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Colonization of North America1607-1770
English colonization of America
English colonization of America
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Recommended: Colonization of North America1607-1770
“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” Of the three major colonizers who vied for control of North America from the 15th to 17th centuries, it was the early-bird Spanish who got the worm, but after all was said and done, it was England who got the more desirable cheese. After 1763, the English had control of all land east of the Mississippi river and virtually all of present-day Canada. The English were able to gain the upper hand in the conflict for control of North America not only because of military victories, but also because of good timing.
The English victory over the Spanish Armada marked the beginning of the British naval dominance in the Atlantic. England and Spain had been enjoying a peaceful relationship throughout the early 15th century. However, the relations turned sour after the Spanish backstabbed an English fleet, led by a British sailor named Francis Drake at the Spanish port of San Juan de Ulua in 1568. Drake, privately encouraged by Queen Elizabeth of England, began pirating the Spanish riches for England from the Caribbean and all along the Spanish held coasts of Latin America. King Philip of Spain, already disgusted by the religious practices of England’s royalty, began scheming for a plan to invade Britain. He sent 130 large vessels, meant to carry soldiers, to the English Channel. The once thought “Invincible Armada” was annihilated by England’s smaller, more maneuverable and better armed crafts. While the surviving Spanish ships were retreating back home, a rare September storm devastated the already diminished fleet. With a large chunk of their navy destroyed, Spain did not have enough ships or manpower to control their vast empire. Slowly, their once might...
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...rth American domination, now held the entire continent, with the exceptions of Florida, Mexico, and the Californian coast, which still were the possessions of Spain. England had won the struggle for North American dominance.
England won the European struggle for control of America because of their timely military victories along with a people who, at that time, were ready to expand their horizons. They defeated the Spanish Armada when and where Spain was most vulnerable. This coincided with the fact that the English people, of high and low stature, needed a new place to go while recent technological advancements made it possible for them to get there. Once there, the British were able to protect their own colony while also securing more land for the English Crown. Spain definitely got the worm, France sprung the mousetrap, and England got the cheese.
A. The English came to what is now North America, then called, British North America for different reasons. Some came for the money and other freedoms, particularly those having to do with religion, and the expansion of territory. As well as, the wish for supremacy and power over other European countries. It was a matter of pride and prestige they obtained by taking over the territories.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, the British were faced with rebelling colonies. Finally realizing that they had to fight to keep their colonial possessions, the British sent troops to America. Once the battles began in America, the British were not impressed with the colonial military, but the weak militias soon proved to be effective. With foreign aid from France, American devotion, and the lack of British vigor, the Americans soon discovered the open doors of independence. In my opinion, the American advantages and the British disadvantages proved to be the downfall of the English in the American Revolution.
It was the age of discovery that first provoked intrigue and curiosity of new lands, particularly the Americas, and how the Europeans could expand to fit their society within the borders of this unknown and unexplored land. By the 1580s, more had been learned about the Americas, but any colonization until this point had not even been attempted. And so it was the English, under Queen Elizabeth I's rule, that were issued to establish a colony along the east coast of North America. However, when this great accomplishment was finally made in 1587, it was not long founded until its ultimate fate ended in the disappearance of the colony three years later, instantly creating one of the greatest American mysteries that will ever be.
The Europeans changed the land of the home of the Indians, which they renamed New England. In Changes in the Land, Cronon explains all the different aspects in how the Europeans changed the land. Changing by the culture and organization of the Indians lives, the land itself, including the region’s plants and animals. Cronon states, “The shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes well known to historians in the ways these peoples organized their lives, but it also involved fundamental reorganizations less well known to historians in the region’s plant and animal communities,” (Cronon, xv). New England went through human development, environmental and ecological change from the Europeans.
“The sun never sets on the British Empire” perfectly described the sheer size of European imperialism. The British Empire was so large that at any given time the sun would always be shinning on some part of the empire. Britain maintained one of the largest empires in Europe. Germany and France had empires that expanded over a much larger region than the areas controlled by the United States. United States politicians never amassed as much land as European powers did. Only the islands of Hawaii, the Philippians, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba were under United States control. Although the U.S. gained Cuba from Spain, Cuba would be liberated. The United States did not conquer nations like the Europeans did; Europeans conquered most of Africa and
In pursuit of national glory, profit and religious mission, England started to explore and conquer the North America. Through the 1600s and the early 1700s, three major colonial regions, the New England colonies, the Middle colonies, and the Southern colonies, formed and developed, and the economic freedom from land owning drew people to the North America. However, during and after the French-Indian War, colonies cooperated to resist British policies and finally declared their independence in 1776.
After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, European Nations competed in a race against one another to claim pieces of the new land. Before Columbus found this land, the sea separating the New World from Europe seemed endless, and mundane. The Europeans were only interested in the land to the East. But with the New World as a new hat thrown into the ring, the Europeans tossed aside their old toy to go play with a new one. This time period of conquest over the New World was known as the Age of Exploration, and by the 1700s, they kept their pickings. A New World meant more land to build homes and plant crops, and more money to be earned by buying out new houses and selling new crops grown in foreign soil. Spain claimed Mexico, and the Southwest portions of what would be known as America. France got their hands on most of present-day Canada, as well as Louisiana. The Dutch set foot on land they called New Amsterdam, however, The English, who had settled their first colony in Jamestown, Virginia, drove the Dutch out and claimed New Amsterdam for themselves, later renaming it New York. The English claimed more land as time passed, and eventually they had formed 13 different colonies in the Eastern part of America. The English Colonies were separated into 3 different regions. The New England Colonies (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire), the Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware), and the Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia). The New England Colonies were the earliest of the 3 regions, founded by English Settlers seeking religious freedom. The Middle Colonies were also founded by settlers seeking religious freedom. The Southern Colonies,...
