of self-government attracted settlers from all parts of northern
Europe. At the close of the seventeenth century there were 260,000
English subjects in North America; in 1750 there were approximately
1,000,000; and in 1775 there were probably 3,000,000.

Although in most sections the dominant element was of English
extraction, other nationalities contributed to the population. Along
the Delaware, Swedes were interspersed with the English, while in
Pennsylvania there were large groups of Germans. Numerous Dutch
settlers had continued to live along the Hudson after New Netherland
had passed into English hands. Some of the most frugal and industrious
of the settlers of Georgia and South Carolina were French Huguenots,
while along the seaboard and inland the Scotch-Irish were found
scatteringly in agriculture and trade. Such was the composition of the
people who were destined to begin an unexampled experiment in
democracy, an experiment upon the successful termination of which
rests our chief claim to national greatness.


QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What is meant by civilization?

2. What two conditions must be fulfilled in order that a nation may
become great?

3. In what way does America fulfill the first condition?

4. Discuss the character of the early Spanish colonization.