1620s: Mayflower and the establishment of British North American colonies.

China discipline inspection and supervision newspaper

Summary of this issue

/kloc-in the autumn of 0/620, a ship named "Mayflower" carried a group of Puritans from England to the New World of North America and established Plymouth Colony in England. These people are called "the ancestors of Puritans". North America was regarded as a "refuge" by Europeans at that time, and some people with dreams of getting rich were attracted to North America. From 1607 to 1733, Britain established 13 colonies in the narrow strip of North America from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Appalachian mountains in the west.

Chinese and foreign memorabilia

China

AD 1620

Emperor Wanli of Ming Shenzong died, and for the sake of Ming Guangzong, his son Zhu Changluo succeeded to the throne.

A.D. 162 1 year

Nurhachi occupied Shenyang and Liaoyang.

AD 1622

The Ming court ordered Sun Chengzong to manage Jiliao. Sun Chengzong adopted Yuan Chonghuan's suggestion and built Ningyuan City to resist the late Jin Dynasty.

AD 1626

Fujian Governor Nan Juyi recovered Penghu from the Dutch colonial army. Taiwan Province chicken coop (now Keelung) was occupied by Spanish colonists.

West Manhattan

AD 1620

The Mayflower carried more than 65,438+000 Puritans from England to the New World of North America, and they established Plymouth Colony in England.

A.D. 162 1 year

The Netherlands established the West India Company (Gundam 1674) to monopolize the colonial and trade privileges between America and West Africa.

AD 1623

Britain issued a patent concession order, which is the earliest invention of patent law in the world.

AD 1626

The Netherlands built Manhattan, the mouth of the Hudson River in North America, into a European immigrant settlement, named "New Amsterdam".

Open up new routes

Columbus and da Gama successfully discovered the new continent, opened up a new route to the east, changed the international trade pattern in Europe centered on the Mediterranean, laid the foundation of maritime trade centered on the Atlantic coast, promoted the commercial revolution and price revolution, accelerated the establishment of the capitalist world system, and became an important factor in the transformation of Europe from feudal society to modern society.

Britain was a country with relatively late overseas colonial development at that time. At that time, Spain and Portugal had carved up the world through papal meridian, so Britain had to find another way, explore the northwest and try to open up new routes. The work of establishing colonies overseas was initially started by some bold and ambitious adventurers, who hoped to profit from it.

As early as 1584, Walter Raleigh sent two expeditions for early exploration, and the explorers took the lead in reaching the Atlantic coast of North America. They "brought back a bag of pearls, some Indians and some legends about North America ... In order to please Queen Elizabeth, in return, the Queen made Raleigh a knight". Due to the lack of sufficient funds for personal exploration and careful colonial planning, Britain's colonization in North America was not smooth.

From commercial colonization to agricultural colonization

In early modern times, European colonialism took the lead in opening the way with commercial trade, and its core was "mercantilism". Everyone takes plundering precious metals as the primary goal. For Britain, North America lacks gold and silver minerals like Latin America, which is vast and sparsely populated, making it more difficult to carry out trade.

As a result, the British colonial policy began to change from commercial colonization to agricultural colonization, and the government paid more and more attention to the survival and settlement of British colonies in North America.

To establish a stable and long-term colony, it is far from enough to rely on sporadic individual exploration and national protection. It is very necessary to carry out large-scale and planned agricultural colonization through commercial companies. So at the beginning of the17th century, the way of personal exploration was gradually replaced by commercial companies.

At that time, there were two influential commercial companies in Britain, namely Virginia Company and Plymouth Company. Virginia Company took the lead in colonizing North America and established the first British colony in North America, which provided an example for British colonial activities. Another big colony, located in the northeast of New England, was founded by Puritans in 1620.

Mayflower Yuan Hang

Since16th century, Britain's religious beliefs have changed, which also provided impetus for the colonization of North America. 1608, in order to escape the religious persecution of the king, a group of separatist Puritans used the opportunity of North American colonization to seek survival and development space.

They rented two ships, one is may flower, and the other is Spiwell. 1620 In July, the "Speedwell" left Leiden with the Puritans and sailed for Plymouth Port on the southwest coast of England to meet other immigrants, most of whom were craftsmen, fishermen, poor people and indentured slaves. They formed a team of more than 100 people.

Initially, the immigrants planned to set off together in two ships. Unexpectedly, the "speed well" leaked water many times, and people were so worried that no one dared to sail on this ship again. So they concentrated on the Mayflower and set sail for North America on September 16. Afterwards, everyone knew that there was nothing wrong with "Speedwell". The crew who are unwilling to sail deliberately let it slip, so that they can automatically terminate the lease contract without suffering from the voyage.

May flower is a three-masted sailboat with a deadweight of about 180 tons, a hull length of about 90 feet and a maximum width of 26 feet. There are more than 65,438+000 passengers living in such a compact space. They lack fresh ingredients and fresh water, and there is almost no condition for washing. Many people have scurvy.

