Colonies Dbq Essay

The 1600's were a time of global expansion, and the search for a new world where people could start their lives anew and have a say in the way their society was run. After Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas, countries began to send colonies to settle and establish a presence in the vast and unconquered land. The English sent some of the largest amounts of immigrants to the new world. One English group that came over to the new world was that of the Separatist Puritans. The puritans were in search of a new land were they would not be influenced by the outside world and could create a community centered entirely around their religion. After failing to successfully settle in the Netherlands, they decided to head over and try out the new world. The Puritans gathered in the Plymouth area of New England. Another group of English citizens that made the voyage to the New World were those sent by joint stock companies to farm and send a profit back to the motherland. They chose to settle in the Chesapeake region of the Americas where the soil was the richest. Over time these two groups whom were mainly comprised of people of English dissent, developed into their own unique and highly different societies with different values, due to the ideas that the groups were sent to the Americas for different purposes, they established different forms of government, and they featured contrasting economies, showing that a successful society can be grown in more than one way.

One reason for this difference in development between the two societies was that they were sent for completely different reasons. The Puritan people who came to the Americas were separatists who sought to establish a new religiously based community that could be immune from outside influences. While the Chesapeake settlers came to the America's solely to grow tobacco and turn a profit for the joint stock companies that sent them. These differences in purpose are evidenced by the lists of people who first established the colonies. In 1635, the emigrants sent to Virginia by these joint stock companies were composed primarily of young single men in their twenties who could work on the tobacco farms (Doc C). They were not sent with their families and out of the long list of emigrants, only 11 were women. This shows that the stock companies really didn't care if their colonists established a community and were only concerned with making money. The New England list of emigrants however shows entire families, most containing more then four people of relation, who made the trip to the Americas (Doc B). This is due to the fact that the Puritans goal was start a community of religious families who would work together to be successful puritans in the eyes of god. This is shown through puritan leader, John Winthrop's writings known as his 'City upon a Hill' speech (Doc A). Puritans were more focused on the community aspect and planned to use their children to work their land instead of hired men. The two groups different reasoning for coming to the new world is one major factor in how their societies turned out so different.

The second reason that the New England and Chesapeake societies evolved so differently was that upon their arrival in the America's their people established two very different forms of government. The Puritans as a people, loved to make rules, which is exactly what they did, even before reaching land in New England. Despite the fact that their rule making frenzy seemed unnecessary at times, there is no denying that they were very well organized as a people. They established a meeting house in their communities where they met for church as well as to establish rules and laws. The rules they made and the matters they discussed there were all with the good of the community in mind and helping one another (Doc D). On the other hand, the Chesapeake colonists were led only by their governors in England. They were solely concerned with their own personal success and did not work together to solve issues in their community. Their government