Reddit reviews American Colonies: The Settling of North America, Vol. 1

As you're probably aware, the Spanish and Portuguese colonised large portions of South and Central America in the time between Columbus 'discovering' America and the first English settlement in North America, which was the so-called 'lost colony' of Roanoke in 1585. Previously the Spanish and French tried and failed to colonise the eastern coast of what is now the US, their colonies mostly failed due to disease, starvation and hostile natives. The Treaty of Torsedillas divided the New World up between Portugal and Spain, and the east coast of North America fell within the Spanish claim, so the Portuguese didn't attempt to colonise it.

There are several reasons that the English took a relatively long time to begin their colonisation effort. The first of these is that colonies were very expensive to establish, maintain and defend. English relationships with Catholic countries in mainland Europe were very poor due to Henry VIII's establishment of the Anglican Church and Elizabeth I's eventual excommunication, so it would have been very difficult for England to defend any colonies from attack, especially since England at this point could hardly be considered a great power. The English contented themselves with raiding Spanish galleons instead.

With the accession to the throne of James I in 1603, Anglo-Spanish and French relations mellowed somewhat due to his less radical brand of protestantism and the marriage of his son Charles I to a french princess. The fact that James I was also King of Scotland meant that the threat of invasion from Scotland was also lifted. The establishment of colonies was still prohibitively expensive (an attempt by Scotland to establish a colony in South America is estimated to have cost as much as 1/3 of all the money in the country) so much of the early colonisation effort was undertaken by private companies, albeit with the approval of King James, who issued charters such as this one in 1620 and this one in 1609 which gave the companies the right to govern their colonies and official status as territory of England.

Further Reading:

Nicholas Canny and Philip Morgan, The Oxford handbook of the Atlantic world c.1450-c.1850

Richard Middleton, Colonial America: A History to 1763

American Colonies: The Settlement of North America to 1800

If you want a good comparative analysis of colonial history in North America, Alan Taylor's American Colonies is probably one of the better books for casual readers out there.

Much of mormon doctrine dates back to common New England belief, including the thought that Native Americans are descendants of the Israelites. I read a good book that tells about all these crazy religious ideas people had back in the 1700-1800s and was surprised to recognize many of the mormon church teachings.

JS was lazy and basically told people what they already believed anyway. It was much easier to get away with in his day, now that most people have let go of crazy ideas it's a lot more difficult for the church to preach this crap with a straight face.

http://www.amazon.ca/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100

This is a VERY good book on the topic of colonial history. It is not an in depth look at any aspect, but a fantastic overview from colonization to revolution. It focuses on a lot of topics I had never read about anywhere else. It was invaluable in picking a topic for my Sr. paper on early american history. :)

http://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100

Alan Taylor - American Colonies

http://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279493635&sr=1-1

This is a decent treatment of the beginning stages of settlement from multiple perspectives (British, Spanish, Native Americans).

You could narrow it to the 13 colonies that became the United States. But another way to frame the question is to consider the lands that eventually became part of the U.S. e.g. the Spanish missions in the southwest and California, the Russians in the Aleutian Islands, the French in the Great Lakes region. By comparing interactions across all the regions, and especially how the colonial policies of the respective European nations changed over time, you might see a trend (or lack of trend) that answers your question.
Check out American Colonies by Alan Taylor. He takes a broad geographic view and shares interesting detail about the internal politics of the indigenous nations as they interacted with the Europeans.

American Colonies: The Settling of North America is, as the title indicates, strictly about the colonization of North America, but it's comprehensive, insightful, and highly detailed, dealing very strongly in the early years of colonization - how people lived, how their economies worked, relations with Native Americans good and bad, the politics of colonization, and much more. Even having read a number of other books on the topic, I learned a LOT from this. Recommended reading if you're interested in the subject.

Most of those I've read on South America have been focused on the pre-Colombian cultures of the continent and not as much on the colonization itself, so probably not what you're looking for.

It depends on what you want to go into.

For a general history of colonization I can't recommend Alan Taylor's "American Colonies" enough. It's a good overview of European colonization in North America.

If you're mostly into Slavery (that sounds weird), Slave Ship. I definitely have some issues with things he says, but it's still a good beginning.

The Island of the Center of the World talks about the Dutch in North America.

If you want more about Slavery in what would become the U.S. you could get American Slavery American Freedom.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll edit more in later. But yeah, I'd start with Taylor's book first.