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Conflict between great britain and america colonies
Conflict between great britain and america colonies
Cultural differences between the colonists and native Americans
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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.
Because of the way that the New England and Chesapeake regions set up their colonies, they became entirely different societies. One was community based, while the other sought gold and wealth; in one region a poor person had the same opportunities are a wealthy person, while in another place they could not; and one came seeking religious freedom while the other came for gold.
In a similar economic revolution, the colonies outgrew their mercantile relationship with the mother country and developed an expanding capitalist system of their own. In England, the common view was that the colonies only purpose was to compliment and support the homeland. This resulted in a series of laws and protocols called th...
...arate societies by the time of the 1700's. Agriculture, motive, people, religion, and terrain are all factors that affected how they grew apart. However, it is also through the actions of the men and woman who settled in the regions and the choices they made that led to the development of two societies. The Chesapeake region became a society of money-driven, wealthy plantation owners, virtually no middle class workers, and those in extreme poverty. The New England colonies, in contrast, developed into a society of middle class family men who placed extreme emphasis on religion. The two societies in what would become one nation may have had effects on America in the future. The dispute over slavery, the imbalance of workers, and the class differences cause rifts between the two regions over time. Two radically different cultures cannot coincide in harmony forever.
The Chesapeake Bay Colonies and the New England Colonies were both colonized by the British, but both regions were vastly different from one another. The English-Native American relations remained tense since the moment the English arrived, and the results of the war was the same: English won, Indians lost. The Chesapeake and New England were both influenced by the geographical differences and lead to a difference in economic values as well as governments. The Chesapeake and New England were both established for different reasons: to expand an empire and to get away from religious prosecution. The oversea British Empire was the most dominant in the world, and even though the colonies were all “British”, they are all vastly different from one another.
Colonial living in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the New World was both diverse and, in many cases, proved deadly through such avenues as disease, Native American attacks, a lack of proper medical treatment, and disastrous weather conditions. Even through all of these hardships, the first colonists persevered, doing their best to see the blessings in their lives and create a better life for their children through all of the uncertainties. Nothing, it seems, in the original colonies was set in stone except for the fact that they never knew what the next day would hold in store. Everything, even small mishaps, had dramatic impacts on the social, economic, and political aspects of their lives. These circumstances, however, were more strongly influenced by geography than class position, unlike what many were used to in England. How population, economics, disease, and climate played into the social conditions of early colonists is truly a story for the ages. Whether people were seeking land, religious freedom, or money and profits, everyone worked to a certain extent just to survive, let alone thrive, in the wilderness that was North America at that time.
While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and Chesapeake regions caused great divergence in the development of each.
In the years leading up to the American Revolution, important economic changes took place within the colonies as their economies transitioned from the previous subsistence farming and subsistence living type of economies into true consumer economies. (Devore, Lecture #3.) This shift toward a true consumerism society in the colonies, also known as Anglicizing the colonies, began to make the colonies more uniform and began to bring the colonies together into more of a cohesive unit. (Devore, ...
When settlers from England came to America, they envisioned a Utopia, where they would have a say in what the government can and cannot do. Before they could live in such a society they would have to take many small steps to break the hold England had on them. The settlers of America had to end a monarchy and start their own, unique, form of government. They also had to find a way that they would have some kind of decision making power. The most important change that the colonies in America had to make was to become a society quite different from that in England.
Before the 1700s, English colonies in America struggled heavily with gender inequality, religious tolerance, and general liberties. Throughout the readings of Chapter 2, there are several direct and indirect indications of how the colonies handled the matters of religion, gender, and liberty within the English colonies.
What major problems did the young republic face after its victory over Great Britain? How did these problems motivate members of the elite to call for a federal constitution?
The colonies’ ability to embrace different religious denominations marked a significant separation from the English church, and thus from the English way of thinking. Throughout the 1700's, the ethnic homogeneity within the colonies was shattered;
(1) Define Sir Walter Raleigh and the Lost Colony of Roanoke and the purpose of English colonization.
Although England and the American colonies intended their relationship to be mutually beneficial, they increasingly worked at cross purposes over time. Founded by a number of independent groups, the colonists and England regarded the colonies as separate. But by the middle of the seventeenth century, Parliament attempted to impose order with various laws. A more unified American character and identity began to emerge in the colonies. The Enlightenment's political thought influenced Americans and its followers' scientific...
One facet of this unique system involved the numerous economic differences between England and the colonies. The English government subscribed to the economic theory of mercantilism, which demanded that the individual subordinate his economic activity to the interests of the state (Text, 49). In order to promote mercantilism in all her colonies, Great Britain passed the Navigation Acts in 1651, which controlled the output of British holdings by subsidizing. Under the Navigation Acts, each holding was assigned a product, and the Crown dictated the quantity to be produced. The West Indies, for example, were assigned sugar production and any other colony exporting sugar would face stiff penalties (Text, 50). This was done in order to ensure the economic prosperity of King Charles II, but it also served to restrict economic freedom. The geographical layout of the American colonies made mercantilism impractical there. The cit...
From 1754 to 1763, the French and Indian War took place. This war altered the political, economic, and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies. It was the last of four North American wars waged from 1689 to 1763 between the British and the French. In these struggles, each country fought for control of the continent with the assistance of Native American and colonial allies. The French and Indian War occurred to end the land dispute between the British and French. Whoever won, in reality, gained an empire. It was a determined and eventually successful attempt by the British to get a dominant position in North America, the West Indies, and the subcontinent of India. Although Britain had won all this land, political, economic, and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies were totally annihilated.