Why did the American and West Indian colonies grow so rapidly?

Answer 1

Freedom!

Answer 2

To put it simply, Britain was the first European country to embark on the agricultural revolution and it spent the most time at making the changes. What this trend lead to was massive amounts of surplus agricultural labour with no where to go but the cities or colonies over several generations, Because this revolution also lead to higher productivity in Britain as compared to it's other European neighbours, it also maifested itself in greater affluence. People had more kids and more income to spend on the fancy stuff the colonies exported for cash (coffee, tobbacco, precious metals, fine furs etc). This only doubled the effect as new generations came along. More farming innovations made for more surplus labour. Greater wealth resulting in income for the colonies meant greater natural growth along with a greater attraction for immigrants. See where I'm going with this?

Now for example the same thing did not happen with the French for example because they resisted changes like this. Given France was constantly subject to invasion as where Britain was not, the French King was not keen to export excess population to the new world because they could be his soldiers when he needed them tomorrow. This lead to a resistance against enclosure and the maintenance of many more small peasant plots. What this in turn resulted in was the persistance of poverty among these people because they were still farming at a subsistence level. This meant that all the new goodies that the English farmer could buy were unavailable to most French people outside the aristocracy or the church. This meant less demand which in turn meant less attraction to the new world. Given that the Church was heavily involved in French expansion in the New World for it's missionary value, this also lead to a policy of having natives run the commercial empire for them (in the case of New France) or having slaves in the Carribbean who could supposedly benefit from the superior French influence. To make sure this happened though, only the best of French society could go to the new world. Britain didn't care. They wanted to get rid of the "worst" of their society and as sad as it is to say, there is a lot less "best" than there is "worst". It is worth noting that Spain took much the same approach to the matter as France did and therefore their growth in the New World was almost entirely natural. In the case of the last other big player (the Dutch) they were there for the same reason they were anywhere. They were a sailing and merchant people and they came to the New World for cash and little else. They couldn't afford to export people and that was why they disappeared so quickly from the continent.

Hope that made sense.

Answer 3

Europe was overcrowded and socially stratified and enough people were willing to risk everything in order to get out and settle somewhere else.

Answer 4

Access to slave labor