The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 1601-1700 /
The Northern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 1601-1700

Sara Wilderman
History 121: U.S History to Reconstruction
Professor Stanik
January 30, 2015
The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 1601-1700

In 1606 King James I granted the Virginia Company more than 6 million acres in North America in hopes of getting rich like New Spain. However in 1494 Spain had already claimed all of North America in the Treaty of Tordesillas. King James knew of the Treaty of Tordesillas. 1 However he thought that England could take the outskirts of Spain’s New world because just 18 years earlier they defeated the Spanish Armada. The King hoped to show how powerful they were by building overseas. 2Even though King James I knew that his charter to establish a colony in Virginia was illegitimate he did it any way for the hope of wealth and treasure.
At fist the charter in Virginia was granted to the Virginia Company which was a joint stock company. This private company made Virginia a corporate colony. This corporate colony was meant to strengthen the power for England. Also the private company was meant to provide work for the poor, and an opportunity for trade. However most of all it was meant to provide quick profits for all the investors that put up capital for the colony. 3
However with all that the colony was meant to do King James I still had revoke the charter and make Virginia a royal colony.4 King James I had to revoke the charter because in 1622 the Indians attacked the colony and killed a third of the. This attacked caused the Monarch to rethink the affairs of the Virginia Company. Therefore the government launched an investigation into the colony. This investigation turned up the awful morality of the colonists. The investigation showed that the appalling morality was caused more by the mismanagement of the colony than the Indian raids. 5 This discovery made King James I make the colony a royal colony, which meant they had to follow government rule. After making Virginia a royal colony King James I appointed a new governor and a new assembly of representatives. Other than that most of the Virginia Companies government systems stayed. 6
All in all King James I knew that it was not his land to colonize on but he did any way and he was fairly successful.

The Northern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 1601-1700

In 1619 the Dutch West Indian Company got granted exclusive trading rights with the Western Hemisphere from the Dutch government. In 1626 Peter Minuit, who was the director of the Dutch West Indian Company, bought Manhattan Island. Peter bought the island from the Manhate Indians for trade goods.7 At the southern tip of Manhattan Island New Amsterdam was established and became the primary trading center for New Netherland. 8
Unlike the English Colonies, New Netherland never attracted many immigrants. New Netherlands tried to get people to settle by giving out patroonships. A patroonship was an 18 mile strip of land along the Hudson River to stockholders that brought and settled fifty families on their domains. This still was not enough to bring settlers to New Netherlands. Only one patroonship actually succeeded.9 This was different from the English colonies which had no