Term paper on Migration

The colonization of America has had a considerable impact on the New World and the Native population of both Americas. At the same time, the colonization of Americas conducted by different nations differed. For instance, the colonization of America by the British was quite different from the colonization of American by the Spaniards, although the ultimate effect of the colonization was similar since both nations expelled Native Americans and provoked the rapid decline of their civilization. The difference in the colonization of America by the British and Spaniards was, to a significant extent, the result of different goals and motives of the process of colonization.

At the beginning of the colonization, the British often settled as missionaries or took free land, where they settled. They arrived to America and found the free, unoccupied land, where they settled. As a rule, they settled on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean or on banks of large rivers, which could be used for navigation to maintain the regular communication of colonists with the mainland Britain.

They looked for the new land that was the major driver of their migration to America. Running out of free land in Britain, the British were just forced to look for new land in the New World. In spite of difficult conditions of living, they settled in America, where they could take free land without any resistance from Native Americans, who were not interested in farming as much as the British, and who could not just resist to the British because of their lower level of technical and military development.

In contrast, the Spaniards looked for gold and enrichment that forced them to accelerate their exploration of the New World and colonization of both Americas. Spaniards came into clashes with local tribes in search of gold. They attempted to take the gold from Native Americans and they conquered the leading civilizations of America, including those of Aztecs and Incas. Spaniards attempted to take as much gold as possible and the government supported colonists and organized government-sponsored expeditions to Americas.

The British had conflicts with Native Americans over land and trade. Unlike Spaniards, they were interested in the development their economic relations, farming, trades, and businesses in America. As a result, often colonists were not supported by the government but the British government understood the significance of colonies and started to use them as the territory of the military expansion of Great Britain. In such a way, America became strategically important for Great Britain, while colonists remained relatively free in the colonization and the government did not restrict the colonization substantially through specific expeditions as the Spanish government did. Spaniards’ only concern was gold and exploitation of natural resources of Americas.

However, both the British and Spaniards pretended to conduct the colonization as the process of conversion of Native Americans to the true faith. In this regard, the British and Spaniards also differed because the British colonists were protestants mainly, while Spaniards were devoted Roman Catholics. They attempted to convert Native Americans to Christianity but, in actuality, their policies were far from Christian principles.

Thus, the British and Spanish colonization provoked the destruction of Native American civilization, although the British were looking for the free land mainly, while Spaniards were driven by the search of gold.