history1301.4q
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- All three regions of British North America had farming economies, but they differed in important ways. Describe these differences.
- The Slave South had a plantation system based on slave labor, producing tobacco, rice, indigo. New England had an economy made up of mostly small farmers seeking competency. Middle colonies had favorable soils and climate. They exported wheat to West Indies.
- How were the Middle Colonies distinct from New England and the south in terms of religion and ethnic composition?
- They were very diverse. Ethnic and national diversity were English, Germans, Dutch, Scotts-Irish, and Swedes. Pennsylvania was a Quaker refuge and toleration was an incentive to attract settlers. The soil and climate was great for farming.
- Describe the basic elements of mercantile theory. What specific steps did the Navigation Acts take to give substance to this theory?
-  The mercantile theory says that there is a finite amount of wealth in the world and nations must get all that they can. Trade restrictions are necessary to maximize flow of goods into and out of the mother country. The colony exists to produce for the mother country. Also to consume it’s manufactured goods.
- What evidence supports the idea that pirates were not merely criminals but were instead victims of capitalist exploitation and, in some sense, working class heroes? Do you agree with this argument?
- The Atlantic working class was made up of merchant seamen and dock workers. They were multinational, multiethnic, multiracial people. Universally dispossessed, no economic prospects. All they had was only their labor to sell. Their lives were dangerous and they were treated brutally with low pay. They resisted by work slow-downs and strikes, desertion, and mutiny and piracy. The truth about pirates is that they were victims of capitalist expansion and exploitation. They were forced to live outside the law and their ships were socialist utopias. It was democratic: captains were elected and powers limited. Also, it was egalitarian(everyone was equal): booty was divided evenly among crew. The Golden Age of Piracy was in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Pirates were tolerated and encouraged as long as they attacked Spanish. When they turned on English ships they were hunted like dogs. The Naval power, military tribunals, and offers of amnesty largely put an end to piracy by 1720.