Influence Of The British Colonial Empire During The Mid 1650s, Tensions Between Spain And Britain

Before 1600, many countries were looking to colonize the New World and one of those countries was obviously Great Britain. In an informative research paper called “The First Colonies North of Mexico”, it states, “Richard Hakluyt, a Protestant minister and geographer, wrote books urging colonization to accomplish five goals: (1) extend Protestantism, (2) expand trade, (3) increase England’s markets, (4) reduce unemployment, and (5) provide bases in order to attack Spanish ships in case of war.”(paragraph four) England’s first attempts of establishing colonies failed for multiple reasons, but

Throughout the 17th century, many European countries sent explorers and settlers to America. The two most eminent countries that colonized area of America were Spain and Great Britain. Britain began to establish colonies in the northeast; in the area they called New England. The Spanish interest lied in the southwest. Living in two unassociated areas caused the Spanish settlements and the New England colonies to be quite unlike each other. When faced with the task of finding similarities between the two, not much can be found. It is the differences that stand out when studying the English and Spanish, from religion to politics to ideals.

1. The main contours of English Colonization in the 17th century were Protestant motives to strike Catholicism, along with solving England’s social crisis. With the rumors of the Spanish Empire’s atrocities reaching England, one motive to colonize the America’s was to strike the Catholics, and save the natives from captivity (Foner 51). This shows an interesting aspect of the English Colonization: the English allowed their people to go colonize just to strike the opposing religious country. Along with this, England sending emigrants over solved their social crisis. Because of England’s growing population and economy, the amount of peasants in cities grew. This is because of landlords using land for sheep, which kicked out peasants from their land (Foner 51-52). England hoped that some people of the lower classes would then go to America: to be out of the big cities where important people were, while still helping England in it’s economy.

Motivation for coming to the New World greatly influenced Spanish and British colonization. The Spanish are said to have had three distinct reasons; God, glory and gold. God meaning the conversion of natives, glory meaning the claiming of new land for the Spanish empire and gold meaning the desire to find gold to bring wealth back to Spain. The British colony of Jamestown shared the desire to find gold. Unlike the Spaniards, the British didn’t plan on permanently settling in America. However, these plans changed and Jamestown became a settlement.

With the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588, Spain began a steady decline to a second rate power. Consequently shifting their original goal of exploring to maintaining or colonizing what lands they still possess.

In the 17th century England and Spain were both in a race to settle the New World. After Christopher Columbus had reached this New World Spain almost immediately sent people over to explore and colonize. After the Treaty of Tordesillas secured their land, Spain’s empire quickly expanded across The Americas. England had a bit of a late start when it came to colonization. Even though their first few attempts such as Jamestown, and Roanoke were not very successful England kept at it. Eventually, England and Spain became the two most powerful nations in the Americas. Even though both nations had the same goal, their political, religious, and economic development were very different.

During the 15th through 17th centuries, advancements in technology and the desire for new resources spurred the exploration of the New World for both Spain and England. Spain's interest in exploration soon surpassed the rest of the countries in the Old World and the nation began to claim the majority of territory in Central and South America. Spain sent conquistadores to assert their dominance in the New World through violent conquest which resulted in difficult relations with native populations. Although the English did not settle in North America until the early 17th century, well past the period of the Spanish conquest, their methods of colonization were more successful in the long term. The English were able to find economic success

Slavery, like Portugal, was crucial for Spain. Unlike Portugal Spain used Native Americans as their slaves. (Mainly because of geography) Spain also believed in Encomienda. Which is basically there way of “giving back” to Native Americans, they would teach Native Americans their religious views and in return Native Americans would be forced to work to death. So it would appear that converting people (slaves) to Catholicism was an important reason why they went to the “new world”. Needless to say relations between Spain and the Native Americans spoiled just like the relationship between Portugal and Africans did. A lot of Native Americans believed that Spain gave them nothing. Most if not all of Spain’s economy was based on mining silver and gold and sugar plantations. At the time of this colonization and for the next 200 years Spain is extremely rich.

If Spain had regained control, it would have caused Britain’s trade with these new nations to decrease. Britain also wanted to prevent Europeans from colonizing in the Americas. The British Foreign Minister suggested they should work together, but John Quincy Adams had already convinced Monroe to develop his own policy.

Britain and Spain shared similar motivations for colonization, but their colonies were vastly different in many aspects due to differences in their own government and policies. Both countries created colonies to increase their wealth and expand their economies, but religious freedom played a factor in British colonization. The fundamental differences between the two countries led to a difference in the way the colonies of each country interacted with its government. The relationship of British and Spanish colonists with Native Americans also reflected the differences in the motives and the government of Britain and Spain.

During the English migration over to the Americas in the 1600s, there were two very different communities that had settled in the north and the south. In the north, New England was settled, and in the south, the Chesapeake settlements were formed. The settlements were both dealing with some of the same issues, but they were handling them in different ways. These differences were because the people had different purposes for coming to the New World which caused different reactions to similar problems. Differences including wages and price regulation, standard of living, and the way of cooperating with the Native Americans.

Throughout the 1600's, Europe was plagued and corrupted through bloodshed during outbreaks of war amidst the country. Not only did countries seek war, but they wanted to expand their territory for their people. To be the most prominent empire in the history of the world along with housing the best military forces was the common goal of all European countries during this time . The English wanted to overpower both the Spanish and French who were both the fiercest rivals. The Spanish were the first to establish a complete territory in the new world with the settlement of Florida, this pressured England into expanding in North America as well. These countries were both superpowers, with incredibly strong militaries, the intense battle for new

As time has gone on, our view of Columbus’s voyage has changed. We all know that Columbus discovered the Americas and bridged the gap, allowing the empires of Europe to expand their power and create colonies in the new world. But over time our focus has shifted not to Columbus discovering the Americas, but to the Native Americans that inhabited the Americas. We can see this change in focus in the tercentenary, quadricentenary, and the quincentenary celebrations of Columbus’s voyage. In the tercentenary of 1792, there was an emphasis on the bravery of Columbus and discovery of the Americas.

The Main Strengths and Weaknesses of the Protectorate, 1653-1658 Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector in December 1653, and throughout his time as Protector, Cromwell aimed to 'heal and settle' the wounds of the past and to create a 'godly England'. However, by the end of his life the Protectorate had the support of a narrow population. Nevertheless, the Protectorate had various strengths and weaknesses. An evident strength of the Protectorate was the aim to achieve a civilian based government as shown in Source 3, where Cromwell did attempt to "make parliament representative" as well as to give Parliament "a genuine role in the constitution".

Spain was bathing in profits from what the New World had to offer. So in 1606the Virginia Company of London was organized and sponsored the Virginia Colony. Organizers of the company wanted to expand English trade and obtain a wider market for English manufactured goods. They naturally hoped for financial profit from their investment in shares of company stock. Queen Elizabeth played an enormous role in motivating the English peoples. She herself was secretly a financial backer to Sir Francis Drake. The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a significant event. Not only did England gain control of the Atlantic sea lanes but it also sparked a sense of patriotism. Spanish expansions in the New World were actions that needed to be limited. In a way, many also attempted to colonize out of spite; to establish England's greatness.