Colonies in America

 

The Spanish were the first to explore America. It was not long, though, before the English followed. Some went as pirates, and some as traders. But some set out to found colonies. (A colony is a group of people who make new lives in a far-off part of the world.)

 

Rich men invested in colonies. They put up money for the ships and supplies. They hoped to make profits from the clothes, nails, guns, etc. which they would ship to America for the settlers to buy. And more profits would come from the goods the settlers sent home for sale.

 

The settlers risked shipwreck, disease, famine, and attacks by the native people whose land they were taking. But land was cheap in the colonies, or even free, so most settlers soon had farms of their own. Some people hoped to find gold or adventure. Many Puritans went to America for freedom to worship as they wished. But some settlers had no choice - seven years' hard labour in the colonies was the punishment for quite small crimes.

 

The first English colony was founded in Virginia in 1607. The first Puritans came to New England, further north, soon after. As more settlers arrived the colonies spread and new ones were started. In 1664 the English took over a Dutch colony and named it New York. By 1750, the British controlled most of North America's east coast.

 

In New England and New York, the settlers were farmers and fishermen. In Virginia, they learned to grow tobacco. (Smoking was a new habit in Europe, and tobacco was much in demand.) Rich 'planters' came over from England and bought up big estates. Convicts and, after 1700, black slaves, worked the land for them. The planters made fortunes. So did the merchants of Bristol and Glasgow who shipped and cured the tobacco.

 

Walter Robson: Crown, Parliament and People; Oxford University Press, 1992/2002, page 70 f.