MAPS The Original Grants (color map) German and Scotch-Irish Settlements Distribution of Population in 1790 English, French, and Spanish Possessions in America, 1750 (color 27 The Colonies at the Time of the Declaration of Independence (color North America according to the Treaty of 1783 (color map) 287 "THE NATIONS OF THE WEST" (popularly called "The Pioneers"), designed by A. Sterling Calder and modeled by Mr. Calder, F. G. R. Roth, and Leo Lentelli, topped the Arch of the Occident at the Panama Exposition held at San Francisco in 1915. Into the Court of the Universe move men and women typical of those who have made our civilization. From left to right in the group appear the French-Canadian, the Alaskan, the Latin-American, the German, the Italian, the Anglo-American, the Squaw, and the American Indian. In the place of honor in the center of the group, standing between the oxen on the tongue of the prairie schooner, is a figure, beautiful and almost girlish, but strong, dignified and womanly, the Mother of the Future. Above the group rides the Spirit of Enterprise, flanked right and left by the Heroes of the Future in the person of two boys. The group as a whole is beautifully symbolic of the westward march of American civilization. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES PART I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD CHAPTER I THE GREAT MIGRATION TO AMERICA THE tide of migration that set in toward the shores of North America during the early years of the seventeenth century was but one phase in the restless and eternal movement of mankind upon the surface of the earth. The ancient Greeks flung out their colonies in every direction, westward as far as Gaul, across the Mediterranean, and eastward into Asia Minor, perhaps to the very confines of India. The Romans, supported by their armies and their government, spread their dominion beyond the narrow lands of Italy until it stretched from the heather of Scotland to the sands of Arabia. The Teutonic tribes, from their home beyond the Danube and the Rhine, poured into the empire of the Cæsars and made the beginnings of modern Europe. Of this great sweep of races and empires the settlement of America was merely a part. And it was, moreover, only one aspect of the expansion which finally carried the peoples, the institutions, and the trade of Europe to the very ends of the earth. In one vital point, it must be noted, American colonization differed from that of the ancients. The Greeks usually carried with them affection for the government they left behind and sacred fire from the altar of the parent city; but thousands of the immigrants who came to America disliked the state and disowned the church of the mother country. They established compacts of government for themselves and set up altars of their own. They sought not only new soil to till but also political and religious liberty for themselves and their children. THE AGENCIES OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION It was no light matter for the English to cross three thousand miles of water and found homes in the American wilderness at the opening of the seventeenth century. Ships, tools, and supplies called for huge outlays of money. Stores had to be furnished in quantities sufficient to sustain the life of the settlers until they could gather harvests of their own. Artisans and laborers of skill and industry had to be induced to risk the hazards of the new world. Soldiers were required for defense and mariners for the exploration of inland waters. Leaders of good judgment, adept in managing men, had to be discovered. Altogether such an enterprise demanded capital larger than the ordinary merchant or gentleman could amass and involved risks more imminent than he dared to assume. Though in later days, after initial tests had been made, wealthy proprietors were able to establish colonies on their own account, it was the corporation that furnished the capital and leadership in the beginning. The Trading Company. — English pioneers in exploration found an instrument for colonization in companies of merchant adventurers, which had long been employed in carrying on commerce with foreign countries. Such a corporation was composed of many persons of different ranks of society noblemen, merchants, and gentlemen- who banded together for a particular undertaking, each contributing a sum of money and sharing in the profits of the venture. It was organized under royal authority; it received its charter, its grant of land, and its trading privileges from the king and carried on its operations under his supervision and control. The charter named all the persons originally included in the corporation and gave them certain powers in the management |