Compare And Contrast Jamestown And Spanish Settlements

In this editorial, I will be contrasting and speaking on two settlements: Jamestown, the very first English settlement located in Virginia, and the Spanish settlements. Mainly, I will be focusing on the religious and economic aspects of these two empires, as I believe these factors were the two main contributors to the everyday lives in these settlements. Interestingly, these two settlements are similar yet drastic in many ways, such as its foundation of beliefs and everyday life. Regardless of this, both of these colonies have contributed countless ways to the economical, societal, and political aspects of subsequent settlements and colonies to come. The extent religion played in Spanish settlements was significant, as it was one of the key parts of their lives. The Catholic Church is stated to be “...the primary agent for the introduction and transmission of Catholic belief as well as European language and culture” (Colonies in North and South America, 495). Since the everyday life of a civilian in a Spanish settlement was …show more content…
The trade boom made Virginia one of the trade powerhouses in England, and it developed as one of the most valuable assets in America’s economy. However, Jamestown didn’t have such a great start. When Jamestown was founded in 1607, life in Jamestown was described as “bleak and miserable...full of disaster….disease….[and] starvation”. Only about sixty out of Jamestown’s five hundred settlers Needless to say, life in Jamestown wasn’t that magnificent. Compared to the Spanish settlements, the Jamestown settlements had to take their own economy into their own hands by growing/trading crops (while the Spanish settlements had the Catholic Church manage the encomienda system for them). These differing methods represented the overall cash flow and trade of goods in these two settlements, dictating the state of their