British colonization of America

British colonization of America

Many factors led to the diversity found in the British settlements in America.   More than simply for religious freedom, economics played a large role in the settlement of various geographic regions in North America.   Like the Spanish and the French however, the first successful English settlement Jamestown, was dependent on the trade of tobacco back to England for its success.   The differences in the settlers’ reason for moving to the colonies can also be explained by where they decided to settle.   The first colonies were built in areas that the colonists thought would best support new towns, and where the Indians happened to be helpful enough to assist the newly formed towns in survival.   “Both in climate and in geography, the northern coast of North America was far different from the Chesapeake.”(63) The south was a much more favorable region to plant and grow crops, for the land in the north would not grow plants such as tobacco.   It was in this line of reasoning that those who came to North America came not in search of trade and riches, but in search of religious freedom.   “It became a haven for Protestant dissenters from England, who gave the colonies of the North a distinctive character.”(63) Conversely, those in the south planted cash crops and were usually not fleeing religious persecution.
The Pilgrims were the first of the English to form a colony in New England.   They were English Separatists who fled England to establish their own church.   Because there was no land suitable for the Pilgrims in Europe they, backed financially by Virginia Company landed in Massachusetts Bay in 1620.   However, because most families raised their own crops and kept their own livestock, they produced little to trade with the Indians and were always deeply in debt to their investors.   Although it was not the financial success their investors had hoped, the Pilgrims succeeded in establishing the separate church and community that they had hoped for.
In 1629 many Puritans...