European colonization of the Americas started with the accidental discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. After 1600, colonization was made possible in North America because of the population decrease of Native Americans. By 1614, Spain, England, France and the Dutch Republic all established territorial claims in North America. Although Spain, England, and the Dutch established colonies in North America, France was the most successful in the effort of colonizing America prior to 1660, specifically through securing cooperation of native peoples, their establishment of permanent settlements, and their development of a viable economy.
Although the English were slow in traveling into the New World while the Spanish and French were busy traveling abroad, the English had a significant influence on what is now the American colonies. England was able to succeed in the New World through long termed colonization, the growth of substantial economies, and the utilization of agricultural resources. The English’s change in desire to travel abroad and the colonization that led to the founding of English America during the late 16th and early 17th century was impacted by the English’s yearning to transition their religious, economic, and social way of life and the founding of English America in their efforts to colonize Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth.
North America had not been taxed directly before March 22, 1765. However, on that day, the British Parliament gave its first direct tax on the North American colonies known as the Stamp Act. The reason that this happened was to pay for the Seven Years’ War. The North American colonies’ role in this was being fought over by the French and British to rule over the colony. This made the colonists have to pay taxes on many papers and documents. Also, anyone who was thought to have disobeyed the Stamp act could be prosecuted in a court that didn’t have any juries and could be anywhere in Great Britain or its colonies known as the Vice-Admiralty Courts.
After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, European Nations competed in a race against one another to claim pieces of the new land. Before Columbus found this land, the sea separating the New World from Europe seemed endless, and mundane. The Europeans were only interested in the land to the East. But with the New World as a new hat thrown into the ring, the Europeans tossed aside their old toy to go play with a new one. This time period of conquest over the New World was known as the Age of Exploration, and by the 1700s, they kept their pickings. A New World meant more land to build homes and plant crops, and more money to be earned by buying out new houses and selling new crops grown in foreign soil. Spain claimed Mexico, and the Southwest portions of what would be known as America. France got their hands on most of present-day Canada, as well as Louisiana. The Dutch set foot on land they called New Amsterdam, however, The English, who had settled their first colony in Jamestown, Virginia, drove the Dutch out and claimed New Amsterdam for themselves, later renaming it New York. The English claimed more land as time passed, and eventually they had formed 13 different colonies in the Eastern part of America. The English Colonies were separated into 3 different regions. The New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire), the Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware), and the Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia). The New England Colonies were the earliest of the 3 regions, founded by English Settlers seeking religious freedom. The Middle Colonies were also founded by settlers seeking religious freedom. The Southern Colonies,...
The Spanish, and English each had own their motivations to settle the new colonies. Although diverse, consistencies can be seen with regard to specific nations and their individual motivations behind the colonization of America. With its diverse landscape and virtually untapped resources, America stood as both a beacon of prosperity and a landscape of challenges needing to be overcome.
The English began colonizing North America for economic, social, and religious reasons. In the 1600s, there were many tensions rising in England. There were disputes over land. At the time, there was simply not enough land to sustain the population. During this time, many people were also looking to move up in social status. They were no longer satisfied with where they were. There was also mounting religious conflict during this time. England implemented a nationwide religious policy. Many people disagreed with forcing a religion on people; therefore, they chose to leave England in search for religious freedom. For these reasons, people chose to migrate to North America.
