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Push-pull Factors For Colonists European colonization of the Americas '''A request has been made on Wikipedia for this article to be deleted in accordance with the deletion policy. This request is being discussed to form a consensus whether this is, or could be, an article appropriate for Wikipedia. Please see this page's entry on the votes for deletion page for details. Also see possible outlets for removed articles. If you feel deletion is not justified by Wikipedia deletion policy you may vote against its deletion. Please do not remove this notice or blank this page while the question is being considered. However, you are welcome to continue editing this article and improve it, especially if you can address the concerns of those who believe the article should be deleted. Should you improve the article and address the concerns of those who believe the article should be deleted, please remark on this page's entry regarding its improvement. What were push-pull factors that brought colonists to the New World ? Colonists were first drawn to the New World by a variety of factors, but the most significant were quests for gold and riches, quests for religious freedom, quests to make a new economic start in life, and forced immigration to the New World. Although some colonists were influenced by more than one of these motivations when making the drastic and difficult decision to settle in an unknown land, most settlers in the 13 colonies came to America for a specific reason that is encompassed by one of the four aforementioned motivations. Many of Americas settlers did not have a clear perception of the groundbreaking decisions that they were making by endeavoring on such a journey, but a combination of several push and pull factors convinced a multitude to uproot from their old communities and begin new communities in a New World. The first large class of immigrants was the original group of Europeans that attempted to create a copy of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Some of the first Englishmen who arrived on the shores of the New World were in search of the gold, treasures, and plunder of the Americas that the Spanish had found when they came upon several of the native populations. Inspired by the conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large Native American populations in the sixteenth century, the first Englishmen expected the same when they first established a settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. The main purpose of this colony was the hope of a gold strike or the possibility (or impossibility) of finding a passage through the Americas to the Indies. In fact, it took a strong-opinioned leader like John Smith to whip the colonists of Jamestown into shape and convince them that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs and that he who shall not work shall not eat. Other early explorers such as Francis Drake walked in the footsteps of the Spanish as well by plundering the sources of wealth in the Americas, although this time it turned out to be the Spanish who were attacked. Altogether, there was a strong pull at the beginning of the colonial period to come to America for its possible imperial riches, but the truth is that these promises ultimately failed to live up to their names. There was nothing in particular to push these colonists away from England; just an overwhelming opportunity at extreme wealth. Although the success of these wealth-building attempts failed, they did establish the first permanent European settlements in the Modern day United States. The second group of colonists were those who came to America searching for either an asylum to practice a religion without persecution or a refuge to begin a new and holier settlement where complete theological agreement could be found. After the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and the new and seemingly radical doctrine of Calvinism, some Europeans began to drift away from their orthodox ways and think more freely. Many more churches and denominations thus formed, leading to greater disagreement and tension among Europeans on the whole. Severe persecution did occur in some areas, such as Elizabeths Protestant troops in Catholic Ireland, but it was mainly less drastic circumstances that pushed some people from Europe. If freedoms of some churches were infringed upon or if certain groups had to pay higher taxes than others, the agitation of that particular group was heightened, eventually pushing groups as large as whole churches to America. The freedom of unclaimed land was attractive to those who wished to escape from persecution, and with the help of a charter, groups then had a right to the land and a right to live in the way that they thought best. Some colonies, like Maryland and its Roman Catholics, were created as havens for specific religious groups, while others, like Rhode Island, offered refuge to any group that wished to worship, believe, and live in their own manner. Other settlements, such as Pennsylvania, were designed to guarantee safe haven for certain groups (the Quakers), but were opened up to other denominations with complete freedom of religion. The stories of these successful colonies overshadowed the stories of American persecution (such as the Anne Hutchinson incident) and lured suffering people away from the Old World. Many of the other immigrants to the American colonies came for reasons that were not political in content but rather economic. From the beginning of English settlements until the 1680s, the main source of labor and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for new life in the overseas colonies. For instance, during the seventeenth century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake region. Most of the indentured servants were originally English farmers who had been pushed off their lands due to the expanse of livestock raising and overcrowding in the countryside. This unfortunate turn of events served as a push for hundreds of thousands of people (mostly single men) away from their situation in England. However, there was hope, as American landowners were in need of laborers and were willing to pay for a laborers passage to America if they served them for several years. This plan enticed many single displaced farmers who were looking for a way to start over and eventually gain property in a land where there was plenty. However, life was hard for these servants, who saw available land being eaten up by others, time going by very slowly, and work becoming harder. Also, the many young men could not find enough eligible women to start families with. Although life was difficult for these indentured servants, they added huge numbers to the national population and began to advance on the social ladder. However, the fourth and final group of immigrants to the British Royal Colonies in America had no such prospects of advancing or even hoping of having an improved or free life. Contrary to so much of what American liberty stands for, slavery in the colonies was mostly unchallenged and greatly widespread in certain areas. The South was the main center of slave possession, and South Carolina ranked at the top of the list of states for slave importation. In the case of the Africans who were bound, branded, and taken aboard slave ships, they were both pushed from their African homelands by coastal tribes who captured them and pulled to America by the slave traders that paid for them with kegs of rum. Unlike any other group of people who immigrated to America, the black slaves were transported involuntarily, and they were also the only group to face a worse standard of living in the colonies than they did in their homelands. Numbering four hundred thousand in all, black slaves kept streaming into the ports of Charleston, South Carolina and Newport, Rhode Island for a good deal of time after the Revolution. The only factors that contributed to the slaves immigration was the pull of slave traders who slipped chains around innocent necks and the push of coastal African tribes who looked to prosper from this trade. Many reasons drove the colonists from their homelands, including loss of farmland, religious persecution, and slave traders. The reasons to come to America were far more overwhelming, including the pursuit of gold, the pursuit of religious freedom, the pursuit of economic opportunity, and many others. However, the American people were rewarded in the end by receiving the rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. All in all, the American people did not come to the thirteen original colonies for one specific reason, nor did they leave their various homelands because of one specific anxietyrather they became one society by combining many motivations, beliefs, races, backgrounds, histories, languages, political theories, and loyalties, thereby developing a distinctly American culture that persists to this day.
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