APUSH Chapter 2 Questions

1.) What were the diverse purposes of England America colonies and how were the purposes
altered in later years?
2.) What features were common to all of England’s Southern Colonies, and which features were
peculiar to each one?
3.) How did the interaction and conflict between English settlers and Native Americans affect both
parties and contribute to developments that neither group sought?
4.) How did the search for a viable labor force affect the development of the Southern colonies
initially resistant to slavery?
5.) Compare and contrast the early colonial empires of Portugal, Spain and England in terms of
motives, economic foundation, and relations with Africans and Indians. What factors explain the
similarities and differences between the two ventures?

1.) In the 1600’s, the country of England began their colonization of the New World for several
different reasons. Around this time the beginning of what would later become corporations, or joint-
companies formed allowing for enough capital to allow for trips across sea to explore America. Also a
great population boom and economic depression caused many former farmers and the type to become
homeless. This influx of new unemployed sparked further interest to set up and acquire more land in the
New World. Among these people were those who wished to create capital due to their inability to
receive inheritance because of primogeniture, or eldest reverence and inheritance of parents. Over time
the goals of the colonies changed as they came under Royal control where their focus was shifted
towards plantations of tobacco, rice, and sugar. The colonies also became the new way for England to
compete economically with the Spanish and Portuguese.

2.) All of England’s Southern colonies were very similar with a few exceptions in each. Most
consisted of a plantation type economic system, an aristocratic rule, and a coerced labor force. The main
method of economic gain was through the growing and harvesting of cash crops which although shifted
in priority over time, mostly consisted of tobacco and rice. Virginia was, despite being the first colony
settled, one of the more uninhabitable places to settle due to its high amount of disease and insects
such as mosquitoes which contained malaria. North Carolina was the relatively poor colony in
comparison to its neighbors, but was more democratic and free of singular religious domination.
Georgia was one of the later areas to be colonized and became an area of border, or a buffering zone,
between the rivaling empires due to its location. It also resisted slavery for longer than the other
colonies.

3.) English settlers interaction with Indians was from the wars that occurred and trade that was
often pressured. During its infancy, the English settlers lacked the ability to really wage war with the
Natives and therefore were forced to both trade and steal as means of sustenance. Through warfare,
although many lives on each side was lost, the Indians often suffered long term effects due to the
contraction of diseases during combat which decimated populations and cultures as well due to the
deaths of the elderly populations in the tribes. The interactions both alerted both sides and made the
tensions grow stronger. Many unforeseen events spawned from the initial violent and nonviolent
interactions. One of which was the adoptions of horses by many Native cultures which completely
altered their ways of life. The interest in the other cultures items also became prominent where the
English sought after furs and the Indians, guns. The English could not have for seen their new challenge
in the New world where they would have to face disease and starving winters. Although not directly a
result from interactions, these circumstances raised such intensities as it caused more of a desperate
cause for the English to survive which ultimately meant in warring for food and land. Later such
problems became economically based.

4.) Initially plantation systems of the South were supported by the labor of poor white populations
that often had to pay their debts from their journey to the New world. However the plantation system
expanded far too quickly to be predicted and eventually a labor force that was both economically viable
and abundant needed to be used. Although records don’t state whether or not the first Negroes were
brought for slaves or as workers, soon their ability to work well in the fields ignited the drive to obtain
more and more slaves from Africa to work the fields. This was not always the case however. The same
system was once used with Indians. However the Indian population did not have the same viral
immunities or the conditioning to last under such conditions which contributed further to their deaths in
the plantation system. The slavery was still not really prevalent until the Barbados code from the
Caribbean was imported which, due to its success, was adopted, leading to the oppressive slave-master
relation that would later come to define the Southern area of the United States.

5.) The early colonial empires that settled in the New World were Portugal, England, and Spain.
Although all of the settlers all came to the same area, their motives and methods of establishing control
in the new lands differed from one another. The Spanish more or less followed the Portuguese success
in amassing wealth from the new lands, after uniting their kingdom through royal marriage. The Spanish
and Portuguese, rather than set up stable plantations in the beginning, were more inclined to decimate
the Native populations and extract gold and other goods there rather than barter. The English had
different initial motives. Although seeking to match their then ally, Spain, England also wanted to
discover a western route to the Indies. They eventually set up settlements along the North Coast of
Africa, where although they struggled greatly, were not so much interested in conquering the Indians.
This could be attributed to their lack of firepower but nonetheless, the English rather set up plantations
using either slave labor or Indians. Because the English did not come prepared with soldiers or with the
intent to plunder goods, the English ultimately ended up having to set up relatively fragile camps that
had to rely on a somewhat mutual relationship with the Indians in the beginning. This set up the English
future of settlements for years to come. The Spanish and Portuguese however, with their soldiers and
conquest motives, were able to go through wipe out Indians for means of resources.