Chapter 1 The Collision of Cultures Learning Objectives • Explain how contact between European arrivals and the native peoples of the Americas affected both groups. • Contrast Spanish settlement in the Americas with that of the English, Dutch, and French. • Describe the effects of the importation of African slaves into the Americas. • Define mercantilism and explain its influence on the European colonization of North America. • Explain how the English experience in the colonization of Ireland affected their efforts to colonize in America. Chapter Overview During the seventeenth century, many separate colonies were established in British North America. Before 1660, most of these colonies were private ventures chartered by the crown. These colonies were peopled largely by English Europeans, many of whom migrated across the Atlantic Ocean in search of greater opportunity, be it economic, religious, or social. After 1660, what were called proprietary colonies became the norm. Charters granted by the crown indicated a closer tie between the “owners” of the colony and the reigning monarch. By the 1680s, England had established an unbroken string of colonies stretching from Canada to the Savannah River and extending into the West Indies. Colonial expansion intensified the contact and conflict with natives. Despite a considerable and mutual exchange of information and goods, the colonists’ ceaseless desire for land led to a deterioration in relations with natives. Gradually, time and distance influenced the attitudes of colonists, who began to perceive themselves as a hybrid breed of both Old World English and New World Americans. As the colonies matured, the inhabitants began to exhibit a desire to control their own local affairs and interests that eventually would come to trouble the British Empire. It would also contribute to decisions by officials in London to tighten control over their increasingly independent-minded, not to mention increasingly valuable, possessions in the New World. Themes • The colonization of the Americas included a collisi