American Colonies In The 1600s

Improved Essays
Alan Taylor’s interpretation of history in American Colonies, is the most effective analysis of push factors that drove Europeans to immigrate to the New World. This source contains the reasons of immigration and the success of the colonies one established. During the 1600’s, the Netherlands were a very liberal place to inhabit- compared to nations surrounding it. The Dutch empire was welcoming to outcasts that were not welcome in their own country. Even in New Netherland, the Dutch exhibited liberal policies, such as allowing women to manage business and even keep her maiden name once married. A letter from Peter Stuyvesant, also provides powerful insight to some of the living and social conditions that colonists faced and how their government …show more content…
The English had unified Church and state- demanding that every citizen support the official Church of England with taxes and regular attendance. Any religious dissent or violation of taxes would be considered treason and heresy. There were church courts established, without juries, to punish those who strayed from the Church. These systems were designed to oppress the citizens of England- forcing everyone into uniformity. The Puritans, who sought reform, separated from the Church in order to pursue a simpler worship. The first 102 Puritan emigrants sailed in 1620 and landed Plymouth on the shore of the Massachusetts Bay. There were already 1500 settlers by 1630 in New England. The population kept growing in Southern New England with Puritan Separatists- with settlements beginning to develop around them. By 1660- there were 33,000 colonists in Massachusetts. This colony remained the most populated and powerful out of all the New England …show more content…
The Dutch had the highest standards of living in Europe- along with wealth. The Dutch had religious freedom, a republican form of government, and a manufacturing boom that propelled their economy. This gave the 1.5 million Dutch little reason to leave their home and risk what they already had somewhere else. The few who did leave did not have enough numbers to protect their colony- giving New Netherland to the English to avoid war. The oppression that the English faced greatly determined their success. Due to the religious intolerance that Puritans faced, they chose to emigrate to pursue freedom away from the Church of England. This triggered a migration that boosted the population of their colonies such as, New England making it one of the most powerful and successful colonies with 33,000 settlers and the Chesapeake, with 25,000 colonists. Without oppression, there can be no strive to change for the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Religion was so vital to the Puritans that they decided to leave England when it created its own church. At first the Puritans were willing to stay if reforms were made to the Church of England, but unfortunately, the king at the time, King Charles I, threatened the Puritans if they did not respect the Catholic church. The Puritans left to freely practice their own religion without interference from the Catholic church. Little did they know that citizens of their community would be faced with sinning through witchcraft. Puritans lived in the town in order to be close to always walk to church.…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Due to the desire to start a new life, all within the Puritan group had motivation and a sense of community that helped push efforts to build and get things done. Contrary to Jamestown, Plymouth did not have constant supply ships coming to provide them with more tools and resources. The English Puritans couldn’t rely on outside help. On top of this, trade was huge in order to survive the beginning years in the newly founded colonies. Both colonies relied somewhat on the natives for trade, often giving away items manufactured in England such as beads or blankets.…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The puritans established the colony of Massachusetts bay in 1630.They hoped to purify the church of England and then return to Europe within a new and improved religion. The Massachusetts bay puritans were more immediately successful than other colonies. They brought enough supplies. They arrived in the spring time. They had good leadership (including john Winthrop).…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Until the 17th century, the English had never laid much claim to the lands of the New World. With the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, England began the construction of a fairly large and relatively diverse conglomeration of colonies. Eventually, developing unity in these colonies became essential to maintaining the thriving English empire in the New World. This solidarity between different colonies was derived from a variety of unique sources. Many individual ideas, legislative acts, and intercolonial alliances played a role in unifying the English settlers.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Many people came to the New World looking for new possibilities, freedom, and a place to settle and become an established, respectable land. Starting in the early 1600’s, the Virginia Company wanted a settlement in America. The Chesapeake colonies, including Virginia and Maryland first established the town of Jamestown. “Jamestown was intended to become the core of a long-term settlement effort, creating new wealth for the London investors and recreating English society in North America” (Grymes). As for the New England colonies, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island soon became settled upon after Charles I became ruler of England in 1624 after his father, James I, passed away.…

