¶ … English Colonies
Many Europeans viewed America as the New World. To them this was a world full of new expectations, opportunities and, for others, the chance of a new beginning. The success, or failure, of the early settlers was largely dependant on the motives and expectations that they brought with them, but also on the way in which they dealt with the problems awaiting them in their new land. Just as with the Spanish settlers of the 16th Century, the inhabitants of the first permanent English colonies, at Jamestown in Virginia and Plymouth in New England, came to America with differing motives and an individual set of expectations. Records appear to suggest, however, that in pursuit of their opportunities, the colony at Jamestown adopted an approach that was similar to that of the Spanish, unlike their counterparts in Plymouth.
Those who traveled to America did so for a wide variety of personal and economic reasons. Among the most common were, the desire for wealth, the quest for political or religious freedom, the setting up of trade routes, and the claiming of land on behalf of their native countries. The Spanish came, initially, to the New World in the hope of creating a trade route with the East, but concluded that America was a source of wealth in itself. The first Spanish settlers in America were interested only in exploiting the American stores of gold and silver, and the discovery of these riches made Spain one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on earth. This empire, however, was built upon the murder of native populations and the destruction of native cultures. In addition, while the earliest Spanish ventures in the New World had operated independently, by the end of the sixteenth century the Spanish monarchy had taken control over the governance of local communities, forbidding the Spanish colonists from governing themselves (Brinkley, 1993).
They reached the American coast in the spring of 1607, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up a river they named the James, and establishing the colony of Jamestown. For seventeen years, one wave of settlers after another attempted to make Jamestown a habitable and profitable colony, without much success (Virtual Jamestown). The colony became a place of misery and death, and the London Company was facing economic disaster. The initial colonists ran into serious difficulties from the moment they landed, because like the Spanish, the Jamestown colonists had no system of leadership or self-government (Brinkley, 1993). Additionally, with the colony being, primarily, a business enterprise, the London Company was desperate for a profit on their investment. For this reason, they encouraged the colonists to focus their energy on futile searches for gold and iron, rather than on developing the land and growing food. The company also had little interest in creating a family-centered community, and they sent virtually no women to Jamestown. The settlers, therefore, could not establish real households and had difficulty feeling any sense of community. In January 1608, with the colony at Jamestown almost extinct, Captain John Smith took control and imposed work and order on the community. He also organized raids on neighboring Indian villages to steal food and kidnap natives. However, still less than half the settlers survived the first few years of the colony and the London Company (now renamed the Virginia Company) was forced to send more settlers and large quantities of supplies to the struggling colony (Brinkley,…