Looking back into history, at around the 1500s to the 1600s, people were very much the same in the sense that many countries were looking to aggrandize their economy and appear the greatest. It was this pride and thinking that motivated many of the superpowers of the world’s past. Two such monarchies in the European continent included England and Spain, which had at the time, the best fleets the world has ever seen. Because both were often striving to be the best, they conflicted with one another. Although England and Spain had their differences, they both had a thirst to see new things and it was this hunger that led them both to discovering different parts of the “New World” and thus, colonizing the Americas.
During the late 1600s and the to the mid-1700s, countries fought for land and power in order to have global domination. While several countries fought for the same cause, resolving their differences was nearly impossible, and this often led to more wars and conflicts. One of the many conflicts concerned the domination of North America. While many European powers competed for control of North America, Britain gained the most territory through the four French and Indian wars, King William's War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War, and the French and Indian War. As these wars progressed, Britain achieved the most success and eventually became the most dominant power in North America.
Taylor, Alan American Colonies: The Settling of North America, New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2001. pg. 1685-1730
The cold, stormy night was all too familiar to the English. A devious plan by Spain's king, Philip II, was being formed to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and rid the world of the English "heretics."1 It was a story of deception, false judgments, and poor planning. What was one king's dream turned into his country's nightmare. While the Spanish had bad leaders, the English had good ones. The Spanish had bigger, but slower ships, while the English had smaller and faster ships. The English knew the weather conditions and how to prepare for them, while the Spanish thought it would not be a problem. The English entered the battle in a calm manner, while the Spanish were overconfident. All of these factors led to Spain's undoing. In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I, of England, defeated the Armada and the Spanish hubris with good luck, favorable weather and excellent leadership. Elizabeth I was born on September 7th, 1533 to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. When Elizabeth was just three years of age, her mother had lost favor with the king for not producing a male heir. Anne Bolyen was soon executed and Elizabeth was deprived of any rights to succession. Elizabeth also had two half-siblings from two of her father's many other marriages. Edward VI, son of Jane Seymour, became King of England and Ireland in 1547. Mary I, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, became Queen of England in 1553 and soon grew suspicious of her Protestant step-sister. Due to this fact, Elizabeth was placed in the Tower of London for some time, only to be pardoned when it was discovered that Queen Mary had fallen ill. Mary died unhappy with the fact that her throne was to be succeeded by a Protestant, and not by a Roman Catholic,...
The beginning of 1763 marked one of the major events that would contribute to the end of British colonial relations. On February 3, 1763 the French and Indian War finally ended in British victory, but while the British celebrated the French’s defeat, colonists feared the oncoming reverberations the war would have on them. The main motive behind the war was for possession over the French fur trade territory in North America. To the colonists, the war was being fought by and for Britain not the colonies. The benefits of the victory only pertained to Britain. The after effect of the war for the colonies was the trampling on their need for expansion. During the war, Native Americans had fought with the French because of how well they treated them. Britain was notorious for abusing the Native Americans, therefore once the French were defeated; they began attacking western settlements of colonists. To avoid confrontation, the Proclamation of 1763 was passed by Parliament. The Proclamation established a limit to the greatly needed colonial expansion. Specifically, the Proclamation forbid settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The passing of the Proclamation of 1763 infuriated colonists ...
Gunpowder’s effect on the world can be exemplified through the grand changes in weapons. This can be shown through the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 by the English navy. In this sea battle, the Spanish Armada outnumbered the English navy immensely turning the odds against the English. However, the Spanish Armada still used old boarding tactics while the English used advanced weaponry. In the end, “the English used their superior firepower to whittle away the Spanish forces” (Schlager). The English navy's victory over the Spanish Armada illustrates the effects of the invention of gunpowder. With the successful usage of advanced gunpowder based weapons, the English navy crushed the opposition even when the Spanish Armada clearly had the upper hand. The defeat of the Spanish Armada shows that weapons based on gunpowder allowed countries with smaller armies to have a higher chance in winning their fights. The gunpowder weapons proved to be a tactical advant...
The Spanish Armada was a powerful navy that attempted to enter England by force in 1588. Wikipedia writes that the navy was previously called “The Invincible Armada”, because the Spaniards had the impression that it could not be defeated. Phillip had a list of reasons to take out Queen Elizabeth. For the longest time, Most English ships had been attacking Spanish treasure ships returning from the Americas. Queen Elizabeth declined punishing the privateers and would not return the treasures that they had acquired. Another excuse was to attack England in an attempt to prevent Protestantism from overtaking Catholicism on the continent. The plan of invasion was simple and could have been effective, but gruesome. The Spanish had the strongest army in Europe and the English defences were not exactly good. After departing from Spain, the crew had no idea that they would face defeat by poor social communication, unrealistic religion expectations and weak political planning.
France and England, for several reasons, were usually on opposite ends of the historical spectrum. Although each suffered from some of the same political, philosophical and Ideological symptoms, the same could be said concerning their growth and accomplishments. While France evolved from a country ruled and driven by a monarchy handcuffed with religious restrictions, England, with similar components in place, transformed into a completely different state. I believe, because of England’s geographical location and not being invaded or conquered, the isolation shaped its foreign policies to reflect a free and pure state of mind; however, I think proximity dictated foreign policy for all of the countries of that time and place. Which begs the question: If England and France were to switch their locations on the continent, would the English try to conquer Central Europe, North Africa and Russia? I will compare the two countries by listing historically significant events and how internal and external forces influenced each countries foreign policy.