1. The American colonial period was a time when poverty was the norm throughout the world and wars among nations were frequent. The earliest English settlements in North America were costly in terms of great human suffering and capital losses.
2. The nations and city-states of Europe that emerged from the long, relatively stagnant period of feudalism rose to prominence in wealth and power relative to other leading empires in the Middle East and the Orient and quickly dominated those in the Americas.
3. Spain, Portugal, Holland, England, and France each built international empires, and England and France especially further advanced their relative economic and military strength while applying mercantilist policies. Great Britain ultimately dominated the colonization of North America and was the nation that launched the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the second half of the eighteenth century.
4. Innovations in trade and commerce, the spread of practical learning, new and expanding settlements that added land and adapted it to best uses, and falling risks in trade and frontier life raised living standards in the New World. By the time of the American Revolution, the material standards of living in the colonies were among the highest in the world and comparable to those in England. However, the distribution of wealth and human rights among the sexes, races, and free citizens was vastly unequal.
5. Although Americans sustained their long English cultural and institutional heritage, even after independence, their strong economic rise ultimately placed them in a position of rivalry with the mother country. The period from 1763 to 1776 was one of confrontation, growing distrust, and, ultimately, rebellion. Throughout the colonial era, the Native American population declined through disease, dislocation, and war.
World History
