Aim: What were England’s motivations for colonization?

Do now! If you were a poor English man or woman would you be willing to pledge years of your life to indentured servitude in order to secure passage to the New World? Why or why not? (don’t answer too quickly, think about the question awhile)

Vocabulary: Indentured servant: labor system whereby young people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years.

Reasons for European Migrations to the

Americas in the 17c

Reasons for European Migrations to the

Americas in the 17c

(I)REASONS FOR MIGRATIONa. Economic1. Population explosion, high unemployment 2. Opportunities in the colonies (sugar production in West Indies, tobacco in the Chesapeake)3. Demand for labor in America2. Colonies provided an outlet and an opportunity for people who needed jobs

or who lost farmland (Enclosure Movement)

4. Enclosure movement: drives poor farmers off their land ( Landlords on English countryside farms enclosing their land for sheep grazing, forcing small farmers onto even smaller farms on out of a farm altogether)

5. Joint-stock company– Forerunner of the modern corporation– Investors pooled their capital ($), lessen their risk

b. Social

1. Inequality between nobility and commoners

2. Inheritance laws – landed estates go to eldest sons (primogeniture)

This meant that younger sons were forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

c. Adventure

d. Religious freedom: escape persecution