¶ … unified cultural need to establish their dominance in another land is the most important reasons for the foothold established by the English and the Spanish in the New World. It is true that a plethora of different races, ethnic groups, nationalities, and cultures arrived on the North American soil prior to 1776, the year that America began its process of embarking upon its independence, of officially becoming the independent country of United States of America.
This begs the question of why did the Spanish (and Spanish Americans) and later primarily the English (and English Americans) become the dominant ethnic groups in the New World, and not the other nations that established settlements, for instance, perchance, the Dutch?
This paper will argue that the predominant historical evidence, as discussed in The Ethnic Dimension in American History and Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History as well as American Mosaic suggests that the reason for this dominance was twofold. First of all, Spanish and the English dominated the seas and the land, militarily, in the way that other European nations such as the French did not. English settlers in particular had religious as well as economic reasons for developing a cultural and sociological foothold as well as an economic foothold in the new nation. The fact that the British and Spanish nations were both more unified, had more mercantile capitol support, and were technically more advanced than their rivals, particularly on the seas, coupled with their greater need to establish settlements in the new land to ensure their dominance. It is tempting to view the English dominance purely as a product of military might, of course. But while this undoubtedly played a factor in the domination of the English and the Spanish, ultimately the reasons for British and Spanish were more cultural than purely military or technological, this essay will argue.
On a level of military technology the English in particular exercised military dominion, winning what came to be known as 'Prince...
The British also later dominated France and the still existing strong Native American tribes in what came to be known as 'King William's War' in 1689. In May of 1702, England declared
war on France after the
death of the King of Spain, Charles II, to stop the union of France and Spain. This 'War of the Spanish Succession' was called 'Queen Anne's War' in the colonies and the English and American colonists continued to battle the French, their Native American allies, and the Spanish for the next eleven years.
Militarily, in the New World, the English dominated the French and the
Native Americans the French had allied with. In terms of their
population, the Anglo colonists far exceeded the French. True, some French had fled feared persecution in their homeland. But the English domination of the land was so long lasting and entrenched in terms of the existing governmental structures, the French and eventually even the Spanish had no corresponding long-standing geographic and political existence from an organizational standpoint in the New World.
Despite the French alliance with the Native American peoples of the region, the British triumphed because of their superior technology, superior numbers, but most importantly because of the greater unity of their alliance. The Native Americans were at war amongst themselves, and the French, Spanish, and Native American coalition quite tenuous. The English colonists were united by pre-existing and stronger governmental structures, and also by a more common culture than their enemies were. (Ethnic Dimension in American History 3rd Edited James S. Olson; 5-30; 47-52; 62-66; 80-86; 101-108; 139-143) In
contrast to the French, the British's settlement's permanent footholds in the New World stretched back to 1620 when the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod in Massachusetts, with over a hundred colonists, when a permanent settlement was established in the New World (or the Old World of the Native Americans.) The Mayflower compact established…
