North America Dbq Essay

During the seventeenth century, numerous civilizations were flourishing in North America before Europeans came to the United States. When the Agricultural Revolution occurred 2000 B.C.E, Americans became sedentary and more cultures began to develop. Significant population centers and society developed a strong sense of belonging to a civilization. These civilizations were Hopewell, Adena, and the biggest one: Cahokia. The last one was considered the “City of The Sun” along with Mississippi River. Natural resources including water, gold, and silver were the most essential elements for trading. By 1500, The dominant economic activities were fishing, hunting, and agriculture. The first European civilizations to take over America during the seventeenth

century were the Spanish, followed by the English and the Dutch. Although all of these colonies at some point failed, they were successful in developing part of the goals their funders desired.

Portuguese were considered the first group of colonists that found a route that led to India. Although Portuguese wanted to implement negotiations regarding trading agreements, they never found India. Focusing more on the Spanish, this group got inspired by the Portuguese and wanted to find Asia by supporting Christopher Columbus. Since Spanish never made it to Asia, the first places they found were the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

When the Spanish came to North America for the first time, they wanted to spread the religion of Catholicism and develop trade agreements.

North American civilizations got infected and started dying because Europeans brought diseases that were unknown to Indians. Another reason Spanish found relevant for European colonization had to do with the fact that about a third of Europe’s population was dying due to black death. Besides, since a significant part of the community was dying, European monarchy had to control with fewer people and deal with less demand on products. Another important fact to have in mind is that Europeans wanted to spread the ideals of Renaissance through North America; economic, political, cultural, and religious

thoughts.

Florida became a Spanish colony in the sixteenth century for two consecutive centuries. While Spanish were looking for settlement with North America, the French arrived and declared their own territory called St. Augustine. France was facing a religious war between Catholics and Protestants, intervening French colonization in North America. Later on, when King Henry IV solved the religious conflicts in France, the French started building their North American Empire. In addition, a significant amount of French settlements occurred in Quebec and Montreal. French colonists’ main goal was to increase migration in these colonies. They declared an agreement with indentured servants, who were young male, white European immigrants that were willing to work for a specific period of time in return for some benefits including food, salary, and a return to their country.

The English also wanted to take over North America.

The first territory they settle was Virginia; this name was inspired by Queen Elizabeth of England because she never got married. The English founded a joint stock company called the Virginia Company. The main idea behind this company was to make English people buy stocks, explore the civilizations, and of course, to colonize. The Virginia Company was the first British settlement. For English, the main economic activity was the cultivation of tobacco. English also hired indentured servants to work these lands. A group of English called the Pilgrims even arrived in America and lived at Plymouth. The reason why Pilgrims left England is that they believed that the church was deficient and needed to be reformed. On the other hand, another English group called the Puritans wanted to make the church of England better. Therefore, Puritans arrived in America and settled Massachusetts Bay Colony. For the first time, an European group of colonists established the main government of that colony in Massachusetts. This government was a Theocracy. The main purpose of these group of colonists was to radiate religion throughout the

colony.

Around 1624, the Dutch arrived in America and founded their first settlement known as New Netherland. Among different lands and colonies the Dutch bought, Long Iseland (currently Manhattan) belong to them. Since the Dutch had the most powerful economy by that time in Europe, their primary goal was to create a trade Capital in North America, but the English took it and by 1669 the colony officially became known as New York. Dutch colonies were considered a “magnet for religious refugees from Europe” (Goldfield, Page 28) and served as home for Africans that were brought to North America as slaves after the war.

As a conclusion, although England became the most powerful colony in North America, France and the Netherlands were considered their direct competitors. Trading and commerce was a common economic activity for all of these European civilizations. All of these colonies succeed on following their goals at some point, but ones more than others. Religion and church was a significant element, especially for the Spanish, the French and the English. Slavery was considered an illegal activity for most civilizations. Although all of these colonies had differences between them, the goal that all these European colonies had in common and they succeed was to develop the beginning of the New World.