The Birth Of An American Nation

Jamestown: The first English colony In spite of the many Indian massacres, Jamestown still grew to be a successful colony. The London Company was the main founder of Jamestown. The London Company's founders believed that there were precious metals in America so they sent a group of settlers to Jamestown. The trip to the Americas was not a very easy one for these settlers. They had to overcome many obstacles just to get to the Americas.

The year 1607 brought England into the "New World" with its first permanent settlement at Jamestown, and the following years would bring more American colonies to the British Empire. When sending people into the new land, the English planned to use a mercantilist policy and fully use the colonies for their resources. The colonist's creation of the proverb "Mother countries exist for the benefit of their colonies" is sufficient because England's original intentions of mercantilism soon disappeared after their entrance into this new world. The reason for the decline in their motives can be traced to many occurrences, most notably benign neglect of the colonies and internal English conflicts. In many cases, the mother country was doing more for the colonies than the colonies were for their homeland.

Colonist’s relationship with England From the beginning the 17th century, when England first established its permanent colonies in North America, substantial differences occurred other colonies whose economy were mainly dedicated to the production of crops as well as more varied frugality of the northern colonial rules. Initially, colonists in Virginia and the Chesapeake of Maryland depended on the white indentured help as their chief labor force as well as some of the Africans who came in the area was able to get a property. Though, between 1635 and 1670, a significant difference arose between short-term vassalage for whites and the permanent slavery for blacks. In fact In Virginia, Bacon 's Revolt hastened the change toward slavery. Towards

In 1606, King James I created the Virginia Company to attempt to free England from dependence. Both the London and Plymouth group parallels were colonized and developed as English colonies. Despite the fact that the English settlers of the New England and Chesapeake regions had similar colonial development, by the eighteenth century they had become into two, individual societies. The gentries who settled the London group parallels and the Puritans who settled the Plymouth group parallels began to grow differently from the start, as their economical, leadership and social viewpoints arose. The severely different environments in the New England and Chesapeake area allowed for different economies to progress.

Document Based Question on the Colonies The 1600's were a time of global expansion, and the search for a new world where people could start their lives anew and have a say in the way their society was run. After Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas, countries began to send colonies to settle and establish a presence in the vast and unconquered land. The English sent some of the largest amounts of immigrants to the new world. One English group that came over to the new world was that of the Separatist Puritans. The puritans were in search of a new land were they would not be influenced by the outside world and could create a community centered entirely around their religion.

Colonial America began in the early 1600’s when the European nations directed their focus toward the “New World,” a place of opportunity. According to Eric Foner’s Give Me Liberty, England’s motives for colonization were built upon national glory, profit, and religious mission (41). The purpose of the colonies in the New World was to import manufactured goods, produce marketable resources, and serve the interest of the mother country, England (Foner 74). Because economic circumstances in England were not great, England had a large proportion of men, women, and children willing to migrate to the New World and settle into the colonies. Nevertheless, after the British colonies were established, they were separated into three regions: the New England, Middle, and Chesapeake colonies.

These English colonists, known as the Puritans, came to America in the early 1600’s. Soon, people from various different countries were migrating to America. What would inspire families to pack up everything they had and emigrate? Why would they leave the only land they knew of as home and make a lengthy, and sometimes fatal, journey to an unfamiliar territory? What did the new land have to offer that was so much better than their original homeland?

There were a myriad of differences between Great Britain and her American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but these differences can be divided into three basic categories: economic, social, and political. The original American settlers came to the colonies for varied reasons, but a common trait among these settlers was that they still considered themselves British subjects. However, as time passed, the colonists grew disenfranchised from England. Separated from the king by three thousand miles and living in a primitive environment where obtaining simple necessities was a struggle, pragmatism became the common thread throughout all daily life in the colonies. It was this pragmatism that led the colonists to create their own society with a unique culture and system of economics and politics.

These Africans in power were not necessarily a major part of their societies pre-colonization. The British often gave power to people who often never held power previously and thereby created ethnic divisions within society. Instead of the end-goal being to “fix” the indigenous population to make them more European, in indirect rule, the colonial power used the natives as means to an end. Meaning that they would treat the Africans as tools and use them to further their business endeavors. The purpose of indirect rule was said to preserve the indigenous culture, however, it was less expensive than direct rule, and it allowed the British to maximize their colonial profits.

Throughout the colonial period, what were the factors that hindered or promoted a sense of national identity? At what point did nationalism become a major influence and why? The making of America; many factors that promoted the national identity began with the very first colonist that came to North America. In our primary text, it describes around the late 17th century the British Government established a board to govern the trade of the kingdom. Its purpose was to manage the colonies and plantations around America and other locations (Reich, 2011, p. 104).