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Historians have traditionally focused on New England as the true birthplace of America, yet New England was fairly unrepresentative of the real America - a homogenous society dominated by English Puritans and their inflexible doctrines. The middle colonies, on the other hand, were made up of people of diverse origins, races, and creeds, so their interrelationships are unquestionably more symbolic of American culture. Like most people's idea of America, the middle colonies developed a commercial culture based on a balanced economy, and showed no real homogenous cultural traits that ran through the region. Indeed, most of the groups that coexisted in this region did not intermingle with each other, but kept their own distinctive cultural and social habits. Because of this, the argument can be made that the middle colonies were not the heterogeneous, "melting pot" culture that some historians claim existed. After all, heterogeneous seems to suggest a fusion of different types of people, when in fact these colonies offered more of a clannish type of policy when it came to dealing with their new neighbors. Jack Greene hypothesizes that the idea of mastery was a crucial factor in shaping America's colonial culture. Greene suggests that the objective of the English who migrated to the Americas was to achieve mastery over the rugged land of America as well as of other groups, a mastery that was unavailable to them in their homeland. The problem with this hypothesis is that it covers only the English migration to the New World, and only a relatively small portion of that group. In truth, many English chose to relocate to America for reasons having nothing to do with mastery over others, such as religious freedom and financial gain. Greene also advocates relating the culture of colonial America back to that of Great Britain, a technique that can be useful in delineating the differences between the two areas. However, taking this approach too far can be deleterious, as the English in America were quick to develop cultural traits that had little connection to their homeland. A comparison of some of these cultural aspects would only serve to confuse. Finally, the many people who came to America from countries besides England would not fit anywhere into Greene's paradigm.