Economic Causes Of British Settlement In North America Essay

Religious freedom was one of the main causes for English peoples to move to the New World. They escaped from the de-catholicization of the Church of England in order to believe in what they wanted to belive in. The government once again did not pay any heed to set an official religious set of rules in the colonies, therefore allowing the people to

The earliest successful English colonies of the New England and Chesapeake regions became two distinct societies for Protestant extremist families sought unity among one another through religion, as men of the Chesapeake Bay were concerned with cash crop production to better the domestic English economy, which shaped and the social and societal structure and culture that led to colonial sectionalism. During Queen Elizabeth’s time, England thieved from Spain to obtain wealth, for England was not as rich. England also had an overpopulation issue, which prompted geographer Richard Hakluyt’s suggestion of having people emigrate to a English colony in the Americas. However, failure of Raleigh’s Roanoke colony discouraged Hakluyt’s idea. When King

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.

As religion proved indispensable throughout history, it was especially decisive in the initial development of the British colonies. Religious groups, such as the Pilgrims and Quakers, fled England due to the lack of religious toleration. Although spiritual freedom was the objective, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania were the only

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

In the Chesapeake region of Virginia, people mostly came over in search of a profit. There were times in Jamestown when they were so busy looking for gold to profit off of, that they almost starved. However, in the New England region, people mostly came over for religious freedom. An example of this would be the Puritans coming over during the period of Catholic rule in England. Another example was that the Puritans in Massachusetts wanted to create a model society to work together and do God’s work (Doc 1).

After the failure of Roanoke in 1587, the English decided once again to try to establish a permanent colony in North America. Major changes in the social and economic life in England caused more people to want to come to America. After new, more nutritious crops, were brought back from the Americas, the population of England doubled. This increased the demand for more food, clothing, and other goods. The gap between the rich and the poor also increased, leaving those with little land in poverty. Religious freedom was also becoming an issue for people in England, as the Reformation began in 1533. Those who wanted to break away from the Catholic Church could not when divine right monarchs believed they had the power to enforce a particular religion on their people. It was these factors that caused the first settlers of Chesapeake and Plymouth to leave in search for a better life and to find new opportunities. The early English settlements of Chesapeake and Plymouth differed as well as resembled each other in trade and work, government, and communal and family structure, which affected the quality of life in these colonies.

The New England and the Southern colonies came to the New World for different purposes. But one thing that they have in common was their freedom for practicing their religion,

Behind its neighbors, England finally decided to invest in settling in the New World during the 17th century. Many of the expeditions to North America were made by private organizations; stock companies and the rich alike shared a common ideal of having a fresh start from outside their homeland. Two colonies with one common nationality, however, became two diverse establishments in North America. The colonies in New England and the Chesapeake region developed into two substantially contrasting ways of life. The main colony in the New England region was Massachusetts, which included the Puritans, a group of religious settlers who wanted to purify the Protestant Church of England.

Settlers came to the American Colonies for various reason, these included: religious, economic, and political reasons. The political and religious reasons are tied together. Settlers that came for religious reasons wanted religious freedom, something the Church of England didn’t allow. Separatist and pilgrims disagreed with the Anglican Church and fell into political disfavor. So, settlers formed colonies to escape the religious intolerance of the Church of England, but every colony had their own separate religious views. Furthermore, many settlers came to the American Colonies to make a profit, for example, Carolina was found by mostly poor tobacco farmers, they arrived because they wanted to make a profit by trading and farming.

The Massachusetts bay Colony was found y the puritans and religious minority group who migrated to the New World seeking to create a model religious community The Puritans believed that the anglican church needed to be purified of the influences of catholicism.

As previously stated, different motives for colonization were partially responsible for transforming the New England and Chesapeake regions into two unique societies. The New England colonies were formed for religious reasons whereas the colonies of the Chesapeake region were formed for economic purposes. To emphasize, the people that settled in the New England colonies had been previously punished by their king, Henry VIII, for being non-anglican and in turn they left the church of England for the Netherlands (they became known as separatists due to how they separated themselves from the Church). The Netherlands didn’t happen to work out for the separatists, so they went to the New World and settled in the New England region. Based on this, it could also be said that the separatists were seeking permanent settlement (as they wanted to escape religious persecution) whereas those in the Chesapeake region

England started its colonies in America to increase national power and used those colonies as a dumping ground for mal-contents [people dissatisfied with the English government].Therefore the English men came here for more than religious freedom, they came here to find more things such as to be known by Spain and France.

British settlement of North America was driven by religious and economic reasons, but in the end, economic reasons had more to do with Britain's intent to explore America and settle colonies.

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)