Each prompt merits its own separate essay; do not submit a single essay incorporating information from three of the following prompts. Consult the “Examination and Grading Policies” section of the syllabus for detailed information about the required technical aspects of your essay answers.
Answer each of the following prompts in separate essays (50 points each, 150 points possible):
Discuss the process and motivations for immigration as identified by Daniels in chapter one. What factors in Europe created the right atmosphere for the era of American exploration and colonization from the 1500s through the 1700s? Identify and describe the migration theories of E.G Ravenstein and Frank Thistlewaite, and how they apply to the North American experience of these years. Do their arguments still seem applicable to discussions over immigration to the United States in the early twenty-first century?
Discuss immigration to North America from England in the 1600s and early 1700s. What factors encouraged this shift in population? What role did imperial competition, religion, and economic opportunity play in colonization on the Atlantic Ocean’s northwestern shore? How did newcomers interact with existing American cultures? In what ways did English colonization during these years establish precedents for immigration and ethnic interaction in the early years of the United States?
Discuss the newcomers who populated British North America in the 1700s. What groups of voluntary immigrants arrived during the eighteenth century, what motivated their influx, and how did established colonial residents respond to new arrivals from Europe? Describe the demand for and process of forced migration of Africans to the colonies. Is it appropriate to refer to Africans as immigrants? What role did immigration play in the American Revolution and creation of a new nation at the century’s end?
