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Colonizers came from European kingdoms with highly developed military, naval, governmental and entrepreneurial capabilities. The Spanish and Portuguese centuries-old experience of conquest and colonization during the Reconquista, coupled with new oceanic ship navigation skills, provided the tools, ability, and desire to colonize the New World. England, France and the Netherlands started colonies in both the West Indies and North America. They had the ability to build ocean-worthy ships, but did not have as strong a history of colonization in foreign lands as did Spain. However, English entrepreneurs gave their colonies a base of merchant-based investment that needed much less government support.[3]
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| Mercantilism | 3>
Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies from the 1660s. Mercantilism meant that the government and merchants based in England became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires and even merchants based in its own colonies. The government protected its London-based merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling, especially by American merchants, some of whose activities (which included direct trade with the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese) were classified as such by the Navigation Acts. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a superb Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. Thus the British Navy captured New Amsterdam (New York) in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.[4]
[edit] | Tags: Religious persecution | 3>
The prospect of religious persecution by authorities of the crown and the Church of England prompted a significant number of colonization efforts. People fleeing persecution by King Charles I were responsible for settling most of New England, and the Province of Maryland was founded in part to be a haven for Roman Catholics.
[edit] | Tags: Early colonial failures | 2>
Numerous failed colonies were attempted—they died because of disease, starvation or wars with Indians or other European powers.
Spain had numerous failed attempts, including Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in Georgia in 1526; Pánfilo de Narváez in Florida in 1528–36; Pensacola in West Florida 1559–61; Fort San Juan in North Carolina 1567–68; and the Ajacan Mission 1570–71, in Virginia.[1]
The French failed at Parris Island, South Carolina in 1562–63; Fort Caroline, Florida, in 1564–65; Saint Croix Island, Maine 1604-5;[1] and Fort Saint Louis, Texas in 1685–89.
The most notable English failures were the "Lost Colony of Roanoke" (1587–90) in North Carolina and Popham Colony in Maine (1607–8). It was at the Roanoke Colony that the first English child, Virginia Dare, was born in the Americas; her fate is unknown. The Kingdom of Scotland tried to establish a colony in Central America called "New Caledonia" in the 1690s; it was a total failure.
[edit] | Tags: Spanish colonies | 2>
At one time, Spain claimed and controlled North America west of the Mississippi and south of the Canadian border. Additionally, Spain claimed what are now the states of Louisiana, Florida, and parts of Georgia and Mississippi.
[edit] | Tags: Florida | 3>
Main article: History of Florida
Spain established several small outposts in Florida. The most important, St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565, was repeatedly attacked and burned, but was the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States. Pirate attacks were unrelenting against small outposts as well as St. Augustine. The British and their colonies repeatedly made war with Spain and its colonies and outposts. South Carolina launched large scale raiding expeditions in the early 18th century, which effectively destroyed the Spanish mission system. St. Augustine and Pensacola survived, but English-allied Indians such as the Yamasee conducted slave raids throughout Florida, killing or enslaving most of the region's natives.[1] In the mid-18th century, invading Seminoles from Georgia killed most of the remaining local Indians. Florida had about 3,000 Spaniards when Britain took control in 1763. Nearly all quickly left. Even though control was restored to Spain in 1783, Spain sent no more settlers or missionaries to Florida. The United States took possession in 1819.[5]
[edit] | Tags: New Mexico | 3>
Main article: History of New Mexico
Throughout the 16th century, Spain explored the southwest from Mexico with the most notable explorer being Francisco Coronado whose expedition rode throughout modern New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorado, the panhandle of Oklahoma, and Kansas. The first colonization was under Don Juan de Oñate in 1598 where the first settlement in San Juan de Los Caballeros near Española, New Mexico and later Santa Fe, New Mexico around 1609. The second colonization came in 1692 under Diego de Vargas (after the Pueblo Revolt briefly drove the Spanish out). Ownership was by Spain (223 years) and Mexico (25 years) until 1846, when the American Army of the West took over in the Mexican-American War. About of a third of the population[clarification needed] in the 21st century descends from the Spanish settlers.[1][6][page needed]
[edit] | Tags: California | 3>
Main article: History of California to 1899
Further information: Spanish missions in California and Territorial evolution of California
The ruins of the Spanish Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.
Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of present day California from the early 16th century to the mid-18th century, but no settlements were established over those centuries.
Spain, from 1769 until the independence of Mexico in 1820, sent missionaries and soldiers to Alta California who created a series of Franciscan missions, accompanied by presidios (forts), pueblos (settlements)s, and ranchos (land grant ranches), along the southern and central coast of California. Father Junípero Serra, a Franciscan missionary, founded the first missions in Spanish upper Las Californias, starting with Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769. Through the Spanish and Mexican eras they eventually comprised a series of 21 missions to spread Christianity among the local Native Americans, linked by El Camino Real ("The Royal Road"). They were established to convert the indigenous peoples of California, while protecting historic Spanish claims to the area. The missions introduced European technology, livestock, and crops. The Indian Reductions 'converted' the native peoples into groups of Mission Indians, which also forced many from their ancestral homelands and cultures, to be laborers in the missions and on their, and the ranchos, surrounding lands.[6][page needed]
At the time of the 1846 U.S. acquisition of California as a territory from Mexico, the missions had previously been secularized and their lands transferred to hundreds of Mexican land grant ranchos from Northern to Southern California. The indigenous Native American population was around 150,000; the Californios (Mexican era Californians) around 10,000; with the rest immigrant Americans and other nationalities involved in trade and business in California.
[edit] | Tags: New Mexico | 3>
Further information: Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Spanish missions in New Mexico
[edit] | Tags: Texas | 3>
Further information: Spanish Texas, Mexican Texas, and Spanish missions in Texas
[edit] | Tags: New France | 2>
Main articles: New France and French colonization of the Americas
The 1750 possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange) in contrast to the borders of contemporary Canada and the United States.
New France was the vast area explored and claimed by France. It was composed of several colonies. They were Acadia, Canada, Newfoundland, Louisiana, Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island), and Île Saint Jean (present-day Prince Edward Island). Although all of these territories would come under British control in the 18th century, only portions of Canada, Acadia and Louisiana became parts of the United States.
[edit] | Tags: Pays d'en Haut | 3>
By 1660, French fur trappers based in Montreal pushed west along the Great Lakes and founded Green Bay, Saint Ignace, Sault Sainte Marie, Vincennes, and Detroit in 1701. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400.[7] At the end of the War for Independence in 1783, the region south of the Great Lakes formally became part of the United States.
[edit] | Tags: Illinois Country | 3>
The Illinois country by 1752 had a population of 2,573.[8] Most of the population was concentrated around Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Sainte Genevieve.
[edit] | Tags: Louisiana | 3>
French Louisiana, first settled at Mobile in 1702, started its growth when 7,000 French immigrants arrived in New Orleans in 1718.[9] The areas around New Orleans and west of the Mississippi were given to Spain in 1760.[10] Louisiana was taken back by France in 1800, and sold to the United States in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase.[11]
[edit] | Tags: Acadia | 3>
The boundary of Acadia stretched to the Kennebec River in Maine.[12] After Father Rale's War, Maine largely fell to New England until the British reclaimed the region during the War of 1812.
