In the early modern period, European powers competed to grab land in the Americas. In the seventeenth century, the English established successful plantations in the West Indies and in Virginia. Further north, puritans argued that they had found “empty” land to set up colonies where previously landless English families could make a home for themselves. But the land was far from empty. Using legal and violent means, colonists gradually dispossessed native people of their ancestral land and transformed its ecology. Many came with a religious purpose and a conviction that improving the land would make it theirs. Private property in land was a cornerstone of English colonisation. With the possibility of pushing the frontier westward, labour was scarcer than land, driving up wages. After the Independence, the Northern states industrialised under the protection of tariffs. Dependent on slave labor, southern US states and Caribbean islands grew cash crops for the British markets. As the soil depleted, they moved slaves to new locations. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had become the largest economy in the world. Key references (please use all):Arne, Barbara. 1996. John Locke and America: the defense of English colonialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Greer, Allan. 2017. Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Kickoff, Allan. 2000. From British Peasants to colonial American farmers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Especially Chapter 2 (but see also Prologue, and Ch. 1, 3). Land’s, David S. [1998] 2014. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. London: Abacus. In particular Chapter 19: Frontiers.Locke, John. [1690] 1988. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Haslett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Especially Second Treatise, Chapter V.Messiness Wood, Ellen. 2002. The Origin of Capitalism. London: Version. Especially Chapter 7.Pomeranian, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Especially, Chapter 6: Abolishing the land constraint.Tully, James. 1993. An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 5: Rediscovering America.Weaver, John C. 2006. Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900. Montreal: Gilliam-Queen’s University Press.Diehard, Kuala. 2014. Overseas trade and empire. In The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, New edition, edited by R. Floyd, J. Humphreys, and P. Johnson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 392-420.(HOWEVER, PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE THREE OR FOUR OF YOUR OWN RESEARCHED REFERENCES) Marking Scheme:1. Answer. (Does the coursework address the question/issue or meet the assigned aims and keep on topic? Is there a comprehensive understanding of the topic? You must demonstrate a familiarity with at least three of the ten references cited herein)2. Structure. (Is the structure clear and material presented in a well-argued, coherent and synthesized manner?)3. Writing Style. (Is the writing fluent and of a good standard with few errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar?)4. Level of Reading. (Is the topic well researched and supported? Is there evidence of using a range of high quality sources?)5. Quality of Referencing. (Is the work appropriately sourced? Are the references well formatted and written up accurately and consistently?)
