"Constitutional Claimings" of England and Holland

Welcome to our New World! We, the English and the Dutch would like to show you around. I know that your partner's learning about the Portuguese and the Spanish, and yes, they're all fine and good, but we're really the "better expansionists". Just because you "explored first", doesn't mean your the best at it. Before we discuss our claimings, let's talk about our motives. We've compiled some images of our motives below:

In summary, our motives were two-fold: Land and Luxury

In regards to Luxury, the Dutch take the lead in this category. See the image above on the left? The brown strands that that lady is gathering? That's a luxurious spice known as saffron. It's like the most expensive spice in the world! Just Google it, or the next time you're at the supermarket, check it out: it's like $20 a bottle! That's what we, the Dutch, prized most: money, money, money!

The above painting shows a scene from a spice shop, directly funded by the Dutch East India Company. We, the Dutch, didn't have much land, but we didn't need it! In fact, look at the map below. Can you even find our claims on the map? (HINT: The Dutch East India Company...)

We're barely on the map. We're in Southeast Asia (we kicked out the Portuguese...) and barely in South America. We were in North America, in a region known as "New Amsterdam", but we sold that to the British, who turned it into New York...

...and that's kinda it for us. We're small, but mighty. Ever since we, the Dutch, received nationhood after the Thirty Years War in 1648, we focused on a few key issues: strength, money, and diplomacy. Heck, we're one of the few nations that actually welcomed the Jews and their money skills! Look at the image on the left. Unfortunately, stereotypically, you can identify the Jew by his big nose. But for us, Jew or no Jew, nose or no nose, we're all about money!

I'll throw it over to the British to tell you about their motive: land and nation!

Extent of British Colonial Holdings

I mean, just look at the map! We, the British, are everywhere! North and South America, Africa, India, and Australia (not until later...but still). We're everywhere! In fact, check out the map below:

That's a map of all the countries we, the British, have invaded over time! Out of 193 countries that are currently UN member states, we've invaded or fought conflicts in the territory of 171 of them! But we're not devils. In fact, we're Christians. But our primary motive (contrary to what many Americans think...) was land and money...

As England, our primary "competitor" were the French. They were our enemies in Europe; they were our enemies in the New World. You can see, in the map on the right, that there was a large area of disputed territory. As the story goes, we'd eventually defeat the French in the Seven Years War (Americans call it the French and Indian War), but then we'd lose the colonies, too. We would continue to compete with France in the continent of Africa, some years down the line. 

But as the English, it's important to remember that our motives were primarily geographic and monetary. And what better way to capitalize on this than to expand the slave trade. True, it was the Dutch who started the slave trade, but we British would expand it further. Over a course of a few centuries, 12 million slaves were taken to North America. Sure, some went to South America and the Spanish claims in Central America, but we imported the most...

So, as far as we, the English and the Dutch are concerned, we can enthusiastically check off our expansionist accomplishments in the area of Luxury and Land...