Virginia Company-Jamestown

Royal Colony
Important People: King James I, Captain John Smith

Places; Chesapeake Bay

Indian Population: 50,000 Virginia Indians (30 tribes)25,000 Powhatan Indians before the foreigners arrived decreased to 15,000 right after they settled

Captain John Smith formed good relationships with the natives

Year settled May 14, 1607

Important Events: The Arrival of Africans-1619 became indentured servants.

religion: Spreading Christianity

Ruling England: King James I

     In June of 1606, King James I sent the Virginia Company, to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region. In December, 104 settlers sailed from London and were told to settle in Virginia. Their goal was to find gold, and seek a water route to the Orient. On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown to establish the Virginia colony on the James River. After landing, the colonists were attacked from their enemy, the Algonquian natives. As a result, within a month the settlers managed to build a wooden fort; its walls formed a triangle around a storehouse, church, and a number of houses. 

 The Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements. The structured leadership of Captain John Smith kept the colony from dissolving. The "Starving Time" winter followed Smith's departure in 1609 during which only 60 of the original 214 settlers at Jamestown survived. The arrival of Africans was also a crucial event that would play a role in the development of America to Jamestown. A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured servants, similar to many poor Englishmen who traded several years of labor in exchange for passage to America.

     The Algonquians eventually felt let down and, in 1622, attacked the plantations killing over 300 of the settlers. Even though a warning spared Jamestown, the attack on the colony and mismanagement of the Virginia Company convinced the King that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter. Therefore, Virginia became a crown colony in 1624. 

Ferdinand Magellan

          Magellan was born in Northern Portugal. His parents, Pedro Ruy de Magalhaes and Alda de Mezquita, were very wealthy and powerful. Magellan sailed to India and to the Far East many times through Africa's Cape of Good Hope. He sailed for Portugal, but a disagreement with the Portuguese King Manoel II led him to turn against the Portuguese. Therefore, he decided to sail for Spain
          Magellan and his companion, Ruy de Falero, explained to King Charles V,of Spain, that a westward voyage around the top of South America would lead them to the Moluccas, an island filled with riches. They would then avoid the Portuguese to avoiding confrontation. Their voyage began September 8, 1519, which lasted until September 6, 1522. Magellan sailed from Seville, Spain, with five ships, the Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago.Three years later, only the ship the Victoria made it back to Seville, carrying only 18 of the original 270 crew members.

          Magellan was killed towards the end of the voyage, on the Island in the Philippines, during a battle with the natives. The Basque navigator Juan Sebastián de Elcano completed the trip.In his trip, He headed southwest down toward South America. Staying along the East coastline of South America, then sailing through a waterway at the southern tip of South America, known as the Strait of Magellan. He then started heading North toward Hawaii then going downward to the West and landing in the Philippines. He dies in the Philippines, but one of his ships ,the Victoria, travels all the way back to Spain with aboard 18 men, who were the first Europeans to navigate the entire world.