11/28/2023 0 Comments Colonial regulars freecolThe government protected its London-based merchants and kept out others by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries to maximize exports from the realm and minimize imports. This was done to the exclusion of other empires and even other merchants in its own colonies. Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies from the 1660s, which meant that the government became a partner with merchants based in England to increase political power and private wealth. From 1696 until the end of the American Revolution, colonial affairs were the responsibility of the Board of Trade in partnership with the relevant secretaries of state, which changed from the Secretary of State for the Southern Department to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1768. The Commission of Trade was set up in 1625 as the first special body convened to advise on colonial (plantation) questions. Initially, matters concerning the colonies were dealt with primarily by the Privy Council of England and its committees. However, English entrepreneurs gave their colonies a foundation of merchant-based investment that seemed to need much less government support. They had the ability to build ocean-worthy ships but did not have as strong a history of colonization in foreign lands as did Portugal and Spain. These efforts were managed respectively by the Casa de Contratación and the Casa da Índia.Įngland, France, and the Netherlands had also started colonies in the West Indies and North America. The Spanish and Portuguese centuries-old experience of conquest and colonization during the Reconquista, coupled with new oceanic ship navigation skills, provided the tools, ability, and desire to colonize the New World. The goals of colonization Ĭolonists came from European kingdoms that had highly developed military, naval, governmental, and entrepreneurial capabilities. A significant percentage of the Native Americans living in the eastern region had been ravaged by disease before 1620, possibly introduced to them decades before by explorers and sailors (although no conclusive cause has been established). Some historians add a fifth region of the "Frontier", which was never separately organized. On the eastern seaboard, the four distinct English regions were New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies (Upper South), and the Southern Colonies (Lower South). By 1760, France was defeated and its colonies were seized by Britain. Wars were recurrent between the French and the British during the French and Indian Wars. Some of the colonies developed legalized systems of slavery, centered largely around the Atlantic slave trade. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–1691. No civil wars occurred in the Thirteen Colonies. In Nova Scotia, however, the British expelled the French Acadians, and many relocated to Louisiana. Over time, non-British colonies East of the Mississippi River were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style. Russian America and parts of New France and New Spain were also incorporated into the United States at later times. These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Settlers included the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the Virginian Cavaliers, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of the Province of Maryland, the " worthy poor" of the Province of Georgia, the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains. Nevertheless, successful colonies were established within several decades.Įuropean settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. The death rate was very high among early immigrants, and some early attempts disappeared altogether, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. In the late 16th century, England ( British Empire), Kingdom of France, Spanish Empire, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization expeditions in North America. The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War.
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