- Describe the significance of the year 1607, using the following terms: The London Company, King James, and the name of the 3 boats. Be sure to clearly explain each of these terms within your paragraph.
1607 was a very important year to the british. In 1607, the English made their first successful attempt at colonizing in America. “The ships were the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed, and they had been sent from England by a business corporation called the London Company…The voyagers had been told to look for gold and a river or passage that would go through the country to China or Japan,” (Hakim, p. 25). The trip to America, that was approved by King James, as symbolised on the London Company’s seal, was meant for gold. In the end, they started a new country. If the English didn’t know that there was no gold or passage to China in America, then it would have never been founded. Overall, 1607 was a very important year.
- Describe the the terrain and the geography of the English fort.
The English fort was a very bad settlement. They had bad terrain, and bad location. “As it turned out, they (British) couldn’t have picked a worse spot. The land was swampy, the drinking water was bad; it was hot in summer and bone chilling in winter. The mosquitoes drove the settlers crazy and carried malaria germs,” (Hakim, p.28). This quote shows how bad the British chose their location, even if they did think it was good. You can’t build very well on swampy lands; everything sinks on it. You also can’t farm on it. Even if the British knew how to farm, they wouldn’t be able to make crops. Their location was good for fighting; they could see the enemy coming no matter what, but they didn’t know how to fight. The location was very bad for every other reason. The terrain was bad, there was lots of mosquitos, there was bad weather, and lots of germs. Overall, the English had very bad terrain and geography.
- Was the initial settlement successful? Why or why not?
The initial settlement was was very unsuccessful. Almost half of the british died because of the bad living conditions. “…the drinking water was bad; it was hot in summer and bone chilling in winter. The mosquitoes drove the settlers crazy…they had bad luck-lots of bad luck. The worst may have been that they brought some English germs across the sea. One was a typhoid fever germ that killed many of them. Tidewater Virginia had other germs that made some sicken and die. The Indians killed still others. Some starved,” (Hakim, p.28). This quote shows how bad the conditions were in the initial settlement. Lots of the English didn’t make it back because of how bad the conditions were. Add in how bad the geography and terrain was, and they have a recipe for disaster. None of the gentlemen knew how to live for themselves too, so they didn’t help the settlement. Overall, the initial settlement was a complete disaster.
In Humanities we are using a book called Making 13 Colonies. After we read each chapter we have to answer questions on it. This one is from chapter 4. I am very proud of it because I wrote a lot more detailed than I usually do and I because my writing was very detailed. I also spent a lot of time on this homework.