Early Jamestown In May 1607, Jamestown was made the first permanent English colony, but the colonist didn’t know that many will die. 1607 was the year that 110 Englishmen arrived on a great bay on the coast of Virginia, they called it Jamestown. Many colonist died in the first years of settlement, but nobody really knew why. Was it because of natural causes, or was it because of lack of food? Many colonists died in early Jamestown, was it because of the environmental problems, the lack of settler skills, or maybe it was the bad relationship the colonist had with the Indians?
England’s first attempt at colonization in the New World In 1584, Walter Raleigh was a famous explorer who organized an adventure to the New World for his men. He decided to stay in London while his men are on their way to the new world and he never leaves London. His men founded a colony known as Roanoke Island wasn’t to pretty but it was something. Swamps surrounded Roanoke, it was mosquito infested who carried diseases. This attempt to colonize in the new world was ruled a failed attempt because everyone died and got sick.
With hopes that an American colony would solve their debt problems, over 100 passengers were sent by the Virginia Company. Three English ships carried the sailors through the waters of the Chesapeake Bay to Jamestown, Virginia. On May 13, 1607, they arrived with the hope of building a life in America, teaching Christianity, and finding a new route to China. What they didn’t realize was the hardships they would have to suffer in order to establish the first permanent English settlement in America. Adversity such as starvation, disease, and conflicts with the Indians awaited them.
One such confrontation was the thirty-six-year civil war waged from 1960 to 1996 in the small Central American country of Guatemala. The many parties involved in the war would state different reasons for it. A careful scrutiny of the issue, however, reveals that the causes of the Guatemalan Civil War were racism towards and oppression of the native Mayan citizens, disputes regarding the use and ownership of land, and a desire for economic and political power. Mayans have been oppressed and systematically eradicated since Spain conquered Guatemala in 1520 (“Guatemala: A Brief History”). Although cruelty by the Spaniards ceased with Guatemala’s liberation in 1821, new groups arose to continue the oppression.
In the first years of settlement at Jamestown, tragedy struck. They arrived at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in May 1607. Some hoped that they would be able to teach the natives about Jesus Christ or find new homes. Others hoped to find a hidden route to China or get rich. But by 1611, 80% of the colonist that came to Jamestown was dead.
Some of his letters were taken and printed in the New York Tory newspaper. He was now seen as a traitor in America. He couldn’t go to England without confirming he was a traitor and he couldn’t go to France because he had accused the King of selfishness. He lived the next two years in Flanders, then moved to England and in 1789 set sail back to America. While on the ship, he fell ill with “dizziness in his head, and an oppression at his stomach”, he passed away only four hours after the first signs of illness.
Originally they Mayflower had set sail with another ship known as the “Speedwell” but it began to leak shortly after they left port and it was forced to return. All the passengers moved onto the Mayflower which delayed their movement and made them travel during the height of storm season. Leaving late made the Mayflower's travel across the Atlantic miserable and most of the passengers were so seasick that they could not even get up off the deck of the ship. The colonists who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower are known today as “Pilgrims.” Once the Mayflower reached they New World they realized that they were just north of where the Virginia Company has granted them
In William Bradford’s essay “Of Plymouth Plantation” he describes the hardship the puritan faced under King James I of England where he started to change things in Protestantism and attacking people who disagreed with him. (133) Fearing the religious persecution William Bradford and other separatists moved to Holland to have more religious freedom. They started following the teaching of John Calvin and calling themselves Puritan separating themselves from the main church of england. When they came over on the mayflower to set up the early colonies there was a lot suffering and death. There was sickness and hunger and most of people’s children die before they reach adulthood.
Explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean islands in 1492, sparking a wave of exploration that would have extreme consequences for the people who lived there at that time. His encounters in the Americas with Native Americans started a repetitive cycle of encounter, conquest, and death throughout the Western Hemisphere. Columbus first had very friendly relationships with the Taino people, but that soon changed. The Tainos offended the Spanish and failed to pay proper respect to Christian symbols and Columbus felt he had authority over them and could decide their fate. The Spanish forced Native Americans to convert to Christianity.
The first voyage consisted of discovering Cuba and sailing on the coast while making short excursions inland. Columbus saw trade and profit could be made off the Indians while also converting them to Catholics. Six months after Columbus’s first voyage, he sets off again on a second voyage which seventeen vessels, twelve hundred men, and six priest. They set up the first European settlement on the Atlantic side, but Columbus wasn’t satisfied with this, he still wanted to push west to reach the shores of Asia. Running out of supplies and the crew about to go on mutiny, Columbus turns the ships around and only if he went about fifty more miles, he would have discovered that Cuba was an island.