Colonisation and Plantation.

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COLONISATION/PLANTATION

  • A colony can be defined as: a settlement in a new country, forming a community, which is either partly or fully subject to the mother state.
  • In the 15th and 16th centuries many European countries established colonies in various parts of the world.
  • These colonies were established in those areas, which are now known as the Americas (well most of them).
  • Conquistadors (conquerors) and explorers soon discovered ancient but advanced civilisations such as the Aztecs Of Mexico and the Incas Of Peru.
  • Trading links were important reasons for setting up colonies.
  • New areas were conquered all over the known world-each of course had something valuable.
  • Some of the goods include spices to enhance food and cooking.
  • Others Include tobacco and dyes but the 16th century also saw the beginning of the slave trade.
  • Normally to get slaves they had to capture natives on the west coast of Africa and taking them to America where they were sold as slaves.
  • During this period some trade journeys were made partially over land, such as the silk route to and from China and cottons from India.

THE ULSTER PLANTATION

  • Until the middle of the 16th century, the English could extend their control only over the area around Dublin, known as the Pale.
  • Areas outside the Pale paid little attention to the English rule and were regarded as “beyond the Pale”.
  • From the middle of the 16th century and onwards they (the English) extended their control over Ireland.
  • Their method was the establishment of plantations where English and Scottish planters and settlers had come to live and work in Ireland.
  • Reasons for plantation:

The Irish chiefs looked to Spain for help during the rebellion by the Desmond’s in Munster.

The English feared that Spain might attack them via Ireland.

There was a view that a barbarous country must be first be broken by war before it will be capable of good government.

The Irish remained Catholic, Gaelic and used their own laws.  England was not happy with this.

The only area ruled directly by the English was the Pale, a district around Dublin.  This was the only English Rule in Ireland.    

Henry VIII the Protestant King of England took the title ‘King of Ireland’.  Tudor governments tried to make all Ireland obey English Law.

  • NINE YEARS WAR

After 1594 Irish clans went to war against the English lead by Hugh O’Neill.

The Irish were fighting to preserve their old traditions.

The Irish, they were successful for some years but were defeated in 1601 at the Battle Of Kinsale.

In 1602 the English tried to starve the Irish into submission.

As the war had proved to be very costly, the English decided to make peace and so the Treaty Of Mellifont was signed in 1603.

  • Hugh O’Neill accepted the English laws and in return was allowed to keep his lands.  His new title was known as the Earl of Tyrone.
  • When Elizabeth died ion 1603 she was succeeded by her nearest relative, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, James VI of Scotland who became James I of England.
  • After the defeat of O’Neill in Ulster, O’Neill and some other northern chiefs fled from Lough Swilly in 1607.
  • The famous departure was known as the Flight of the Earls.
  • The Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, was convinced that the only was to control Ulster was to plant it with English and Scottish settlers, Chichester himself colonised land around Belfast.
  • Commissioners were people who travelled an area, mapping the land and finding out who the owners were.
  • In 1609 commissioners decided which land belonged to the Church of Ireland, because it was not to be confiscated.
  • If people could not prove their ownership of the land it was usually taken from them.
  • About 4 million acres were involved in the Ulster plantation; much of this was not very good land.
  • Some lessons had been learnt from earlier plantations i.e. settles were not to live in scattered houses, but in fortified villages and towns.
  • Lands were given to 5 types of people:  1.Scottish and English undertakers   2.Servitors   3.Loyal Irish   4.Guilds   5.Others (Church of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin and six free schools.
  • As expected the Ulster Plantation changed the country quite dramatically.
  • There were 3 main results of the plantation: opposition, religious changes and the introduction of a different way of life.
  • The main opposition came from the Irish swordsmen who were the armed followers of the dispossessed Irish chiefs.
  • The governments had sent some of them to exile but most of them escaped and lived rough in the woods and hills-these people were called woodkern.
  • The woodkern tried to stop the planters from building and often attacked their homes.
  • This was one of the main reasons why it was so difficult to get English and Scottish tenants to settle on the land.
  • Many of those who came to Ulster brought with them, from Scotland, their Presbyterian religion.
  • Most of the Scots that came to live in Ulster broke laws, cared little for any church, fighting, murder, committed adultery, etc.  Most that came were in poverty, lived scandalous lives and seeking better accommodation.
  • Not all the planters were Protestants.
  • The colonists brought to Ulster a very different was of life compared to the rest of the country.
  • Many brought modern farming methods and a tradition of the Puritan work ethic.
  • In Ulster both landlord and tenant were usually Protestant and both spoke English.
  • Some Scots such as Hugh Montgomery and James Hamilton from Ayrshire were successful planters.
  • That was because the Irish did not regard them as strangers.
  • Rebellions like the one in 1641 were caused due to the plantation.
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JAMES I

  • James was married to Anne of Denmark.
  • They had seven children of whom only three survived childhood.
  • James believed very strongly in the Divine Right Of Kings.
  • This meant that he believed absolutely that he had been chosen by God to be King and therefore ordinary people should not question what he said or did.
  • He disliked the habit of tobacco smoking very much and wrote a pamphlet in 1604 entitled Counterblasts to Tobacco, condemning this habit.
  • He had also commissioned an Authorised Version of the Bible in English.  This Version still sometimes known ...

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