Help me out, DU: Which history essay should I write?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

I get a CHOICE (!!11!!1!) on which essay to write for Friday. I've done all the prelim research and whatever, so all I have to do is look up a few dates and throw them in. (It'll still take me several hours to do, of course. I haven't actually started writing. :D)

I'm leaning towards question #2, simply because it seems easier. :P

1) Compare the experiences of the first English settlements: Roaoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth. Compare motivations for the settlement, economic conditions, and race relations. What problems did the settlers face, and how, if at all, did they overcome those problems? What lessons did the English learn from their experiences in each colony?

2) How did the religious turmoil in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries influence expansion into the New World? To what extent did the European settlements in the New World reflect the religious beliefs of the settlers?

Oh, and I also have to find a way to tie in the parts of whatever question I choose to culture today. x( x(

[mzteris]

1. They both sound interesting

- though I think you're right that the 2nd one could probably be "shorter" and therefore easier done...

I think the 2nd one is also probably easier to tie in to "culture today"... And along the way - you might get to make some "talking points" about religious FREEDOM and exactly what that means.

[sir_captain]

2. What level of school are you in?

If you're in high school, I'd say go with question #2. If you're in college, both of those questions would require about a bazillion pages to work through completely, so I don't think it would really matter--whatever you'd prefer to spend your time working on.

Have fun!

:-( I miss being a history major

[mduffy31]

3. I guess I would go with #1

Because I think that there is some real potential to write some great stuff, but #2 sounds like there is some great stuff there too.

[Redstone]

4. I'd go with number 1.

Redstone

[Arkham House]

5. I'd vote for #1...

...if only because it's the unlikelier of the two possibilities, and the more challenging...I know you can't do more research at this point, but if this subject interests you, David Hackett Fischer's "Four British Folkways in America" is the definitive tome on this subject--and it explains how the British peopling of North America affects our politics and culture to this day...good luck, and let us know how it turns out--and what grade you get...:-)...

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Well, if you want easier, you should go with #1.

#2 is much more complex, really...especially since politics and religion were so intertwined in the 17th century. You have English Separatists, Puritans, and Catholics, who all came to America for similar though divergent reasons: members of all three groups were legally persecuted in the infamous court of Star Chamber (where punishments included things like branding and the cutting off of ears), in part because their refusal to be a part of the Anglican communion was seen as treasonous rejection of royal authority (since the king was head of the church); in the New World these groups often opposed one another (Puritans and Catholics especially; there was a small-scale war in Maryland under the Commonwealth when Cromwell's commissioners came to usurp the authority of the proprietary government). Then there are the French Huguenots, who were expelled by Louis XIV in 1685, in part because Louis was a Catholic monarch and Protestants were seen as a political threat; and then there's Spain--ostensibly part of the Spanish goal in colonising the New World was to convert the 'heathen' natives, and Spain and Portugal were recognised by the Church for some time as having exlusive right to explore and colonise new territories not already part of Christendom (the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 split the world outside Europe into Spanish and Portuguese zones, with a line of demarcation that changed several times).

And there's much more to it than that; those are just some of the high points.