Why was the early settlement at jamestown a near disaster?
They had to build from scratch. EVERYTHING. Also, they were more interested in finding gold and precious metals than thinking for the future needs.*
Significance of Jamestown....please help!!?
On may 14 1607 the first colonists landed @ Jamestown,in what is now Virginia. It was the First ENGLISH settlement.the colonists were led by Captain John Smith. It was situated on the Jamestown Island,on the James River and the chesepeake bay. After Smith Departed,the "starving winter",in 1609 ensued,which left only 60 of 214 settlers left in Jamestown.Those settlers almost abandoned Jamestown.They stayed after being resupplied by the New Governor,cant remember his name,Lord Something.....sometime after Pocohauntas(sic) married John rolfe,and tobacco became a crash crop.these two things ensured Jamestown survival..What else...oh yeah... The first representative assembly in the New World convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly met in response to orders from the Virginia Company "to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia" which would provide "just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting." The other crucial event that would play a role in the development of America was the arrival of Africans to Jamestown. A Dutch slave trader excanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who traded several years labor in exchange for passage to America. The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 1680's.
What problems confronted the first English settlements?
Roanoke Island was found abandoned in 1590 when a supply ship from England arrived after 3 years of its founding. Jamestown went through a period of disease, starvation of many settlers, or died at the hands of the Native Americans. John Smith saved it.
Where can I get information about Jamestown?
Some government websites have information about Jamestown. But if you are looking for a cite with lots of information on Jamestown, try "wikipedia.com" and search for Jamestown. It provides footnotes and links at the bottom of the web page so that you have more sources to look up and check information from.
If the Native Americans were immune to European diseases somehow, would the Natives have put up a better fight against their colonizers?
Read a book called 1492. Ok the real facts will be never be known but it is quite likely that 90 to 95% of American Natives died in the 1st round of deaths. What the Mayflower encounted was the tiny remnants of a destroyed society. Indeed a mini ice age around then has been atributed to masive regrowing of trees on empty farmland. The comment by earky immigrants thatbit was a land made by God is now credited to the Natives as they left behind arable land tamed by them. A “Mad Max” post apocalyptic society was found by early immigrants. They still were not fully immune and many more died then and later. Prob another 90%. So 90% of 90% means 1 % survive. We will never know the exact figures but higher end estimates put America at 120 million people. Higher than Europe.So the European immigrants would have been destroyed. Vikings found the Americas. And didn't stay. Wonder why? Surely they would have if it was unpopulated. Btw the Vikings were from Greenland and reseach shows they were immune to the disesase like measles that killed Americans but prob were a disease free pool die to the long sail times. If you had it you died. Hence they didn't transmit these diseases.Of course maybe colonisation on an Indian model may have happened in the 19th century. Radically changing history. No USA. No World War support.Or they had diseases European were not immune to….