SkyMinds ~ by Matt – Développeur WordPress et Formateur

British customs officers inspect shipping documents at an eighteenth-century Atlantic port while merchants, sailors and enslaved workers handle colonial cargo beside merchant ships

Mercantilism, the Navigation Acts and the British Atlantic Empire

Publié le 5 octobre 2026 par Matt Biscay · Lecture: 26 minutes

This is post 10 of 10 in the series “From the Reformation to the birth of the American nation (1534-1776)” From the Reformation to the birth of the American nation (1534-1776)

The British Atlantic Empire operated through a regulated commercial system that connected Britain, West Africa, the Caribbean and mainland North America. The Navigation Acts favoured British ships, ports and merchants, while colonial producers supplied tobacco, sugar, rice, indigo, timber and other commodities. This system supported naval power and colonial growth, but it also depended heavily on enslaved labour, commercial coercion and laws that merchants regularly evaded.

Religious migration created durable settlements in New England, but those colonies remained part of a wider imperial economy. Their merchants, ships and farms traded with Britain, the Caribbean and other colonies under rules designed at Westminster.

Read Puritanism, Dissent and the Great Migration

What was mercantilism?

Mercantilism describes a broad collection of early modern policies rather than one perfectly coherent economic theory. European governments attempted to strengthen the state by protecting shipping, directing trade, developing strategic industries and securing access to valuable colonial commodities.

Political leaders did not measure national wealth through modern economic statistics. They often focused on customs revenue, precious metals, shipping capacity, commercial balances and the ability to finance war. Trade mattered because it supplied both wealth and military power.

Colonies occupied a central place within this system. They supplied commodities that Britain could not produce domestically, while creating markets for British manufactured goods. Imperial legislation attempted to keep the greatest possible share of shipping, processing and commercial profit within British control.

However, the colonies did not exist merely as passive economic units. Colonial assemblies, planters, merchants, shipowners and Indigenous trading partners pursued their own interests. Their choices repeatedly altered or undermined policies designed in London.

Lire Mercantilism, the Navigation Acts and the British Atlantic Empire

Puritan family arriving in New England during the Great Migration, unloading belongings on a rocky shore near an early colonial settlement while Indigenous inhabitants observe from the woodland

Puritanism, Dissent and the Great Migration

Publié le 2 octobre 2026 par Matt Biscay · Lecture: 26 minutes

This is post 9 of 10 in the series “From the Reformation to the birth of the American nation (1534-1776)” From the Reformation to the birth of the American nation (1534-1776)

The Great Migration carried thousands of English Puritans to New England during the 1630s. They did not simply flee persecution in search of individual religious freedom. Instead, they intended to establish disciplined Protestant communities governed through covenant, scripture and collective responsibility. Their settlements encouraged literacy, local government and political participation among selected colonists, while also enforcing conformity and expanding across Indigenous homelands.

The Puritan migration formed part of the wider religious and constitutional history of the British Atlantic. The previous article examined how the Glorious Revolution protected a Protestant political order while leaving the position of religious minorities unresolved.

Read The Glorious Revolution of 1688

What was Puritanism?

Puritanism emerged from the English Reformation during the late sixteenth century. Puritans accepted the Protestant break with Rome but believed that the Church of England still preserved too many Catholic ceremonies, institutions and assumptions.

They objected to practices such as elaborate vestments, ceremonial worship and the authority of bishops. They instead emphasised scripture, preaching, moral discipline and the direct examination of personal faith.

Puritanism was not one organised denomination. The term covered ministers, theologians, lay believers and political reformers who disagreed about church government, worship and the limits of obedience to the established Church.

Most Puritans remained members of the Church of England and sought to reform it from within. Others concluded that no true Christian congregation could remain inside an institution they considered corrupt. These more radical believers became known as Separatists.

Lire Puritanism, Dissent and the Great Migration

Charles II restored to the English throne as Parliament, Anglican bishops and Dutch ships foreshadow the political and religious crisis leading to the Glorious Revolution

The Restoration and the Road to the Glorious Revolution

Publié le 1 octobre 2026 par Matt Biscay · Lecture: 31 minutes

This is post 8 of 10 in the series “From the Reformation to the birth of the American nation (1534-1776)” From the Reformation to the birth of the American nation (1534-1776)

The Restoration of 1660 returned the monarchy, Parliament and the Church of England, but it did not restore the political world that had existed before the Civil War. Charles II governed within a society transformed by regicide, republican government, religious pluralism and military rule. The settlement survived for twenty-five years, yet conflicts over Catholicism, dissent, royal prerogative and the succession eventually prepared the overthrow of James II in 1688.

The Restoration followed eleven years of republican experiments. Before examining how monarchy returned, revisit the New Model Army, the execution of Charles I, the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate.

Read The English Civil War and Cromwell’s Commonwealth

Why was the monarchy restored in 1660?

Oliver Cromwell’s death in September 1658 exposed the fragility of the Protectorate. His son Richard inherited the office of Lord Protector but lacked military authority, political experience and a dependable group of supporters. He resigned in May 1659 after failing to reconcile Parliament with senior army officers.

The following months brought repeated constitutional breakdowns. The army recalled the Rump Parliament, expelled it and then restored it again. Competing officers and politicians claimed to defend the republican cause, but none could establish a government with broad legitimacy.

England had grown weary of military intervention, irregular taxation and constitutional uncertainty. Many former Parliamentarians concluded that monarchy offered the best prospect of stable civilian government. Their support did not mean that they had abandoned every principle defended during the Civil War.

General George Monck commanded the English army occupying Scotland. During the winter of 1659–1660, he marched south while presenting himself as a defender of lawful parliamentary government. His intentions remained deliberately uncertain until he had secured control of London and the army.

Monck allowed the MPs excluded during Pride’s Purge to return to the Long Parliament. That restored assembly dissolved itself and authorised elections for a new Parliament. Because no king existed to summon it, the resulting body became known as the Convention Parliament.

Lire The Restoration and the Road to the Glorious Revolution

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