Fiche de révision : Economy and Society in the United States

📋 Plan du Cours

1. Avant les États-Unis
2. Colonisation et premières économies
3. Systèmes de travail coloniaux
4. Trois régions, trois économies
5. De la guerre à la crise impériale

📅 Repères chronologiques

1. 11th centuryVikings travelled to and settled in North America.
2. October 12th, 1492Christopher Columbus landed on Guanahani, which he renamed San Salvador, in the Bahamas, believing that he had reached Asia.
3. 1585 - 1590The Roanoke colony disappeared and became known as the Lost Colony of Roanoke.
4. 1607Jamestown was founded as a colony whose investors sought precious metals and fast returns on their investments.
5. 1612–17Tobacco became a profitable export crop in Jamestown.
6. 1619The first enslaved people arrived in the English colonies.
7. 1620The Pilgrim Fathers, religious dissidents from the Anglican Church called Puritans, arrived in New England aboard the Mayflower.
8. 1756–63Britain won the Seven Years’ War, but London faced heavy debt after 1763.

📖 1. Avant les États-Unis

📝 Points essentiels

• The first encounter between Columbus and Native Americans became a global turning point, as the Native American population declined from 3 to 10 million to 250,000 by the end of the nineteenth century.

💡 Astuce mémo

Exploration → rencontre → bouleversement démographique

📖 2. Colonisation et premières économies

📝 Points essentiels

• The early Jamestown economy moved from investors seeking precious metals and rapid returns to tobacco production as a profitable export crop.

💡 Astuce mémo

Bullion → tobacco → bound labour

📖 3. Systèmes de travail coloniaux

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Indentured servitude : A contract for a limited term in which passage was exchanged for labour, with possible freedom at the end.
• Racial slavery : A hereditary and lifelong status in which people were treated as property and controlled through colonial law.

📝 Points essentiels

• Between 1660 and 1690, the colonies shifted from indentured servitude to racial slavery.

📌 The economic advantage of labour ownership depended on political power because lawmakers defined whose labour could be owned.

💡 Astuce mémo

Indentured servitude = durée limitée ; racial slavery = statut héréditaire

📖 4. Trois régions, trois économies

★ À maîtriser

• The Mayflower Compact established self-government and is widely viewed as a foundation of American democracy.

• The four Middle Colonies were:

  • New York
  • New Jersey
  • Pennsylvania
  • Delaware

• Virginia’s colonial economy relied on tobacco exports, large estates and bound labour.

Compléments

• New England’s colonial economy relied on mixed farming, trade and shipping, with town communities.

• The Middle Colonies developed grain exports, ports and commerce, together with ethnic diversity.

💡 Astuce mémo

Virginia exporte le tabac, New England commerce, Middle Colonies exportent le grain

📖 5. De la guerre à la crise impériale

★ À maîtriser

• The Royal Proclamation limited colonial settlement west of the Appalachians.

• The Stamp Act taxed printed materials and legal documents, linking taxation to trade and information.

• “No taxation without representation” expressed a constitutional dispute over who had the legitimate power to tax, regulate trade and govern colonial property, not merely a demand to pay less tax.

Compléments

📌 The Quartering Act required the colonies to support British troops.

💡 Astuce mémo

War debt → colonial taxes → constitutional conflict

📊 Tableaux de synthèse

Trois économies coloniales