Chesapeake Bay Region And New England example essay topic

During the 17th century, major European countries such as England, Spain, France, and Portuguese was looking to the New World as a place where wealth could be obtained. Many private companies funded expeditions to colonize America and find gold. But as colonist arrived, the eastern region of North America divided and developed into the Chesapeake Bay region and New England. Differences emerged between the two colonies occurred because of the different people who settled there, their intentions for settlement, and the area in which they occupied.

The colonization of Jamestown began in 1607 when England settlers arrived in Virginia. The area of Virginia and Maryland would come to be known as the Chesapeake Bay. Most settlers were young men who came to America in hopes of gaining wealth. With only a male population, a domestic setting was virtually impossible. Therefore there was no real feeling of permanence.

Population growth was very steady in the beginning. Only after the London Company sent women to Jamestown did the population increase. New England settlers became residents in Massachusetts and Connecticut. These settlers were quite different from the Virginians in that they came in families.

The settlements with households served the settlers well and they were well on their way to becoming a well-established community. Population also increased continually and the colonies became a close community with a sense of security and stability. Unlike the frequent conflicts between the Indians and settlements in the Chesapeake region, settlers in New England were able to get along with the Indians and survived the first winter with their help. When the London Company launched the expedition to colonize Jamestown, their only ambition was to find gold.

But the area in which the settlers colonized was in fact devoid of the precious metal and therefore they needed to resort to other ways of gaining wealth. Farmers of the region soon discover tobacco from the Indians and started to plant it. The planters that grew the addictive plants did in fact gain money from selling it, but tobacco wore out the once arable soil and left the lands parched. Therefore settlers had to keep moving inland. Because of the Europeans constant move into Indian Territory, frequent conflicts occurred between them. There were also internal problems between the settlers themselves.

Social hierarchy was set and the rich and bureaucratic citizens began to limit the powers of those in the middle and lower class. It was no surprise that there would be rebellions from the lower class. One of such was the rebellion that Nathaniel Bacon led against Virginia Governor Berkeley. Bacon did send Berkeley to exile but he returned after Bacon's untimely death. New England's intentions were quite different from their southern neighbors. Most of the early settlers were Puritan Separatist who looked at their new homes as havens where they could practice their religion safely.

In the Chesapeake Bay region, the area was swampy and many settlers died of deadly diseases such as malaria when they arrived. Life for these early colonists was burdensome and the powerful Indian tribes in the region only exacerbated their hardships. Farmers' inland would always be wary of unanticipated Indian attacks and therefore they lived their lives in fear of these raids. Indians in New England were not as hostile to their new neighbors in the beginning. The population of the tribes in the region depleted greatly due to the European diseases that were brought on them.

Early peace treaties were fragile and as soon as the English moved inland towards Connecticut, attitudes changed. The English began seeing the Indians as savages and the Indians thought of the Whites as inferior. Thus problems did arise later on and just like the Chesapeake settlers, the two cultures became hostile to each other. In all, the early years for the settlers were harsh. Both Chesapeake Bay settlers and New Englanders lost many lives in the premature stages of colonization. Though Indians did rebel against the settlers, they eventually gave up and both settlements proliferated rapidly.

Their settlements would come to start other colonies such as New York, the Carolinas, and New Jersey. Eventually, all their hard work and endurance would pay off and would create what is now the United States of America.