The land in the new world was found to be very good for farming. All of this new farmland was found to be viable and a great source for crops that were not able to be grown in England, such as tobacco and sugar cane. North American farmers were supposed to plant one acre of corn for every acre of tobacco they planted, but since it was such a cash crop and England was so far away, there was no way to enforce the rule. So much tobacco was made in fact, that the value of it dropped to the point where it was no longer profitable to grow. Farmers at this time did not fully understand supply and demand at this point so they just kept growing it. In the West Indies they would grow sugar cane. This was a valuable crop that sold for high prices in England.…
In the early 1600s, English settlers were sent to North America not long after the surprising naval victory, by the English, over the Spanish Armada. After this triumph, the English were able to gain control of the North Atlantic sea lanes, which in turn strengthened their national pride and paved the way for colonization. In 1606 a joint stock company, known as the Virginia Company, which was a company of investors, was given a charter, permission from the king or queen, for settlement in America. Colonists were thrilled about this expedition, mainly for the promise of gold that would be awaiting their arrival. They were, however,…
The economies of the colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia were centered around different resources, but each colony flourished in its own way. Virginia centered around the fact that land was plentiful, but labor was scarce. Many landowners had large portions of land but not enough workers to cultivate it. In Massachusetts, the land was not fertile so their economy centered around the fishing and ship making industries. Therefore, Massachusetts’s most profitable resources were timber and fishing. Land was less fertile in Massachusetts due to the harsh climate and short growing season. One thing that helped Massachusetts economy was that they could also take out the “middle man” when trading by using their own ships and merchants. Due to the fertile land in Virginia, their most profitable resource was tobacco. Virginia’s land was fertile due to the warm climate and immense rainfall. Virginia had plenty of staples to exchange for English goods. The Massachusetts colony had a lack of staples for exchange,…
The settler societies of New England, the middle colonies, the Chesapeake, and the South had similarities as well as many differences, some being religious beliefs, labor, and their societies economic standpoint. In the article, “Advice to a Young Tradesman” by Benjamin Franklin, it’s stated, “…the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both.” Even though these societies faced different economic and social structures, the overall common goal of each society was to be successful and make profits.…
The 1600’s was a period of time where the American colonies began to form solid sovereign states. In an effort to find profitable resources that can be used to send back to Europe, one Virginia colonist John Rolfe started experimenting with tobacco in 1612 seeing how well it fared in the Southern soil which inevitably yielded favorable results. Upon this discovery, the tobacco industry led its engines at full steam ahead. In 1615, an estimated 2,000 pounds was exported which grew over the next 14 years to 1.5 million pounds (Lawson, 44). This rapid increase was a result of poor immigrants coming from Europe under the conditions of indentured servitude which allowed them to work off their passage to the New World. As the market increased the demand for more crops by raising the prices on tobacco, plantation owners were always looking for ways to expand their farm land and increase the amount of labor in order to keep up the demand to ensure a more profitable situation.…
A world full of opportunity and riches where anyone can have a good life. This is how the New World was viewed in England before it started to be colonized. It was with this mindset that many people quickly took off to this new land. Some looking for the gold of the new world but only finding hard work in its place(Doc 6) and others looking for what god has in store for them. Sailing across the large ocean over months everyone came from the same place, but ended up all over the continent. Leading to the formation of the New England and Chesapeake regions of the American colonies. However these colonies, though both founded by Englishmen turned out quite differently. The economic base, importance of slaves, and the reasoning behind the…
In the early history of the 1600's, North America had been discovered and establishment of the New World had begun. Although Spain and England both focused on the colonization and exploration of the Americas, their ambitions and goals were very different. The most important reasons for English colonization were religious freedom, to seek refuge, and new economic opportunities. The Spanish, on the other hand, exploited the New World in search of gold and silver, greed navigated their search. Although both the English and the Spanish experienced mild success, the English tactics for daily survival were much more organized and peaceful.…
I believe many of the motivators for the Europeans to move to and colonize North and South America was due to material gain and religious freedom. First I would like to talk about several of the material gains that were either made or expectect to be made in the move to explore North and South America's. When the plans were being set out for the new colonies and the different propels that were laid out some of the ideas that were look at heavily were the material gains. One gain was the level of workload in some areas. It was believed that by moving to the United States that farming living conditins and making a living for themselves would be made much easier. An example of this was the Holland plantation. The settlers of that area could see their lives and the life of their colony decreasing sevearly due to the heavy amount of work required and only made harder by area that they lived in. They finially made the decision to leave Holland for the United States after seeing that a lot of their children were becoming decrepid at a young age because they had to take on their own work load but also that of their parents which was too much of a burden for most of them to handle. The also had a problem with their youth for several different reasons would decide to leave their colony and pursue…
Throughout history there have been two leading factors that lead a colony to success. These two factors are religion and economics or money. Which factor is more important? In my opinion, economics is more important because the colonists had many issues getting necessities, and if they had enough money for all that, their problems would all basically be gone. Economic stability and the success of the mercantile system made the establishment of the colonies in North America possible.…
Due to the location of the Englishmen’s settlement, the geography affected their way of life. The people that had settled in the southern colonies were not there permanently, they planed to go back home after they found what they were looking for, which was gold. Once they found the gold they were originally going to go back to Europe, but they set themselves up for a major upset. After the Englishmen arrived to America, they found no gold so they could not go back to England empty handed, after all they came to America for a specific reason. Once they realized that there was no gold, they needed a way to support themselves and survive by making a living.…
Although the first Puritan English settlers in North America might have been shocked by the Native American semi nudity and seemingly primitive customs they soon found themselves adopting some of their ways of farming and eating the colonist were at first unfamiliar with the Native Americans methods of farming and with the main crop they produced corn the Native Americans were skillful cultivators of the land planting corn in rose and growing together with beans and squash the settler soon learned to cultivate these crops which they have never come across before and adapt them to their diet Europeans as it was to the native people and undoubtedly helped send off starvation for the poor farmers during the harsh winters the turkey was a wild…
The catastrophic torture between Catholic and Puritan powers made religious concerns the primary cause of settling the British colonies. Also, the beginning of the English Civil Wars in 1642-1651, and the Great migration helped the intensity of the British economic problems progressively slowed to a stop. As a result, the settling of the British colonies for economic concerns was continually dying down. Therefore, the statement, “Throughout the Colonial Period, economic concerns had more to do with the settling of British North America than did religious concerns” is considerably invalid.…
The English had never been or explored any other places except where they’d always lived. So when this new idea of immigration came into the scene the English were and little confused but also interested on what else was out there for them to see. New ideas and ways of living were founded in this time of immigration.…
Establishing a successful colony requires many different factors, two of which are religious freedom and economic gain. These are very important factors in that they both provide platforms for success, and are able to attract people and business to a new colony. For a group of people to leave their home country, and establish a new life elsewhere, both of these factors are necessary. There are similarities and differences in how religious freedom and economic gain influence success, and lead to prosperity.…
For many early European immigrants, life in the American colonies was sold as a fresh start. Pamphlets were distributed to all classes of life selling the bountiful riches of the colonies in an effort to sustain functioning population levels. Wealthy merchants established businesses profiting from the region's rich natural resources, politicians used their favor with royalty to acquire huge swaths of 'untamed' land, and mercenaries gained massive fortunes establishing white, European superiority in North America. For many the passage to the 'new world' was far too expensive. Many early immigrants were impoverished, low-skilled individuals with very few prospects for success in their homelands. They had few resources to draw upon to…