The western isle of Ireland and the Eastern seaboard of America ‐ England's first frontiers

Abstract

This paper outlines the basis for a comparative analysis of the origins processes and geographical impact of British colonisation in both Ireland and North America from c. 1550 to c. 1800. While recognising the fundamental differences in scale, location, environments and native population densities between the two study areas, the available evidence suggests that in terms of general strategies of colonisation, some genuine parallels can be inferred. Likewise, in the actual processes of colonisation, similar patterns of early settlement dispersal and the exploitative competitive nature of both frontiers can be documented. The differences in the colonial geographies of the two regions were, however, more profound. Here, the fundamental contrasts between a more densely settled and more developed pre‐colonial Ireland and the sparsely settled extensive territories of the eastern seaboard of America were crucial. In Ireland, a colonial society was generally superimposed upon long‐developed settlement, land‐holding and societal structures, whereas in America a relatively small but more heterogeneous immigrant population was involved in a straightforward dialogue with a more spacious and varied frontier environment. Allowing for these and other striking differences, one can still make some broad comparisons of population size, trading patterns, levels of development and regional structures by the end of the eighteenth century.