1621+C.E.+to+1698+C.E.

=New Control in the Caribbean  =  =The Caribbean Islands are now divided among 4 major European powers. Still, the fighting for power and control continues, leading to the formation of West Indies Companies.  =  **__DUTCH__ ** In 1621, the West India Company (similar to the East India Company) was formed by the Dutch of the Netherlands. This company was given a trade monopoly in the Caribbean region and jurisdiction over the African slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and parts of North America. However, for the first three years, the Dutch did not enforce their control over the region and allowed other European ships to trade and do whatever they pleased.

Four years later, in 1624, the West India Company began attacking the other Europeans, in hope of gaining total control of sugar plantations in Brazil and slave stations in Africa. Also during this time, the West India Company established many trading posts and colonies in New Amsterdam and many Caribbean islands and trading became very beneficial and efficient for the Dutch. One of the most important victories of the West India Company was the seizure of the Spanish fleet, carrying gold and silver, by Piet Hein in 1628. Piet Hein was a Dutch naval officer that brought profit to the company. As a result, trading was successful and the company began to hire Dutch, Jewish, and Portuguese traders to work for them. The Dutch West India Company began trading with Brazil in 1638 and Curacao in the 1640s.

However, the Dutch were not always successful. From 1637-1645, the Dutch took over part of Brazil, but lost control in 1654 to the Portuguese. By this time, the Dutch knew that their success was dying and the rival European nations were beginning to destroy and capture the new trading ports. By 1645, the West India Company reorganized itself as a commercial group, providing slaves and goods to the Caribbean while relying on the Dutch crown for protection. After Dutch rule in America for forty years, the Dutch failed to establish a successful colony. This was a result of outside settlers in their land, commerce for profit instead of agriculture, and the absence of local government and supporters.   (Dutch West India Company)      **__FRENCH__**  Like the Dutch, the French also created some companies in the colonies, including Saint Christophe in St. Kitts. They claimed the company in the 1600s when Pierre Belain, a French adventurer, brought tobacco to France. Tobacco was very valuable at the time, so the French Prime Minister Richelieu declared the island under the name of Compagnie de Saint-Christophe and included other islands within the company.

In 1635, the French colonies changed the company to the Compagnie des Isles d’Amerique. However, like the Dutch, their success did not last long. In the 1640s, the company failed and the island were bought by previous owners. Another company that emerged during the late 17th century was started by Louis XIV. This company, the French West India Company lasted for only 10 years from 1664-1674.

These companies also played an important role in the expansion of the Caribbean, each with their own plans for the land.

==While the Dutch and French were fighting for control, agriculture became very successful in the Caribbean region. == ==<span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">As the fight for power continued, the sugar crop became very important in the region. Barbados was the first island to achieve riches and profit from growing sugar. This successful cultivation of sugar can be credited to the Dutch and their colonies in Brazil at the time. == ==<span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">Another successful achievement of the Dutch in Barbados was the production of rum in 1637. Realizing that sugar was successful, they switched to sugar production in the 1640s. Barbados was now the richest colony in the Caribbean and would remain for several decades. <span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> ==

<span style="color: #008080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">From this time until the 1660s, the Caribbean relied on indentured servants for agricultural work. However, diseases from Africa along with heat killed many “white men” in the region during the 1640s and 1650s. The European colonies soon switched to slavery when the price for indentured servants increased. Plantation owners began having problems with many of the indentured servants because of their rising cost and conflicts of beliefs.(Many of the indentured servants were Irish Catholic and disagreed with the beliefs of their owners.) Soon the English Caribbean relied permanently on slaves from Africa. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #00807a; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">**<span style="color: #00807a; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">Sugar Plantations ** <span style="color: #00807a; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #00807a; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;">__**French Fight For Land**__ <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 25px; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">As the French expanded to numerous islands in the Caribbean, they maintained good relations and interactions with the Native people on every island they claimed until 1636. In this year, they began attacking the native Caribbeans on the island of Guadeloupe to steal their land. The fighting and war spread to many islands and caused many deaths. In 1653, in a war with Grenada, the natives jumped off a cliff rather than lose to the French troops. This cliff is now called Leaper’s Hill.

