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How did the three mainland regions in British North America become more similar between 1720 and 1750?
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Between 1720 and 1750, the three mainland regions in British North America became more similar due to several factors. Isolation from Britain fostered a sense of local governance and identity distinct from British rule, aided by the policy of salutary neglect. The Great Awakening created shared religious experiences across the colonies. Increased intercolonial trade and support for Britain in continental wars also contributed to a developing American identity, despite persistent regional differences.
The colonies in these three regions became more like each other due to the American colonists' isolation from Britain. The colonists valued local control over their own affairs and resented any attempt by Parliament to enforce taxation or trade rules. The three regions were largely Protestant in terms of religion and many valued the fact that they were not Spanish or French; for this reason, the three regions backed Great Britain in a series of wars which spilled over onto the North American continent. The colonies also started to trade with each other; trade between the colonies, while difficult due to a lack of good roads, proved vital in establishing a culture which was uniquely "American." The Great Awakening also led to preachers becoming household names throughout the colonies. Many prominent sermons appeared in print all over the colonies. While there were still many cultural differences at the time of...
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the American Revolution, the English tradition of self governance and trade helped to link the colonies before the onset of the American Revolution.
I would argue that there are a few reasons for the three British North American mainland regions growing closer together in the first half of the 1700s. First, Britain was ruling the colonies from an ocean away, and the policy they employed in regards to the colonies, which was known as salutary neglect, allowed the colonies a great deal of self-rule. This helped lead to a closer political relationship between the colonies and colonial regions.
The distance from Britain also played a role in the colonists developing their own, separate identity. The first colonists to arrive in places like Jamestown and Plymouth often considered themselves to be very much British. This began to change over time, as generations passed and the ties to their ancestral homeland lessened. The result was colonists beginning to see themselves as Americans, rather than British subjects.
Another reason for the growing uniformity in the three colonial regions would come from the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was a religious movement which swept through England and the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. This movement is often cited by historians as an event that led to greater unity in the colonies, as it is considered one of the first shared experiences in all the colonies.
References
The British American colonies could be divided up into three distinct cultural regions; New England, Middle, and Southern. Although the Middle Colonies began to take on aspects of their closest neighbors and the three regions began to communicate more as tensions with England rose, there were fundamental differences between North and South that only evaporated in the late 19th century.
New Englanders was a hub of maritime trade and transport. The ship building industry along with the timber and fishing industries ruled the local economies. In the south, plantation style agriculture brought in vast amounts of wealth for landowners. Their entire societies were built around these very different systems, so culturally there were few similarities between the two regions.
The only similarities that could really be sited were in local governance. The distance from England combined with a hands-off Parliament allowed for a greater degree of self-rule than anywhere else in the world. Colonists were allowed to pass their own taxes and create their own local assemblies, and this did lead to similar laws and measures being passed throughout the colonies.