English Colonization Advantages

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It is easy to see that English settlers benefited the most from both colonization and the slave trade. Though others benefited, such as the Spanish, it was the English that initiated and had the biggest advantage with both of these movements. “The ‘discovery’ of America had produced both great ‘benefits’ and great ‘misfortunes’,”(Foner, 2). It was the start of a whole new world for the English with plentiful opportunities. It is also plain to see that Native Americans and Africans had the biggest disadvantage with colonization and the slave trade. Colonization came with great opportunities for the English. Some reasons that they wanted to come and colonize the new world included new work opportunities, spread of religion, and the promise of a new life. “The image of the New World as a unique place of opportunity, where the English laboring classes could regain economic independence by acquiring land and where even criminals would enjoy a second chance, was deeply rooted from the earliest days of settlement” (Foner, 52). This promise could be attributed to John Smith when he said that “every man may be the master and owner of his own labor and land” (Foner, 52). They also believed that they needed to save the New World and…show more content…
“They engaged in a particularly profitable trade with the West Indies, whose growing slave plantations they supplied with fish, timber, and agricultural produce gathered at home” (Foner, 80). Agriculture and trading was extremely important and vital in the New World. Not after long, it grew into a revolution of consumerism. It began with the new settler’s need for British goods such as coffee, tea, linen, metalware, pins, ribbons, glassware, ceramics, and clothing (Foner, 119). The growing consumerism would lead to bigger and better things such as the Triangle Trade route. However, none of that would be possible without the existence of

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