Atlantic World | Settlement of Colonial America
Atlantic WorldIn the 14th century, the Atlantic Ocean emerged as the stage for one of the most dramatic series of cross-cultural encounters in human history. This interactive map portrays the dramatic movement of peoples across the ocean as slaves, indentured servants, religious refugees, and adventurers.
Examine the patterns of slave trade. What trends can you discern from the map?
Examine the movement of free, indentured, convicted, and enslaved migrants. What trends are evident?
Examine the trade routes of the various nations. Then examine the Prevailing Winds and Pirate activity. What do these layers reveal about trade in the age of sail when juxtaposed?
Examine the paths of various explorers. Which countries dominated exploration early on? Where did they focus their attention and why?
Settlement of Colonial AmericaThe European population of the North American colonies increased more than six fold between 1700 and 1760. In this period, settlement expanded from a narrow band along the Atlantic seacoast to the very edge of the Appalachian Mountains to the west and up against Spanish and French possessions to the south and north. While dominated and generally administered by the English, colonial America was ethnically and racially diverse. In the middle colonies, for instance, Dutch colonists remained prominent in New York City and the Hudson River valley through the eighteenth-century, and German immigrants settled large regions of Pennsylvania and Maryland. African slaves were heavily concentrated in the tobacco, rice, and long-staple cotton producing regions of the Southern coast, and large numbers of Scotch-Irish settlers moved into the backcountry Virginia and the Carolinas. The economy was also becoming more complex, with new industries dotting the landscape and intensive farming spreading to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Such rapid development had an equally profound effect on the original occupants of the coastline; many of these Native American tribes would play a central role in the European wars for domination of North America.
Within the colonies, which areas were most ethnically diverse? In which regions (New England, Mid-Atlantic, Chesapeake, South) did three or more ethnic groups coexist? What areas had the least diversity?
Why did English settlers in the Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake regions settle along the ocean, while the Dutch, Scotch Irish and Germans settled further inland? Describe the patterns that you see in this immigration. What would this pattern lead you to predict about where subsequent immigrants would settle?
What was different about the coming of Africans to the New World, as compared to other ethnic groups - reasons for coming to the area? What regions were Africans concentrated in? Briefly, how would this pattern of migration affect later Southern and American history?
What did the spread of settlement into the American interior mean for the native populations? Were relations with Native Americans different in the northern and southern colonies? Where were the more powerful Native American civilizations located? Did their presence shape the pattern of European settlement in those areas?
You are a settler writing back to your homeland about the colony you are living in. Tell the residents of your former city or village the name and location of your settlement, how your settlement is growing, what types of people are arriving in the colonies, and how people are getting along with groups they had never encountered before in the Old World.
Textbook Resources
Chapter Activities
Teacher
Student
Please read our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice before you explore our Web site. To report a technical problem with this Web site, please contact the Web Producer.
