Transplantation.

The European settlement of the New World, with its subjugation of the native peoples between 1492 and 1900, constitutes one of the largest migrations of peoples in human history. Europeans who transplanted to the New World brought with them their native cultures, and in North and South America they attempted to transplant as much of the old culture as suited their purposes, which were many and varied. They brought with them Old World ideas about family, labor, religion, government, and gender as well as notions about right and wrong. New Societies. At every step of the way the colonists utilized European ideas about law to justify their actions and to regulate the new societies they created. They did not simply transpose English, French, Dutch, or Spanish laws to America; the situation in America was too different, too rough and new, for that to work. Instead they borrowed heavily when...