Beginnings of the American People | Page 3

evident during the decade just
preceding the war. For this reason, the author reaches back into the
midst of the conflict to take up the thread of his narrative. The
economic conditions and changes of 1861 to 1865 are therefore treated
in connection with the great issues of the seventies and eighties--the
protective tariff and "big business." The money question, railway
regulation, corruption in public affairs, never absent from our national
life, are the chief themes of Professor Paxson's book. But while the
motif of the volume is prosperity, business success, and commercial
expansion, space has been found for sympathetic accounts of the
dominating personalities of the time,--for Blaine and Cleveland; for
Bryan, Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. And as is fitting, the leaders
of the industrial and intellectual interests of the time also receive
attention.
Of closer personal and scholarly interest to Professor Paxson is the
subject of the growth and development of the Rocky Mountain States:
Far-Western railway-building, mining, cattle-raising, and the
establishment of government agencies for the conservation of the
national resources. While the older and dangerous sectionalism seems
to be forever past, the special interests of the Far West, as shown in this
work, still lend color to a new sectionalism which sometimes threatens
the old political party habits; witness the contest of 1908-12 and the
troubles between California and Japan. And here Professor Paxson
challenges attention by his treatment of the results of the
Spanish-American War, the imperialism which brought to the United

States the control of the Philippines, and made the isolated and
somewhat provincial country of Blaine and Cleveland a world-power,
with interests in the Pacific and a potential voice in the final destiny of
China.
Such have been the problems and the aims of the writers of these four
short volumes. In order to visualize the main topics discussed, resort
has been made to the making of maps, simple drawings intended to
show at the different crises just where, or how important, were the
decisive factors. This is a feature which, it is thought, will please both
lay and professional readers. Certainly the making of these maps was
no small part of the work of each author, and in most instances they are
entirely original and made from data not hitherto used in this way; for
example, the drawings which show just what sections of the States the
various candidates for the Presidency "carried." The same may be said
of those which treat of the cotton, tobacco, and industrial areas of the
United States.
Although there may be faults and errors in the work, it seems to the
Editor that, on the whole, the story of the beginnings, the growth, and
the present greatness of the country, as set forth in these volumes, is
both interesting and suggestive, that the real forces have been duly
emphasized, and that at many points contributions to historical
knowledge have been made.
WILLIAM E. DODD.

PREFACE
In preparing this sketch of the American colonies, I have had friendly
encouragement and assistance from a number of men whose knowledge
of the subject as a whole, or of certain aspects of it, is far more
extensive and accurate than my own. I am particularly indebted to my
colleagues in the University of Kansas, Professor F.H. Hodder and
Professor W.W. Davis, who have read and criticized the manuscript
chapter by chapter. The editor of the series has not only read the

manuscript, but has put me in the way of much valuable material which
I should otherwise have missed. Professor G.S. Ford and Professor
Wallace Notestein, of the University of Minnesota, and Professor F.J.
Turner, of Harvard University, have read portions of the manuscript.
These good friends have saved me many minor errors and some serious
blunders; and their cautions and suggestions have often enabled me to
improve the work in form and arrangement, and in relative emphasis.
CARL BECKER.

CONTENTS
I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW 1
II. THE PARTITION OF THE NEW WORLD 30
III. THE ENGLISH MIGRATION IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY 65
IV. ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH
AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 125
V. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
161
VI. THE WINNING OF INDEPENDENCE 202
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 277
INDEX i

MAPS
Facing SCHÖNER'S GLOBE, WITH MAGELLAN'S ROUTE AND
DEMARCATION LINE; DRAWN 1523 28

AREAS SETTLED BY 1660, AND BETWEEN 1660 AND 1700 134
GROWTH OF ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS, 1700-1760 178
AREA OF GERMAN SETTLEMENTS AND FRONTIER LINE IN
1775 180
AREA OF SETTLEMENT IN 1774; BOUNDARY PROPOSED BY
SPAIN IN 1782; BOUNDARY SECURED BY TREATY OF 1783;
AND SETTLEMENTS WEST OF ALLEGHANIES IN 1783 272

BEGINNINGS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
CHAPTER I
THE DISCOVERY OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW
We come in search of Christians and spices.