4-2.4

It Is Essential For Students to Know:

• The thirteen colonies of New Spain, New France and the English colonies in New England, the Middle colonies and the Southern colonies developed their economies, religious emphasis, governments and life styles as a result of the people who migrated to these lands and the geographic region that they settled.
• All of the migrants to the New World brought the culture of their mother countries with them.
• The economic activities of the colonies were similar in that all three produced food for themselves.
• In New Spain, the encomiendas were large plantations that produced cash crops.
• The southern English colonies exported cash crops such as tobacco, rice and indigo.
• The Middle colonies had a temperate climate and rich soil so they exported foods to the Caribbean and to the other English colonies.
• Although the New England colonies had rocky soil and a cold climate, they also had thick forests so they exported lumber and built ships.
• New France also had a short growing season and their small population made growing crops for export impossible. Instead they developed a thriving fur trade.
• The goal of Spain, France and England was to make money from their colonies so all three countries practiced mercantilism. Mercantilism was an economic policy by which the mother country tried to amass as much gold and silver as possible through trade with their colonies. By importing the natural resources that were plentiful in the New World and by exporting goods from the mother country to the colonies, the Mother Country hoped to become economically stronger than their European rivals.
• Religious emphasis often depended on what group of people settled in the colonies and what had motivated their settlement (4-2.3).
• The Spanish missionaries converted the native people and established Roman Catholic missions.
• French settlers also converted the Native Americans to Catholicism.
• English settlers were mostly Protestants.
• The first settlers in New England went there to establish a model religious community so they enforced religious conformity and the meetinghouse was the center of activity in their colonies. Quakers who settled in Pennsylvania practiced religious toleration allowing others to practice whatever religion they chose.
• Settlers in the English
• Southern colonies established churches in their communities. However, they were more concerned with profit than with religion so colonists were free to make their own religious choices.
• The government of the Mother Country determined the type of government that the colonists would have in the New World.
• The Spanish and French kings were absolute monarchs so they allowed very little self government in their colonies.
• The English however had a tradition of legislative representation in Parliament so they allowed their colonists to establish colonial assemblies and govern themselves with minimal interference from England.
• The varying lifestyles, which ranged from directed by the governing body, to colonies established for second chances for members of the English under class were available.
• Settlers in the northern colonies learned to trade the natural resources such as fish and lumber as a cash crop.
• People from many different countries who came for different reasons settled the Middle colonies. Due to good climate they were able to develop large farms that produced enough to feed their families and also plenty to sell in the colonies and abroad. Each community had its own leader, made its own rules, and practiced its own religion. Many of the settlers of the Middle colonies were on good terms with the Native Americans. These colonies had large towns and a system of roads to move goods from place to place.

It Is Not Essential For Students To Know:

• It is not essential for students to know the names of all of the settlements in the colonies of the European nations.