When explorers docked in the new world, and left settlers behind, they had more interest in searching for gold and in other ways exploiting the area’s natural resources than establishing a functioning society. This new world later became a thriving society for many colonists from through out England and other countries who came to seek wealth, liberty, pursuit of happiness and better opportunities. Along with the good also came with the negatives of revolutions and struggle to preserve individual freedom.
English North America in the seventeenth century was a place where entrepreneurs sought out to make fortunes, religious minorities and hoped to worship without governmental interference. The settlers of English American came to enjoy greater rights than colonist of the other empires, including power to choose members of elected assemblies, protection of the common law such as the right to trial by jury, and access to land, the key to economic independence.
Freedom in the British system of government in the beginning operated mainly by the divine rights of the King or Queen until after the Glorious Revolution when the English people decided to rebel against their government that ended the oppressions of monarchy. The Glorious Revolution please the English Philosopher John Locke, Locke was specific about the ways in which the power of monarchy ought to be limited. He stated that “The end of government,” he wrote, should be “the good of mankind.” Locke argued that the rights of individuals and, above all, the ownership of property found protection when Parliament’s rights limited monarchical prerogatives. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 this presented a more lasting importance in the constitution of England. Parliament passed a Bill of Rights in 1689 that ratified the revolution of 1688, ending decades of constitutional battles. The Bill of Rights affirmed the right of Parliament and guaranteed rights of property owners to self government and of the accused to the rule of law. The English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution affirmed the principle of representation not only in England but also in the North American colonies. Between 1607 and 1700, more than half a million people left England with a large number of men, women and children willing to brave the dangers of emigration to the new world. In large part, this was because economic conditions in England were so bad.
As English emigrants settled into the American colonies, they never realized that they would be subjected anymore to their English government. Colonist where outraged at their the English government because they were subjected to searches by customs and many colonist were outraged by the Proclamation of 1763 which barred further settlement on lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1764 the Sugar Act was introduced by Prime Minister George Greenville, the colonist saw this as an attempt to get them to pay a levy. A year later the Stamp Act of 1765 was introduced. For the first time, parliament attempted to raise money from direct taxes in the colonies rather than through the regulation of the tax trade. The act required that all sorts of printed material produced in the colonies carry a stamp purchased from authorities. Its purpose was to help finance the operations of the empire to which they no longer lived. It also included stationing British troops in North America, without seeking revenue from colonial assemblies. The Sugar Act mainly affected residents of colonial ports, the Stamp Act managed to offend every free colonist. This was the first major split between colonist and Great Britain over the meaning of freedom, and then came the taxation on imports leading to boycotts in Boston that initiated fighting between Bostonians and British troops that came to be called the Boston Massacre.
The structure of the new United States government vs. the British
