Cultural Differences Between North And South America

All vastly different, three major nations first explored and settled the New World. These European nations were Spain, England, and France. Divergent in much more than their nationalities, these powers contributed to what is now North and South America in their own unique ways.

The first major settlers of the New World were the Spanish. Sponsored by the crown, conquistadors set out to find gold and glory, as well as to convert the natives to Christianity. They conquered and created sprawling settlements in South America and the bottom edge of North America. Although mighty, the Spanish explorers and settlers were still governed by the laws of Spain (they could make none of their own). Their economy was controlled by trade, thanks to the rare

Although the English started colonizing the New World more than a century after the Spanish and French, their influenced has proven to hold the most clout in the modern United States. Many areas of English colonization are vastly different than those of the Spanish or French. One such difference was in the economy of the English colonies; while it’s true that the English depended on trade as the Spanish and French did, they started out as an agricultural society. Where the French were trading furs and the Spanish were selling gold and other precious metals, the English were exporting tobacco and other cash crops. Another difference can be found in the multitude of religions that the English brought to the Americas. Where the Spanish and French were predominantly Catholic, the English first came to the New World as Puritans then splintered into many different religions (and they even accepted those who were non-religious in some colonies). Also unlike their European neighbors, the English had the opportunity for self-government as long as they didn’t revolt against the crown (ha!). The blind eye turned to the little democracies that popped up in the English colonies made the settlers more independent and stubborn than many of their European predecessors. When it came to the native people, the English were cordial at first. They worked together with the Native Americans until they could stand on their own, then they slaughtered or drove them from their homes with a cruelty that surpassed that of the Spanish conquistadors. While cruel to the natives, the English could be surprisingly lenient to their own people, compared to the Spanish or French; peasants and refugees weren’t allowed in the Spanish or French colonies because their settlers were there to make money, not coddle society’s refuse, but the English were seeking a new home as well as a way to profit, so they were far more welcoming to settlers looking