ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why both the people and the government were in virtual complete accord that the colonization of America would be of inestimable benefit to the entire English nation. By 1582, many English people agreed that the colonization of America would be of inestimable benefit to the entire nation. Economic, religious, and political factors all contributed to the change in the attitude of the English government toward colonization. Religious factors also played an important role in the desire for English colonization. As the seventeenth century progressed, political factors also served to encourage migration to the New World. It will be helpful, therefore, to survey briefly English political institutions of the Tudor and early Stuart periods. The colonists included an experienced soldier, Ralph Lane, who acted as governor; Thomas Harriot, a mathematician and astronomer; and John White, a painter whose sketches of the Native Americans and of the flora and fauna of the region still exist.
