The English colonization process in the Americas started late, compared to the Spanish and Portuguese.
Colonial exploration began with small towns that later formed the 13 colonies on the east coast of the region now occupied by the United States.
Before launching itself into the sea, in the 16th century, England faced the Hundred Years War and the War of the Two Roses. The first sea incursions followed the line of the Spanish and French, who were looking for a way to India through North America.
In the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), Spanish pirates were partners with the English in navigation. The most famous of them, Francis Drake, was decorated by the queen.
English shipping became a lucrative business when Great Britain dominated the African slave trade to the American Continent.
Summary
In the 16th century, England was dominated by the creation of sheep for the production of wool. Focused more and more on this business, food production on farms fell. As a result, there was a shortage of food and a drop in the supply of rural labor.
The alternative was to seek more land. And, unlike what happened with the Latin colonies, the occupation of North America was based on enterprises. The new territories also received the population surplus and attracted those who claimed greater religious freedom than that offered in England.
Two private companies began the process of colonizing North America in 1606. After the British Crown was granted, the London Company monopolized the region to the north. The Plymouth Company was responsible for the southern territories.
The companies had autonomy to explore the territory, but were subordinated to the English State.
The concession took place 20 years after the arrival of the first settlers. A group of 91 men, 17 women and nine children landed on Roanoke Island in 1587. In 1590, there was no trace of the group, led by Walter Raleigh. The fate of the settlers was never determined.
Fearing hostility from the local Indians, the London Company sent a more robust retinue to America. 144 men embarked, in three ships, destined for the present territory of Virginia.
The group landed on the Chesapeake Bay in the spring of 1607 and started the settlement called Jamestown.
After the unsuccessful search for gold and other exploitable products, the settlers learned to grow tobacco. Tobacco farms were reinforced by slave labor from 1619 onwards.
Jamestown is the embryo for the birth of other colonies in the south. Thus arise Maryland (1632), North Carolina and South Carolina (1633) and Georgia (1733).
The southern colonies were marked by religious tolerance. Maryland, for example, was a Catholic colony, led by Lord Baltimore.
Northern colonial undertakings were also marked by the dominance of religious. The first groups of settlers called Pilgrims arrived in the Plymouth region in 1620. The settlers started to settle in the region called Massachusetts, considered more liberal.
In the region, the colonists dominated the natives and, with them, they learned to dominate hunting, fishing and agriculture. Prosperous, Massachusetts expanded the colonies and spawned the territories that became known as New England.
The territories comprised the colonies of Connecticut, New Haven, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.
Unlike the south, the northern colonies were characterized by subsistence polyculture and free labor.
Finally, the center colonies emerged. New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey were marked by religious freedom and liberal thinking. In this region, the colonists raised small animals and maintained a structure similar to the colonies of New England.
The English colonies had 250,000 inhabitants, including colonists and blacks enslaved in the 1700s. On the eve of the independence of the United States, in 1775, the region already had 2.5 million inhabitants.
Despite diverse political and religious interests, the settlers maintained their unity to proclaim independence on July 4, 1776.
To better understand this topic, see:
- Exploration Colony
- Settlement colony
- The Thirteen Colonies and the Formation of the United States
- Manifest Destiny
Portuguese and Spanish colonization
Portugal and Spain used the model of exploration colonies in the colonial process of the American Continent. The territories now correspond to Latin America and Central America.
Features
- Extractivism
- Extermination of Ancestral Peoples
- Use of slave labor
- Lack of political autonomy in relation to the metropolis
- Absence of religious freedom
- Plantation System
See too:
- Colonialism
- Brazil Colony
- spanish america
French and Dutch colonization
France and Holland belatedly entered the activities of great navigations in search of new territories because they were looking for internal solutions to conflicts. In the case of Holland, it was necessary to fight for its own independence from Spain in 1581.
The two countries tried to invade territories already occupied in Brazil, but were expelled by the Portuguese. France established colonies in part of the current territory of Canada and in Haiti.
The Netherlands, on the other hand, explored the area that today corresponds to New York City.
Learn more at:
- Equinoctial France
- Antarctic France
- Battle of the Guararapes
- Dutch Invasions
