The Harsh Environment Of North America Essay

After receiving his PhD from Harvard in 1953, American historian, author, and academic specialist, Bernard Bailyn, continues to transform ideas of early American history with his award winning books. As we know, the foundation of today’s American Society leads back to the transfer of people from the Britain to the New World, in the early 1600s. In his book, Bernard Bailyn, author of The Peopling of British North America, An Introduction, gathers demographic, social, and economic history research to form four propositions relating to the migration. While identifying central themes of our history, he attempts to present an overview for American knowledge relating to the causes of migration to the new world and consequences of society created

Around the 1600’s, New England started to develop a drastic population growth. This growth caused several problems for the occupants including, high prices on food, land, and a shortage of work for many because of the aggressive competition. Immigrants from New England began to prepare for a voyage that would be beneficial for some travelling to Massachusetts and not so much those who were travelling to Virginia. Although the settlers from the Chesapeake Bay and New England came from the same country, these colonies established different societies because of varying elements such as religious freedoms, economy, government’s role in society and unity.

      English colonizers brought old world traditions into the new world and strengthened their respective communities in order to protect their cultural identity in the colonies. For the English, immigration into the colonies meant facing one’s inessentiality; the colonies had high rates of mortality and weakly structured economies.11  Faced with their dispensability, settlers discovered new means to retain their cultural identities. For example, Quakers “rejected institutions of high culture and made virtues of simplicity and hard work in a hostile environment.” 12 They transplanted their theological cultural inheritances into colonial society and were able to perpetuate that facet of their identity in the colonies. The solidification of their communities was vital to the survival of their identities. For Scots, maintaining close relationships with prominent Scots in other colonies emphasized a Scottish identity, even across colonial borders.13 Maintaining relationships equated sustenance of old world culture through social interactions. Additionally, English colonizers solidified their community by placing a strong importance on trust. “Among persons for whom doubt replaced basic trust in the way of one’s social group, such doubt may undermine the

During the 17th and 18th century, English residents felt that England was over-crowded and intolerable. They wanted to lessen these problems that rose up because of the large population increase and to establish more religious freedom (Horn). The English believed that the best way to go about this was to colonize the New World. Subsequently, many colonies began to develop, and of these colonies, Massachusetts Bay and Virginia were the most well-known. The early settlements of Massachusetts and Virginia were both established by similar groups of people at the same time; furthermore, their contrasting beginnings as a colony, views on religion, and method of economic stability all contributed to our American heritage today.

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.

2. The social pressures that contributed to English colonization of North America are the fact that the population in England doubled. There were to many mouths to feed and very little food, clothing and other goods that led to inflation. Since there were so many people looking for job the wages fell drastically which led the laborers in poverty. Landowners raised their rents, apprehended the lands where the peasants occupied commonly which resulted on them being homeless and landless. So they had no choice but to live in the streets. The officials finally realize that them leaving to North America would alleviate the surplus of population in England. So that is why they migrated to North America to improve their circumstances. (Norton, 2015)

The influx of immigrants to the colonies was an overwhelming part of economic success. People were pouring in from ships with different causes and incentives. One example is of the Puritans. They were against the Church of England and they fled to America in 1620. Not only were they ready to go, the local government was more than happy to see them leave. Another instance where this occurred was with the overpopulation of Europe. Document 6 mentions that the middle and low classes were a crowded society, and America was looked upon as a place with space for everybody. Here also, people were eager to go for more space, as well as the Europeans who were happy to send off people from crowded regions. There were also many debtors in Britain. Instead of rotting away in prison, James Oglethorpe decides that they deserve a second chance. King George II accepts his request and the debtors settle in Georgia, happy to lead a new life. Indentured servants were also a form of

Due to the large importation of American crops, England’s population doubled in size. With all the new people migrating to England, people started to compete for food, clothing and housing. This led to inflation of England. The increase number of people looking for works caused a decreased in wages. When landowners raised rents and seizing land, people were forced to leave their homes. Residents were forced to share smallholdings with

In the 1700’s England was suffering financially which then was effecting people socially. During this time people were also getting persecuted for what they believed in. These are some of the reasons of why people in England wanted to immigrate to the New World in the 1700’s. After people immigrated two main areas came about the Chesapeake area followed by New England. Although these areas were close they were very distinct societies. The reasons for these different societies were the religions practiced in them, the reasons for immigrating there, and the groups of people who immigrated there.

New England was settled to escape religious persecution; this ideology shifted the developmental path of the colony. The colonists

In the seventeenth century, the populace that left England for America were influenced by the prospects that could either help them personally, or the mother country. The English settled in regions in America based on the religious acceptance of that area and ones that offered a preferable lifestyle.

After Jamestown was settled people in europe began to see that there was opportunity in the new world. While people saw opportunity there was something in the way of their success, the native americans. The settlers and the native americans held a dicate relationship with one another and in the colonies beginnings the indians were not a major problem, but as the the seventeenth came more and more Europeans were in the new world. This caused a change in the relationship with the indians and the English settlers. When the English first begin to explore and colonize the new world they do not fight the indians the make peace with them.

The British colonist of North America had many reasons of why did they dissolve all ties with England in order to form a new country. In this essay, I will talk about the top 5 reasons of this issue, these reasons are the Stamp Act in 1765, Boston Massacre in 1770, Tea Act in 1973, The Intolerable Acts in 1774, and Lexington and Concord in 1775. All these reasons led the British colonists break away from England.

The lack of opportunities for social mobility in England - high mortality rate, reduced wages, and high unemployment in result of the enclosure act – was an important social problem that led to increasing migrations and populations in the Americas, especially Chesapeake. In Virginia, both the white and black populations increased the most out of all the other English colonies (document 1). Similarly, there were an increase in white and black populations in Maryland and Middlsex County, Virginia (document 2 and 3). Throughout the 1600s, British migrations to the Americas gradually increased, which indicates that many of those migrants hope to flee the social problems in England to order to search for better futures in the

The English could not come over here and live together with the Indians. The Indians were a group that was unholy and beneath them. They had to progress their culture and their beliefs and mark out that of their opponents. Americans sought to cleanse the land of these savage beasts and further their own society.