Question

Why did early colonies have to look to the east rather than to the west?

Answer 1

Early colonists had to look to the east for a number of reasons. The first was economic. Most colonies, Jamestown for example, depended on the mother country, or more accurately on the companies that founded them, for supplies and financial backing. They also had to become financially lucrative for their backers in England to justify their existence. While some were more explicitly motivated by the desire for profit than others, all of the colonies in their early stages were to some extent business ventures. 

Another reason was political. The colonies owed their legitimacy (even the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose founders wisely took their charter with them) to the Crown. All of the colonies replicated, in some form or another, English common law, including the courts, local officials, and representative bodies. Before long, most colonies were governed by royal appointees, sent as the Crown's representative. Even the independent-minded Puritans were English subjects, and they thought of themselves like this.