Leading up to Jamestown

Aka, what was it about England (versus France and Spain) that made it more successful in North America than the other two?

Magna Carta (“Great Charter”) of England 1215

The Magna Carta was a significant advance for the people of England The Magna Carta was a significant advance for the people of England! If we’re going to understand why that was so, we have to understand…

The Feudal System!

Under the feudal system, the King and/or queen owned all of the land, but he/she could not possibly farm all of it by him or herself, so it was “loaned” to trusted friends or relatives, who took the title of “Lord.”

The Lords ran the parcels of land (“Manors”) that the King loaned them, using peasants (aka “serfs”) as laborers. Serfs worked the land and kept a portion of their crop (usually about half), giving the rest to the Lords as rent for the use of the land.

At the same time, the King took a portion of the crop from the Lords as a tax. Before the Magna Carta, the King could set the tax at whatever level he desired AND he could raise the tax arbitrarily.

In 1215, the Lords had had enough In 1215, the Lords had had enough! They wrote up a list of demands and forced the King (King John) to sign! The list of demands was the Magna Carta!

The Magna Carta contained two very important rights that we still enjoy today: The King could not raise or establish taxes without the consent of those being taxed (no taxation without representation!); The King could not arrest or detain a citizen without charging the person detained with a crime. This right is called Habeus Corpus (which means “show me the body” in Latin)

  Political Social Economic France Spain England

So, unlike France and Spain, who still operated under the “God ordained the King to rule so the King IS God” model, England had established a new form of government; a Parliamentary Monarchy!

Parliamentary Monarchy   Political Social Economic France Monarchy (Old Style)  Spain  Monarchy (Old Style) England  Parliamentary Monarchy

Social conditions (primarily religion) were somewhat different in the “Big Three” as well! Prior to 1517, all Christians were Catholic because there was no other denomination. However, in 1517, all of that changed with a German Monk named Martin Luther.

Luther was an a Catholic Priest of the Augustinian Order Luther was an a Catholic Priest of the Augustinian Order. Like most priests, he was well-educated (unlike most people of the day, he could read and write) AND he had access to the Bible! Although the Gutenberg printing press was invented 57 years earlier in 1450, they were still scarce and books were even more rare!

In any case, Luther had read and studied his Bible (of which there were few and only priests had access!) very well and determined that many of the practices of the Catholic church at that time were “extrabiblical,” i.e., they weren’t in the Bible!

Luther was REALLY upset about this Luther was REALLY upset about this! He wrote a list of ninety-five of these practices and posted them on the door of the church at Wittenberg. Needless to say, the Catholic hierarchy was NOT happy about Luther’s list of complaints!

Church leaders ordered Luther to remove the list, post an apology, and recant his list of complaints, but Luther refused! Since he would not recant, the Catholic hierarchy had him excommunicated, i.e., officially removed from the Catholic church!

Luther said, “Macht nichts. (he was German) meaning “it doesn’t matter Luther said, “Macht nichts! (he was German) meaning “it doesn’t matter!” He soon started his own church, which became the Lutheran church. After this time, any non-Catholic Christian church became known as a Protestant church since these Christian churches were based on Luther’s PROTEST of Catholic practices.

Not long after Luther’s run-in with the Catholic hierarchy, King Henry VIII of England (1509 – 1547) had his own dilemma; he wanted to divorce his wife, but Catholics weren’t allowed to divorce!

Henry petitioned the Pope for permission, but the Pope declined to grant it, so in 1534, Henry formed the Protestant Church of England with himself as its head! (How convenient! Now he could grant himself permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon and re-marry!)

So, England was Protestant when Jamestown was founded; the other European powers were still Catholic and Spain was “super-Catholic” (remember the Spanish Inquisition?)

Parliamentary Monarchy   Political Social Economic France Monarchy (Old Style)   Catholic Spain  Monarchy (Old Style)  ”Super” Catholic England  Parliamentary Monarchy  Protestant Church of England

Hopefully, everyone knows (by now) that all three powers operated under a mercantile economy (“mercantilism”) and that three conditions were necessary for operation under this model:

Strong Central Control over Commerce (i.e., a King or a Queen) Mercantile Economy Positive Trade Balance Colonies (for raw materials and to buy finished products!)

Parliamentary Monarchy   Political Social Economic France Monarchy (Old Style)   Catholic Mercantilism  Spain  Monarchy (Old Style)  ”Super” Catholic England  Parliamentary Monarchy  Protestant Church of England

Parliamentary Monarchy   Political Social Economic France Monarchy (Old Style)   Catholic Mercantilism  Spain  Monarchy (Old Style)  ”Super” Catholic England  Parliamentary Monarchy  Protestant Church of England So, what could be said of the political and social conditions in England as opposed to those of Spain and France? Was there more freedom there? Individual rights? Was it easier to operate as an individual in the English system than the other two?