Fernando Barragan

     Period 7

Between the settlement at Jamestown in 1607 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the most important change that occurred in the colonies was the emergence of a society quite different from that in England. The colonies differed so much from their mother country, England. They differed from religion, economics, political liberty, and self-government. That was the whole reason that the colonist had emigrated from England, to start a new life with change. The colonist succeeded on separating from the church.  They also were slowly separating from England when they outgrew their mercantilism system. The colonist were determined to be free, to gain their liberty.

Change in religion, economics, politics and social structure illustrates this Americanization of transplanted Europeans. In England, they thought that “the government should regulate the economic activity so as to promote national power.” The colonist didn’t like mercantilism so they stopped it.The colonist felt as if the church was invading in there personal life so they became puritans. William Penn states that Pennsylvania is “a free colony for all mankind that should go hither.” Seperating from the church was there way of liberty.

By 1763, although some colonies still maintained established churches, other colonies had accomplished a virtual revolution for religious toleration and seperation of church and state. An example of religious toleration was the Maryland Toleration Act. The Maryland Toleration Act is “a law mandating religious tolerance for Christians. It was the first law on religious tolerance in British North America and the Act allowed freedom of worship for all the Christians in Maryland. After a while it was permanently repealed but that was the first act of religious tolerance and the beginning of the seperation of church.

In similar revolution, the colonies outgrew their mercantilst relationship with the mother country and developed on expanding a capitalist system of their own. Mercantilism is the belief in the benefits of profitable trading. Mercantilism was enforced to regulate commercial trading, along with the Navigation Acts.  After the French and Indian War in 1763, the British became victors of worldwide commercial supremacy. So their policies towards changed and that intensified the British and colonies relationship. After everything, the colonist finished with mercantilism and went on to capitalism.

Building on English foundations of political liberty, the colonist extended the concepts of liberty and self-government for beyond those emissioned in the mother country. The Mayflower Compact is the first written document in US History to establish self-government. “That agreement, the Mayflower Compact, is important not only because it created a legal authority and an assembly, but also because it asserted that the governent’s power derives from the consent of the governed and not, as some monarchists known as absolutists believed, from God.” The Mayflower Act gave the colonist the freedom to not be ruled the same way they were ruled in England. Instead of using the consent of God, they are now using the consent of the new government they formed.

In contrast to the well-defined and hereditary classes of England, the colonies developed a fluid class structure which enabled the industries individual to rise on the social ladder. The colonies did differentiate from the mother country England. They changed their religion, econmics, politics, liberty, and self-government. That way they got their liberty from England.