Explanation:
Colonial America existed on the periphery of the “civilized world.” Although
England was dominant in its cultural, economic, and political influence, Europe
also exerted a profound impact. For example, the Age of Enlightenment—
an 18th-century philosophical movement that embraced rationalism, emphasized learning, and encouraged a spirit of skepticism and practicality in
social and political thought—guided the Founding Fathers in their thinking
and eventual formulation of a new nation. Before the new republic became
a reality, however, what occurred in colonial thoughts, words, and actions
reflected, for the most part, the dominance of European culture, both
abstract (values, ideas) and material (fashions, manufactured goods).
Beginning mostly as commercial enterprises or feudal proprietorships
thanks to royal land grants, the colonies eventually became royal colonies.
However, England was too absorbed in its civil war (1642–1649) and Oliver
Cromwell’s Puritan rule to engage in any effective colonial policy. Even after
restoration of the Stuart dynasty with Charles II becoming king, England still
did not pursue any centralized administrative policy.
Yet 18th-century colonial politics closely resembled those of England.
Colonial legislatures, like the English Parliament, held powers to initiate legislation and to vote on taxes and expenditures, often bringing them into
clashes with the royal governors who sought to impose their own will. This
battle of wills and evolving notion of self-government set the stage for the
rebellion that would follow in the latter part of the century.
Colonial cultural norms reflected European patriarchal values, which
became embedded in English law. For example, a woman’s marriage automatically transferred the legal ownership of the bride’s personal property—
money, land, household goods, and clothing—to her husband. If he died, the
property went to the children, not her, with male heirs receiving larger inheritances than their sisters. Even children could become the wards of the
father’s male relatives and not of his widow. In the rare instance of a divorce,
the father indisputably retained custody of the children.
