In the eighteenth century, the British Colonies in North America experienced many changes that helped form the identity of America. The demographic, ethnic, and social characters of Britain’s colonies were some of the major characteristics to be altered in the 1700s. The demographic character of Colonial America resulted in a swing in the balance of power between the colonies and England. In the beginning of the 1700s, a population that was initially less than three hundred thousand people, grew all the way to about two and a half million in the year 1775 (20% Black).
The population of the 13 colonies jumped from about one-twentieth to about one-third of Britain’s population. In the eighteenth century, the settlers that increased the population immigrated from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Germany. Also, in Colonial America, there was a high fertility rate—the ratio between English settlers and American colonists dropped from 20 to 1 in 1700, to 3 to 1 in 1775. In the colonies, there were only four major cities: Boston, Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia.
Due to there only being four main cities, there were lots of farm and crop area, and in result, ninety percent of the colonies’ population lived in rural areas. The ethnicity in Colonial America in the eighteenth century grew to be very diverse with increasing population. By the year 1775, the number of colonists with English ancestry may have fallen to two-thirds of the white population and to nearly half of the total population. The men and women who populated the colonies consisted of English, Native Americans, Africans, East Anglicans, Welsh, Germans, Dutch, and more.
The Term Paper on History of Latin America: The Colonial to Contemporary Period
The history of Latin America can only be understood in its relations with other countries and continents. Europe and Anglo-America play a huge role in shaping the history of Latin America from pre-colonial times to the contemporary period. The expansionist policies of colonizing countries clearly meddled with the history of Latin America. This is seen in the longstanding presence of dominant ...
Although the colonies contained a variety of different races, the main language of the colonies was English. Germans constituted about one hundred-fifty thousand, or six percent, of the population by 1775. Settling mainly in Pennsylvania, Germans belonged to several different Protestant sects, mainly Lutheran, which further increased the religious diversity of the colonies. About seven percent of the population and numbered around one hundred-seventy five thousand in 1775, the Scots-Irish were an important group. They spoke English although they were not an English group, and they were not Irish—they were Scots Lowlanders.
Over decades, the Scots-Irish, bringing their Scottish Presbyterianism, were transplanted to Northern Ireland where they did not prosper due to the Irish Catholics already being there and refusing to accept them. Eventually in the early eighteenth century, thousands of Scots-Irish came to America where they squatted on frontier lands and fought Native Americans. About five percent of the multicultural colonial population consisted of other European groups such as French Huguenots, Welsh, Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss, and Scots Highlanders. The social character of the British colonies in North America consisted of great opportunity.
The social pyramid was very open—hard work could see anyone rise from “rags to riches. ” Despite the openness and great opportunity in Colonial America, social classes still formed with three main social classes: The gentry, the middle-class, and the poor. The gentry was the wealthiest, most educated, and influential class. They owned large farms or plantations, and this class incorporated the merchants, doctors, lawyers, and ministers. Most of the colonists in the next class, the middle-class, were freemen who owned property, but weren’t as rich as the gentry. They were farmers and small merchants.
The Term Paper on Spanish Settlers in the V Century + Jamestown and Plymouth Colonies in the Vii Century
Spanish settlement When and why did Spanish settlers go to the Americas? What were the effects of Spanish conquest? -1492: Christopher Columbus had been searching for a new route to the Asian Indies and was convinced he had found it. -Effects: New foods reshaped the diets of people in both hemispheres. Tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, corn, green beans, peanuts, vanilla, pineapple, and turkey ...
The lowest class was the lower-class, or the poor. They were composed of laborers, apprentices, sailors, servants, and slaves. Very few of those in this class had the potential to own property, and very few could read, write, or vote. Colonial society from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century changed, and it changed in significant ways. A notable change occurred demographically. The population increased dramatically one with having to do with in the seventeenth century, most of the immigrants came from England, and in the eighteenth century, they came from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Germany.
In 1660, there were 2,920 Africans living in the colonies. A century later, there were 300,000. In the North-East colonies, New England, it went from strictly Puritanism to non-Puritans in the church. Two movements in the eighteenth century changed American religious, intellectual, and cultural life: the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. A major difference between the seventeenth and the eighteenth century is between the colonists.
The work load for the colonists was much less due to the importation of slaves which came to be twenty percent of the population. This was more relevant to the South where ninety percent of the slaves were located. Another major difference between the two centuries was that in the seventeenth century was most colonists’ needs were met by hand whereas in the eighteenth century they began specializing and exchanging for profit. By the end of the eighteenth century, life in Colonial America did not resemble the life in the seventeenth century that much at all.
