Spanish Settlements and New England Colonies - 17th Century Essay Example for Free

Spanish Settlements and New England Colonies 17th Century Essay The Spanish began exploring America with â€Å"gold, glory and God† large in their minds. Cortes and the other conquistadors had conquered the empires of the South and Central Americas, but Spain wanted more. The Spanish explorers heard of great riches and cities built of gold northward, so that is where they headed, eventually arriving at what is now the southwest portion of the USA. The other Spanish goal was to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism. The British on the other hand, went to settle in New England to escape the religious persecution that they had to withstand in Europe. They came to America to be able to worship their gods in the manner of their choosing, and not in the way that their king or government decided they had to. Another reason they came to New England was because of the lack of jobs in Britain. So while both Spain and England came to America partly to gain riches, England wasn’t as blinded by gold as Spain was. Also, though both countries founded settlements, the Spanish were not looking to stay there permanently. They wanted to focus on converting the â€Å"savages† and stealing their gold and riches and getting back home to Spain. The English wanted to make a new home, though at this point they still considered themselves to be under the British crown, and had no aspirations to make their own country. Their reasons for coming to America were not all that set them apart however. They also had a completely different basis for economy. The Spanish bringing back as much material wealth as was possible to Spain to enhance the prominence and stature of their native land. England made their money by relying on manufacturing. They did exceptionally in the lumber, shipbuilding, fishing and whaling industries. The colonies were able to rade with England and other countries, and had amazingly strong economic development. Because the Spanish focus entirely on their materialistic holdings, their economy was nowhere near as strong as the colonies’ was. In the instance of economy, England was undoubtedly the prevailing country. The two countries also contrasted politically. The political system in the Spanish settleme nts was exclusively aristocratic. Spanish rulers controlled what went on in the New World and the settlements had little self-government. The people actually living in the settlements had to be the elite to be able to have any influence at all. The pureblood Spaniards were on the top of the social ladder and they had the most authority. The â€Å"half-breeds† who were a mix of Spanish and Native American were on the lowest rung of the ladder and had little or even no say in what went on. Though the New England colonies were still under the British crown and it’s rule, they had self-government to a large extent. Most of the colonies had a governor and some sort of representative assembly that were chosen by popular vote. Though the only people that could vote were white, male landowners, this was already a step towards the democracy we have today. The Spanish and the British also had different relations with the Native Americans that were there before them. The two countries went about dealing with the natives in dissimilar ways. The Spanish began to take advantage of the Native Americans. They looted their villages to extract as much gold and wealth as was possible from them. They exploited the natives and soon began to use them for manual labor on their land. The English had mixed relations with the Native Americans. Occasionally there was peace and intermittently there was skirmishing going on between the two groups of people. The colonists could not however enslave the natives as the Spanish did because they caught diseases and died too quickly. Instead they preferred to use indentured white servants that needed to pay off their passage to America black slaves captured and brought over from Africa to do their bidding. As you can see, even though Spain and Great Britain came to settle in America in the same century, living on different sides of the country and having different ideals caused their lives and settlements to go in completely separate directions. Their experiences showed how differently things could go with just a few distinctive factors in place.