MIGRATION

• Religion


  • Initial raids to Americas by Britain supported by religious rivalry with Catholic Spain. Many settlers migrated to the Americas were also parts of religious minorities like the Puritans who wanted greater freedom than they could have in England.
• The Mayflower arrived carrying Puritans from Englandto start a religious colony "New Plymouth"

  1620
• 21,300 settlers arrive in Massachusetts following the Pilgrims


  1620
• England went through a civil war between supporters of King Charles I and those of Parliament


  1642-1649
• The war ended in 1649 with the execution of Charles and the establishment of an unstable Republic


  1651
• Navigation Acts passed that contributed to colonists' anger at Britain as they benefitted Britain by saying that the American colonies could only import and export goods with his own ports. This restricted the amount of goods the colonists could access
• Navigation Acts


  Laws that restricted the colonies' trade to only with Britain
• Constitution


  The way a state is to be governed, who goes to war, who controls the supply of goods or of money
• Persecution


  When are people are forced or punished on for their beliefs
• Catholics


  Christians who follow the Pope
• Puritans


  Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England
• By 1700 the Native American population in Britain's colonies had declined by 80% - half what it had been in 1500
• Walter


  Leading explorer and privateer of Elizabeth. Colonised N America and captured Spanish treasure fleets
• Britain was in debt following its war with France


  1756-63
• The Stamp Act imposed a tax on the paper used for official documents. This angered the colonists
• To protest the American tea tax, colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbour. The "Boston Tea Party"
• Native Americans


  The indigenous people who lived in America before European colonisation
• George Washington


  Leader of the American colonists in the fight for independence
• In 1774, 58 representatives of the colonies meet in Philadelphia to decide what to do next to resist Britain. They declare these colonies independent of Britain in the "Declaration of Independence".
• In 1783, the British are militarily defeated in N America after their main general Cornwallis and his army are forced to surrender at Yorktown. The war officially ends with signing of the Treaty of Paris.
• Britain lost 30,000 troops and the colonists 25,000 in the war. 100,000 colonists fled the new USA for Canada which remained a British colony.
• By 1823 Britain had the world's largest navy and pursued colonization elsewhere. By 1900 it controlled 25% of the world.
• Britain needed a new place to send its criminals after America won independence, and Australia became the new destination as a penal colony.
• Technology


  • The superior weapons (muskets and cannons) of the British settlers allowed them to easily conquer and defeat the Native Americans and clear them off their land.
• Economic resources


  • There was cheap and abundant land in the USA that attracted British colonists who came from a country where land was in short supply. Growing plantations goods like tobacco and cotton and trading them with Britain allowed settlers to make a living.
• Religion


  • One of the major motivations for British settlers to migrate to America was religious persecution. Groups like the Quakers and Puritans had greater religious freedoms in the colonies.
• War


  • British settlers often moved fleeing civil war in Britain self from 1642-49
• Government


  • The democratic constitutions in the American colonies attracted persecuted groups from Britain. Difference over how the colonies should be run and what their relations with Britain should be eventually led to conflict between the colonists and the British government
• Ideas


  • The greater freedom and Independence of the British colonists fed the growth of democratic and Republican ideas (rule without a King). These eventually inspired the American Revolution.
• Significance of colonising N.America

  • Short-term: The colonisation of America created an escape route for religious minorities escaping from Britain. 20,000 moved just in the period 1629-40. The colonization of North American had severe and negative consequences for the Native Americans. Between 1500 and 1700 their population halved as a result of disease, war and famine.
  • Long-term: After the loss of America Britain focused on colonising other areas such as Canada, Africa and India. By 1900 the British Empire controlled 25% of the world. Britain needed a new colony to send its convicts to after the the loss of America, and decided upon Australia. Australia and New Zealand then became a major destination for emigrants who created goods like wool to trade with Britain. The loss of North America by the British in the American Revolution was costly. 30,000 British sailors and soldiers died and it cost £80 million. After independence the USA became a Republic and developed as it wished. It expanded rapidly westwards from the original 13 colonies to become the USA we recognise today.
• Reformation turning England from a Catholic to a Protestant country begins under Henry VIII.


  1530's
• French religious civil wars begin between Catholics and Protestants


  1560's
• 70,000 Huguenots are killed by French Catholics in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.


  1572
• Thousands of Huguenots begins emigrating to England.


  1598
• King Louis XIV tears up Edict of Nantes and declared Huguenots heretics. Faced with being killed or forced to convert 200,000 Huguenots flee from France

  1685
• Huguenots


  French Protestants
• Reformation


  The process in 16th century Europe that led to the Church being split between Catholics and Protestants
• Edict


  An official order or proclamation by a ruler
• Henri IV


  Tolerant French King 1589-1610
• Louis XIV


  Intolerant French King 1643-1715