British North America-673705806 .ppt

1、 British North America:Christ,Empire,Contracts,the American Dream,Trade1492Columbus“discovers”“America”balance of power in Europe shiftedSpain,a relatively poor but very military and very Catholic country,started to become the rich,more powerful country in Europe because of its Empire.the Empire of

2、Phillip the Second Empire in 1598 Catholic Spain and Protestant EnglandrivalsoftenenemiesSpaintried toconquerEnglandin 1588.all of Spains rivals want their own empire in the AmericasProtestant England,Protestant Netherlands,even Catholic FranceSpanish vs English coloniesSpain:colonies are created an

3、d run by the government.England:the government charters private companies to set up the colonies.They are either business enterprises(like Virginia)or religious enterprises(like Massachusets).(Doesnt work very well;the government ends up taking over each colony.)Covenants,Contracts,Charters Lets con

4、sider some odd implications of this way of setting up colonies.(Mayflower Compact;A Model of Christian Charity)we can seethe idea that government is a kind of contract between peoplethe idea that Massachusetts(and later America)has a special role among all the nations in the world.Thomas Paine would

5、 say“the cause of America,is in great measure,the cause of all mankind.”Abraham Lincoln called the USA“the last,best hope of mankind.”settlement of British North Americanot just Englishother groups:DutchProtestant Germansthe Scotch-Irish(Scots who had lived in Ireland)enslaved Africansconsider“What

6、is an American?”J.Hector St.John de Crevecoeurb.in Franceemigrated to British North Americapublished Letters from an American Farmer in 1782.“What is an American?”emphasizes multi-ethnic character of Americaemphasizes religious diversity and religious toleranceemphasizes upward mobility and prospert

7、ythis book creates the powerful idea of“the American Dream”the American Dream phrase first used in 1931 by James Truslow Adams that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone,with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.It is a difficult dream

8、for the European upper classes to interpret adequately,and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it.It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely,but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they a

9、re innately capable,and be recognized by others for what they are,regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.America settled bymany different groupsmainly to them“troublemakers”in their own countriesEngland wanted as many settles are possible so England let more kinds of people

10、settle in its empire than the Spanish did in theirs.England thought it was better to send troublemakers out of England.Were they right?The American dream,that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of merely material plenty,though that has do

11、ubtlessly counted heavily.It has been much more than that.It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as man and woman,unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations,unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes

12、rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.MercantilismEngland governed its colonies according to the economic theory of“mercantilism.”To simplify,mercantilism held that the main function of colonies was to make money for the mother country.American productsmost important colonial

13、 product was sugar,not that was not grown on the mainlandtobaccotimberindigoricefishmarket for English productsAmerica was also supposed to be a market for English productsthis England made much economic development illegalAmerica was to remain a colonial economy.military role within the Empirethe B

14、ritish Empire fought 4 wars between 1689 and 1763.On the one hand,British North America had to fight in all of them.On the other hand,British North American needed England to protect them from the French in North America.But in 1763,England defeated France so thoroughly France withdrew from North Am

15、erica and no longer threatened British North America;the British took over Canada.Thomas Paine there is something very absurd,in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.Independence movementFrom 1763-1776,these elements in American culture led to an independence movement:1.desire for economic mobility,prosperity,independence2.(and more important)the ideas that government is a contract between the people themselves and that if the contract is broken,the people have a right to change their government.