    • 1848 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The United States has a lot of economic history dating back to the late 1700s. In the 1700s, the colonial economy was pre-industrial. The economy consisted of farming. The market economy was based on agricultural products. Now, the colonies did depend on Britain for many finished goods, mainly because laws prohibited making many types of finished goods in the colonies ().…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The New England Colonies

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages

    While the establishment of the Chesapeake and the West Indies was more economic; the establishment of the New England Colony was about religious disagreement. A group of Separatist known as the Pilgrims left England for Netherlands sometime between 1607 and 1609. They were convinced that England was not born out of the Reformation. They went to Holland to worship freely, but after ten years they realized their children had become more Dutch than English. After intense negotiations with The London Company and rough travels the landed on place they named Plymouth in the late 1620s.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Immigrants who decided to settle in New England generally were trying to gain religious freedom. Many of the New England Immigrants were Pilgrims/Separatists and Puritans, all of whom were discriminated upon by the Church of England back in their homeland. The Pilgrims/Separatists settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 (Bixby, New England Colonies: Massachusetts: Plymouth Colony). The Plymouth Colony suffered at first but endured and eventually became part of the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony. As their name implies, the Puritans did not want to completely separate themselves from the Church of England but, instead, wanted to purify the church.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By the 1700s, the New England and the Chesapeake regions developed into two different colonies due to each colony’s reason for settlement, consisting of religious and economic reasons, their personal beliefs, and their growth in their society. While the settlers of New England immigrated to the Americas to escape religious persecution, the settlers of the Chesapeake region immigrated for more economic reasons—the search of gold. Each colony’s way of life contrasted from one another in the way they lived in their societal systems. The impacts of these differences evolved the colonies uniquely. Documents A and D reveal the religious motivations behind the New England settlers’ settlements.…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The colony was named Jamestown in honor of King James of England, which was ruled by none other than King James. Jamestown was very important for 2 main reasons; being the beginning of the 13 colonies and being the first successful colony belonging to England. After the founding of Jamestown many events happened to the colony such as the famous story of John Smith who was captured by the natives and Pocahontas who was a native that had saved john smith’s life. There were also many struggles in Jamestown during its first years and until 1613 when tobacco had started to be grown and had led to wealth for the…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Even though the Puritans left England, they were discontent with the Church of England because they there was no religious freedom, they didn’t agree with the way the church was running, and the church and kings were against them. During the 1600s in England, there was no religious freedom at the time. England was run by the government’s church, which was that the church ruled…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As far back as the late 1400’s, travel to the New World or Americas was being completed by Christopher Columbus on behalf of Isabella Ferdinand of Spain. The discovery of the new world led to colonization of the land there and eventually the creation of independent countries that are present in the world today such as the United States. The events that transpired to create the United States stems back to the seedlings of the Puritan colony of Massachusetts creating a Colonial identity and the rise of plantations that created the American economy. The actions and treatment of the people around and in these colonies cause important historical events and show themes of treatment that are recurring throughout the colonial period.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    America provided an opportunity for religious freedom and safety to those who did not agree with the church of England. A group of religious separatists, the Puritans, were drove out of England. They wanted to purify the Church of England not to separate from it, but nevertheless they were drove from England. They had no royal charter but they formed the Mayflower Compact using their self-governing religious ways to also control their politics. This form or self governing was never practiced in England as Monarchies ruled.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Colonization is a big deal for countries giving them Spices, Luxuries Religion and Ambition. Spices from the Far East were very precious. So precious at one point one ounce of pepper was worth the same as 1 ounce of gold. Cotton, silk, pearls, valuable metals and jewels were luxuries then and merchants became very rich for this. The greedy Catholic Church would look for ways for more money and searching for land was a good way to do it.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the Eighteenth century the Kingdom of Naples engaged a bitter dispute with its more powerful commercial partners, in order to strengthen the consistency of its maritime border as a fiscal barrier by redefining the rules of ships’ landing. The aim of the new independent monarchy was to re-examine the exemption of foreign flags by the so-called “right of visit”, that the European monarchies claimed as a result of the Ancient Spanish treaties. The quarrel was never solved through formal agreements and the rules of ships’ landing remained fluid and undefined because of the legal pluralism which dominated the realm of trade and customs. While the conflict resolution was negotiated according to circumstances, smuggling was considered…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays