Edgar Cruz
Professor Richard Vanden Bosch
History 101
7 February 2018
FRQ: Settlements
Many countries saw the New World as a place that presented an endless amount of opportunities; opportunities that would help them grow and advance. England, France and Spain saw the opportunity and all the potential resources and undiscovered land that the new world had to offer. In North America between 1580 and 1763 countries sought after the New World for various reasons some of those reasons were to expand and create a greater empire, religious freedom and for gold and to improve their mercantilism.
Some of the common things that everyone sought after in the New World were expansion and the development of their mercantilism. Those were some of the focuses that England had while expanding, they were after economic gain and they wanted to avoid poverty. The English wanted to get access to raw material and to establish trade with the natives. The purpose of this was for the settlers to ship these resources to their motherland in hopes of restoring their economy. Some of the resources that they found were things like timber that could be used for building ships and some settlers in the middle colonies came across good farmland which they used to produce crops and sell back in their motherland. The English also found that certain areas along the southern colonies were good for growing “cash crops” such as tobacco. England also instituted the Navigation Act of 1663 into play in order to gain more wealth. What the Navigation Act of 1663 does is it makes it so that all goods that ship to english colonies must pass through England first; the purpose of this was to increase their profit. Other reasons as to why some English people wanted to colonize the New World was for religious freedom. Many puritans were experiencing prosecution in England and they wanted to escape from it. The puritans were trying to make an attempt to create a religious utopia where everyone could live out there lives as puritans without the constant fear of being prosecuted for their beliefs. These are a few of the many reasons as to why England decided to venture into the New World in an attempt to colonize it.
France colonized the New World to try and increase their wealth and find new ways in which they could do so. The french had their eyes on the trade industry and they found that the New World had plenty of fur that they could profit from; the main goal of the mother country was commercial exploration. The French started trading the Indians for their furs because they quickly discovered the the fur trade industry was a very lucrative one. They set up trading posts and forts to better establish their trades with the indians. French colonist were also trying to expand their religion which was christianity. They began to convert the indians that they came across they persuaded them to abandon their beliefs and convinced them to join christianity. These are some of the reasons as to ...
