England's Imperial Expansion: Seeking Power, Wealth, and Security - Essay Sample

Introduction

The political motivations for English imperialism were to enable it to enlarge its territories through acquiring colonies in North American land which they believed to have a rich wealth of natural resources. Besides, the country craved to succeed in power by exercising control over many colonies, thereby achieving respect. Moreover, another political motivation was to boost security and pride countrywide. For these reasons, it was necessary for England to use its military might to acquire more territorial boundaries.

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The social pressures that led to the English colonization of North America can be linked to the high rate of population growth in England. During that time, the population of England almost doubled. As a result, people faced the difficulty of obtaining sufficient food, clothes, as well as other essential human wants due to inflation. The high population increased the number of people looking for a job. As a result, wages dropped drastically forcing laborers into poverty. As a depopulation strategy, the people settled in North America to ease population pressure in their home country.

The Economic, Social, and Political Systems of:

Massachusetts Bay

The people living in the Massachusetts Bay colony engaged in various lucrative economic activities including fishing, trading whale products, and production of timber products. Cash crop farming also took place which involved growing such crops as rye, pumpkins, beans, and squash, among many others. The people in the Massachusetts Bay colony enjoyed religious freedom. The Mayflower Compact established a free government in Massachusetts Bay, especially in Plymouth. There was a good labor relation between workers and masters.

Virginia

In the Virginia colony, the people engaged in various economic activities such as farming. The major cash crops that were grown here include wheat, tobacco, flax, corn, hemp, cotton, and oats. The people of Virgin were entitled to worship in the Anglican Church. Besides, they were also required to support the church through paying taxes. Virginia had poor labor relationships. There was forced labor in the plantations. The limited self-government in Virginia happened for sometime before it became the slave society.

The Carolinas

The economic systems of the Carolinas depended on agriculture. There were numerous plantations. Crops grown include indigo and rice mainly for export. Forced labor was used in the production process. Hence, the labor relations was terrible between the slaves and their masters. The Church of England dominated, especially in North Carolina. Later, the Anglican Church also tried to establish. The Carolinas had a single government based Charleston. This went on until 1712 when South Carolina colony was taken over by the Crown and put under Royal Governors. North Carolina remained under the government of the Lords Proprietors.

The Major Ideas and Events That Led to the American Revolution

The following were the major ideas and events that led to the American Revolution. First, the British government continuously involved in the affairs of the colonies formed by those who escaped religious persecution in England, thereby threatening their religious freedom. Second, the British parliament established taxation on American colonies to sustain their troops, the idea that was highly undesirable to the people. Third, the presence of many unfavorable laws and excessive taxes on American colonies such as the Currency Act, Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and the Quartering Act made them stressed up.

The unfavorable laws on colonists inspired resistance in Boston. As a result, many colonists were shot dead in an incident known as the Boston Massacre. Besides, protests also arose against tax on tea, which made people dispose of their tea into the water at Boston. The incidents are known as the Boston Tea Party. As these events occurred, the unity among American colonies strengthened, leading to the First Continental Congress where they sent a request to King George III to repeal those intolerable Acts. However, the king did not respond. To send a stronger plea, the colonists boycotted British goods. The American rebellion caught the attention of Britain. British soldiers were commanded to disarm and arrest the American rebels, an idea that led to a fierce war outbreak.

How Various Groups were affected by Political and Social Changes of the American Revolution

The political and social changes of the American Revolution resulted in various effects on the native Americans, African Americans, as well as the women as follows. After the revolutionary war, the Native Americans regained control of their land on which the colonial masters occupied. The victory brought a lot of freedom from oppressive colonial laws and operations which limited their rights and freedoms.

On African Americans, the American Revolution resulted in the abolition of slavery for African Americans. This brought freedom to them. Hence, they were free to own resources. Besides, there were also significant effects on women. Before the revolution, women did not have rights and freedoms as their male counterparts. This restriction was overcome by the American Revolution, which opened the way for free participation of women in political matters.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Catherine. Writing North America in the seventeenth century: English representations in print and manuscript. Routledge, 2016.

Bonwick, Colin. English radicals and the American revolution. UNC Press Books, 2017.

Cogliano, Francis D. Revolutionary America, 1763-1815: A Political History. Routledge, 2016.

Harvey, Sean P., and Sarah Rivett. "Colonial-Indigenous Language Encounters in North America and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World." Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 15, no. 3 (2017): 442-473.

Shi, David E., and George Brown Tindall. America: A narrative history. WW Norton & Company, 2016.