What Were The American Colonies

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There were various reasons why the American Colonies were established. The three most important themes of English colonization of America were religion, economics, and government. The most important reasons for colonization were to seek refuge, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. To a lesser degree, the colonists sought to establish a stable and progressive government.

Many colonies were founded for religious purposes. While religion was involved with all of the colonies, Massachusetts, New Haven, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were established exclusively for religious purposes.

The people in the Carolinas made a large profit off of sugar from Barbados, which attracted many settlers from all different cultures and increased
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Only freemen could be in these two houses, but there was more representation due to higher numbers of representatives. This was much like New Haven, which had a bicameral government as well. New Haven had a Constitution called the "Fundamental Orders." It stated that the 7 officials, solely from the church, were only to meet twice a year. Although the meeting times became even more drastically spaced apart, all free men could vote under this government. The fact that one did not have to be a member of the church to vote showed that the government was beginning to break away from theocracy and move closer to democracy.

The furthest developed government, in theory, was that of the Carolinas. A man named Berkeley obtained the land as a proprietor from King Charles. The Fundamental Constitution was set up as a balance between aristocracy and democracy. When the King gave the land to the proprietors, a bicameral government was set up. The governor was the head of the government. Directly below him was the upper house nobility, which consisted of freemen. Far below them, the lower-house assembly, or commoners, had power. Commoners finally had a say, in theory. The problems with this government were that the lower-house still did not have a say. The upper house assemblies felt that since they gave the commoners a little bit of voice, say, and power, that they should be able to manipulate the system and make a profit. Despite the many problems, the government of