Aim: Why did the English establish colonies in America?

1497 John Cabot reaches North America and claims it for England

1607 First permanent English settlement established at Jamestown, VA

I. Reasons for the English migration to America

Explain the economic, religious, and political reasons driving the English to

pursue a colonial empire in North America

A. Economic

• 1. desire for profit– a. joint stock companies (London Company) raised

funds necessary to establish colonies; investors would share profits

– b. cheap land (some companies offered free land to those bringing families or paying passage of others)

• 2. unemployment in England– a. population increases (16th c)—competition for jobs

and land– b. Enclosure Acts (16th-17th c) allowed large landowners

to fence in land that had once been public property—small farmers forced off land

– c. imprisonment for debt increased (GA founded in 1732 as refuge for debtors)

– d. indentured servants—worked 7 years in America for person who paid their passage

– e. high taxes and inflation

B. Religious

• 1. All Englishmen had to support Anglican Church (Church of England) which had been established by Henry VIII in 1534

• 2. “dissenters” (such as Puritans, Separatists, Quakers, etc.) punished– a. Puritans wanted to reform Anglican Church to remove all traces

of Catholicism– b. Separatists wanted to start their own church—fled to Holland

and then to Plymouth in 1620– c. Quakers were pacifists—PA established by William Penn in

1681– d. Catholics allowed to migrate to MD which was founded by Lord

Baltimore in 1632

C. Political

• 1. between 1603 and 1642, relationship between Kings and Parliament worsened– a. “Divine right of kings”—the Stuart kings believed their

power came from God• 2. English Civil War (Puritan Revolution) 1642-1649• 3. Oliver Cromwell becomes dictator and Puritans

rule from 1649-1658• 4. Restoration of the Monarchy (1660-1688)• 5. Glorious Revolution (1688)—Parliament gains

control of government