Colonial Foundations
Empires compared
Spain governed its colonies through viceroys, missions, and forced labor systems such as the encomienda; France relied on the fur trade and Native alliances with relatively few settlers; England planted agricultural settlements that grew traditions of self-government and, in the Chesapeake, a tobacco economy that moved from indentured servants toward enslaved African labor after Bacon's Rebellion (1676) exposed the dangers of a large, armed class of poor laborers.
Self-government and religion
Virginia's House of Burgesses (1619) and New England town meetings are the standard examples of colonial self-rule, while the Mayflower Compact (1620) is a social-contract agreement among Separatists, not a constitution. Puritan Massachusetts blended church and state; the Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) split congregations and encouraged individual judgment, and Enlightenment ideas supplied language about natural rights.
Salutary neglect and its collapse
Britain regulated trade through the Navigation Acts but enforced them loosely until after the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The Treaty of Paris (1763) removed France from North America, and the Proclamation of 1763 tried to keep colonists east of the Appalachians, angering settlers and land speculators.
Traps. Questions often blur Plymouth (1620, Pilgrims) with Massachusetts Bay (1630, Puritans), or offer an answer about taxation when the term being tested is salutary neglect.
Rule of thumb. Anchor every colonial document to three facts: date, colony, and who is speaking.
Worked example. A 1630 quotation about a city upon a hill comes from John Winthrop, a Puritan leader of Massachusetts Bay describing a model community. It is neither the Mayflower Compact nor an argument for religious toleration.