Part 23 (1/2)

Those Feisty Colonies

The English colonization of North America began in 1607 with the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. Soon England began using North America like a safety valve to rid itself of religious troublemakers, including the Pilgrims, radical Protestants who founded Plymouth, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1620, and the Puritans, who founded Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1630.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING COLONISTS.

Roanoke, the first English attempt to colonize the New World, ended in failure-though no one can say why, when, or how it met its fate. Actually, this was Sir Walter Raleigh's second attempt to found a colony on Roanoke Island. Raleigh's first effort, in 1585, ended when the colonists-all men-abandoned the island and returned to England in 1586. Undeterred, in 1587 Raleigh founded a second colony on roughly the same spot, with about 150 new recruits. Unlike the earlier expedition, this group included women and children.Unfortunately, it seems the leaders of the new colonists-without any proof-decided that local Native Americans were responsible for the demise of the first colony, and in 1587 they attacked the native town on Roanoke Island. They failed to realize these natives were from a different tribe than the ones encountered by the previous colony. Worse, these natives had powerful allies on the mainland, in the Croatoan tribe.In 1590 another expedition visited the site of the second colony, where they found a European-style fort with wooden palisades and iron tools lying on the ground. Gra.s.s had grown up around the tools, indicating that they had been there for a long time. The search party found two more enigmatic clues before they left: the letters CRO carved on a tree outside the town, and the full word CROATOAN carved on a tree in town. Were the words a warning, a plea for help, or a forwarding address? This is one historical mystery that will likely never be solved.

Unsurprisingly, the colonies had rather different characters, depending who settled them. Up north, the Puritan Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts was a theocracy-and not the fun kind. Activities such as drinking and dancing were strictly forbidden, and were punishable with a day in the stocks (humiliating public imprisonment where pa.s.sersby could insult you and pelt you with rotten fruit).

By contrast, the southern colonies tended to be looser, more freewheeling places. In fact the early success of the American colonies was driven by the Virginians' discovery of one of history's most popular vices: tobacco. Meanwhile, the colony of Georgia was founded by English debtors who couldn't pay up and had decided to risk it in the New World rather than go to jail. And Maryland (named after the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots) welcomed not only Catholics but Jews as well-remarkable tolerance that drove the Puritans nuts.

Interestingly, one of England's prized possessions, New York, wasn't actually English at all. Originally named New Amsterdam, it began as a Dutch colony, founded during the first half of the seventeenth century, when Holland ruled the seas. As England made itself the dominant sea power during several ”Wars of Navigation,” it seized New Amsterdam and the rest of the Hudson River Valley from its sometime ally in 1664. The new English ruling cla.s.s married into wealthy Dutch merchant families to form a new ”Anglo-Dutch” aristocracy, the Knickerbockers (seriously), who ruled New York into the nineteenth century.

As the Colonial economy grew, so did tension with the kings of England, who held firm to a ”mercantilist” policy-the colonies were allowed to trade only with England. Meanwhile, the Brits forbade poor colonists from moving across the Appalachian Mountains, to avoid antagonizing France and the Native American tribes there.

This led to a b.l.o.o.d.y rebellion exactly one hundred years before the Declaration of Independence. In 1676, accusing the English governor of ”treason,” a rabble-rouser named Nathaniel Bacon led an uprising in Jamestown, Virginia, during which poor whites seized the town for several months and murdered upper-cla.s.s Brits and Native Americans wherever they found them. This reign of terror lasted until Bacon died from typhus brought on by a h.e.l.lish infestation of body lice (yes, death by crabs).

France:

Bringing Home the Beavers

Louis XIV was called ”the Sun King” because he was the center of European politics for his whole reign-an astonis.h.i.+ng seventy-two years, from 1643 to 1715, far longer than the lifespan of an average European at the time. He lived in opulent luxury, commanded giant armies, and made every effort to conquer the continent.

Beginning in the 1660s, Louis tried to expand French power in four directions-Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands-not realizing that a major new ideological force, nationalism, had taken root in all four places. This new sense of community meant that they would never submit to French rule. Regardless, Louis XIV launched four b.l.o.o.d.y wars to subdue them, saving the best for last: the War of the Spanish Succession, 17021713, history's first real ”world war.” In every corner of the globe, from Germany to America to the high seas of the Indian Ocean, France faced off against England, Holland, the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, Denmark, Portugal, and a number of smaller European states. (For some reason, Spain was not involved in this war over the Spanish crown.) Louis was decisively defeated in August 1704 at the Battle of Blenheim-but still the war dragged on for another nine b.l.o.o.d.y years.

In the New World, France found England had beaten it to the punch, seizing the most desirable land and leaving France the chillier bits to the north (Quebec, in modern-day Canada) and the malarial bits to the south (Haiti and other Caribbean colonies such as Martinique). France picked up North America's fertile Midwest, which Louis modestly named ”Louisiana”-but didn't really do much with the place. Still, the colonies weren't totally useless: Quebec and the Midwest were home to beavers, whose luxurious pelts fetched a high price in Europe, and the Caribbean colonies were perfect for growing sugar, a very lucrative crop.

