China discipline inspection and supervision newspaper
In the autumn of 162, a ship named "may flower" carried a number of Puritans from England to the New World of North America, and established the British Plymouth colony. These people were called "Puritans' ancestor immigrants". North America was regarded as a "refuge" by Europeans at that time, and some people with dreams of getting rich were attracted to North America. From 167 to 1733, Britain established 13 colonies in the narrow strip of North America from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Appalachian mountains in the west.
Chinese and foreign memorabilia
China
In 162 AD, Emperor Wanli of Ming Shenzong died, and his son Zhu Changluo succeeded to the throne, for the sake of Ming Guangzong.
In 1621
Nurhachi occupied Shenyang and Liaoyang.
in 1622
the Ming court ordered Sun Chengzong to run Ji Liao. Sun Chengzong took Yuan Chonghuan's advice and built Ningyuan City to resist the late Jin Dynasty.
In 1626
Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, recovered Penghu from the Dutch colonial army. Taiwan Province chicken coop (now Keelung) was invaded by Spanish colonists.
To the west
In 162
The ship "may flower" carried more than 1 Puritans from England to the New World of North America, and they established the British Plymouth colony.
In 1621
The Netherlands established the West India Company (until 1674), which monopolized the colonial and trade privileges between America and West Africa.
In 1623,
England issued the patent right concession order, which was the earliest invention of the patent law in the world.
In 1626
The Netherlands built Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River in North America into a European immigrant settlement, which was called "New Amsterdam".
opening up a new sea route
Columbus and da Gama successfully discovered the new continent and opened up a new sea route to the east, which changed the international trade pattern in Europe with the Mediterranean as the center, laid the foundation of maritime trade with the Atlantic coast as the core, promoted the commercial revolution and price revolution, accelerated the establishment of the capitalist world system, and became an important factor in the transformation of Europe from feudal society to modern society.
Britain was a country with a relatively late development of overseas colonization at that time. At that time, Spain and Portugal had already carved up the world through papal meridian, so Britain had to find another way out, explore the northwest and try to open up a new air route. The work of establishing colonies overseas was first started by some daring and ambitious adventurers, who hoped to make profits from it.
As early as 1584, Walter Raleigh sent two teams to make an early expedition, and the explorers took the lead in reaching the Atlantic coast of North America. They "brought back a bag of pearls, some Indians and some legends about North America ... to win the favor of Queen Elizabeth, and in return, the Queen made Raleigh a knight". Due to the lack of sufficient funds for personal exploration and careful colonial plans, the British colonization in North America was not smooth.
From commercial colonization to agricultural colonization
In early modern times, European colonialism took the lead in opening the way with commercial trade, and its core was "mercantilism". Everyone regarded the plunder of precious metals as the primary goal. For Britain, North America lacks gold and silver minerals like Latin America, and it is more difficult to carry out trade with a vast territory and a sparsely populated area.
As a result, the British colonial policy began to change from commercial colonization to agricultural colonization, and the government paid more and more attention to the survival and settlement of British colonies in North America.
In order to establish a stable and long-term colony, it is far from enough to rely solely on sporadic personal exploration and state protection. It is very necessary to carry out large-scale and planned agricultural colonization through commercial companies. So by the beginning of the 17th century, the way of personal exploration had been gradually replaced by commercial companies.
At that time, there were two influential commercial companies in Britain, namely Virginia Company and Plymouth Company. The Virginia Company was the first to colonize North America, and established the first British colony in North America, which provided an example for the British colonial activities. Another big colony, located in northeast New England, was founded by Puritans in 162.
may flower's voyage
Since the 16th century, the religious beliefs in Britain have changed, which also provided impetus for colonization in North America. In 168, in order to escape the religious persecution of the king, a group of separatist Puritans took advantage of the opportunity of North American colonization to seek survival and development space.
They rented two ships, one is the may flower, and the other is the Speedwell. In July 162, the "Speedwell" left Leiden with the pilgrims and sailed for Plymouth Port on the southwest coast of England to meet other immigrants, most of whom were craftsmen, fishermen, poor people and indentured slaves. They formed a team of more than 1 people.
Originally, the immigrants planned to set off together on two ships. Unexpectedly, the "Speedwell" leaked water for many times, and people were in panic. No one dared to sail on this ship again. So they concentrated on "may flower" and set sail for North America on September 16th. Afterwards, everyone realized that there was nothing wrong with the "Speedwell". The crew who were unwilling to sail deliberately let it leak, so that they could automatically terminate the lease contract and not have to suffer from the voyage.
