Question

Select from one of the following four major European exploration and colonization groups of America: Spanish, French, Dutch, and English. Research one of the countries of your choice by using at least three research sources, including the internet.

Using your research information, write a report that identifies the reasons for that country to explore and colonize America. It is important to think about classifying the reasons for exploration and colonization as either economic, political, or religious. Indicate also what impact the search for the Northwest Passage had upon exploration and colonization.

The report should be typed using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Your report should be 300 words in length. List your sources at the end of the report.

Answer 1

Geographic differences between the colonies played a large determinant in the types of political and economic systems that later developed. In their paper on institutions and long-run growth, economists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson argue that certain natural endowments gave rise to distinct colonial policies promoting either smallholder or coerced labor production.[36] Densely settled populations, for example, were more easily exploitable and profitable as slave labor. In these regions, landowning elites were economically incentivized to develop forced labor arrangements such as the Peru mit'a system or Argentinian latifundias without regard for democratic norms. French and British colonial leaders, conversely, were incentivized to develop capitalist markets, property rights, and democratic institutions in response to natural environments that supported smallholder production over forced labor.

James Mahoney, a professor at Northwestern University, proposes that colonial policy choices made at critical junctures regarding land ownership in coffee-rich Central America fostered enduring path dependent institutions.[37] Coffee economies in Guatemala and El Salvador, for example, were centralized around large plantations that operated under coercive labor systems. By the 19th century, their political structures were largely authoritarian and militarized. In Colombia and Costa Rica, conversely, liberal reforms were enacted at critical junctures to expand commercial agriculture, and they ultimately raised the bargaining power of the middle class. Both nations eventually developed more democratic and egalitarian institutions than their highly concentrated landowning counterparts.Dutch Edit
New Netherland (1609–1667)
Essequibo (1616–1815)
Dutch Virgin Islands (1625–1680)
Berbice (1627–1815)
New Walcheren (1628–1677)
Dutch Brazil (1630–1654)
Pomeroon (1650–1689)
Cayenne (1658–1664)
Demerara (1745–1815)
Suriname (1667–1954) (After independence still within the Kingdom Of The Netherlands until 1975)
Curaçao and Dependencies (1634–1954) (Aruba and Curaçao are still in the Kingdom Of The Netherlands, Bonaire; 1634–present)
Sint Eustatius and Dependencies (1636–1954) (Sint Maarten is still in the Kingdom Of The Netherlands, Sint Eustatius and Saba; 1636–present)
French Edit
Further information: List of French forts in North America
New France (1604–1763)
Acadia (1604–1713)
Canada (1608–1763)
Louisiana (1699–1763, 1800–1803)
Newfoundland (1662–1713)
Île Royale (1713–1763)
French Guiana (1763–present)
French West Indies
Saint-Domingue (1659–1804, now Haiti)
Tobago
Virgin Islands
France Antarctique (1555–1567)
Equinoctial France (1612–1615)
Knights of Malta Edit
Saint Barthélemy (1651–1665)
Saint Christopher (1651–1665)
Saint Croix (1651–1665)
Saint Martin (1651–1665)
Norwegian Edit
See also: List of possessions of Norway
Greenland (986–1814)
Vinland, known as Newfoundland (Partly in the 11th century)
Dano-Norwegian West Indies (1754–1814)
Sverdrup Islands (1898–1930)
Erik the Red's Land (1931–1933)
Portuguese Edit
Colonial Brazil (1500–1815) became a Kingdom, United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
Terra do Labrador (1499/1500–?) Claimed region (sporadically settled).
Land of the Corte-Real, also known as Terra Nova dos Bacalhaus (Land of Codfish) – Terra Nova (Newfoundland) (1501–?) Claimed region (sporadically settled).
Portugal Cove-St. Philip's (1501–1696)
Nova Scotia (1519?–1520s?) Claimed region (sporadically settled).
Barbados (1536–1620)
Colonia do Sacramento (1680–1705/1714–1762/1763–1777 (1811–1817))
Cisplatina (1811–1822, now Uruguay)
French Guiana (1809–1817)
Russian Edit
Russian America (Alaska) (1799–1867)
Scottish Edit
Nova Scotia (1622–1632)
Darien Scheme on the Isthmus of Panama (1698–1700)
Stuarts Town, Carolina (1684–1686)
Spanish Edit
Cuba (until 1898)
Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717–1819)
Captaincy General of Venezuela
Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535–1821)
Nueva Extremadura
Nueva Galicia
Nuevo Reino de León
Nuevo Santander
Nueva Vizcaya
Las Californias
Santa Fe de Nuevo México
Captaincy General of Guatemala
Louisiana (New Spain)
Spanish Florida
Viceroyalty of Peru (1542–1824)
Captaincy General of Chile
Puerto Rico (1493–1898)
Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata (1776–1814)
Hispaniola (1493–1865); the island currently comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic, under Spanish rule in whole or in part from 1492–1865.
Swedish Edit
New Sweden (1638–1655)
Saint Barthélemy (1784–1878)
Guadeloupe (1813–1814)