Theme

       Illustrative Examples 

Motives and goals differed among the various European colonizers

​​​Colonizers from Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain had various economic and imperial objectives surrounding the ownership of land and sources of labor that affected the formation and expansion of their colonial societies and politics and their interactions with Indigenous peoples and Africans. 

  • Mexico (New Spain)—subjugating Native Americans and later Africans for labor, gaining precious metals or cash crops, conversion of non-Europeans to Christianity, frequent intermarriage with Native Americans and Africans, casta system
  • Canada (New France) and Louisiana—participation in fur trade with Native Americans, oftentimes intermarried with Native Americans, tended to set up trading posts rather than actual cities  
  • New Netherlands (Dutch colonies)—main goal was to make a profit, tended to be more tolerant of different religions, eventually became English colony of New York
  • Thirteen Colonies (England)—see below for specific regional characteristics

 

Economic and environmental conditions varied greatly within colonial regions

​​​​​British colonies that formed in different regions along the eastern shore of North America in the 1600s featured an array of diverse environments, people, cultures, and economic opportunities. 

 

 

Chesapeake and Southern Colonies 

  • Many indentured servants/enslaved labor
  • Agricultural economy
  • Headright policy
  • Houses of Burgesses
  • Virginia General Assembly
  • Tobacco, indigo, rice
  • Bacon’s Rebellion
  • Stono Revolt 

 

New England Colonies 

  • Subsistence farming
  • Shipping, whaling, fishing, and lumber industries
  • Some indentured servants/enslaved people
  • Puritans
  • Mayflower Compact
  • Massachusetts Bay General Court
  • American exceptionalism
  • John Winthrop
  • Roger Williams
  • Anne Hutchinson 

 

Middle Colonies

  • Mixed economy
  • “Breadbasket” of colonies
  • Quakers
  • Patroonships
  • Salutary neglect
  • More diversity/tolerance
  • New York rebellion of enslaved people (1712) 

 

Shared political and cultural ties linked the colonies to Britain and each other 

​​​​​The North American colonists’ political and cultural beliefs progressed due to an exchange of ideas, goods, beliefs, and philosophies with Britain and led them not only to develop closer ties to Britain but also to become more united with one another.

 

  • Enlightenment
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Transatlantic Print Culture
  • Great Awakening
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • George Whitefield
  • Anglicization
  • John Peter Zenger trial 

 

Numerous sources of conflict between colonizers and Indigenous people existed

European colonizers and Indigenous people in the Americas developed rivalries that fostered commerce and created disagreements.

 

  • Mercantilism
  • Queen Anne’s War
  • Fur trade
  • Trading posts
  • Manufactured goods, alcohol, firearms
  • Iroquois League
  • Powhatan Uprising
  • Pequot War
  • King Philip’s (Metacom’s) War 

 

Slavery existed throughout the colonies

English colonies used enslaved labor to an extent that reflected their economic, geographic, and demographic characteristics. 

 

  • All colonies used indentured servitude and enslaved labor in this period, but it was more pronounced in the South due to its warm climate that fostered cash-crop agriculture.
  • Stono Revolt (1739) 

 

Many cultural and political factors led to the breakdown of the colonies' relationship with Britain 

Colonists began to struggle against the British Empire’s control due to the existence of local self-government; new political ideas that were influenced by the Enlightenment; diverse, independent religious characteristics; and their perception of English government as corrupt. 

 

  • Self-government—Virginia Houses of Burgesses, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, Massachusetts General Court
  • Enlightenment ideas—social contract (Thomas Hobbes), natural rights and right to rebel (John Locke), separation of powers (Baron de Montesquieu)
  • Belief that colonists had the same rights as other Englishmen
  • The First Great Awakening
  • Religious groups such as Puritans, Anglicans (Church of England), Catholics, Quakers, Mennonites, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Lutherans 

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