The settlement of permanent English colonies in North America, beginning with Jamestown in
1607, further cemented the development of an already emerging and complex Atlantic World. The
convergence of North American, South American, European, and African peoples in the western
hemisphere was a complicated mix of conquest, trade, and religious mission. Spanish, French, and
English colonies existed simultaneously in North America, each with different objectives and different
approaches to the American Indians they encountered. Likewise, differences among the thirteen English
colonies existed in terms of their founding purposes, interaction with American Indians, and economic
development. England’s various North American colonies were, however, united under their mother
country’s strong focus on extracting colonial resources through mercantilism and trans-Atlantic trade
even though this objective did not always align with the colonists’ growing desire for economic, religious,
and political autonomy.
Emphasis should be placed on the regional geographic, economic, religious, and political
differences that existed between England’s Southern, Mid-Atlantic, and New England c