"may flower" is a three-masted sailboat with a load of about 18 tons, a hull length of about 9 feet and a maximum width of 26 feet. There are more than 1 passengers living in such a compact space. They lack fresh ingredients and fresh water, and there are almost no toilet conditions. Many people have scurvy.
compared with the hard sailing conditions, the threat from death is even more terrible. The season of their voyage coincided with the most dangerous period of the east-west course in the Atlantic Ocean, sailing against the wind in against the tide, and the speed of the ship was very slow. More than half way out, we were caught in a storm, a crossbar on the ship was blown off, and a crew member was thrown into the sea. He clung desperately to a rope on the boat to survive. Many people proposed to return to Britain, but later people repaired the boat with the tools they brought and moved on. " They spent 66 days at sea. Because of the weather, they didn't arrive in Virginia, but arrived at Cape Cod (now Massachusetts) on November 11th, 162.
signing the Mayflower Convention
As the ship did not arrive in Virginia as originally planned, the land concession promised by the Virginia company to the immigrants became invalid, and discontent was pervasive among these hopeless immigrants, and the centrifugal tendency was increasing. Some even said that they would "exercise their freedom" after landing. William bradford, an immigrant leader, and others decided to establish a management mechanism that convinced everyone in order to appease people, avoid infighting and unite them to live together in this unknown settlement. Before disembarking, 41 adult immigrants on board signed an agreement called Plymouth Joint Agreement, and it was not until 1793 that the Mayflower Convention appeared.
In the Mayflower Convention, the immigrants first expressed their faith in God and their loyalty to the king of England, and on this basis, they "voluntarily formed a people's self-governing group" and "formulated and promulgated laws, regulations, rules and charters that are considered to be the most suitable and convenient for all the people in this colony". Everyone said that we should "ensure compliance and obedience" to this agreement. The signing of the Mayflower Convention was originally an "expedient measure to avoid social disorder", which originated from the British "customary way of dealing with daily social affairs".
immigrants first landed in the New World of North America
After signing an agreement, this group of British "pilgrims" are going to land on Cape Cod. However, they found that the local soil is too poor and there is no good port to use, which is not suitable for settlement. So, they looked for a suitable place to live again, and found Plymouth Bay 25 miles away from them. The water depth there is good for shipping, and the land on the shore is also suitable for farming. They are going to settle there.
The latitude of Massachusetts is similar to that of Liaoning Province in China, and the climate is cold most of the year. When the immigrants landed, it was just in the cold winter and the snow covered the ground. The first thing that needs to be solved is the problem of shelter from the cold and adequate food and clothing.
Just when these hungry and cold people were on the verge of despair, their savior appeared. A well-built Indian with a buckskin and a bow and arrow came. He said in broken English, "Welcome, my name is Samoset." Because Samoset had contact with other British people before, he had a little knowledge of English. He introduced immigrants to Masasoy, the tribal leader, and the two sides signed a mutual assistance agreement.
Massasoy sent Squanto to stay in the colony to help the immigrants. Squanto was kidnapped and sold to Europe as a slave when he was young, during which "he learned fluent English". With the help of Squanto, the immigrants learned how to grow corn, where to fish, how to hunt and how to make fur products, and called him "the most unexpected gift from God".
In September of that year, with Squanto's careful guidance and people's hard work, the immigrants ushered in the first bumper harvest in the New World of North America. They invited Massasoy and his tribe members to celebrate the harvest and express their gratitude. This banquet was later regarded as the origin of "Thanksgiving Day".
The influence of the establishment of North American colonies
Since then, the number of Plymouth residents has been increasing and the settlements have been expanding. After decades of colonization, not only did the existing immigrants get a chance to survive in the New World, but the news of their success in the colonies was sent back to Europe. North America was regarded as a "refuge" by Europeans at that time, and some people with dreams of getting rich were attracted to North America. From 167 to 1733, Britain established 13 colonies in the narrow strip of North America from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Appalachian mountains in the west. It is estimated that the population of British colonies in North America "was only 5, in 163, but it has grown to 89, in 3 years, 29, in 169 and 466, in 172".
The increase of population has caused the competition for land and other resources, and the contradiction between man and land is essentially the conflict of interests between people. After settling in the New World, the immigrants practiced private ownership of land in the colonized land, while the indigenous Indians believed that the land was the property enjoyed by everyone, which inevitably led to conflicts between the two sides. "Since 1622, there have been conflicts between India and Belarus ... In Massachusetts, the attack on indigenous Indians began in 1633, and the Indians were confined to designated reservations ... By the time the North American War of Independence broke out, most of the Indians on the Atlantic coast had actually been eliminated."
In the 17th century, the British colonial policy and the colonial practice led by commercial companies brought changes to the New World of North America. These changes "became the basic motivation and foundation for the further development of British North American colonies and even the entire American civilization, including economy, politics, society and culture, and determined the diversified characteristics of its structure, which was of great and far-reaching significance."
(This column is written by Bu Xianqun, and the author of this issue is Sun Xiaojiao, School of History and Culture, Shandong Normal University)