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Similarities and differences among paths to independence of Virginia and Massachusetts
Similarities and differences among paths to independence of Virginia and Massachusetts
The different paths taken by Virginia and Massachusetts are analysed with reference to difference between New England Colonies and Chesapeake Bay colonies because Virginia is considered among the New England colonies and Massachusetts is included among Chesapeake Bay colonies. At the start of 17th century, there was not permanent settlement of the English in Americas. Over the next hundred years, they were present all over the USA and no other nation was able to compete them in settlements. There were many colonies which were settled by the British and people were sent to populate these areas. People came to work in tobacco fields. These colonies proved to be a welcoming place for those who faced poverty at their homes. People settling at Massachusetts were from pious puritan families who wanted to live according to their religious beliefs and demands from their religious scriptures. One major difference between these two sets of colonies was their cultures. In the Northern part, many historians wrote that Americans would find huge bounties over there. They hoped that there will be some profit out of colonization for them whether by import of raw materials or providing new markets for English goods. In Chesapeake Bay, Virginia and Maryland were established keeping in view commercial aspects. These settlers hoped to find gold but they soon found that growing tobacco is the only way to earn money in this area. A very different group of people settled in the cold climate and rocky areas of New England who were more affected by the religious thoughts and motives. These people had come after crossing Atlantic river along with their families and children. Their aim was to build a new English Israel where they will be able to take on their religious beliefs and actions. They wanted to provide a model to the rest of Christian world to combat the Catholic beliefs. English at Virginia worked to extract profits from tobacco, these people extracted profits from church where each meeting of people decided what was best for them to pursue. The major differences seen among the North and South of America are dated back to the Chesapeake and New England colonies. Similarities showed in the problems faced by these settlers whereas differences showed in their aims and objectives.
The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland served an important purpose by providing tobacco as a cash crop. At the start of seventeenth century, King James 1 became the emperor and started to see as if the whole world can be used to make profits. This thought was implemented by sending Englishmen to settle in all parts of the world and also there was an area called New Spain for the Spaniards prompted the term New England. This marked the start of colonization in the world as countries started to establish their colonies all over the world. After this, there were many colonies established and Massachusetts and Virginia were the most prominent of all these. These colonies were formed by Englishmen at the same time but their aims and objectives were different regarding settlement. Virginia was developed with an economic perspective with an aim of developing tobacco economy whereas Massachusetts was developed with a religious perspective to counter Catholic aspects. These colonies were not far away from each other but they took very different paths to their independence. Virginia was not able to establish a permanent settlement in the beginning and took almost 20 years to be considered as a permanent settlement whereas Massachusetts enjoyed proper permanent settlement because these people had a clear aim and objective in terms of religion. People at Virginia worked for private benefits whereas people at Massachusetts worked for a common aim based on religion. People leaving England were motivated by religious betrayal to perform their religious acts the merchants took permission from the Massachusetts Bay Company to settle there and this company was also allowed to be settled outside of England. The Puritans gathered a status of a harassed minority and took full control of Massachusetts with settling their government in that colony. The decisions taken by these settlers represented the whole of their community and these decisions were also in line with their religious beliefs and orders. This helped these settlers in settling down very quickly as compared to settlers at Virginia. Settlement at Virginia was initiated to counter the settlement of people in New Spain. The investors involved in sending these people to Virginia were basically traders and they wanted to expand their trade out of the English borders. They wanted to develop a wider market for English goods so that they can increase their sales. Their major aim was to extract reasonable profits from their investment in this settlement.
There was considerable interactions between native people and new comers when the latter arrived in new areas. There were much more problems faced by the Virginian settlers as compared to people settling in Massachusetts. In the Chesapeake Bay, Englishmen were attacked by a group of Indians at night. These attackers crept closer and closer to these Englishmen and escaped towards the mountainous areas. This attack was followed by many other clashes between the Englishmen and Native Americans in Virginia. The major threat for American was an Algonquian Indian Chief named Powhatan whose men engaged in fights with Englishmen for weeks at a given point in time CITATION OER16 \l 1033 (OER Services, 2016). There were incidents where settlers were disturbed by various diseases and had nothing to eat. This was the time when fights between them and natives reduced. By the mid of 1606, many people from the Englishmen had died one way or the other. The Indian leader and his men came to help the Englishmen with corn as a source of food. Unlike these settlers, there were very less encounters between Englishmen and Indians in Massachusetts area. The main reason was that plague had killed most of the local population before the Englishmen arrived here. The local people who were left over became friends with these Englishmen and helped them to settle there. There were different sort of issues faced by the English settlers in Massachusetts. There were deadly attacks of diseases on these people killing a large number of people at the same time. Around 200 men lost their lives due to various diseases. Although these deaths were less than people killed in Virginia but this was also a considerable number of people. By 1620, Virginia had weathered the various problems and settlers started to feel as if they are permanent residents. By 1619, there was a governor, council and a House of Burgesses. Economic stability resulted from tobacco economy. The political aspects of Massachusetts were different because it was led by some learned ministers who had studied at Cambridge or Oxford but they were deprived of any careers in England because they questioned acts of their respective Churches.
The English were late to form their colonies and established stable settlements in the 1600’s after many unsuccessful attempts in the 1500s. The major successes for English were Jamestown in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620. Both colonies faced different circumstances including fight with the native people and natural outbreak of diseases. These people were almost driven back by the war with King Philip from 1675 to 1676.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY OER Services. (2016). https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/english-settlements-in-america/. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/english-settlements-in-america/
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