ABSTRACT
The great migration pioneered by Puritans had underpinned the first phase of English colonization in the Americas; the triumph of the Puritans who remained in England prepared the way for the second-When England emerged from civil war in 1648, its political structure had been dramatically altered. The roots of this change lay, first and foremost, in the redistribution of power brought by revolution. Starting as the revolt of the nobility, the English Civil War released the accumulated tensions and conflicts of preceding decades in a revolution that eventually overwhelmed the monarchy. To fortify their cause, the King’s opponents in Parliament had rallied popular support, promoting an unprecedented political mobilization of the lower classes, but the Civil War stopped short of becoming a popular revolution. When the propertied classes realized that their internecine conflicts left space for a challenge from below, they sought a return to stability under the monarchy. Consequently, in 1660 the Stuart dynasty was restored to power, in the person of King Charles II. A revolution in English government had nonetheless occurred. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, it came at the behest of Parliament into a political context where the personal power of the King could no longer be exercised without constraint. Henceforth, commercial interests carried more weight in politics and, in alliance with monarchs eager to increase their revenues, forged an aggressive commercial and colonial policy that was aimed at expanding England’s trade and enlarging its empire.