[edit] | Tags: New Netherland | 2>
Main articles: New Netherland and Dutch colonization of the Americas
New Netherland series
Exploration
Fortifications:
• Fort Amsterdam
• Fort Nassau (North)
• Fort Orange
• Fort Nassau (South)
• Fort Goede Hoop
• De Wal
• Fort Casimir
• Fort Altena
• Fort Wilhelmus
• Fort Beversreede
• Fort Nya Korsholm
• De Rondout
Settlements:
• Noten Eylandt
• New Amsterdam
• Rensselaerswyck
• New Haarlem
• Noortwyck
• Beverwijck
• Wiltwyck
• Bergen
• Pavonia
• Vriessendael
• Achter Col
• Vlissingen
• Oude Dorpe
• Colen Donck
• Greenwich
• Heemstede
• Rustdorp
• Gravesende
• Breuckelen
• New Amersfoort
• Midwout
• New Utrecht
• Boswyck
• Swaanendael
• New Amstel
• Nieuw Dorp
The Patroon System
Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions
Directors of New Netherland:
Cornelius Jacobsen May (1620-25)
Willem Verhulst (1625-26)
Peter Minuit (1626-32)
Sebastiaen Jansen Krol (1632-33)
Wouter van Twiller (1633-38)
Willem Kieft (1638-47)
Peter Stuyvesant (1647-64)
People of New Netherland
New Netherlander
Twelve Men
Eight Men
Flushing Remonstrance
A map of New Amsterdam in 1660
Nieuw-Nederland, or New Netherland, chartered in 1614, was a colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in what became New York State and parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The peak population was less than 10,000. The Dutch established a patroon system with feudal-like rights given to a few powerful landholders; they also established religious tolerance and free trade. The colony's capital, New Amsterdam, founded in 1625 and located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan, would grow to become a major world city. The city was captured by the English in 1664; they took complete control of the colony in 1674 and renamed it New York. However the Dutch landholdings remained, and the Hudson River Valley maintained a traditional Dutch character until the 1820s.[13][14]
[edit] | Tags: New Sweden | 2>
Main article: Swedish colonization of the Americas
Map of New Sweden by Amandus Johnson
New Sweden (Swedish: Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the Delaware River Valley from 1638 to 1655. The few hundred settlers huddled around Fort Christina. It was captured by the Dutch in 1655 and merged into New Netherland, and most traces of Swedish culture faded away.[15]
[edit] | Tags: Russian colonies | 2>
Main articles: Russian Alaska and Russian colonization of the Americas
Russia explored the area that became Alaska starting with the Second Kamchatka expedition in the 1730s and early 1740s. Their first settlement was founded in 1784 by Grigory Shelikhov.[16] The Russian-American Company was formed in 1799 with the influence of Nikolay Rezanov for the purpose of buying sea otters for their fur from native hunters. In 1867 the U.S. purchased Alaska and nearly all Russians left except a few missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church working among the natives.[17]
[edit] | Tags: English colonies | 2>
See also: British America and Thirteen Colonies
The 1606 grants by James I to the London and Plymouth companies. The overlapping area (yellow) was granted to both companies on the stipulation that neither found a settlement within 100 miles (160 km) of each other. The location of the Jamestown Settlement is shown by "J"
England made its first successful efforts at the start of the 17th century for several reasons. During this era, English proto-nationalism and national assertiveness blossomed under the threat of Spanish invasion, assisted by a degree of Protestant militarism and the energy of Queen Elizabeth. At this time, however, there was no official attempt by the English government to create a colonial empire. Rather, the motivation behind the founding of colonies was piecemeal and variable. Practical considerations, such as commercial enterprise, overpopulation and the desire for freedom of religion, played their parts. The main waves of settlement came in the 17th century. After 1700 most immigrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants—young unmarried men and women seeking a new life in a much richer environment.[18] Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 convicts to its American colonies.[19] The first convicts to arrive pre-dated the arrival of the Mayflower.
[edit] | Tags: Virginia | 4>
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607 near Chesapeake Bay. The business venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony survived and flourished by turning to tobacco as a cash crop. By the late 17th century, Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676, Bacon's Rebellion occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves rapidly replaced indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force.[20][21]
The colonial assembly shared power with a royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county courts, which were self-perpetuating (the incumbents filled any vacancies and there never were popular elections). As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade with England. With easy navigation by river, there were few towns and no cities; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and a very young population profile characterized the colony during its first years.[21]
[edit] | Tags: New England | 3>
Main articles: History of New England, Connecticut Colony, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Province of New Hampshire, and Colony of Rhode Island
[edit] | Tags: Puritans | 4>
Main article: Puritan
The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers. They sought to reform the Church of England by creating a new, pure church in the New World. By 1640, 20,000 had arrived; many died soon after arrival, but the others found a healthy climate and an ample food supply. The Massachusetts settlement spawned other Puritan colonies in New England, including the New Haven, Saybrook, and Connecticut colonies. During the 17th century the New Haven and Saybrook colonies were absorbed by Connecticut.
