Free Custom «American Colonial Period» Essay Paper

The American Colonial Period refers to the time in the ancient American history during the colonial times and other important events that led to the famous American Revolutionary War and constitution establishment. During this era of colonialism, most of the settlers and colonists arrived from different parts of Europe in search for their religious freedom and other wealth grabbing opportunities. It is important to note that some of their old laws and regulations from Europe governed the newcomers. The new laws and regulation systems led to an oppressive regime that most of civilians rebelled. The kind of rule led to anger, dissension and oppression to the minorities in the period of creation of colonial America.

According to John Smith, the colonial period took place in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries within a span of hundred years that cultivated a lot of animosity between different groups with different motives towards their migration and settlement and division of power and rule (Noll & Harlow 2007). The entire movement impelled to a very powerful and diverse motivations from different groups of individuals that led to the built of nations and other powerful city-states out of wilderness leading to the American content and other revolution movement all over the world. The most necessity of the colonial America was the entire projection of Europe to what is currently like the modern world and civilization.

Therefore, the present America is a product of varied ideas of European people, their impact, national characteristics and above all, varied customs. Successive groups of different people like the Scots, Germans, Frenchmen and others came across the Atlantic. As such, most of European nations invaded America with the purpose of increasing their wealth. They also wanted to broaden their general influence concerning the rest of the world’s affairs. In 1950, England established a very dominant presence along the Atlantic coast after founding its first colony. There is the allegation that most of the people in the American colonial period were escaping religion persecution and other systems of oppression from their leaders (Noll & Harlow 2007).

Most of the colonists depended on American new world’s grains to help them from starvation while others started trading on some of the available products like tobacco for their upkeep and maintenance. During the early seventeenth century, the enslaved Africans increased the growing percentage of the entire colonial population. At this period there were more than two million people living and working in the American colonies. As such, it is important to note that the entire colonial history of Americans normally covers all the history regarding the early European settlements starting from American colonization up to their incorporation of the United States. During this historic period, the death rate of people under the colonial oppression systems was too high. The new continent was further endowed by the nature of trade that took place during that era.

The colonial settlers settled down in thirteen colonies facing many hardships like spending most of their winters in the thin and cold war of night. Most of them fell hungry and sick due to the hardship in adapting to the new climatic and environmental changes within their new colonies. Most of them died thus weakening their forces and calling for more medical attention. This led to increased expenditures that further strained the course for colonialism. It is important to note that life in most of American colonies centered under the basic principle of family. Therefore, a large family proved to be adequate during the colonial period as this ensured all sorts of work carried out by the family members. The colonial period depended on the family labor for provision of most of their households and other basic needs (Burgett & Hendler 2007).

However, the colonial period is more abundant in its primary source of the world’s most influential people who worked hand in hand in shaping the current society through their radical questioning of the past occurrences and beliefs. Some of the most important people in the American colonial period include Martin Luther who covered a great distance in leading the protestant reformation (Calhoun 2004). Another great man during the American Colonial Period was John Calvin who worked very hard to spearhead the idea of predestination. There was a mixture of a big number of religious denominations and mixed reactions from all the occupants of America. As such, the puritans strictly believed in the word of Bible. The Quakers inspired most of the people to join them in their friendly lifestyle and to avoid the kind of rule that most of them fell subjected.

Therefore, all the people contributed to the modern society braving the face of adversity and bringing different people together from different diversities to what is called the present civilization. As such, it is evident that most of the Americans during the colonial period were concerned with matters about their religious standards and conscience. Most of the people focused on their life around religion and things that they thought were either right or wrong according to their understanding of the Holy Book. In the majority of English schools, death and religion were the principal themes, and every individual had to learn about the ways of living and believed in life after death (Burgett & Hendler 2007). Most of them believed they were duty bound to their Creator in many ways and they were supposed to live and interact with each other in a manner to depict their salvations.

One of the evident features about the colonial period in America was the existence of a considerable diversity. For instance, the diversity of its population was the main distinguishing characteristic of the entire American society. As such, the majority of American population consisted of African Americans who came to the continent due to the then slavery and forced labor. Such diversities really affected the way the Americans settled and how they traded with their neighbors with the aim of getting their daily bread (Calhoun 2004). Most of the settlements were established under the government directions, religious organizations, and commercial companies. During the seventeenth century, it become clear that the colonies were to form an important source of both individual and national wealth for the parent nation, which was America.

Most of the merchants during the American Colonial Period saw the colonies as one of the most important source of revenue, a cheaper way to strengthen their economic prowess, and to maintain peace within their borders. The main mandate of the new colony was to establish effective systems of trade and to look for other alternative sources of wealth to the entire nation. As such, most of the colonialists had guaranteed religious freedom to most of their victims in order to attract settlers (Noll & Harlow 2007). The settlers had a great advantage while it come to improving the economic prowess of any colony and maintain peace to all people within their jurisdiction. Some of them had to ban the importation of hard liquor and outlaw all forms of slavery in a quest to create and establish equal standards of living and peaceful coexistence amongst the dwellers of colonial America. The white settlers brought some change to the entire settlement, as there was room for development of both economic and social levels of living.

The next important feature of colonial America was the religious freedom. Religious freedom shaped everyday life of colonial America as sometimes individuals were not allowed to ask what they were taught and if so, they will undergo serious punishment. It is important to note that some colonies did not condone the freedom of worship while others restricted the freedom to only a selected group of individuals within society. It is therefore important to note that Christian values in the ancient colonies led to a series of many changes in the general events done by people in their ways of living like trading and other aspects of social life. To the majority of people, religion was the unifying factor, as most of them believed that there is a super natural creator responsible for all their deeds. In turn, trade appeared centralized in the colonies depending on the people’s religious values and beliefs. It was very hard for ancient merchants to trade in colonies without a reputation in terms of peace (Calhoun 2004).

According to Roger Williams, it was important to all the people to live in harmony and in a friendly manner (Burgett & Hendler 2007). His contribution to the American Colonial Period is still of great importance as he led to the formation of the Quakers church that encompassed the Jews who then were fleeting for the fear of religious persecution due to their faith and strict following to the Christian teachings. Consequently, this led to the major concerns of the American Colonial Period, as the rulers had to take care of all the thirteen colonies with all forms of trade. The religion in the thirteen colonies and systems of governance was also another major concern. The next great concern about American Colonial Period was the emergence of differences between middle colonies, southern colonies, and New England. It was also hard to maintain a smooth business operation within the thirteen colonies due to their differences in economic activities.

It is also important to cover some of the factors that hindered most of the colonialists in colonial America. Climatic and weather changes did not favor most of the colonialists, as they had to struggle to adapt to new conditions (Noll & Harlow 2007). Most of them fell sick while others died because of the extreme weather changes they experienced. Such conditions weakened their working force and further separated them rendering their mission almost impossible. Language barrier was another key hindrance to the colonialist during the colonization period. Most of the people could not converse in the required manner to the natives of indigenous America thus rendering their existence and mission very difficult. Apart from this, some communities were very hostile and they could not tolerate any form of intruders in their territories. The terrain was not so friendly to most of the colonists and most of them relied on their guides to take them across. In case they got lost, it was so difficult for them to trace their way back.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the overall development of law in thirteen American colonies marked by free willingness of all the colonialists to apply all the elements of common law in their reign and a simpler way of handling matters led to the current development of the United States and the modern civilization. Most of colonial settlers moved from place to place due to the nature of their geographical location and settlement patterns. People’s customs, economic conditions and religious beliefs played a critical role in shaping the new law. Most of the people created governments dominated by churches and religious groups after escaping all forms of religious persecution and intolerance.