Lengua
ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: The average settlers were young men. Almost half of the population were slaves and indentured servants, who cannot pay for their passages and someone buy them to work for several years until they cover the cost of the trip. Report: Journey to Pennsylvania. Gottlieb Mittelberger was an indentured servant who wrote this text to report the harshness of the journey and his purpose was to prevent other people from going to New Land and leaving fatherland.PROBLEMS ABOUT THE HOURNEY: It takes very long time to arrive to America.
§ Bad condition of food and water àhunger and anxiety. § Lack of spaceàovercrowded ship § Lice (piojo), louse (piojos) § Storms à which would cause shipwrecks § Quarrels (disputes i baralles) § Illnesses, people dying § Broken families: if there’s a mother with a child and she dies, they throw both the mother and baby into water. It was like that because the baby would die without food. § Home-sickness. PROBLEMS OF BEING AN INDENTURED SERVANT: If you marry and you don’t want to be servant anymore, you must pay. § Young people have to serve more years (concretely 21) than old people. § Masterswerenotkind.Butitwasvery difficult to escape and people would be punished with more years. (+ work) When they land, only the ones that could pay their passage could leave. The ones who cannot pay, because the passages were expensive, were purchased as servants. The others frequently died in 2 or 3 weeks. Moreover,In the New World– There were better health conditions – more space and less people than in Europe. - Natural increase due to: è Lower death rates – less diseases è High birth rates Regional distinction between colonies New England (in the north). è Winters were very harsh. è Their economy was based on water à thanks to the amount of trees there was shipbuilding and sea trade. è They benefit financially from slave trade. Middle colonies è More cosmopolitan because they had more immigration from different places, not only English. è Economy based on fur trade (from hunting) and cottage industries (cotton – clothes and shoes). Southern colonies è Rural. è Based at the beginning on plantation system, with slaves working there. è Emergence of aristocracy. Developments: Printing press allowed: Puritan sermons and first newspapers – spread of news Stagecoach These allowed more communication: news could move around more easily. This lead to feeling of unity between colonies, which in a future lead to nationalism and independence.Structure of Government in the Colonies: In the 17th C England left the colonies because of the English Civil War. The colonies started to govern themselves. Then, there was also a colonial assembly (who helped the governor) elected by votes. § The British king imposed laws on the Native American colonies which made colonies worse – because England has returned to monarchy. So, they imposed Navigation Laws, which caused discontent and the members of the colonies started to have feelings against the British. These laws gave more important to the English commerce: the English would be the only to import or export with them (like a monopoly). People in colonies did not agree and smuggling began to be an opportunity to commerce illegally with other countries. English were not doing things that benefit them and maybe didn’t want the best for them. § French and Indian War – Between UK and France. France did an alliance with Natives against UK. The French and Natives were defeated: most of the people that were fighting were living in colonies. The British achieved more territory by winning. However, in 1763 the British king decided that it was not safe because the natives that continued living there could attack them. § Royal Proclamation 1763 As the British king was scared of the natives, he created the Royal proclamation line. This line divided territories and the natives couldn’t cross the line. Also, the British in colonies started to feel angry because they could not use the territory they fought for. This event made the natives felt that if they united they could winàfeelings of unity and moral superiority to the British. This feeling of superiority was also inherited by puritan colonies.àPatriotism The British did one last thing: they increased the taxes to the Natives. While they did this, they didn’t allow people from colonies to be members of the parliament. This caused more unity between the natives: “No taxation without representation!” THE ENLIGHTENMENT – 18th C : This movement was centred on rationality. Its main ideas were the following: MAN is on the centre of existence, because man is the rational being. Man is part of nature but he is superior because of his rationality. The Enlightenment would believe that happiness is achieved through rationality and science. They also believe that a man would be responsible for destiny because of his capacity to use rationality. Rationality allow them to have the privilege of liberty.