10. GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES.—The English annexation of New Netherland in 1664, and the concessions of the French in 1763, left the English in undisputed possession of the greater part of the Atlantic seaboard. The English colonies in this area grew with astonishing rapidity. Cheap land, religious freedom, and the privilege of self-government attracted settlers from all parts of northern Europe. At the close of the seventeenth century there were 260,000 English subjects in North America; in 1750 there were approximately 1,000,000; and in 1775 there were probably 3,000,000.
Although in most sections the dominant element was of English extraction, other nationalities contributed to the population. Along the Delaware, Swedes were interspersed with the English, while in Pennsylvania there were large groups of Germans. Numerous Dutch settlers had continued to live along the Hudson after New Netherland had passed into English hands. Some of the most frugal and industrious of the settlers of Georgia and South Carolina were French Huguenots, while along the seaboard and inland the Scotch-Irish were found scatteringly in agriculture and trade. Such was the composition of the people who were destined to begin an unexampled experiment in democracy, an experiment upon the successful termination of which rests our chief claim to national greatness.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
1. What is meant by civilization?
2. What two conditions must be fulfilled in order that a nation may become great?
3. In what way does America fulfill the first condition?
4. Discuss the character of the early Spanish colonization.
5. What were the chief reasons for the failure of the French in America?
6. What were the chief defects of the Dutch colonial system in America?
7. Compare the earlier English colonization with that of Spain, France, and Holland.