BEFORE COLONIZATION
(prior to 1681)
The
First Inhabitants
When first discovered by Europeans, Pennsylvania, like the
rest of the continent, was inhabited by groups of Native Americans living a
simple life. Tools, weapons and household equipment were made from stone,
wood, and bark. Transportation was on foot or by canoe. Houses were made of
bark, clothing from the skins of animals. Tribes included the Delawares, the
Susquehannocks, the Shawnees and the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawks, Oneidas,
Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas).
Early
Settlements
The rise of nation-states in Europe brought a desire for
territorial gains beyond the seas, first by Spain and Portugal and later by
England, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Wars in southern Germany caused
many Germans to migrate eventually to Pennsylvania. The struggle in England
between the Crown and Parliament also had a pronounced effect on migration to
America. The Reformation led to religious problems, and minorities of various
faiths sought refuge in America. Such an impulse brought Quakers, Puritans,
and Catholics from England, German Pietists from the Rhineland, Scotch
Calvinists via Ireland, and Huguenots from France. Also, great economic
changes took place in Europe in the 17th century. The old manorial system was
breaking down, creating a large class of landless men ready to seek new homes.
An increase in commerce and trade led to an accumulation of capital available
for colonial ventures.
Exploration
The English based their claims in North America on the
discoveries of the Cabots (1497), while the French pointed to the voyage of
Verrazano in 1524. The Spanish claim was founded on Columbus' discovery of the
West Indies, but there is evidence that Spanish ships sailed up the coast of
North America as early as 1520. It is uncertain, however, that any of these
explorers touched land that became Pennsylvania. Captain John Smith journeyed
from Virginia up the Susquehanna River in 1608, visiting the Susquehannock
Indians. In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the Dutch service, sailed the
Half Moon into Delaware Bay, thus giving the Dutch a claim to the area. In
1610, Captain Samuel Argall of Virginia visited the bay and named it for Lord
de la Warr, governor of Virginia. After Hudson's time, the Dutch navigators
Cornelis Hendricksenm (1616) and Cornelis Jacobsen (1623) explored the
Delaware region more thoroughly, and trading posts were established in 1623
and in later years, though not on Pennsylvania soil until 1647. The Swedes
were the first to make permanent settlement, beginning with the expedition of
1637-1638, which occupied the site of Wilmington, Delaware. In 1643, Governor
Johan Printz of New Sweden established his capital at Tinicum Island within
the present limits of Pennsylvania, where there is now a state park bearing
his name. In the mid 1600s, trouble broke out between the Swedes and the
Dutch, who had trading posts in the region. English laws and civil government
were introduced by The Duke of Yorke's Laws in 1676.