Compared with the hard sailing conditions, what is more terrible is the threat from death. Their sailing season coincides with the most dangerous period of the Atlantic East-West route, sailing against the wind in the against the tide, and the ship's speed is very slow. Halfway through, we were caught in a storm. A crossbar on the ship was blown off and a crew member was thrown into the sea. He desperately grasped a rope on the boat to survive. Many people proposed to return to England, but later people repaired the boat with the tools they brought and moved on. "They spent 66 days at sea. Because of the weather, they did not arrive in Virginia, but arrived at Cape Cod (now Massachusetts) on June 1620 1 65438+1October1day.

Sign the Mayflower Convention

Because the ship didn't arrive in Virginia as planned, the land concession promised by Virginia company to the immigrants became invalid, and discontent permeated these immigrants who had lost their hopes, and the centrifugal tendency was increasing. Some people even said that they should "exercise their freedom" after landing. In order to appease the people, avoid infighting and unite them to live together in this unknown settlement, William bradford and others decided to establish a management mechanism to convince everyone. Before disembarking, 4 1 adult immigrants on board signed an agreement named Plymouth Joint Agreement. It was not until 1793 that the Mayflower Convention appeared.

In the Mayflower Convention, immigrants first expressed their faith in God and their loyalty to the king of England, and on this basis, they "voluntarily formed people's self-governing groups" and "formulated and promulgated laws, regulations, decrees and articles of association that were considered most suitable and convenient for all the people in the colony". Everyone said that we should "ensure compliance and obedience" to this agreement. The signing of the Mayflower Convention was originally an "expedient measure to avoid social disorder", which originated from the British "customary way of dealing with daily social affairs".

Immigrants first landed in the New World of North America.

After signing the agreement, these British "pilgrims" will land on Cape Cod. But they found that the local soil was too barren, and there was no good port to use, which was not suitable for settlement. So they looked for a suitable place to live again and found Plymouth Bay, 25 miles away from them. The water depth there is suitable for shipping, and the land on the shore is also suitable for farming. They intend to settle there.

The latitude of Massachusetts is similar to that of Liaoning Province in China, and the climate is cold most of the year. When the immigrants came ashore, it happened to be winter, and snow covered the ground. The first thing to be solved is to keep out the cold and have enough food and clothing.

Just when these hungry and cold people were on the verge of despair, their savior appeared. A well-built Indian came with deerskin and bow and arrow. He said in broken English, "Welcome, my name is Samoset." Because Samoset had contact with other British people before, he had a little knowledge of English. He introduced the immigrants to Masasoy, the tribal leader, and the two sides signed a mutual assistance agreement.

Massasoy sent Squanto to stay in the colony to help immigrants. Squanto was kidnapped and sold to Europe as a slave when he was young, during which he "learned to speak fluent English". With the help of Squanto, immigrants learned how to plant corn, where to fish, how to hunt and how to make fur products, and called him "the most unexpected gift from God".

In September of that year, with Squanto's careful guidance and people's efforts, immigrants ushered in the first bumper harvest in the New World of North America. They invited Massasoy and his tribe members to celebrate the harvest and express their gratitude. This banquet was later regarded as the origin of "Thanksgiving".

The influence of the establishment of North American colonies

Since then, the population of Plymouth has been increasing and the settlements have been expanding. After decades of colonization, not only did the existing immigrants get a chance to survive in the New World, but the news of their success in the colonies was also sent back to Europe. North America was regarded as a "refuge" by Europeans at that time, and some people with dreams of getting rich were attracted to North America. From 1607 to 1733, Britain established 13 colonies in the narrow strip of North America from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Appalachian mountains in the west. It is estimated that the population of British North American colonies "was only 5,000 in 1630, but it increased to 89,000 in 30 years, to 209,000 in 1690, and even to 466,000 in 1720".

The increase of population has caused the competition for land and other resources, and the contradiction between man and land is essentially the conflict of interests between people. After settling in the New World, the immigrants practiced private ownership of land in the colonized land, while the indigenous Indians thought that land was the property shared by all, which inevitably led to conflicts between the two sides. "Since 1622, the conflict between India and Belarus has been going on ... In Massachusetts, the attack on indigenous Indians began at 1633, and the Indians were confined to the designated reservation ... By the time the North American War of Independence broke out, most of the Indians along the Atlantic coast had actually been wiped out."

/kloc-in the 0/7th century, British colonial policies and colonial practices led by commercial companies brought changes to the New World of North America. These changes "have become the basic driving force and foundation for the further development of British North American colonies and even the entire American civilization, including economy, politics, society and culture, and have determined the diversified characteristics of their structures, which is of great and far-reaching significance."

(The chief contributor of this column is Bu Xianqun, and the author of this issue is Sun from the School of History and Culture of Shandong Normal University)