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Compare and contrast the British, French, and Spanish imperial goals in North America between 1580 and 1763.
Ever since Columbus stumbled upon the continent of North America in his quest to find shortest route to India and China, the Europeans showed keen interest in colonizing the new found territory. The Spanish were the first to land in this continent with colonial interests followed by the English and French. The Age of discovery was seen by the Catholic Church as an immense opportunity to spread Christianity around the globe and their religious aim and the European colonization went in hand by hand.
In the year 1493, Pope Alexander VI, granted a bull giving Spain the right to acquire new lands in this continent in exchange for evangelization of the Native Americans (Haar and Busuttil, pg. 125). Thus the primary or rather the initial motive of Spain imperialism on North America was religion. Junípero Serra, the Spanish priest was given the responsibility of this mission and he undertook a series of missions to North America which was both economically and religiously beneficial to Spain (Norman, pp 111-2). The Spanish mainly concentrated on extraction of Gold and other natural resources from the hitherto unexplored continent and in the process involved in massive massacres of natives to stake claim on the mineral rich areas.
Seeing the influx of wealth to Spain from its American colonies, Britain decided to jump in the race of colonization with Spain and Portugal. It sent privateers in the year 1584 to capture colonies of its own. It formed its first colony in Roanoke and their primary motive behind American colonization was to seek raw materials for their industries. In 1607, England established Jamestown in Virginia as their first permanent settlement. The growing religious resentment in mainland Britain under Charles I resulted in many puritans fleeing the country to escape religious persecution and they took refuge in the new found colony. Also the majority of the settlers in New England were indentured servants who were thrown out of their farmlands to accommodate the growing trade of live stock breeding and to avoid overcrowding. (Deanna, Para 3-5).
The French imperialism also aimed at finding gold like the Spanish and also a trade route to Asia. They too attempted at religious conversions, with French monks coming and living among the natives trying to free them from their excessive alcoholism and cure diseases. The trade mainly involved fur (Adair, pp. 20-41) and since they were not on the lookout for cheap labor force they had generally good relations with natives. Settlers were mostly poor French men and women indulging in fur trade and their main settlements were Quebec and Louisiana.
Although these nations had different individual imperial goals, they had a common aspiration to be the dominant European power in the new found colonial America and this resulted in frequent wars among these three nations. The Indian war which started in 1754 later merged into the existing nine years war fought in Europe and as a result of the war, France suffered huge losses and was left with no major colonies in North America by 1763. The massive incursions of Europeans, who lived in close contact with livestock like cow, goat and pig, exposed the Native Americans to many new disease causing germs and it resulted in deadly epidemics like smallpox, diphtheria and influenza. These diseases caused huge loss of lives and eradicated almost 95% of indigenous American population in a span of 50 years in between 1518-1558. (Mann, pg. 87)

Works Cited

– Adair, E R. The Evolution of Montreal under the French Regime.” Report of the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association / Rapports annuels de la Société historique du Canada 21. 1 1942. Retrieved from http://www. erudit. org/revue/ram/1942/v21/n1/300228ar. pdf. Web. Accessed on May 30, 2013.
– Barker, Deanna. Indentured Servitude in Colonial America. National Association for Interpretation, Cultural Interpretation and Living History Section. Retrieved from http://www. webcitation. org/query? url= http://www. geocities. com/nai_cilh/servitude. html&date= 2009-10-24+10: 13: 36. (10 March 2004). Web. Accessed on May 29, 2013.
– Gerrie ter Haar, James J. Busuttil, Ed. Bridge or barrier: religion, violence, and visions for peace, Volume 2001. BRILL. (2005). Print.
– Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Knopf. (2005). Print.
– Norman, Edward. The Roman Catholic Church an Illustrated History. University of California Press (2007). Print.