Following Spain and Portugal's first efforts to claim the "New World" for their own, England, France and the Netherlands establish colonies throughout North America, predominantly seeking economic wealth and opportunities with occasional religious intentions. While the Spanish savagely plunder the riches of the natives to satisfy their own greed in this newly untapped world, the English, French and Dutch pursue a seemingly less violent approach through lucrative trade and establishing colonies, to meet their own intentions. In the northern regions of North America (what is today Canada) and the southeast (what is now Florida) occurred the beginning of French and Native American interactions for trade. On the Atlantic coast of what is today much of the Northeastern United States lies the English colonies that dominate their focus on producing tobacco and trading goods for luxurious furs. While there is the presence of a Puritan society that hoped for religious tolerance within the Massachusetts Bay colony, this was one of the few exceptions among the English settlements. In New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony in present day New York, lies a trading and farming community that is solely there to claim a stake in the "New World". Representing Spain, Columbus establishes a gold seeking society motivated in finding riches. As European countries settled vast expanses of territory through North America, each nation shows their desires for economic gains and a presence in the Americas.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus came across North America accidentally during his voyage to the East Indies. Columbus’s discovery marked the beginning of a new era; with it the Europeans became aware of the opportunities the New World offered. This encouraged others to set out and explore the North and South America in the 1500s. Although colonial America was governed under the British rule, it developed differently than Britain. Since Colonial America was diversified, it offered new opportunities, different religions, and different political views than Britain.
The American continent was a new place where any country could develop it in their own unique way. Two great empires in the 17th century, Spain and England, both jumped on this opportunity.Both countries colonized America in their own way, but at the same time shared similar methods. The Spanish settlements in the southwest and the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in New England, in the 17th century, were similar in the way that mercantilist practices with their mother country and religion were two main reasons for their colonization. However, over time, the two settlements differed in the way they handled their religion and their treatment towards Native Americans.
In the 17th and 18th century, during the colonization of North America by the English, an important factor that should be well known is that the geography and the environment of the land impacted their lives. Numerous components would play a role in almost each colony such as coldness or heat. While there were economic and political situations that were incredibly problematic, there were environmental and geographical complications causing lives to be lost. Thus, between the North and the South of North America, they each had their own dilemmas as well as differences between each other.
As colonial America started to settle in, towns and counties were developing and causing conflict. The early colonial American settlers that “the bulk of the emigrants came voluntarily, and more often than not they were the most “vivid people” of England, those with energy and courage to make a new start in life” (Hawke, 1). To Hawke’s point that the early colonist faced hardships, was when they encountered the Native Americans. This was one of the reasons why colonial Americans were encountering new ways of life, that what they were taught and knew about Europe had to be disregard...
The 1600s marked the extensive colonization of both the English and the Spanish in the Americas. Even though the countries shared the desire to branch out into the unknown territory of “the New World”, Spanish and English explorers achieved this in tremendously different ways. The encampment of the Spanish and the English settlers substantially differed because of how religious views were distributed within the new world, how the natives -who were already inhabiting the Americas- were treated, and how the colonies’ economic structures turned out to be constructed.
The immigrants felt that they did not have the quality of the life worth living, they decided that life is indeed worth living, therefore the Puritans determined to improve their lifestyle by moving to the New World. “Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten days, scarce ten amongst us could either go or well stand, such extreme weakness and sickness oppressed us” (Smith 72). They knew if they didn’t leave to the Americas then they'd die of sickness, not having enough of the essentials, nor their freedom. One good choice that the people made was to go to the Americas to seek help, get their freedom back, and to get away from the old dump they live to start a new beginning.
Today’s idea of individualism was derived from the progressive idea that separating from a one’s home country to a new country would make life better. Economic and religious reasons sparked the push for colonization in the New World. Decades after Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492, people finally began moving to the New World. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh founded the Roanoke colony, the first colony in the New World, which, as documented in history, “disappeared without a trace” (American Colonies).
Opportunity for England to discover, explore and settle new lands arose in the late fifteenth century. Competition to stake claims in the new world was out of control in many European countries. Beginning in the early sixteenth century England's primary political focus was aimed towards the hostile situation with Spain. Spain and Portugal had already sent voyages to the new world and other voyages to navigate the globe. Increasing friction regarding Spain peaked during the second half of the sixteenth century. Therefore, a group of Englishmen began to urge the enforcement of establishing colonies or at least operational bases in North America. The aggressive relations with Spain opened the pathway for colonization of America, but were not the only reasons for the establishment for colonies in the new world.