Answer:
Although there are several factors, inherent to the circumstances and situations that were faced by European settlers in the North American colonies, which eventually led to a differentiation in the way that life was seen, and lived, by both Americans and their European counterparts, essentially Gary Nash, in his "The Transformation of European Society" essay, proposes two main ones: first, the economical opportunities that the settlers in the New World found given the amount of territories, and resources, that were free of any government control, and which were ripe for the taking and exploiting, and the second, that these opportunities to become rich, also altered the social and political standards to which European settlers, and their descendants in America thereafter, had been used to.
These two, especially the first factor, along with some others, were responsible for completely changing the mindset of first, those who came from Europe to settle, and later, their descendants.
It must be remembered that European settlers arrived in America, especially North America for two reasons: seeking better opportunities economically-wise, and also a chance to escape persecution, especially of the religious type. When they arrived, these colonists found themselves in a land filled with free territories, ready to be taken and used, and also with an abundance of resources. Given that they had now reached a land that was free of the constraints that they had faced politically, socially and religiously, in Europe, and that the government in their homeland had little power to control them so far away, these settlers were free to take these lands, exploit them, and change the standards that had once been a part of their social, and cultural structure, in Europe. Now, even the poorest could become rich fast, become socially empowered even if they were not of the noble classes, and they did not need of their society to do so; the land was rich enough for each of them to gain its riches on their own. This fact drove grooves on the social-centered system that was a part of European life, and became one of the principles that made later Americans become ascribed to individualism.
