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Comparison of Colonial Powers |
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Comparison of Colonial Powers |
SET
Objectives:
1. To identify important characteristics of colonization, using an integrative model matrix to categorize the information, and to compare colonial powers on the basis of: regions colonized, the religious and secular goals of colonization, economic livelihood in the colonies, and government responses to natives.
2. To make a comparison about the treatment of Native Americans by English, French, and Spanish colonists, and to form hypotheses about why these colonial powers are different. To use primary source statements to evaluate those hypotheses.
3. To organize and articulate a historical argument, and demonstrate that argument by writing a letter from a historical perspective.
Materials:
Matrix chart comparing English, French, and Spanish colonial powers in the New World.
Relevance:
This lesson will help students understand both the motivation behind colonization and the implications of it. It will consider why problems arise in colonial empires and those effects on global relations. It will also reinforce ideas about where Spain, France, and England settled colonies in the Americas and how that has shaped the heritage of those regions.
Involvement of Learners:
Questions for students at the introduction of the lesson: Have you ever traveled to a foreign country? What was it like to see other cultures? What types of differences and similarities exist between different groups of people? Have you ever moved to a new area? What were your motivations for going, and how did you deal with it when you got there?
EXPLANATION:
1. Using the matrix chart, the teacher will present the information about important characteristics of each colonial power and its relations with native peoples. The information in each block should be explained and elaborated on by the teacher.
2. Ask the students to make some hypotheses about the information in the table. What similarities existed in the motivations for colonization and the development of colonial empires? What different strategies or goals did the different countries have? How did these goals shape the colonists' interactions with and treatment of the Indians? What was the role of religion?
Some possible hypotheses or generalizations:
- Religion was an important force in colonists' treatment of the Indians. Countries with Catholic crowns placed more of a focus on conversion; the Catholic Church has a long heritage of missionary work.
- Economic goals of the colonial empires also played a significant role. The Spanish depended on the Indians for labor, and had to force them to work, the English settlers at Jamestown wanted the lands on which Indians lived, and the French saw the Indians as valuable trade partners.
- The English and Spanish set up large-scale, permanent settlements, while the French had temporary trading posts and smaller towns and villages.
- The French developed alliances with Native tribes, while the Spanish and English used force against them.
3. The teacher should list on the board or overhead the hypotheses the students generate. The teacher can contribute additional hypotheses to the list to make sure the students have used all the information on the table.
4. The teacher now facilitates a classroom discussion, prompting the students to consider and answer the following questions, based on the informatioin in the matrix. The teacher should also jot these ideas down on the overhead or chalkboard.
Which system was most threatening to the natives?
Which was the most similar in economic activities to the natives?
Which provided the most benefit for the natives with which the colonists came in contact?
5. For additional information and explanation of colonial goals/perspectives in colonization and treatment of the Indians, see primary source documents. Ask the students consider these documents and what they say about the colonial powers. Do they help clarify colonial goals in their relations with the Indians? Do what these documents say support our knowledge of the treatment of the Indians?
ACTIVITY:
Have the students consider the perspective of a particular Indian tribe. Taking on the role of an Indian chief, each student will write a letter to the leaders of a colonial settlement, either English, French, or Spanish. The letter will describe how colonization efforts have affected the tribe, how the Indians perceive the colonists in their world, what negative consequenes they have seen, what aspects have been positive, and things that could be changed to make relations better. The students should take into account what they know about Indian tribes, about the particular colonial power they are responding to, and may use ideas from the other colonial powers to make comparisons or suggest alternatives in policy.
CLOSURE:
Ask students to share their letters with the class. Make some final conclusions, reviewing the information on the matrix and restating the hypotheses generated by the students.
EVALUATION:
Evaluate the students' letters, based on their comprehension of the material, their coherence in presenting an argument to the colonial power, and their use of alternative perspectives and ideas about colonization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davies, K.G. The North Atlantic World in the Seventeenth Century. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974.
Gritzer, Charles F. Exploring Our World, Past and Present. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991.
Parry, J.H. The Age of Reconnaissance. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1963.
ibid. The Establisment of European Hegemony 1415-1715. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.
Vaughan, Alden T. "'Expulsion of the Salvages': English Policy and the Virginia Massacre of 1622" William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. Ser., Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan, 1978), pp. 57-84.
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