The Spanish came to the new work in search of Gold and silver, the British men came with their families. The Spanish were soldiers who were in search of gold and they later enslaved the indigenous people and forced them to work on their agricultural estates and their plantations. Most of the new European men married local girls and worked in creation of a distinct social class that was new.

Richard Hakluyt, (18) wrote that, "By the end of the sixteenth century, England's economic and imperial aspirations had led inexorably to colonization".  Therefore the colonization by the English was driven by profit motives. The English were after better opportunities for their people. The English established profitable businesses that worked in rice and tobacco cultivation, building of ships and fishing.

Also religion played a part in the travelling to the new world as in England there were wars on religion also the Spanish kings felt that they were meant to spread Catholicism. They therefore sent missionary priests so as to convert the native populations into Catholicism.

Most of the people who travelled to the new world were hopeful of a better way of life and they will be successful and their economic way of life would be improved. But when they got there a lot of the people were faced by a lot of challenges. In Jamestown where John Smith worked with the London Company, there were over 100 English colonizers and had tried to make the island of Jamestown their home. But due to diseases, hunger, privation and also by being attacks by the Indians who lived in the region, the number of the settlers was drastically reduced.