America’s First Century: The Mother Country, 1607 II
Lead: The England that sent out the first colonists on the Virginia Adventure in 1607 still very much saw itself as a part of The Great Chain of Being, a society ordered top to bottom from God to dirt. Virginia helped break the chain.
Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts
Content: In the 1700s European writers spoke of a Great Chain of Being, an idea which had been around at least since Greek civilization and which described the universe as a hierarchy with God at the top, in His heaven and all creation, in perfectly ordered ranks descending down, down, down to inanimate stones. This world view emerged from the military requirements and feudal realities of the medieval period and was ideally created to bring order out of chaos. Even by 1600 most Englishmen, obsessed with regulation and stability, thought they fit somewhere in that comfortable arrangement. The higher one’s station or status in society, the closer one was to God, thereby meriting deference and respect. The King was higher than nobles, masters over servants, husbands over wives, men over women and so on. Wherever one fit on the chain was his or her allotted place in life and they should be content in there in their place. If, by some good fortune, either, financial, military or political, one moved up the chain, then it was a clear sign of God’s favor and blessing.
America’s First Century: The Mother Country, 1607 III
Lead: Changing economic conditions and social challenges laid the foundation for England’s colonial enterprise. Seeking new markets and new fortunes adventurers found their way to places like Virginia.
Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts
Content: Since deep into the medieval period, the basis for England’s national wealth had been wool. Over the centuries, tons of raw wool had been harvested on English hillsides and shipped to the Continent where it was fashioned into cloth, but by 1600 the wool trade was on the wane. Markets had been disrupted by religious and economic conflict in Europe and there had developed a glut of wool in France and Holland the traditional buyers of England’s raw goods. The Crown, which derived much of its income from import and export taxes on foreign trade, encouraged merchants and traders to find new markets for English wool.
Discovery of Cuba – II
Lead: The first major discovery of Christopher Columbus after his initial landfall in autumn 1492, was Cuba. He then turned his attention elsewhere and not until 1508 was Cuba even determined to be an island.
Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: The early development of Cuba by Europeans was a much-delayed thing. This was primarily due to the premier motivation for Spanish exploration in the so-called New World. Spain wanted a route to the rich spice islands of East Asia and it wanted gold and silver. It soon became obvious to most observers that the islands and mainland of the new lands were not Asia. Columbus died still convinced America was Asia but he was in a growing minority. It also became clear that the islands forming the eastern border of the Caribbean had only tiny deposits of precious metals. The search for gold went west into Mexico and South America.
European Discovery of Cuba – I
Lead: The first voyage led by Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought Europeans to the Caribbean. One of his most significant discoveries was the largest island in the Antilles, Cuba.
Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: After decades of frustration, the Italian sailor and visionary, Christopher Columbus finally convinced the ruling house of Spain to commission him for a voyage of exploration out across of the Western Ocean in search of a water bridge to East Asia. King Ferdinand and his bride and fellow monarch Queen Isabella, had just achieved a seven-century long goal of the Christian kingdoms of Spain. They conquered Grenada, the last remaining Islamic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula.