Midterm Practice

“[W]hen he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding [colonies], ‘the Lord make it like that of New England.’ For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us[.]” This quote is just a small piece of an important speech by John Winthrop in 1630. It had a big impact on the young, developing colonies of New England.

John Winthrop wanted to express to the immigrants in the New World that they were being watched by everyone. That they were being held to a higher standard and they must keep to that standard. They were still trying to establish the New World so this was a crucial point for them. Since they were still being established the whole world was watching them. He is saying that they needed to make themselves look good and appealing to other countries. Also, he is saying that they have an influence on the colonies that follow them, that he wanted them to be able to say that God made their colony like New England. He wanted other colonies to want to be as great as New England.

I think that John Winthrop is right that the world is going to be watching them. This was undiscovered territory that nobody really knew about so I'm sure the other countries would be curious as to how it was going to play out. They wanted to see if it was something that maybe they should try and go after, if it was worth it to them or perhaps if this did not work for England, if maybe they could do better. The world thrives on competition. Whenever you have competition of some kind you are going to watch that competition to see if there is a spot where maybe you can get ahead. To see if what their strengths and what their weaknesses are so you can take advantage of those for your own gain. I think this is what the other countries were doing. To see if maybe this New World was worth doing business with and if that would help their country or not. So I think John Winthrop is right that they needed to make themselves look good to other countries because if they did not then the other countries would not bother with trading with them and their networking with other countries would have been more difficult.

This speech was for motivational for the immigrants in New England and probably encouraged them. The development New World was a very influential time for England and for the colonies in New England. This speech might have made the colonies step it up some to show other countries that they were thriving and would survive. This is a world of competition and New England was trying to be competition.