History Report

1) Historical reasons for coming to establish colonies.

-Southern colonies owned by Spain.
The Spanish empire at the time was one the biggest empires in the world. This made them feel
the need to open new trade routes and explore the rest of the world. So, when they set out to
find new trade routes to India, they were delighted to find that they had found a whole new
continent and a whole new people. The Spanish stood for gold, land and religion. So, when they
started moving north after taking all the land, they could in south America they set up colonies
for these reasons. The Spanish empire was becoming too big for Spain, so they needed land.
They did not have enough wealth to feed all of it population, so it traded and stole gold and they
were fanatic catholic therefore they set up colonies to convert the natives.
-Northern colonies owned by puritans
The Northern colonies where established because of religious persecution in Europe. The
settlers where British and although not part of a colonial expansion. They where mainly made up
of religiously prosecuted puritans.
-Middle colonies owned by the Dutch
The middle colonies owned by the Dutch was first New Netherlands and then continued
growing. The state of Pennsylvania was owned by a rich European family but unlike the rest of
the colonies the Dutch settled for the same reasons the French did. For trade and friends. They
did not really need the land or gold.

2) Natural resources and geographic position influence differences in economic development.

-Southern colonies
The southern colonies such as Georgia, Carolina, Maryland and Virginia are located in the most
fertile lands in North America. This gave them an agricultural advantage against the northern
colonies owned by the British. The southern colonies economy was made up of mostly cash
crops grown on plantations which slaves would work on. Almost no industries but cash crops
where produced and non-needed to be produced. This in the early colonel times made the
southern colonies the richest.
-Northern colonies
The northern colonies did not have huge fertile lands as the southern colonies, but they had
many industries. These industries made them a great resource for the British empire because
they built most of their ships. And because they did not have a large fertile soil fields they could
not become as rich and powerful as the southern colonies. The ship building was a good way to
make money for they where on the cost.
-Middle colonies
They had the economy of mercantilism which meant that they used gold and a balanced trade
to become powerful. The middle colonies where very much merchants and had the British
empire on their back for smuggling, this was followed by a lot of acts by the British to stop this
kind of trade.

3) Religious differences influence social and political development

-Southern colonies
 The southern colonies when ruled by the British empire where Anglican and had to pay taxes to
the church. This made the southern colonies a big player in the financial game that England was
playing. The southern colonies whereas religious as every other colony but as they became
richer and richer, they moved more and more away from the churches view of having little
valuables.
-Northern colonies
The northern colonies although where founded by people who were fleeing from religious
prosecution where very strict religiously. This shaped the world around the people who lived
there as they would be subject to persecution themselves from the churches. This caused many
radicals who believed in free religion to stand up and leave. This also caused a lot of fear leading
to the witch trials and later on Benjamin franklin discovering that lighting could be avoided.
-Middle colonies
The middle colonies where the easiest going of the colonies and had freedom of religion. This
led to many people all over the world coming and settling in the middle colonies making it a
hotspot for trade and many ethnic groups. Although they still had slave their slaves had more
rights.

4) The treatment of and attitudes toward women, slaves and religious minorities.
-Southern colonies
The southern colonies have a reputation for its very strong views of white Supremes. But every
colony in the Americas had the exact same views as they had except for one aspect. The slavery
in the south was a generational slave contract where the slave will be a slave until he or she
dies, and their children would also be slaves. This was mainly due to the racism that was present
in the south. Women where treated the same as anywhere in the world as second-class citizens.
And the in the south there was not a huge religious discrimination.
-Northern colonies
The northern colonies had the same view on the women as being second class people as the
rest of the world had. They did not have religious minorities for they believed in freedom of
religion. And they had slaves but did not treat them as badly as the south did and they had some
rights unlike the south.
-Middle colonies
The middle colonies also saw women as second call but as the north was had advanced views on
slavery by giving them some rights and did not have many religious minorities because they
believed in religious tolerance. But later on they would have many problems with religious
minorities especially Muslims and Jews.