I believe that we all are somewhat familiar with the stories of Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci so I won’t try to go into detail about them. After these two suceeded in making it known in europe that there was another land that lay beyond what most had believed was “the edge of the earth”, What motivated the european masses to uproot from their homeland and leave everyone and everything they both knew and loved, to travel to a strange and dangerous land that they were completely unfamiliar with?
First off, it wasn’t ‘masses’. A small percentage of the European population actually made the move. And for Good Reason. The kill percentages of those first movers was enormous.
Second, there could be many reasons to go. Flight from prosecution, jobs, land for farming (which was largely no longer available in Europe), freedom from persecution, acquisition of wealth, converting the heathen, involuntary transportation, etc.
Many reasons for making the jump. But basically it boils down to lack of opportunity in Europe and availability of same in the New World.
Lots of reasons. Remember that this was during the Reformation. There were enormous social upheavals in Europe at the time, and some of the newly formed religious groups were subject to persecution back at home, so they saw an opportunity to practice their religion freely.
Also, the concept of wealth prevalent back then involved land, not money. There wasn’t any land available to the ordinary farmer in Europe, but there was in the New World. Kind of like the 19th century US gold rush, except the gold was arable land.
A really good sales pitch.
What did the Jamestown settlers find on arrival?
A swamp, malaria, backbreaking hard work, followed by a little more hardwork on top of that, Native Americans who were only too happy to kill them, and still a little more hard work on top of that.
It never ceases to amaze me that those first attempts at colonization worked.
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The thread title specifies North America, but remember that the first waves of European settlers in the 1500s tended to go to South America, Central America or the Caribbean. There it was literally the gold that was the main attraction.
Beyond that, the big factor was ignorance. Had they known how dangerous it would be, most would probably not have gone. Few had any real sense of what sort of gamble they were taking.
(And this thread should surely be in GQ.)
Actually they didn’t work. Before Jamestown there was an attempt to found a colony at Roanoke, VA, and if you want to go really far back the Norse had colonies in Greenland, which existed for 500 dreary years before being abandoned around 1500.
I was specifically refering to Jamestown because that’s the one I’m most familiar with (I live close by). They couldn’t have picked a more inauspicious place if they had taken out an atlas and said, “OK, lets find a really bad spot for a settlement and settle there.”
/nitpick/ Roanoke Island is in NC, not VA. Roanoke is a city in southwest VA. /nitpick/
Indeed – the initial push-across-the-sea, c. 1500, was a combination (real)Gold Rush/good ol’ fashioned imperial conquest. By the time it was North America’s turn, c. 1600, to be colonized in strength, it was now the age of the “companies” that sought to create commercially viable for-profit colonies – i.e. offering not just loot, but ongoing production of natural and agricultural resources that Europe would buy (crops, timber, furs, etc.). For that they had to “sell” potential settlers on the advantages of the new lands, taking advantage of demographic/politicoeconomic pressures. So they’d sell “advantages” such as (a) open, available land rich in natural resources, virtually free if you could take it and hold it; and (b) distance between you and the King/ your creditors/ your neighbor of a different religion, if you’d rather take your chances with the Indians.
First off, there wasn’t a movement of European masses to North America in the 1500’s. Sir Walter Raleigh made 3 attempts at establishing a settlement on Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina (not to be confused with Roanoke, VA). The last attempt in 1587 included 116 settlers. They arrived too late to plant crops and Raleigh returned for provisions but his return was delayed due to England and Spain being on the verge of war. By the time he was able to return in 1590, there wasn’t anyone left, hence “The Lost Colony”.
England then established the Jamestown colony, located in the Chesapeake Bay area, in 1607.
Actually that was pretty much what they did say. The British settlers realized that Spain claimed all of North America and had a much larger presense in the New World, so they intentionally chose an site they felt would minimize the chances of a confrontation.
Blacks were given the opportunity to emigrate to the Americas because European diseases, especially smallpox, were playing havoc with the native Americans, to whom the colonists originally offered employment. Black employees were sponsored by various European trading powers, especially, IIRC, Portugal. Often ideal emigres were nominated for emigration by a relative, acquaintance, or business partner.
As you can see, the reasons are as varied as the reasons people choose to wear a given color of sock in the morning.
I’ve been doing research for several years now to try to figure out why the ancestor of mine who first crossed the pond, crossed the pond. I’ve been able to prove nothing except that he possibly immigrated with his family at a young age.
Don’t forget penal colonies (later than 1500’s, though!). I think they were in Maryland?
Transportation might land you anywhere, but the colony organized for the purpose of receiving felons was Georgia.