<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">Fighting continued for a few more years, until a peace treaty was signed in 1660. Both the British and the French agreed to leave the islands of St. Vincent and Dominica alone to the native Caribbeans. <span style="color: #009dff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">**Leaper's Hill, Grenada** <span style="color: #009dff; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">

=<span style="color: #008000; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;">__Dutch Expansion__ = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">After losing their colonies in Brazil, the Dutch continued to try to expand. Peter Stuyvesant, one of Curacao’s most important governors, led an attack against St. Martin in 1644. A year later, he retained his position in Curacao and was also named the governor of New Amsterdam (present-day New York). <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">In 1640, the Dutch founded a unique colony called Saba. There was not much agriculture, therefore this colony remained mostly white, without African slaves. In 1648, the Dutch and French split St. Martin, and the two countries still control the island to this day. Curacao was also used as a Dutch base for raiding South America, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. In 1648, after the war with Spain, Curacao became a profitable colony. This island became a main center for slave trade, controlled by the Dutch.

<span style="color: #800009; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;">__England Becomes Interested__
== In England, a civil war emerged between the Parliamentary leader Oliver Cromwell and King Charles I and this affected the people of Barbados. When the war ended, the King’s son, Prince Charles was exiled and Cromwell took over England. == == Cromwell led England to acquire Jamaica, its only territory in the Greater Antilles. This was not the only thing Cromwell did. He also created England’s first Navigation Act in 1651, which controlled trade in England. He also went to war with the Dutch in the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652, in order to gain some part of the Caribbean trade. The English won the war and this was considered the beginning of the end of Dutch trade dominance. == == In 1655, British troops claimed Jamaica for England, with no original intentions. Although thi <span style="color: #333667; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">s was Spanish land, the land was empty until the Spanish returned and were forced to sign a treaty. The Spainards escaped Jamaica and freed their slaves, so England controlled the new conquered land. == <span style="color: #333667; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trade became very important and highly necessary. At this time, the Dutch West India Company was the dominant trade force, but England had plans to become the new dominant force. In 1660, the second Navigation Act was passed, tightening trade restrictions in the new British colonies. In 1663, a third Navigation Act was passed and the British colonies were strictly restricted to trading only with England. Sugar and tobacco were the biggest cash crops and Barbados accepted a 4.5% export tax on its goods. <span style="color: #333667; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> In order to become the dominant trading force and maintain their control in the West Indies, the British had to strengthen their naval forces.

<span style="color: #ff8600; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 23.4pt; text-align: center;">Successes in the Caribbean Region <span style="color: #00001a; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; text-align: center;"> <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: 800; line-height: 32px; text-align: center;">__Indentured Service__ <span style="color: #550080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Since the Caribbean had many sugar plantations and not enough people to work them, some people were kidnapped from Europe and brought to the Caribbean to work as indentured servants. Each year, new indentured servants would arrive and the number increased annually. Barbados, the first colony to capitalize in sugar, received up to 500 servants a year. Women were brought to the islands to work as maids. <span style="color: #550080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">By the late 1600s, many of the islands controlled by England were so fully populated, that the amount of indentured servants sent from England decreased. By 1698, Barbados ran out of land and there was more than 18 indentured servants owned by every white male. In the 1660s, the agricultural diversity expanded to sugarcane, cotton, and indigo in Jamaica. The French also suggested diversification. Rather than isolating their industry and export to agricultural goods, they suggested artisan work as well: glassmaking, linen, cultivation of silkworms, and various uses of sheep's wool and goats. <span style="color: #00001a; display: block; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; text-align: center;"> __Education__ <span style="color: #800009; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;">Plantation owners at this time, sent their children to Europe to be educated, because British and French colonies did not find importance for education. On the other hand, the Spanish built schools and other necessities for their colonies. Books were uncommon and the main focus was successful agriculture.

** __Slavery__ ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">In 1685, the French instituted the Code Noir, or the Black Code. These laws were created to allow European nations to practice slavery.

· Slaves were to be baptized. · Marriages between slaves were encouraged under consent of the owner. · They would not work on holy days or Sundays. · Sexual intercourse between free people and slaves was prohibited, and offending slaves and their children would be confiscated as a penalty. Children followed the mother's status. · Slaves could not carry large sticks or arms. · Slaves of different owners could not gather together at night. · Rations per slave per week were set, and food could not be traded by slaves for free days. · Slaves were given two changes of clothes and a set amount of linen per year. · Property could not be owned by slaves. <span style="color: #800009; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">

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