Colonization Of America

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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We don?t study history because we make it, we study history because it makes us. That is why it is extremely important to learn how North America was shaped to this present day. It reflects the cultures of today, the different religions that exist, our strong economy, and the systems of government that run our nations. As soon as people heard about Columbus? discovery of the New World they had the dream that America was a place of unique opportunity; for liberty, abundance, security, and peace. During the seventeenth century there were various reasons for settlement in the thirteen original colonies of America (New England, Middle and Southern Colonies) that had many influential people that contributed to these settlements.

Utopia, a book written by Sir Thomas More in 1551, which described society on an imaginary island supposedly discovered by a companion of Americus Vespucius in the waters of the New World.

Though the Utopians lived comfortably enough, they scorned the mere accumulation of material things, and while all were expected to keep busy, none was oppressed or overworked. They enjoyed complete freedom of thought but were careful not to offend one another. True lovers of peace, they went to war only to defend their neighbors and thereby ensure their own safety. In presenting such a picture of an ideal community this book convinced many people of European countries that the New World would be a realistic utopia. 1 What they didn?t know was that they would be facing great challenges as they attempted to colonize the new land, challenges that would push them away, back to their homeland or ones that they would overcome and eventually build prosperity upon.

New England Colonies The right to colonize this area, between the forty-first and the forty-fifth parallels, had passed to the Pilgrims...