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Episode Description:
Many new arrivals viewed colonial America in the 1770s as a land of opportunity. What made the "new world" such an enticing opportunity? Learn why in this episode!

Opportunities in the Early American Colonies: Back-to-School Basics, Part 4

You are listening to 60-Second Civics, the daily podcast of the Center for Civic Education. I'm Mark Gage.

 

The American colonies in the 1770s was a land of opportunity for many new arrivals. 

 

If you were a colonist arriving here from Europe in the 1770s, one of the first things you would have noticed was the vast size of the colonies.

 

For example, both England and Scotland together were smaller than the present states of New York and Pennsylvania. 

 

The distance between northern Massachusetts, which is now the state of Maine, and southern Georgia was more than a thousand miles.

 

The American colonies also had abundant natural resources, including vast tracts of timber, minerals, and a wide variety of animals, which provided meat, furs, and other products. 

 

The colonists exported many products to Europe, including valuable whale oil harvested by colonists from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which generated thousands of British pounds in export income.

 

Americans were a hardworking people and had the highest standard of living in the world. 

 

The land was fertile and crops grew well. 

 

As a result, the colonists had rich diets and tended to be healthier than people in Europe.

 

That’s all for today’s podcast.

 

60-Second Civics, where civic education only takes a minute.