Sara Layland
Professor Kris Teters
Survey of United States History
29 April 2018
C-121 Task One
A-Exploring the political and social motivations for English colonization in North America.
A.1: The political motivations for English imperialism
England suffered economic downgrade due to the Black plague in the 1300’s, followed by the Hundred Years War 1337-1453. The Hundred Years’ war led to the end of land route to Asia to get spices and other goods for Portugal and Spain. As a result, Portugal and Spain set out to travel by sea and ended up in Central America. Around this time, John Cabot sailed to North America and wrote about his experience in 1497. The French colonized what is now Canada. Spain found gold and Portugal thrived from sugar plantations. The countries had such economic trading success, England and other European countries began heading to the new world to colonize and extract trade resources. The queen was convinced by her council that England had more claim to the land and the riches hidden more than the Spaniards because Cabot had landed there years earlier (Norton, 2015).
A.2: Social pressures that contributed to English colonization of North America
Between 1530-1680, England’s population doubled, and the result of dwindling necessities caused inflation and lower pay. Those English who made less income before the inflation fell into devastating poverty. Many lost their land due to debt and homelessness became a huge problem. The officials decided to take the surplus people and remove them from the streets of London by sending them to America to colonize. Paraphrasing Norton (2015), the out-of-work laborers rejoiced to be guaranteed work to sustain their families.
English families were also troubled by Henry the 8th’s religious transition. In 1533, wanting a male heir and infatuated with Anne Boleyn, the king asked the pope to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragón in hopes to have a male heir to the throne with Anne Boleyn, but the pope refused. Henry, instead of accepting this decision, founded the Church of England and proclaimed himself the leader. Because there was no separation of church and state until the colonies fought for it years later, Parliament was able to agree with this, even though most of the citizens did not (Norton, 2015).
B-English Colonies in America
Please see separately uploaded chart with similar title.
C-Major ideas and events that led to the American Revolution
C.1 Seven Year’s War, or French and Indian War
Washington surrendered, England drew up Proclamation of 1763, stating the new colonies could not settle west of the Mississippi River. The only problem with this being there were already settlers west of the river long before the proclamation. The settlers were able to work out a treaty with the Iroquois, but other effects of the French and Indian war did not make people happy (Norton, 2015).
C.2 Sugar Act, Currency Act, and Stamp Act
Due to the overwhelming debt from the Seven Year’s W...
