Making Profits: North American Colonies Essay

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Among all the factors that led to the establishment of European colonial outposts in North America, material gain remains to be one of the most outstanding seasons in history. This happened after Spain had successfully made a financial gain in Mexico. Every nation that scrambled for colonies in North America used different approaches to gain the interest of the local residents.

As the European colonial outposts explored the region in search of gold, they also had the interest of finding a route that was to enable them to access water that was believed to exist in the other content which was in existence. Colonization of the continent was initially seen as costly with no profits until an alternative means of wealth arose. Trade of animal fur and fishing led to the colonization of the region (Bulliet and Headrick 431).

New France focused on Canada and other areas around St. Lawrence River because the colonists had learned their lesson at French Fort Caroline. To be more exact, the Spanish massacre erupted, and many homesteads were burnt down and destroyed. It is approximated that more than four hundred and fifty people were killed in the fight, not including children and women, which estimated about three hundred and eighty people.

At the same time, many people were taken to prison to serve long sentences. Don Onate gave an order that all male aged between thirteen and twenty-six years to have their right foot cut off and be enslaved for more than twenty years (Vesely 24).

These cruel operations scared the French, thus, letting the Spanish succeed in their quest. At St. Lawrence, the French found new ways of making a profit in the new continent of North America. They started to trade in beaver pelts, whereby they depended on the Indians to carry out trade.

When Spanish experienced a political decline, which created a vacuum, the British and the Dutch made their way in to fill the void. The merchants, who led the Dutch government had wealth and influence over the colonies. The Dutch government followed a specific policy in economic and political relationships with the Native Americans.

These relationships were based mostly on the fur trade in exchange for wealth and pelts. In the struggle for dominance in the new world, five Indian nations joined in the Iroquois Confederacy including Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.

Later Tuscarora joined the group making the total number of nations to be six. The Dutch government managed to succeed in the region because the Iroquois Confederacy ensured that the African and Indian cultures well persevere. The Dutch’s main interest was in their investments and the profits that they attained from trade (Murrin, Johnson and Phurson 21).

England, like any other state, came in to fill the gap that was created by the power decline of the Spanish colonies. Unlike the rest of the states, though, England aimed at exporting Christianity to the new world (Murrin, Johnson and Pherson 29).

Later, the English government made attempts to make money by stealing gold and slaves from the Spanish ships, even though the English colonists later managed to create a joint company with the Spanish for private operations. Initially, England dealt with Ireland and failed in Roanoke Island (Murrin, Johnson and Pherson 53).

From the analysis it is clear that most colonies in North America aimed at making profits; indeed, they attained an impressive amount of money for their native states. The amount of wealth that the colonists garnered in North America enabled their countries to become stronger and more powerful. The profits strengthened their mother countries’ economy because the money was invested in military and industrialization.

Works Cited

Bulliet, Richard and Daniel Headrick. The Earth and Its Peoples, Brief Edition, Complete. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2011. Print.

Murrin, John, Paul Johnson and James Phurson. Cengage Advantage Books: Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Volume 1: To 1877. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. 2001. Print.

Vesely, James M. The Awakening Land: A Novel of the Rio Grande Valley. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. 2000. Print.

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