Formation of Colonies in North America
For colonizers to be effective in power dominance, they had to ship to a new state or nation and settle in numbers. A colony can be defined as a territory or marking under the immediate complete authority, either political or other forms by new settlers who are foreign from the original inhabitants of a state. In the history of the world, colonies could be in their original countries, while others could lack define statehood since their initial inception. For a colony to be more dominant, it would imply that the metropolitan state is more influential and more wealthy (Nelson, 2016). This essay aims to document some reasons why England dominated colony formation in North America and pinpoint the similarities and differences between the middle and southern colonies and New England.
Why England Dominated in Colony Formation
England was mighty than most of the nations that seem to compete with it, such as Spain (Smith, 2019). England held some wise moves that were directed in one way or another in its stability and power formation. For example, during the reformations, England practiced an essential political change, implying that the renovations could not affect it like other nations. It had initiated reforms in how it dealt with the poor people, how the catholic people were treated, and their parliaments also experienced some change. When the reforms became inevitable nationwide, England was more stable and could concentrate its energy on other areas that were central to the formation of more power. This included creating advancing to create more weapons so that their Navy Army could be fearsome, which in turn influenced their success in forming colonies in North America.
In the journey on how England became successful in colony formation, England’s strong Navy was very critical. Strong Navy made major impacts in ensuring that England dominated the sea and won various wars against their enemies. The Royal Army made England become immune to most of its neighboring countries that prompted to invade and attack the nation. Although the army played many important roles in England and its alliances, the central role was to protect trade because it formed the backbone of most of its initiatives. Trade was mostly based on the sea because it was the major means of transport for imports to reach England. The army played a significant role in imposing fear and coercing people to establish colonies in North America (Smith, 2019).
England was unbeaten in its actions to practice and realization of mercantilism. Mercantilism can be defined from a historical perspective to mean how nations believed that an increase in export would correlate positively with an increase in the nation’s wealth-for example, a nation could realize bigger sales by exporting most of its materials (Smith, 2019). England is a small nation, and therefore, the resources contained are few. To ensure that it continued to influence the world markets, England had to venture into other nations that were fertile. Therefore, these colonies would become the source of raw materials so that the colonizers would benefit to a large extent. By holding this factor on mercantilism’s importance, England ensured that it became successful in its endeavors to establish colonies such as Massachusetts territories.
Similarities and differences.
Differences
Colonies were specifically stabling for matters relating to the mother nation’s economic stability, which brought some glaring differences in these colonies. Different human resources were produced in different regions. New England mostly delved into shipbuilding because it had the most skilled craftsmen. On the other hand, the Middle presented a more diverse skill force. There were more fishermen, farmers, and merchants. Colonies on the southern dealt primarily with agriculture, similar to Chesapeake, and had a limited number of schools (Nelson, 2016). With these regions becoming more specialized in the nature of materials produced, they began to interact with one another so that they could possibly complement. Certain items that could be produced in our region were imported from the other for commercial purposes.
Other notable differences come out in how social life among the regions was structured. Northern people were deeper in religion, and the village community was part of their lifestyles. In the southern, life was more rural in nature with people leading rugged lifestyles. These conspicuous differences persisted for long and became to be helpful in the time when civil wars were becoming rampant.
Similarities
Most of the similarities between the colonies come from the issue of governance and leadership. These colonies had a royal governor who was mainly appointed by the King and had the mandate to make all the decisions that could influence all colonies. Their most important roles were to make new rules and regulations which most people did not positively receive, but due to the issue of leadership and power, they had to comply. People in these colonies held a constitutional right to vote for their lawmakers. This was an earlier act of democracy that came to persist for a long time (Billings, 2017).
To sum up, England was a very influential nation in asserting power and dominance into any country that they colonized. They had the most feared armies with most of its power felt by how they guarded the sea, mostly their sea routes for imports and exports. The economy was strong in England, and in all the attempts to strengthen their economy, they went for more colonies that could supply the raw materials that they needed most. Upon the establishment of colonies, there were conspicuous differences and similarities among the colonies. Most of the differences stimulated economic growth.
References
Billings, D. B. (2017). Planters and contribution to making of a” new South”: politics, class, and development in North Carolina, 1865-1900. UNC Press Books.
Nelson, W. E. (2016). Colonial America Common Law: The Chesapeake and New England, 1660-1750 (Vol. 3). Oxford University Press.
Smith, A. K. (2019). Creating a World Economy: Merchant Capital, Colonialism, and World Trade, 1400-1825. Routledge.