Comparison: How did the patterns of settlement differ among the Spanish, English, French, and Dutch immigrants?

Spanish settlement began in the early 16th century and was a massive and intensive enterprise organized, subsidized and overseen by the Spanish Crown, whereas English, Dutch and French settlement of the New World began about a hundred years after the Spanish effort and was a more timid and tentative affair; for instance, when the first successful English settlement in North America was founded —Jamestown colony in present-day Virginia in 1607— the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico had had governors and organized governments for a hundred years and when the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth rock in present-day Massachusetts in 1620, Puerto Rico’s capital city of San Juan was celebrating its first century of existence. English settlement patterns changed substantially later on and the Thirteen Colonies were very successful enterprises but in other parts of the New World the English —or British— built upon Spanish success. Jamaica was founded as a SPANISH colony and remained one until the British conquered it in the late 17th century; Trinidad was founded as a SPANISH colony until the British conquered it in 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars. Florida also started out as a Spanish colony, was taken over by the British at the end of the Seven years War (1756–1763), was returned to Spain at the end of the American Revolution —in payment for Spain’s assistance to the Americans— and was purchased by the US from Spain in 1819. Belize —British Honduras— was founded on marginal land that the Spanish Crown didn’t really care for in Central America. The Dutch concerned themselves with much smaller settlements in the Lesser Antilles and Dutch Guiana —present day Suriname— and the French, even though they settled over a much larger area, comprising Canada and the Louisiana territory, did not treat human settlement over such a large area with the same energy and dedication that the British did, such that by the time of the Seven Years War —known in the US and Canada as the “French and Indian War”— the entire European population of ALL of French Canada —not counting Native Americans— was only 80,000 and that for the Louisiana territory —again, not counting Native Americans— was perhaps another 20,000 AT MOST—at a time when the Thirteen (British) colonies in North America had a total population of two and a half million.

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