The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit, and politically innovative culture that still influences the modern United States.[22] They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation". They fled England and in America attempted to create a "nation of saints" or a "City upon a Hill": an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. Roger Williams, who preached religious toleration, separation of Church and State, and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded Rhode Island Colony, which became a haven for other refugees from the Puritan community, such as Anne Hutchinson.[23]
Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash crop-oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of self-supporting farmsteads who traded only for goods they could not produce themselves.[24] There was a generally higher economic standing and standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. Along with agriculture, fishing, and logging, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, serving as the hub for trading between the southern colonies and Europe.[25]
[edit] | Tags: Other New England | 4>
The Pilgrims were a small Protestant sect based in England and the Netherlands. One group sailed on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. After drawing up the Mayflower Compact by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance, they established the small Plymouth Colony. William Bradford was their main leader. Providence Plantation was founded in 1636 by Rev. Roger Williams on land provided by the Narragansett sachem Canonicus. Williams, fleeing from religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, agreed with his fellow settlers on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule "in civil things" and "liberty of conscience".[20]
Other colonists who disagreed with Puritans in Massachusetts settled to the north, mingling with adventurers and profit-oriented settlers to establish more religiously diverse colonies in New Hampshire and Maine. These small settlements were absorbed by Massachusetts when it made significant land claims in the 1640s and 1650s, but New Hampshire was eventually given a separate charter in 1679. (Maine remained a part of Massachusetts until achieving statehood in 1820.)
[edit] | Tags: Dominion of New England | 4>
Under King James II of England, the New England colonies (as well as New York and the Jerseys) were briefly united as the Dominion of New England (1686–89). The administration eventually led by Governor Sir Edmund Andros seized colonial charters, revoked land titles, and ruled without local assemblies, causing anger among the population. The 1689 Boston revolt, inspired by England's Glorious Revolution against James II, caused Andros, Boston Anglicans, and senior dominion officials to be arrested by the Massachusetts militia. Andros was jailed for several months, then returned to England. The Dominion of New England was dissolved and governments resumed under their earlier charters.[26] However, the Massachusetts charter had been revoked in 1684, and a new one was issued in 1691 that combined Massachusetts and Plymouth into the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Although King William III sought at least to unite the New England colonies militarily (for example, by appointing the Earl of Bellomont to three simultaneous governorships, and military command over Connecticut and Rhode Island), these attempts at unified control failed.
[edit] | Tags: Middle Colonies | 3>
Main article: Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, were characterized by a large degree of diversity—religious, political, economic, and ethnic. The Dutch colony of New Netherland was taken over by the British and renamed New York but large numbers of Dutch remained in the colony. New Jersey began as a division of New York, and was for a time divided into the proprietary colonies of East and West Jersey. Many German and Irish immigrants settled in these areas, as well as in Connecticut. A large portion of the settlers who came to Pennsylvania were German.[25] Philadelphia became the center of the colonies; by the end of the colonial period 30,000 people lived there, having come from diverse nations and practicing numerous trades.
Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 as a proprietary colony of the Quaker William Penn. It came to include the territory of Delaware, which had once been part of New Netherland; Delaware had a government independent of that established in Philadelphia, but was never a separate colony.
