During the late 16th century and into the 17th century, European nations rapidly colonized the newly discovered Americas. Two of the regions included the Chesapeake and the New England areas which both had very separate and unique identities. Both of these settlements were populated by the English and brought flocks of people from England seeking a better life while retaining the English culture. In addition, both colonies faced conflict with the Native Americans in the area while establishing their settlements. New England was involved in the Pequot War while the settlers of Chesapeake had conflicts with the Powhatan Confederacy.
Colonists were provided with even more reason to practice their religion and continue their work in America for a better, more liberated life. England's success at colonizing, what would become the United States, was due in large part to its use of charter companies. Charter companies were groups of stockholders, usually merchants and wealthy land owners, who sought personal economic gain. While the private sector financed the companies, the King provided each project with a charter conferring economic rights as well as political authority. The colonies generally did not show quick profits.
Englishmen saw the Chesapeake as a place to make profit. Despite originating from the same area, New England and the Chesapeake evolved into two distinct societies at two different rates. Although New England and the Chesapeake regions were settled largely by people of English origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two distinct societies due to demographic, motivational, political, and geographical differences. From the beginning New England and Chesapeake settlers started off creating their colonies disparately. Unlike Puritans of New England, settlers destined for the Chesapeake region migrated individually.
Unlike New England, the Chesapeake region developed a society that was not primarily dependent on religion; most of these people came to America to seek economic prosperity. From the beginning, New England and the Chesapeake region were deviating, which was caused mostly by the fact that settlers developed a society around different goals– that is developing a religious, communal society in New England and seeking gold or cultivating crops for economic prosperity in Chesapeake; in addition, different climate and response to economic gap also contributed to the regions’ differences. New England maintained a strong, communal identity while the Chesapeake remained widely scattered. When New England settlers first arrived, they had strong ties to religion. John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, emphasized in his sermon that they were to be “a city upon a hill”, where everyone can see them and can be represented as a model Christian community (Doc A), which would also shame England into truly reforming the Church of England.
Communities were divided geographically but they were also separated politically and socially. Salem was divided into two different parts: Salem Village and Salem Town. Salem Village residents were mostly poor famers while residents of Salem Town were wealthy merchants and successful people. Salem Village tried to attain independence from Salem Town. The people of Salem Town continued to prosper but farmers from Salem Village believed that their growing prosperity threatened their Puritan values.
A.P.U.S.H History FRQ 1 The Massachusetts Bay colony and the Virginia colony developed into drastically different colonies. Although one may observe similarities into the two colonies progression, ideals, or trends, such as hope and opportunity for success in the new world, in many ways the advancement differed. Economically, the two colonies differed greatly on the types of reliable and profitable income sources. As a result, the two different colonies attracted different types of people with contrasting values and skill-sets. Socially, the two colonies were molded by different religions and beliefs.
They wanted to gain numbers to support Catholicism and show that it is the true religion. Because of this, they forced the Native American to become Catholic like themselves. They set up convents and brought missionaries to help convert the Indians to Catholicism. The Spanish were mostly interested in taking gold from their settlements. Their settlements didn’t last as long as Britain’s colonies because they did not have anything else to do economically after they ran out of gold.
In 1607, a boat from England arrived in the New World. This boat was full of men who hoped they could make a profit of the Americas. The English comforted their consciences on the belief that everything they did in the colonies was for the benefit of the natives. They believed that as Englishmen they had a right to claim the New World as theirs. The English believed that the Native Americans were not making the land yield enough fruit and this perceived shortcoming caused the natives to forfeit their right to the land.
They state that they wanted more land in order to obtain more money since in Europe; it was hard to obtain land because of the strict social system. But according to Madden, “Crusaders were generally wealthy landowners who sacrificed their lives and material possessions in the name of God and their fellow Christians in the Holy Land” (Madden, Thomas F.). In other words, wealthy people went on the Crusades in the name of God. This indicates that even the people, who had land in Europe, did not strive for more land in Holy Land. Instead, they went in order to protect the other people who had the same religious views and to obtain Jerusalem.
Colonists in Virginia were more concerned about wealth than they were with surviving and learning how to live off of the land. John Rolfe discovered a strain of tobacco leaf that sold well England, but there were still very few settlers willing to take the responsibility to start plantations and labor in the abundance of fields. Indentured servants became the first solution to this problem. Poor, lower