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New Colonies in the Americas Seeking profit but finding no specie, English, French, and Dutch merchant companies began extending influence into the New World.
Early colonists discovered loose confederations of independent Amerindian polities like that of the Iroquois of New York which proved much more difficult to conquer than the Aztecs or Incas. Indeed, Amerindian autonomy may have contributed to their ability to resist European colonists.
The Dutch began as transporters of cargo for other nations, but eventually sought their own route to Asia via a "northern passage" around the north end of the Americas. Exploration by the Dutch East India Company provided information about the Hudson River and the Iroquois, but no passage. Interest dried up, but some settlers established themselves on the river and began engaging in trade with the Iroquois. Others profited by pirating Spanish shipping. Still others formed the Dutch West India Company and established a presence in the Caribbean which ended in bankruptcy in 1674 after the company failed to seize control of Portuguese sugar production. Although they failed as colonists in the Americas, the Dutch did succeed as businessmen and transporters, carrying goods and underwriting ventures. Their greatest successes, however, were to be found in Asia.
French interest in a northern passage took them up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. There, French missionaries attempted to convert Amerindians while settlers interacted with them as fur traders. Beaver skins harvested by Amerindians and bought by the French cemented links between both groups and led to accommodative ties rarely found between Europeans and Amerindians. Marital relations between French and Amerindians gave rise to mixed-blood métis, who brokered between the two peoples.
Dislike of the English cemented close alliances between the French and the Amerindians. Building farms, the English displaced Amerindians from the land, leading to friction and conflict. In New England, Puritan demands for land contributed to vicious wars in the 1630s and 1670s. Virginia witnessed much of the same, especially after tobacco began to produce great profits and the desire for land increased. With time, Europeans and Africans began to outnumber Amerindians, pushing the latter to the west as more and more land was taken over. Unlike the French, who intermingled and intermarried with the Amerindians, the English maintained their distance.
The Plantation Complex in the Caribbean In the Caribbean, the sugar plantations based on slave labor dominated, even on English- and French-controlled islands. Given sugar’s enormous profits, competition between the powers was fierce. The industry was lethal, however, requiring continuous supplies of new slaves to replace those who died. Plantation managers worked malnourished slaves to death in the disease-ridden tropics under horrifying living conditions. Slaves worked six days a week from dawn to dusk at back-breaking work, which accelerated during harvest time. Life expectancy on a plantation was three years. Some slaves resisted, occasionally through violence, to the point that governments had to negotiate or ban the slave trade. Slaves that could, simply ran away to communities in the mountains or interior, where they congregated in huge numbers. Even more resisted in quieter ways. The English founded extremely lucrative sugar plantations on Jamaica, while the French seized half of Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti). Though Europeans became increasingly entrenched in the Americas and wealthier for the experience, in Asia they still remained on the fringes. >> Continue to the next part of the Summary: The Slave Trade and Africa
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