Compare And Contrast American And Spanish Settlers

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Despite differing in many ways, all the European nations that participated in the colonization of what is now known as America shared the similar goal of finding land to claim as their own and using it for their own unique intentions. The Spanish, for example, reaped the profits of South America, which included an extremely large amount of silver that temporarily boosted their economy. The English settlers came in different groups, whose intentions were widely unique to their situation. Two such groups, the capital-centered settlers of Virginia and the religious-based New Englanders, had very different goals, which caused their development into completely different societies over time, despite their shared English roots. One of the main …show more content…

This. in turn, sparked rebellions, some more successful than others. One such rebellion, Bacon’s Rebellions (headed by Nathaniel Bacon), was the result of poor men protesting the unfair distribution of the colony’s wealth, which favored the elite. ‘Bacon’s Manifesto’, a.k.a Document G, outlined the feelings of the group of rebels. Once again economically centred, the society described in Document G is a stark contrast to how the New Englanders expected their society to be conducted. With heavy religious influence on the rules, the way the society ran is exemplified in Document E, titled ‘Wage and Price Regulations in Connecticut.” This document calls out the ‘great cry of oppression among us’ (the workmen and traders). The purpose of this document was to set fair wages and prices, so that everyone in the community would be sufficiently supported. Once again, the not-so-subtle religious overtones in the way the New England society was run show through in this document, which talks of how the court “in the interim recommends [that] all tradesmen and laborers consider the religious end of their callings, which is that receiving such moderate profit as may enable them to serve God and their neighbors with their arts and trades comfortably, they do not enrich themselves suddenly and inordinately (by oppressing prices and wages to the impoverishing [of] their neighbors . . . live in the practice of that crying sin of oppression, but avoid