New England's Colonial Political Development

England's early colonies were private ventures undertaken ostensibly with the approval of the Crown. This approach differed sharply from that of other A European country, especially Spain, but it was dictated by the peculiar circumstances of England's development in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Crown was committed to expansion, wealth, and the pursuit of national glory, but the royal treasury was too small to make these dreams become reality. Moreover, the Tudors and early …

…what, constituents or special interests? Despite the evidence amassed to show how many white male colonials could and did vote, even more evidence demonstrates that colonials voted for their "betters" and exerted little if any control over what their representatives did while they sat in the assembly. Assemblies were dominated by the rich and well-born who acted, in theory, for the welfare of the whole, but who in practice did pretty much what they wanted.