the new settlements.
1 The title of viceroy may have been used in connection with Columbus, but the vice-regal function as a regular and permanent feature of colonial administration was introduced later.But as great populations mere brought into subjection the system of viceroys was introduced. Privileged with not a little of royal state and holding the chief executive power over a vast stretch of territory, the viceroy enjoyed a sort of princely dignity. In his accountability, however, and his liability to recall, he was made to recognize that he still remained in the relation of subject and servant. The first to be appointed viceroy was Mendoza, who was installed in Mexico in 1535. For a considerable time, Lima, the capital of Peru, was the only rival of Mexico in the honors of viceroyalty, the one being the governmental centre of the provinces to the south of the Isthmus, and the other of those to the north. But in 1718 a third viceroyalty was instituted at Santa Fé de Bogota, and in 1776 a fourth was erected at Buenos Ayres. During most of the colonial era all the provinces were regarded as under the supervision of one viceroy or another. In some regions, however, located at a distance from the seat of the viceroy, his authority was scarcely more than nominal.
Christopher Columbus
The life and discoveries of Christopher Columbus. His political relations and journey into unchartered waters of the Atlantic. His voyages proved to European people, the world was not flat. Columbus' pursuit for wealth and a shorter trade route to Asia.
Colonial America
For colonies not among the Thirteen colonies, see European colonization of the Americas or English colonization of the Americas."
Starting in the late 16th century, the English, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch began to colonize eastern North America. The first English attempts, notably the Lost Colony of Roanoke, ended in failure, but successful colonies were soon established. The colonists, who came to the New World, were by no means a homogeneous band, but rather a variety of different social and religious groups which settled in different locations on the seaboard. The Dutch of New Netherland, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Puritans of New England, the gold-hungry settlers of Jamestown, and the convicts of Georgia each came to the new continent for vastly different reasons, and they created colonies with very different social, religious, political and economic structures.
Historians typically recognize four regions in the lands that later became the eastern United States. Listed from north to south, they are: New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies and the Southern Colonies. Some historians add a fifth region, the frontier, which had certain unifying features no matter what sort of colony it sprang from. The colonies of New France (later British Quebec) and Spanish Florida adjoined these regions, but developed separately for many years.
Human Rights
Robert G. Ingersoll on separation of Church and State, secularization of government and schools, and the right of all to be treated as equals.
Colonial America, 1607-1783
America actually began in two different places for two different reasons. In 1607, some 100 men and boys sailing from England landed in present-day Virginia and founded Jamestown. Inspired by the success of Spanish explorers who had found gold in South America, these adventurers hoped to get rich. Instead of gold, however, they found a hostile environment that probably would have destroyed the colony, but for the resourcefulness of Captain John Smith, who managed to organize and motivate the settlers and save them from starvation. In 1620, a group of English men and women came to America with a different mission. Having given up on the Church of England, which they thought had become too much like the Catholic Church, these Separatist Puritans sought to establish an ideal church in America. Led by William Bradford, these Pilgrims arrived in present-day Massachusetts on a ship called the Mayflower. Ten years later, John Winthrop led a different group of Puritans to the same general area, only this time with the plan of setting an example for the church back in England. Over the next century or so, Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were joined by other colonies, including Pennsylvania, settled largely by Quakers fleeing persecution in England; Connecticut, established by a man fleeing persecution by the Puritans in Massachusetts; Maryland, which the English king granted to an English Catholic named Lord Baltimore; and Georgia, which had been established for English debtors. By the 1760s, England and its 13 American colonies were quarreling over settlement, government, and taxes, especially those imposed by the Stamp Act of 1765. Finally, in 1775, skirmishes broke out in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. In 1776, Thomas Paine rallied colonists with a pamphlet called Common Sense, and Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. Over the next five years, General George Washington led the Americans against the British. In 1781, a surrender of some 8,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia--coupled with growing resentment against the war in England--led the British to give up the colonies. England officially recognized American independence in the Treaty of Paris, negotiated by Benjamin Franklin and others in 1783.
Response to Toast by Robert G. Ingersoll
Speech given by Robert G. Ingersoll, November 13, 1879; about the end of the war, honoring the soldiers, President Lincoln and the end of slavery.
Civil War History
Written in 1866 following the Civil War, presenting a Confederate Perspective on the causes of the war between the North and South, and how religious factions influenced the animosities between Abolitionist and Slaveholders leading to rise of the Civil War.
The Colonial Era The history of Spanish American literature begins with the writings of the explorers, soldiers, and missionaries who participated in the conquest of the New World. Their writings, eyewitness accounts of the discovery, the conquest, the existing civilizations, and the natural wonders of the flora and fauna, form the literature of the early colonial period. These chronicles, letters, histories, religious pieces, and epic poems are the vibrant and fascinating expression of those who fought for church, crown, and gold.
The letters of Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand V and Isabella I and those of Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, to Charles V are among the classics of this period. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of the soldiers of Cortés, wrote a remarkable history of the conquest of Mexico, and the history by the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas of the destruction of the Indies made him the “apostle of the Indians” and the author of the “black legend” of Spain.
Early poetry includes Chile's epic poem, La Araucana (1569–89; tr. 1945) by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúńiga, a soldier who described the conflict between the Spaniards and the Araucanians of Chile. The epic tradition was continued by Diego de Hajeda and Bernardo de Balbuena. Among the first of those born in the New World to write about it, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega described the history of the Incas and of Peru.
Robert G. Ingersoll's Response to Delaware Grand Jury
February 13, 1882, Robert Ingersoll, on the persecution of non-Christians, and his opposition to corporal punishment.
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