Discuss how the English people who settled in the Massachusetts Bay area were different from these other settlers.
There are 4 posts at 100 or more words each. Respond to each post and no plagiarism. Must be complete today by 9 PM EST. Use references.
POST 1:
One of the major events that helped the Europeans to explore was an advancement in technology. Chief among these technological accomplishments were improvements in the compass, the astrolabe, and gun powder (Reich, pg. 2, 2011). The increase in gun powder helped the Europeans to fight off the attacks from the Indian ad avoid being slaughtered like in previous explorations. They also improve the construction of their ships which allowed them to sail faster and farther than ever before. These improvements, together with an improved rudder, made ships speedier, more maneuverable, and better able to take advantage of wind direction (Reich, pg. 3, 2011). The need to acquire lower prices goods from Asia was also another factor in Europe’s need to explore the world. The need to start a new life for many common people was also a factor in people agreeing to set sail on this new adventure.
Reich, Jerome R. Colonial America. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Education Inc.
POST 2:
Leadership and Choices
COLLAPSE
The settlement of Jamestown was complicated by many difficult to foresee issues and some that might have been able to have been avoided. The location chosen for the colony was one of the first complications, though it was defendable once established the settlers were exposed to the low, marshy and malarial conditions of the site (Reich, 2011). Locations contributed too many health concerns to include malaria, typhoid and dysentery that had a significant impact on death rates for the settlers and caused regret and hopelessness when even the smallest difficulties happened. Relationships with the Native Americans were strained from the beginning, they did ebb and flow, but the confiscation of Indian land and the settlers disregard for the natural resources stunted relationships. Finally, communication with England was difficult; a good example of this was the arrival of 400 additional settlers in August 1609 which caused significant problems for the colony nearly becoming the straw that broke the preverbal back of the colony. The winter of 1609-1610 nearly starved the colony with only 100 settlers surviving the brutal winter.
Some of the difficulties may have been avoidable; others were growing pains that had to be solved in stride and hard lessons learned for the settlers and leaders. I believe that leadership was the overarching problem that compounded three important colony problems. The three things that stick out in my mind as ways to have made the initial establishment of Jamestown less difficult were location, more workers than gentlemen (focus on the colony not personal success) and relationships with the Native Americans. There were better locations on the James River (Apomattox River intersection, or near modern day Richmond), and closer to the ocean – the ocean was difficult, but it could have been accomplished (Jamestown, n.d.). Both offered protected and easy to defend locations, improved agriculture and other necessities. Once the settlers arrived there focus was on finding treasure and not preparing for long term colonization, this placed them in difficult situations as winter arrived and compounding this was the lack of relations with the Indians. Good old Captain John Smith promoted himself as a solid leader; however the results were less than inspiring in the early years of Jamestown.
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