ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book attempts to analyse the processes of European discovery, exploration, and settlement, together with the native reactions and conflict, that characterised the two empires of Britain and France. The rivalry and violent wars eventually embraced the Caribbean and North America, and their peoples, and provided a spur to their development in many ways while also underpinning the violent removal of native peoples from many areas. The cultural development of the British and French colonies, though, created a permanent springboard for later patterns, particularly the location of English and French-speaking communities in the Americas. Internal rebellion by Africans was a threat in the slave colonies, and conflicts between poorer and richer whites over land and rights could produce major threats to the authorities, as in Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia.
