Pros And Cons For English Colonization

Between 1492-1776, although many people moved to the “New World”, North America lost population due to the amount of Indians dying from war and diseases and the inability of colonists to replace them. John Murrin states, “losers far outnumbered winners” in “ a tragedy of such huge proportions that no one’s imagination can easily encompass it all.” This thought of a decreasing population broadens one’s perspective of history from that of an excluded American tale full of positivity to that of a more unbiased, all-encompassing analysis. The Indians and slaves have recently been noted as a more crucial part of history than previously accredited with.

The time period between the 1600s and 1700s was a time of a major change in the land of the New World. The colonization of Europeans into the North America had considerable impacts on the Native American lives. European empire at the time, such as the French, England and Spanish empires, often fought against each other for power and control. After the European tried to colonized, the Native American suddenly found themselves dealing with European power politics. The arrival of Europeans into the New World meant new political relationships for both the European and the Native Americans. Each side had thing to gain and loss in this kind of relationship, especially military alliances and new trade goods. European power politics and rivalries were a major factor in the development of European and Native American relations because they created relationships of mutually beneficial relationships of trade and alliances.

Conquest is an extremely violent thought, to subjugate and assume control of a group of people and their land with military force. It’s hard to imagine a large following, much less countries, that support imposing brute force onto strangers. Given that conquest is violent, why did Europeans conquer the Americas as they did? The Europeans followed the belief of Christianity, which forbids such massacres and hate, how could they have conquered and killed? Many, like Jared Diamond, promote the idea that it was pure geographical luck which granted Europe easier diffusion of knowledge; metal weapons and political organization which were more advanced. However, this idea becomes problematic because it assumes that no matter the inhabitants of the more fortunate land, conquest would have happened because of predetermined facts like geography. With this argument, one could say Natives would have conquered Europeans or that they would have been able to defend from their conquest if they had the same or better geographical luck. I believe that geographic luck is not enough to enable the conquest of the Americas. I want to argue that the major reasons behind the European conquest of the Americas were largely in their motivation to gain riches to boost their economy and the justification of their conquest by disguising themselves as saviors to the Native Americans.

Prior to 1763, both Spanish and British colonization efforts expanded into various regions of North America. In less than a century, from 1625 to 1700, the movements of peoples and goods from Europe to North America transformed the continent. Native Americans either resisted or accommodated the newcomers depending on the region of the colony. Though the English colonies were by far the most populous, within the English colonies, four distinct regions emerged. While planters or merchants grew in power in each English colony, Spanish colonists, with far fewer colonists, depended more on friendly relations with Native Americans to secure their

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.

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

During the sixteenth century European pilgrims migrated across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in North America. North America had just been introduced to the Western Civilization. The America’s were home to the indigenous people, that were made up of several tribes that were called Indians by the early settlers. Together the Indians and settlers began to thrive. Growth and development in the new world was made possible by the abundant amount of natural resources.

The English had similar motivations to that of the Spanish, and were even inspired by the success of the Spanish conquistadors to come to the New World and settle on new land. However, the motivations differed greatly as well. The English hoped to provide jobs for people in the New World that could not find them in England, also in hopes of helping England’s economy.

The colonisation of North America by the Europeans became one of the most crucial points for the native North Americans. The differing experiences of contact between both cultures had overwhelmingly disastrous impacts on the normal way of life. From such contact arose the issue of land disputes, in turn resulting in massacres and frontier wars which could have otherwise been unnecessary. The factors stated above provide a suitable stimulus for a discussion in regards to the varying encounters of the Indigenous North Americans.

The English Reformation was a phenomenon that took place in the 16th century. Puritans living in England were facing “religious persecution” the state religion at the time was the Church of England. The Puritans believed that traveling to and inhabiting New England would not only grant them

It was the age of discovery that first provoked intrigue and curiosity of new lands, particularly the Americas, and how the Europeans could expand to fit their society within the borders of this unknown and unexplored land. By the 1580s, more had been learned about the Americas, but any colonization until this point had not even been attempted. And so it was the English, under Queen Elizabeth I's rule, that were issued to establish a colony along the east coast of North America. However, when this great accomplishment was finally made in 1587, it was not long founded until its ultimate fate ended in the disappearance of the colony three years later, instantly creating one of the greatest

In Europe, population grew quickly and land value, prosperity, and trade increased with it. Also the rise of nationalism made the nation more powerful, unified, and imposed new taxes. Beginning with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492, colonists settled in America for different reasons. Some came for profits; others came for religious freedom (and for escaping religious persecution). It was England, France, Spain and the Netherlands who, in the sixteenth century, launched major colonization programs in eastern North America. Each colony more or less differed or resembled in their first interaction with the Natives (such as the more peaceful contact of the French, the more hostile one of the Spaniards, and the peaceful-turned-hostile

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.

The European conquest for establishing North American colonies began with various motivations, each dependent on different, and/or merging necessities: economics, the desire to flee negative societal aspects, and the search for religious freedoms. Originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 in search for a trade route to Cathay (China), North America remained uninhabited, excluding the Native American establishments. Following this discovery, Spain –along with other European nations such as France, England, Sweden and the Netherlands– soon began the expedition to the new land with vast expectations. Driven by economic, societal, and religious purposes, the New World developed into a diversely structured colonial establishment