American History: Early Settlements, the Pilgrims and the American Revolution

1. Contrary to popular belief, it was not Christopher Columbus who discovered America. In

1492 it was only the first contact with Europeans, but long before them, millions of Native

Americans had been inhabiting America, with the Clovis people establishing one of the first

civilizations on the continent. When analyzing the main characteristics of these

civilizations lives, it is important to bear in mind that there was not much homogeneity but

rather an enormous diversity between them. Not only that some of these tribes were

nomadic, hunting and rooted in trade or conquest, while others were agricultural and more

sedentary, but there was also a marked difference between the North and the South when it

came to their sophistication. The civilizations of the South established elaborate political

and administrative systems and built a network of paved roads and public buildings, while

those from the North were less advanced. However, there is still some room for

generalizations. For one thing, prior to the arrival of European settlers, all of these

civilizations were going through a period of an agricultural revolution, becoming more

sedentary, experiencing population growth and finding new sources of food and shelter. In

the similar vein, religion played a great importance in Native Americans lives and they

shared a lot of myths and beliefs: Religion was as important to Indian society as it was to

most other cultures, and it was usually closely bound up with the natural world on which

the tribes depended. Native Americans worshipped many gods whom they associated with

crops, game, forests, rivers and other elements of nature ( Brinkley 7).
2. In order to understand why the Pilgrims settled in America, one needs to go back to the 16th

century, when the Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church . Henry VIII

wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry again, but the teachings of the Roman Catholic

Church forbade it. He then took the position of Supreme Head of the Church of England and

appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury who annuled his marriage. But although he broke away

for political reasons, he remained theologically Catholic. His successors took the same course,

balancing between Catholicism and Protestantism or persecuting Protestants, much to the chagrin

of the Puritans who wanted to purify the Church of all its Catholic elements . Some of the

Puritans wanted to separate from the Church of England altogether and became known as

Separatists. Aware that intolerant political environment in England would not allow them to have

religious freedoms, a group of them fled to Holland first and then, facing economic hardships,

decided to establish the second colony in America and began their preparations to move in 1618.

In 1620, when they received a charter to establish an English colony in the New World, the

Mayflower ship with the Pilgrims and their leader William Bradford, sailed for America. On

November 11, 1620, forty-one men aboard the ship drew up the Mayflower Compact establishing

a civil government and pledging allegience to the king. On December 21, 1620 they landed at

Plymouth. They encountered a few Native Americans as they had been purged by the plague and

started looking for new sources of food, receiving help from Native Americans. They appointed

William Bradford, who managed to obtain legal permission for the Pilgrims to live in Plymouth,

as their governer. In November 1621, the settlers and the Indians celebrated Americas first

Thanksgiving together.
3. Even though the Seven Years war ended with the English victory over the French, a

problem arose as to how to govern the vast new British Empire (with a billion acres of

territory in the New World). The national debt in England skyrocketed during the war and

in order to maintain the Empire and support the troops stationed in the colonies, king

George III had to figure out the ways to generate revenues from the colonies and get them

to pay their share. The American Revenue Act ( known as the Sugar Act) established

duties on foreign textiles, coffee, sugar, wine and other items. It was preceded by the

Molasses Act of 1733, highly ineffective law, circumvented through smuggling, because

colonists deemed Molasses Act taxes too high. The goal of the American Revenue Act

was to collect more revenues by cutting the duty on molasses in half and introducing

stricter enforcement measures. It was followed by the Quartering Act, requiring the

colonies to provide food and accommodation for the British soldiers stationed in their

area. In February 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, the first direct tax imposed on

the colonies, introduced a tax stamp that had to be placed on all sorts of printed materials

such as: newspapers, legal documents, marriage contracts, bonds etc. These three acts,

motivated by Britains efforts to tighten its control over the colonies and encroach upon

their self-government, caused an uproar among colonists who adopted the slogan: No

taxation without representation ( meaning that only their elected representatives could

tax them).