• The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 divided the heathen world in half, between Spain and Portugal.
• When Henry VII divorced his Spanish queen, he set off hostilities with Spain.
• Englishmen, in response to Spanish hostility, responded by attacking Spain with outright war and privateering.

Mercantilism

• The chief tenet of mercantilism is that the state directs all economic activity within its borders.
• Richard Hakluyt explained that American colonies would supply lumber, tar, hemp to England and buy woolens from England.
• American colonists wanted a ready market for raw materials and a cheap source of manufactures that they had to buy.
• Mercantilism required England�s supervision and control, but this economic regulation was neither feasible nor urgent early on in colonies� existence.
• Oliver Cromwell was the first ruler of England to think about fitting colonies into an imperial scheme, and he legislated prohibition of foreign shipping into the colonies.
• All American colonies had been founded under the authority of the king, but without his participation or financial support.
• This was important because the King had less of an influence than he could or should have had in the colonies.
• The government of each colony had been uniquely shaped by the purposes of founders and settlers, not by an overall imperial policy.
• Most colonies were beyond England�s immediate control; only in Virginia did England have a voice in a colony�s government.
• Even as the Navigation Acts passed, Charles II authorized Rhode Island and Connecticut to choose governmental officers.
• New England fit in least well to mercantilist policies.
• Illegal trade in defiance of the Navigation Acts had huge economic benefits for merchants, so New England was wary of any attempt to bring New England under the king�s control.
• Parliament levied export duties between colonies to reduce smuggling in 1673.
• Charles II appointed Lords of Trade to "pull together the strings of the empire" in 1675.

Dominion of New England

• The Lords of Trade planned all colonies from New Jersey and northwards to be governed by one royally appointed governor, Sir Edmund Andros, who dissembled assemblies and enforced previous legislation, e.g. the Navigation Acts.
• The new king William of Orange recalled Governor Andros and authorized Massachusetts to proceed under its old government.
• Taking advantage of an uncertain situation, New York revolted, with militia seizing the fort in New York, and taking control of the government.
• The Reorganization of 1696 required all colonial governors to take an oath to enforce the Navigation Acts, it empowered customs officers to prosecute in admiralty courts, and established the the King appointed governors and councils, but that the lower houses would be popularly elected.

• Indians didn�t mind sharing their land, but the English cut trees, and evicted game and Indians.
• France and England were almost continuously at war from 1689-1713.
• Neither France nor England considered America worth royal troops, but had colonists fought and also fought through Indians.
• Georgia was founded for two purposes: to defend the southern flank of the colonies and to give debtors a second chance.
• Georgia never became a military stronghold, and action shifted to the north in the War of Austrian succession (1740-48), known as King George�s War in the colonies.

• A band of Indian fighters in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon, found ready allies, attacked rulers, burned the capital at Jamestown, and redistributed wealth.
• After Bacon died, the Governor came back and hanged the remaining leaders.
• Bacon�s Rebellion was the largest popular uprising before the American Revolution.
• Slave rebellions were uncommon and readily suppressed, but slaves could often run away for extended periods of time.
• Before the mid-18th century, Americans little thought of themselves as a distinct people; most Americans spoke of England as home even though they had never been there and were not been born there.