AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/2/2-8)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.8
2.8 Comparison in Period 2
This skill topic asks you to compare developments in Period 2: how Spanish, French, Dutch and British colonies were alike and different, and how Britain's own colonial regions differed. Comparison means explaining similarities and differences and the reasons for them.
Key terms
- comparison
- similarities and differences
- colonial regions
- labor systems
What comparison asks you to do
Comparison is a reasoning skill that asks you to describe how two or more things were alike or different, and then explain why. The 'why' is what turns a list into analysis. A strong comparison picks a clear category, such as labor, religion or relations with Native peoples, and discusses both subjects in that category.
Use comparison language: 'both', 'similarly', 'whereas', 'in contrast', 'unlike'. And give a reason: environment, goals, number of settlers, religion or government policy.
Comparing European empires
| Category | Spain | France | Netherlands | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main goal | Wealth, converts, defense of the borderlands | Fur trade | Fur trade and commerce | Land for farming; profit; religious refuge |
| Number of settlers | Moderate | Small | Small | Large, often families |
| Relations with Native peoples | Forced labor, missions, intermarriage | Trade partnerships, alliances, intermarriage | Trade partnerships | Land seizure, wars, little intermarriage |
| Religion | Catholic missions forced on Native people | Catholic Jesuits living among Native people | Relatively tolerant | Protestant; little missionary effort |
Comparing British regions
Similarities among British colonies: all had elected assemblies, all were tied to Britain by mercantilist trade laws, all had slavery, and all expanded onto Native land.
Differences: New England's economy rested on family farms and trade, with a Puritan religious culture; the Middle Colonies were diverse and grew grain; the Chesapeake depended on tobacco and shifted from indentured servants to slavery; and the Carolinas and West Indies built plantation societies with Black majorities.
The main reasons for the differences were environment (soil and climate determined which crops grew), the settlers' goals (religious community versus profit), and the labor supply that was available.
Comparing across time
You can also compare Period 2 with Period 1. Both Spanish and British colonizers relied on forced labor, but Spain first built its labor system on Native people and created a casta system that recognized mixed ancestry, while British colonies drew a sharper line between free white colonists and enslaved Black people. Both justified their actions with claims of religious and cultural superiority.
Or compare change within Period 2 itself. Early Chesapeake society in the 1620s looked very different from Chesapeake society in the 1720s: a mostly young, male population of English servants who often died young had become a settled planter society that depended on enslaved Africans. Comparing two moments like this links comparison to the skill of continuity and change.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
A comparison thesis
Write a thesis for this prompt: Compare the relationships between Native Americans and two different European colonizers in North America in the period 1607 to 1754.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Choose two colonizers that clearly differ, such as France and England.
- Step 2: State at least one similarity and one difference.
- Step 3: Explain the reason for the difference in the thesis itself.
Answer: Model thesis: Both French and English colonists traded with Native peoples and sought Native military allies, but while the French built lasting partnerships through the fur trade, intermarriage and Jesuit missions that lived among Native communities, the English seized Native land for farms and fought wars such as Metacom's War, because the French needed Native trading partners while large numbers of English settlers wanted the land itself.
Common mistakes
- Describing each subject in a separate paragraph without ever connecting them. Every comparison point should mention both sides.
- Giving only differences when the prompt asks you to compare. 'Compare' covers similarities and differences.
- Leaving out the reason for the difference, which is where most of the analysis comes from.
On the exam
- Comparison prompts in Period 2 almost always involve European empires or British colonial regions. Prepare one specific piece of evidence for each.
- A thesis that says both 'both did X' and 'but Y differed because Z' covers similarity, difference and reasoning at once.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 2.8 Comparison in Period 2. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Which of the following best explains why slavery was more central to the economy of colonial South Carolina than to that of colonial New England?
Compared with Spanish colonizers, English colonists in the 1600s were more likely to
"Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others' necessities. . . .
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world."
Source: John Winthrop, Puritan lawyer and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, "A Model of Christian Charity," sermon written in 1630 for colonists sailing to New England. Spelling modernized.
The society Winthrop described differed most from the early Chesapeake colonies in that early New England
"I do hereby grant and declare, That no Person or Persons, inhabiting in this Province or Territories, who shall confess and acknowledge One almighty God, the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the World; and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under the Civil Government, shall be in any Case molested or prejudiced, in his or their Person or Estate, because of his or their conscientious Persuasion or Practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious Worship, Place or Ministry, contrary to his or their Mind . . . .
AND that all Persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World, shall be capable (notwithstanding their other Persuasions and Practices in Point of Conscience and Religion) to serve this Government in any Capacity, both legislatively and executively . . . ."
Source: William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, Charter of Privileges granted to the colony, 1701.
The policy in the first paragraph differed most from that of early Massachusetts Bay, which
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