Russia:

Bigger, Badder, and Drunker Than Everyone Else

Beginning in the late sixteenth century, Russia rose from an Eastern European backwater to become one of the most powerful empires in history. Although it remained socially backward, its huge population, natural wealth, and geographic size terrified Western Europeans. It also spelled bad news for its southern neighbors-the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia.

Russia's rise began slowly. For hundreds of years the Mongols of Central Asia had ruled European Russia. But when the Mongols got lazy and lost touch with their nomadic roots, the tables began to turn. In 1547, Ivan the Terrible became the first czar of Russia and conquered much of Siberia by 1581. At home, Ivan was a brutal autocrat who established a long-lived Russian inst.i.tution-the secret police, or oprichnina oprichnina, which kept tabs on his enemies (and made them disappear, if necessary).

In addition to being generally ”Terrible,” Ivan was Unstable too, suffering a complete mental breakdown in 1581, after killing his own son. He left Russia a medieval state with a backward economy and military. But all this changed one hundred years later, when a remarkable seventeen-year-old, Peter soon-to-be-called-the-Great Romanov, a.s.sumed the throne. Russia was about to be transformed.

Peter was obsessed with the sea; in fact, as a teenager he commanded mock naval battles, and as czar he traveled incognito to England to learn how to build s.h.i.+ps. Above all he was determined to get access to the sea so Russia could trade with Europe and the Middle East.

Six years after a.s.suming the throne in 1689, Peter declared war against the Ottoman Empire to gain access to the Black Sea. After capturing the port of Azov in 1696, he founded Russia's first naval base on the Black Sea at Taganrog, in 1698. Next he declared war against Sweden. At first the war went badly, but Peter was a determined commander, and he knew he had a special advantage: Russia's sheer size. He tricked the Swedish king, Charles XII, into chasing him into the Ukraine, five hundred miles from his supply base. Peter crushed Charles's army at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. (According to legend, Charles coined the word hullabaloo hullabaloo to describe this chaotic encounter.) to describe this chaotic encounter.)

HIS ROYAL SERFNESS.

In 1698, Peter traveled to England and lived anonymously in Deptford, where he studied s.h.i.+pbuilding for several months. With secret permission from His Majesty's government for this ruse, Peter took part in strenuous manual labor every day, disguised as a common peasant, because the signs of royal office-including ceremonial clothing, entourage, and bodyguard-would have made it impossible for him to see the ”nuts and bolts” of s.h.i.+pbuilding up close. He also wanted to interact with his coworkers as equals.Peter's desire to learn s.h.i.+pbuilding was sincere: before he left Russia, he had a special royal seal made that read, ”I am a pupil; I need to be taught.” While journeying to England through stormy seas aboard the H.M.S. Yorke Yorke, he insisted not only on staying on deck to see how the s.h.i.+p was handled, but also on climbing the main mast-amid lightning bolts-to look at the rigging.Of course Peter didn't really abandon his privileges. Everyone at Deptford knew the real ident.i.ty of this unusual foreigner, who was well over six feet tall and addressed by all as ”His Royal Serfness.” The czar also lived up to his reputation as a hard-drinking party animal. Sayes Court, where the Russian delegation stayed, was virtually destroyed by their carousing, with expensive antique carpets soiled beyond repair, crystal doork.n.o.bs stolen, windows broken, and valuable paintings used for target practice. Damage to the garden alone cost a then-astounding 350. After drinking huge quant.i.ties of vodka, the Russians apparently enjoyed sitting in wheelbarrows so their friends could send them cras.h.i.+ng through carefully tended hedgerows-a seventeenth-century version of Jacka.s.s Jacka.s.s.

After his victory, Peter founded a great new port city on the Baltic Sea, which he deliberately gave a German name, to emphasize Russia's new connection with Western Europe: St. Petersburg.

India:

England Nibbles Away

America wasn't the only place where England and France competed for colonies: the two leading powers of Europe went head-to-head in India, too. Their conquest of the subcontinent was slow and subtle, beginning in the early 1600s with the establishment of small trading posts that doubled as military bases along the coast. Fueled by European commerce, these soon grew into large cities, including India's main ports: Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.

Like the Portuguese and Dutch before them, English and French merchants made huge profits buying black pepper in India and selling it at a markup back home. In India they also discovered a powerful narcotic, opium, which they began cultivating and selling around the world-making the English some of history's first ”drug runners.”

The English began squeezing the French out in the mid-eighteenth century, when a dynamic new director took over management of the English East India Company. From 1751 to 1752, Robert Clive scored victories that spelled the end of France's empire in India. Then it was the Indians' turn, beginning with Bengal in 1757. Clive didn't conquer Bengal outright for Britain; instead, he cleverly supported a rival claimant to the throne who would do Britain's bidding. This would be the model for Britain's conquest of India, piece by piece, prince by prince, alliance by alliance.

The time now requires you to manage your general commerce with the sword in your hands.-Gerald Ungier, chief trader for the English East India Company in Bombay