Virginia Vs New England Colonies Essay

During the 1580s in the midst of Western colonization, France and Spain left the mid-Atlantic seaboard open for English colonization (Taylor 118). Between the 16th and 18th centuries, England established two major colonies: New England, a region in the northeast, and Virginia, which was part of the Chesapeake region. During the 1630s, the idea of colonization in both Virginia and New England seemed bleak, yet by 1700, New England and Virginia were respectively prosperous colonies, with populations substantially larger than they had been within that same century (Taylor 170) The disparity between the New England and Virginia settlements by 1700 stems from the colonies’ distinct settling incentives. The Virginia settlement revolved around the acquisition of wealth. Akin to the Spanish, the Virginia settlers who first arrived in 1607 initially searched for gold mines and treasure ships in hopes of rapidly amassing wealth (Taylor 118), and therefore no time was allocated to cultivating corn …show more content…
Virginia had an externally supplemented population, with a massive amount of indentured slaves to counteract its high mortality rate (Taylor 168). New England instead had a healthy and growing population with a regular lifespan of 70 years, while only a small amount of Virginians lived past 45 (Taylor 170). During the 17th century, New England received 21,000 emigrants as opposed to the 120,000 received by the Chesapeake (Taylor 170). This exemplifies that although both Virginia and New England had succeeded in creating large colonies, they had done so by different means.The essential difference between these two regions was that Virginia’s population growth centered around the acquisition of wealth, while the New England Puritans grew through a rigid and homogenous set of