[edit] | Tags: Lower South | 3>
The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region (Virginia, Maryland, and, by some classifications, Delaware) and the lower South (Carolina, which eventually split into North and South Carolina; and Georgia).[25]
[edit] | Tags: Carolinas | 4>
Main articles: Province of Carolina, Province of North Carolina, and Province of South Carolina
The first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English Lords Proprietors, who obtained a Royal Charter to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to that area. Eventually, however, the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area, a mission led by Sir John Colleton. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at what was to become Charleston (originally Charles Town for Charles II of England), thus beginning the English colonization of the mainland. The original settlers in South Carolina established a lucrative trade in provisions, deerskins and Indian captives with the Caribbean islands. The settlers came mainly from the English colony of Barbados and brought African slaves with them. Barbados, as a wealthy sugarcane plantation island, was one of the early English colonies to use large numbers of Africans in plantation style agriculture. The cultivation of rice was introduced during the 1690s via Africans from the rice-growing regions of Africa. North Carolina remained a frontier throughout the early colonial period.[25]
At first, South Carolina was politically divided. Its ethnic makeup included the original settlers, a group of rich, slave-owning English settlers from the island of Barbados; and Huguenots, a French-speaking community of Protestants. Nearly continuous frontier warfare during the era of King William's War and Queen Anne's War drove economic and political wedges between merchants and planters. The disaster of the 1715 Yamasee War, which threatened the colony's viability, set off a decade of political turmoil. By 1729, the proprietary government had collapsed, and the Proprietors sold both colonies back to the British crown.[25]
[edit] | Tags: Georgia | 4>
Main article: Province of Georgia
Savannah, Georgia Colony, early 18th century
James Oglethorpe, an 18th century British Member of Parliament, established the Georgia Colony in 1733 as a common solution to two problems. At that time, tension between Spain and Great Britain was high, and the British feared that Spanish Florida was threatening the British Carolinas. Oglethorpe decided to establish a colony in the contested border region of Georgia and populate it with debtors who would otherwise have been imprisoned according to standard British practice. This plan would both rid Great Britain of its undesirable elements and provide her with a base from which to attack Florida. The first colonists arrived in 1733.[25]
Georgia was established on strict moralistic principles. Slavery was forbidden, as were alcohol and other forms of supposed immorality. However, the reality of the colony was far from ideal. The colonists were unhappy about the puritanical lifestyle and complained that their colony could not compete economically with the Carolina rice plantations. Georgia initially failed to prosper, but eventually the restrictions were lifted, slavery was allowed, and it became as prosperous as the Carolinas. The colony of Georgia never had a specific religion. It consisted of people of various faiths.
[edit] | Tags: East and West Florida | 4>
Main articles: East Florida and West Florida
In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain, which established the colonies of East and West Florida. The Floridas remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolution. They were returned to Spain in 1783 (in exchange for the Bahamas), at which time most of the British left. The Spanish then neglected the Floridas: few Spaniards lived there when the US bought the area in 1819.[1]
[edit] | Tags: British colonial government | 2>
Each colony had a paid colonial agent in London to represent its interests.
The three forms of colonial government in 1776 were provincial, proprietary, and charter. These governments were all subordinate to the king in London, with no explicit relationship with the British Parliament. Beginning late in the 17th century, the administration of all British colonies was overseen by a Board of Trade.
[edit] | Tags: Provincial colonies | 3>
New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and eventually Massachusetts, were provincial colonies.
The provincial government was governed by commissions created at pleasure by the monarch. A governor (and in some provinces his council) were appointed by the crown. The governor was invested with general executive powers, and authorized to call a locally elected assembly. The governor's council would sit as an upper house when the assembly was in session in addition to its role in advising the governor. Assemblies were made up of representatives elected by the freeholders and planters (landowners) of the province. The governor had the power of absolute veto, and could prorogue (i.e., delay) and dissolve the assembly.
The assembly's role was to make all local laws and ordinances, ensuring that they were not inconsistent with the laws of England. In practice this did not always occur, since many of the provincial assemblies sought to expand their powers and limit those of the governor and crown. Laws could be examined by the Board of Trade, which also held veto power of legislation.
[edit] | Tags: Proprietary colonies | 3>
Pennsylvania (which included Delaware), New Jersey, and Maryland were proprietary colonies. They were governed much as royal colonies except that lord proprietors, rather than the king, appointed the governor. They were set up after the Restoration of 1660 and typically enjoyed greater civil and religious liberty.[27]
[edit] | Tags: Charter colonies | 3>
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, and Connecticut were charter colonies. The Massachusetts charter was revoked in 1684, and was replaced by a provincial charter that was issued in 1691.
