Great Britain and the American Colonies

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How could two lands that share a common language, a common ancestry, and a common religious background be so very different from each other? Great Britain and the American Colonies began with a shared heritage, but, over time, developed ideologies as widely apart as their two lands were geographically apart. England was island of limitation and the Colonies was a land of endless possibility. The difference between these two lands contrabret in the differences in their attitudes and actions in the economic, political and social areas particularly illustrate this truth.

Britain and the Colonies held vastly different attitudes toward economics in the 1750s. As an island, England developed with a definite awareness of limitations. The American Colonies, in contrast, were perched on the edge of what seemed to be a boundless land overflowing with endless resources. Partly because of these geographic differences, England developed a restrictive view towards economics that greatly differed from the views of her more expansively inclined Colonies. One particular example was in the British view that work must be rationed because, “... the total amount of work for which society could pay was strictly limited...” (Morgan 603) The limitations did not stop there, however. Laws were passed that made it illegal “for a man to practice more than one trade or one craft.” (Morgan 603) The Colonies, on the other hand, had so much work that work was not viewed as limited, but never ending. Whereas the British lands had been occupied and improved for more than a millennium, the Colonies were seeking to carve an entire civilization out of a rugged, untouched wilderness in little more than a century. The amount of available work was so vast, in fact...

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...ders were fans of the classics, hard covers, and treatises. This was in part due to the fact that they did not have to worry much about survival. Americans, however, valued pamphlets, almanacs, and magazines, because life in the wilderness was difficult, but made easier with them. (Schweikart 42) In the Colonies, Social attitudes all come down to what was practical. The people of the New World did not have the comfort or time to ask or gossip about family trees like British citizens did.

Economic, political, and social viewpoints in America and Great Britain were vastly different. Britain was a land of economic limitations, political restraints, and social confinement. Meanwhile, America was economically expansive, politically progressive, and socially pragmatic. it would be these divisive ideologies which would cleave the two nations finally, completely apart.

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