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Chapter 4
Colonization and Conflict in the North
1600–1700
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Discuss the origins and evolution of the French colonial presence in North America.
• Explain the founding of New England and the Puritan movement.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Religion played a crucial role in shaping northern colonial settlement. In Canada, the Catholic
Counter-Reformation added a missionary zeal to early French exploration and colonization.
French Catholic missionaries, especially the Jesuits, helped to win acceptance among the Native
Americans of the Canadian interior for the French soldiers, traders, and settlers. Perhaps most
importantly French colonists, who remained few in number, did not threaten Native American
claims to land and political authority. At the same time the impact of the Reformation in England
THEMES
France in North America
While sponsoring an early expedition to North America in 1535, the French did not create a
permanent settlement on the continent until 1605, founding Port Royal in what would later be
called Nova Scotia. Sailing further up the St. Lawrence River, explorer Samuel de Champlain
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The Founding of New England
As the French slowly established a fur trade, agricultural communities, and religious institutions
in Canada, radical Puritans fleeing persecution and “corruption” in England planted more
populous settlements between Maine and Long Island. The first New England settlers, the
Stability and Order in Early New England
Although the Pilgrim Separatists of Plymouth and the Congregationalists of Massachusetts Bay
and Connecticut differed in some ways, the New England colonies were more notable for their
similarities. The distinguishing features of early New England society included rapid population
The Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies shared with New England comparable agrarian economies, systems of
free labor, and patterns of rapid population growth. Unlike New England, however, all of the
Middle Colonies were ruled by proprietary governments, like Maryland and South Carolina.
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Adjustment to Empire
The later Stuart monarchs, Charles II and James II, attempted to centralize England’s North
American empire. Their efforts created serious disruptions of political life in every northern
colony except newly established Pennsylvania. The Crown’s experiment in centralization, the
LECTURE STRATEGIES
Struggle for Survival and Superiority
This chapter introduces a theme that will be developed at greater length in the next two chapters:
the struggle for survival and superiority in North America among the French, the English, and
the Native Americans. An opening lecture on this subject can help students to appreciate the
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Role of Religion in the Northern Colonies
Enhancing the students’ understanding of early American religious development, Puritanism
in particular, is equally important at this point in the course. It will assist their grasp of later
events like the first and second Great Awakenings and the evolution of an evangelical consensus
in the early nineteenth century. A lecture on early religious history should start with Calvinism,
Shift to the Middle Colonies
While recent historians have focused much attention on both American Puritanism and early
New England, a consensus is emerging that the Middle Colonies more nearly typify the kind
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
Puritanism
The topic in this chapter with which students may be least familiar is Puritanism. While lectures
can amplify the text’s coverage, assigning short selections of original sources for discussion is
Comparing Early Colonial and Native Societies
The material in this chapter lends itself well to discussions in which early colonial and Native
American societies are compared and contrasted. The culture of early New England can be set
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POWER OF PROCESS FOR PRIMARY SOURCES
Power of Process for Primary Sources is a critical thinking tool for reading and writing about
primary sources. As part of Connect History, McGraw-Hill Education’s learning platform, Power
of Process contains a database of over 400 searchable primary sources in addition to the
capability for instructors to upload their own sources. Instructors can then select a series of
strategies for students to use to analyze and comment upon a source. The Power of Process
framework helps students develop essential academic skills such as understanding, analyzing,
and synthesizing readings and visuals such as maps, leading students toward higher order
thinking and writing.