ry different traditions, these North/South Europeans. Nuances of difference certainly abound, but the simplifications point out the key contrasts: the Iberian tradition is Roman Catholic, hierarchic, authoritarian - the English tradition is Protestant, mercantile, egalitarian. Like all simplifications there is falsehood even in the contrasts, but the main traits differentiating these European-based traditions were passed on to their respective American colonies.
Nor do our respective histories give us much in common beyond geographical proximity. The English were absentee overlords, content to let entrepreneurial colonists hack out a place in the New World and ship back whatev
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