Charter governments were political corporations created by letters patent, giving the grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government. The charters provided a fundamental constitution and divided powers among legislative, executive, and judicial functions, with those powers being vested in officials.[28]
[edit] | Tags: Political culture | 3>
As Bonomi (1971) shows, the most distinctive feature of colonial society was the vibrant political culture, which attracted the most talented and ambitious young men into politics.[29] First, suffrage was the most widespread in the world, with every man who owned a certain amount of property allowed to vote.[30] While fewer than 1% of British men could vote, a majority of white American men were eligible. The roots of democracy were present,[31] although deference was typically shown to social elites in colonial elections.[32]
Second, in the colonies a very wide range of public and private business was decided by elected bodies, especially the assemblies and county governments in each colony.[33] They handled land grants, commercial subsidies, and taxation, as well as oversight of roads, poor relief, taverns, and schools.[34] Americans sued each other at a very high rate, with binding decisions made not by a great lord but by local judges and juries. This promoted the rapid expansion of the legal profession, so that the intense involvement of lawyers in politics became an American characteristic by the 1770s.[35]
Thirdly, the American colonies were exceptional in the world because of the representation of many different interest groups in political decision-making. Unlike Europe, where aristocratic families and the established church were in control, the American political culture was open to economic, social, religious, ethnic and geographical interests, with merchants, landlords, petty farmers, artisans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Germans, Scotch Irish, Yankees, Yorkers, and many other identifiable groups taking part. Elected representatives learned to listen to these interests because 90% of the men in the lower houses lived in their districts, unlike England where it was common to have a member of Parliament and absentee member of Parliament.[36]
Finally, and most dramatically, the Americans were fascinated by and increasingly adopted the political values of Republicanism, which stressed equal rights, the need for virtuous citizens, and the evils of corruption, luxury, and aristocracy.[37][38] Republicanism provided the framework for colonial resistance to British schemes of taxation after 1763, which escalated into the Revolution.
None of the colonies had stable political parties of the sort that formed in the 1790s, but each had shifting factions that vied for power, especially in the perennial battles between the appointed governor and the elected assembly.[39] There were often "country" and "court" factions, representing those opposed and in favor, respectively, of the governor's actions and agenda. Massachusetts, which from its 1691 charter had particularly low requirements for voting eligibility and strong rural representation in its assembly, also had a strong populist faction that represented the province's lower classes.
Up and down the colonies non-English ethnic groups had clusters of settlements. The most numerous were the Scotch Irish[40] and the Germans.[41] Each group assimilated into the dominant English, Protestant commercial and political culture, albeit with local variations. They tended to vote in blocs and politicians negotiated with group leaders for votes. They generally retained their historic languages and cultural traditions, even as they merged into the emerging American culture.[42]
Ethnocultural factors were most visible in Pennsylvania. During 1756–76, the Quakers were the largest faction in the legislature, but they were losing their dominance to the emerging Presbyterian faction based on Scotch-Irish votes, supported by Germans.[43]
[edit] | Tags: Colonial Wars: A common defense | 3>
Main article: Colonial American military history
Efforts at common defense of the colonies (principally against shared threats from Indians, the French, and the Dutch) began as early as the 1640s, when the Puritan colonies of New England formed a confederation to coordinate military and judicial matters. From the 1670s several royal governors, notably Sir Edmund Andros (who at various times governed New York, New England, and Virginia) and Francis Nicholson (governed Maryland, Virginia, Nova Scotia, and Carolina) proposed or attempted to implement means to coordinate defensive and offensive military matters. After King Phillips War, Andros successfully negotiated the Covenant Chain, a series of Indian treaties that brought relative calm to the frontiers of the middle colonies for many years.
The northern colonies (particularly present-day Maine and New Hampshire) experience numerous assaults from the Wabanaki Confederacy and the French from Acadia during the four French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War.
One event that reminded colonists of their shared identity as British subjects was the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) in Europe. This conflict spilled over into the colonies, where it was known as "King George's War". The major battles took place in Europe, but American colonial troops fought the French and their Indian allies in New York, New England, and Nova Scotia with the Siege of Louisbourg (1745).
