A Comparison of Imperial Systems in the 16th and 17th Centuries

Though they were all designed for the purpose of establishing and controlling massive colonization, the imperial systems of France, Spain, and England in the 16th and 17th centuries were vastly different. There were many reasons for these differences. These reasons range from the philosophy of the country’s rulers to purely geographic purposes to the personalities of the settlers themselves. The colonial systems also had different reasons for their existence, based on the political situation …

…the port of Boston, and demanded that Colinists quarter soldiers. Relations had broken down nearly completely. If the Atlantic had been smaller, the Americans would never have refused to pay taxes. They would have known that government agents would swoop down immediately. However, the Atlantic was large, and the Americans knew that Parliament could only exert a limited amount of force remotely. In the end, it was distance that ended England’s colonization of America.