What are the effects of colonialism and mercantilism in America?

After the decline of feudalism in Europe the continent suffered a series of transformations in many aspects that changes the old order.

Specially in the system of political economy based on mercantilism, that prevailed during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, that consists in national policies of accumulation of bullion or uncoined gold and silver, establishing colonies and a merchant marine, developing industry and mining to attain a favorable balance of trade in which national strength could be maximized by limiting imports via tariffs and maximizing exports.

Also its important to mention that mercantilism motivated colonial expansion in America, understanding colonialism as a process when one group wants to subordinate another group in order to impose its ideas and establish control.

Mercantilism presupposed that nations were engaged in a continuous struggle for supremacy, but the advantages were centred specially in England that came to the Americas to colonized and established a dominant presence by the expansion of British settlements because after all colonies exists to benefit and contribute to the prosperity of the mother country, North America represented for them a source of raw materials that were cheap, then they shipped those back to be turned and finished goods that are manufactures, later they turn back the finish goods to the colony and sell them more expensive and the mother country keeps the profit.

As the colonial economy matured, British officials found additional regulations necessary to maintain mercantilist aims and to have control over the colonies, as laws forbidding colonies from producing their own goods, high prices for the products they wanted to import, forbidding colonies from trading with other European countries and maintaining the right to tax the colonies. England regulated trade but allowed colonists the right to control taxes, smugglers soon appears and became a profitable occupation in the colonies. Actually, the triangular trade in this logic affects the economy in North America and its society for the acceleration of immigration especially from African slaves.

Furthermore, colonists settled in North America not only for economy, also for political and religious freedom and improvement in the quality of life. The immigration and the population that increased dramatically in the eighteenth century created a diversified society in the American colonies that had an impact in the culture because everybody tried to establish a new form of organization but there were many different cultures trying to impose just one over the others, it implicated a more highly stratified society, this process actively encouraged the growth and political influence of a colonial elite.  Also, the colonies were largely the refuge of religious dissenters, so the variety of religions with different faiths and ideas that soon appeared in the colonies made the demand for religious freedom a constant in British settlement. As a result, it is important to mention that the economy starts as the first aim, but political and religious freedom were the other reasons to find a new form of government.

In my opinion, the consequences of a system as mercantilism in a long term cannot be sustained because people get angry and upset when they realized they don’t have any profit, have restrictions in their economy, high prices; in other words, this unbalanced produce inequality because not everybody has the same opportunities to commerce or achieve emancipation.

In addition, the crisis and conflicts not only in the economic aspect, also in politics, culture and religious were one of the causes of the Revolution when most of the people were looking for freedom, liberty, promote religious toleration, limit the power of the king, reach economic development, fix internal social conflicts and other problems that restrict their independence.