At the Albany Congress of 1754, Benjamin Franklin proposed that the colonies be united by a Grand Council overseeing a common policy for defense, expansion, and Indian affairs. While the plan was thwarted by colonial legislatures and King George II, it was an early indication that the British colonies of North America were headed towards unification.[44]
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Main article: French and Indian War
George Washington during the French and Indian War
Benjamin Franklin's political cartoon calling for colonial unity during the French and Indian War; it would be used again during the American Revolution.
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the Seven Years' War. Although previous colonial wars in North America had started in Europe and then spread to the colonies, the French and Indian War is notable for having started in North America and then having spread to Europe. Increasing competition between Britain and France, especially in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley, was one of the primary origins of the war.[45]
The French and Indian War took on a new significance for the British North American colonists when William Pitt the Elder decided that, in order to win the war against France, major military resources needed to be devoted to North America. For the first time, the continent became one of the main theaters of what could be termed a "world war". During the war, the position of the British colonies as part of the British Empire was made truly apparent, as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in the lives of Americans. The war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways. It caused men, who might normally have never left their own colony, to travel across the continent, fighting alongside men from decidedly different, yet still "American", backgrounds. Throughout the course of the war, British officers trained American ones (most notably George Washington) for battle—which would later benefit the American Revolution. Also, colonial legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively, for the first time, in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.[45] The relations between the British military establishment and the colonists were not always positive, setting the stage for later distrust and dislike of British troops.
Territorial changes following the French and Indian War: land held by the British before 1763 is shown in red, land gained by Britain in 1763 is shown in pink.
In the Treaty of Paris (1763), France formally ceded the eastern part of its vast North American empire to Britain (having secretly given the territory of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain the previous year). Before the war, Britain held the thirteen American colonies, most of present-day Nova Scotia, and most of the Hudson Bay watershed. Following the war, Britain gained all French territory east of the Mississippi River, including Quebec, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio River valley. Britain also gained Spanish Florida, from which it formed the colonies of East and West Florida. In removing a major foreign threat to the thirteen colonies, the war also largely removed the colonists' need of colonial protection.
The British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe. The colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before. However, disunity was beginning to form. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder had decided to wage the war in the colonies with the use of troops from the colonies and tax funds from Britain itself. This was a successful wartime strategy, but after the war was over, each side believed that it had borne a greater burden than the other. The British elite, the most heavily taxed of any in Europe, pointed out angrily that the colonists paid little to the royal coffers. The colonists replied that their sons had fought and died in a war that served European interests more than their own. This dispute was a link in the chain of events that soon brought about the American Revolution.[45]
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Although the colonies were very different from one another, they were still a part of the British Empire in more than just name.
Socially, the colonial elite of Boston, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia saw their identity as British. Although many had never been to Britain, they imitated British styles of dress, dance, and etiquette. This social upper echelon built its mansions in the Georgian style, copied the furniture designs of Thomas Chippendale, and participated in the intellectual currents of Europe, such as the Enlightenment. To many of their inhabitants, the seaport cities of colonial America were truly British cities.[46]
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Many of the political structures of the colonies drew upon the republicanism expressed by opposition leaders in Britain, most notably the Commonwealth men and the Whig traditions. Many Americans at the time saw the colonies' systems of governance as modeled after the British constitution of the time, with the king corresponding to the governor, the House of Commons to the colonial assembly, and the House of Lords to the Governor's council. The codes of law of the colonies were often drawn directly from English law; indeed, English common law survives not only in Canada, but also throughout the United States. Eventually, it was a dispute over the meaning of some of these political ideals, especially political representation, and republicanism that led to the American Revolution.[47]
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Another point on which the colonies found themselves more similar than different was the booming import of British goods. The British economy had begun to grow rapidly at the end of the 17th century, and by the mid-18th century, small factories in Britain were producing much more than the nation could consume. Finding a market for their goods in the British colonies of North America, Britain increased her exports to that region by 360% between 1740 and 1770. Because British merchants offered generous | Tags: Colonial America (disambiguation),Timeline,Websites related to: Russian Wives Dating |