Comparing English and Spanish Colonies: Motives Similar and Dissimilar 

 

Comparisons between Spanish and English colonial patterns demonstrate that significant differences existed. There were, however, notable similarities. Both nations used New World colonies to further their mercantilist goals. In the process of exploitation, both nations ravaged native populations, charting a long course of cultural disruption and destruction. By the late 18^th and early 19^th Centuries, both nations would lose their primary New Work colonies as independent communities emerged.

 

The Goals Associated with New Spain

 

Spanish conquest of the Americas began with the first voyage of Columbus in 1492. History books often equate immediate Spanish goals with “God, Gold, and Glory.” The exploitation of these new lands involved the establishment of sugar plantations, begun by the Portuguese in Brazil, turning sugar into the most lucrative commodity to flow into Europe. Plantation economies existed because of the endless supply of African slaves; 92% of all African slaves ended up in Spanish or Portuguese colonial possessions.

 

Gold and silver arrived in Spain aboard large treasure fleets, creating inflation and changing forever the monetary policies of European trade and credit policies. Silver mines, like the vast enterprise in Potosi, produced silver coins that enabled Spanish kings like Philip II to pay for expansive military ventures.

 

Spanish colonial efforts were the endeavors of men, unlike the English who came to the North American eastern coast with families. Early Conquistadores like Cortes and Pizzaro, were soldiers of fortune, seeking gold and eventually enslaving indigenous populations to work on plantations and agricultural estates. Many of these men took local wives, creating a distinctly new social class.

 

God also figured prominently with the Spanish. Spanish kings that saw themselves as staunch defenders of Catholicism dispatched missionary priests with instructions to convert native populations. The efforts of the Franciscans establishing missions throughout Central America, Texas, New Mexico, and California are well known. Until 20^th Century Protestant missionary efforts, all of Central and South America was Roman Catholic.

 

Goals of English Colonization

 

The first permanent English colony at Jamestown was founded with a profit motive. Not funded through royal patronage, the Virginia Colony was initially controlled by a joint stock company. Similar to Spain, however, most early Virginia settlers were male, young indentured servants seeking a better future in a land of apparent limitless opportunity. This was not true in other English colonies, such as in New England, that featured families as the norm in local communities.

 

Other colonies were founded by religious groups fleeing harassment in England or the continental wars of religion. Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, and Huguenots established communities, often after making treaties with local Native American peoples. Unlike the Spanish, there was never a concerted effort to convert the native peoples (notable exceptions might be the missionary activities of the Moravians among the Shawnee and Cherokee).

 

English colonists found no gold or silver. Rather, they established profitable enterprises in the cultivation of tobacco and rice, ship building and lumber, and New England fishing. It can be argued that, unlike the Spanish, these diversified structures reaped greater long-term and sustainable profits for England, at least until 1783.

 

European Wars and Mercantile Considerations

 

Following the English Glorious Revolution, a series of wars, fought between England and France, often included the involvement of Spain. Each war ended with the redrawing of colonial possessions. By 1763, at the end of the Seven Years’ War, Britain was in full control of North America including Florida (returned to Spain in 1783). Britain also owned numerous “sugar islands” in the Caribbean, mostly at the expense of Spain.

 

Although having had over 100 years “head start” in New World colonizing, Spain’s weaker controls and concentration on ultimately finite commodities like Gold and Silver (Potosi gave out into the latter 17^th century) affected the long term profit possibilities. In this, English colonizing was far more judicious and successful.

 

Sources:

 

Philip D. Curtin, The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex 2^nd Ed (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Michael V. Gannon, The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida 1513-1870 (University of Florida Press, 1967)

Hammong Innes, The Conquistadores (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969)

Alan Taylor, American Colonies (New York: Viking Press, 2001)

Published June 26, 2009 in Suite101 by M.Streich. copyright