Chapter 2 - A Continent On The Move

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Assignment Chapter 2: A Continent on the Move Chapter 2 marks the beginning of European rule within the New World colony in North America. While the economy was weakening in Europe, the nations sought out to follow Spain’s conquest of exploration and colonization of new wealth in America. The Spanish, French, and Dutch were the three empires which battled for this new wealth and better economy in the New World. From government issues to contact with the Native Americans, they were all faced with many challenges and opportunities during this time period in order to achieve this. The Spanish, French, and Dutch had many similarities and differences in starting their empires in North America. Spain was the first to gain early success in North America. With the mining of rich silver deposits they became the richest nation in Europe. The French and Dutch were curious as to how they were doing this so they both went to North America to check out what the Spanish were doing. As time went on, the Spanish had so much money that inflation began to occur. There was not enough available supply of goods and services in demand for the rising prices and currency was happening. The Spanish French, and Dutch all began to explore more of North America to compete with each other for wealth, control over territory, resources, and domination of trade with the Indians as well as the Indians themselves as allies or slaves. The constraints on which the choices of colonists placed on administrative policies were due to corruption. As layers of bureaucracy developed over the centuries, so did the inefficiency and corruption within government operations. Colonial officials ignored their own rules and failed to enforce laws mostly because of the shortage of labor. The acquisition of land was also important because of the growing agriculture to provide labor and wealth. This would also lead
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