Imperialism In America

Many Countries have attempted to acquire land throughout history in order to become more powerful or to gain goods that are not available in their home land. Britain is no different. They started down the road of Imperialism, or building an empire. Schumpeter (1919) defined imperialism as the “non-rational and objectless disposition on the part of a state to unlimited forcible expansion. Imperialism is rooted in the psychology of rulers and the effects of surviving pre-capitalist social structures, not the economic interests of nation or class”. By 1914, Great Britain controlled the largest number of colonies and the phrase "the sun never sets on the British Empire" described its vast holdings. They looked to improve the economy, which was …show more content…
Jobs came in from needing people to obtain the gold and metals as well as to work the land. People took on agricultural jobs and did things such as raising animals and growing crops. Many people used this as a chance for new of work after the war, which left many jobless. So the went to America to find a new start. Religion was also a big reason for colonization. Many moved to America moved and formed colonies off the basis of religious freedom. They wanted to go somewhere where they would not be constantly under the king's thumb and forced to believe what he did and reforming to the Anglican Church. This formed the Protestant movement; a movement that inspired the founding of colonies like Virginia and Rhode Island. The main church itself also wanted to spread. Also with the new land, England was able to rid themselves of some of their prisoners. The best way of doing this in their minds was to put them on ships for exploration to distant lands. This was a perfect solution to a social problem created by limits of territorial expansion within Europe. The idea was that the countries could send these people to the colonies for free since they couldn't afford to pay to go. Then they had to work for a number of years, without pay, before they were free. In other words, this is how they started …show more content…
However in Britain it is an incorporated business with transferable shares and with shareholders having either limited or unlimited liability for debts of the business. Having joint stock companies allowed the crown, or in this case King Henry, to reap all the benefits of colonization from raw materials to leverage against Spain without having to spend any money (Wolfe, 2014). So basically, these companies gave all power, or at least enough of it, to the King so that he could exploit the colonies in his favor. He was also able to keep his distance from the colonizations so that relations between Britain and Spain would stay intact. Now he was able to keep making money and pay off Britain's depts without any substantial risk. The Charter also raised it's money on its own by way of “lotteries”. This was the way England played the game and they like it that way. Unfortunately too many complaints of being cheated ended the lotteries, forcing the companies to find other ways in which to fund themselves. The territory granted to the London Company included the coast of North America, north to the 41st parallel. As part of the Virginia Company and Colony, the London Company had a large portion of Atlantic. The company was permitted by its charter to establish a one hundred