HIST 3420 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Plymouth Colony, Plymouth Company, British America
Document Summary
The spanish catholic monarch phillip ii was, at the time, the undisputed master of the new world. Few predicted the reversal of imperial fortunes that would soon transform the new world. Peace with spain in 1604 ended privateering and plunder. The new world offered england vast profits, but they were in competition with the french and the dutch. Commercial trading companies began to operate i earnest. Early english colony failed, lasted less than a year: disease, native raids, etc. Plymouth company is given a monopoly on north east america: their colony lasted less than a year. Virginia company founded jamestown in 1607: barely survived its first five years, originally searching for minerals, but later grew tobacco. This switch saved the colony: 1300 population by mid 1620s, many of the workers were indentured men. Food distributed evenly and no division of labour or starvation ensued. Land was eventually allotted to each family and productivity increased.