{"history":[],"article":{"id":"fd7e6136-e4a3-4db9-a0b9-4270a6c76868","title":"Thirteen Colonies","slug":"thirteen-colonies","content":":::summary\n**Conventional Long Name:** Thirteen Colonies \n**Common Name:** Thirteen Colonies \n**Life Span:** 1607–1776 \n**Status:** Colonies \n**Empire:** Britain \n**Government Type:** Various [colonial arrangements](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-charters-in-the-thirteen-colonies) \n**Event Pre:** [Roanoke Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/roanoke-colony) \n**Date Pre:** 1585 \n**Event Start:** [Virginia Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia) \n**Year Start:** 1607 \n**Event 1:** [New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-council-for-new-england) \n**Date Event 1:** 1620 \n**Event 2:** [Rhode Island Royal Charter](https://bliptext.com/articles/rhode-island-royal-charter) \n**Date Event 2:** 1663 \n**Event 3:** [New Netherland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-netherland) ceded to [England](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-england) \n**Date Event 3:** 1667 \n**Event 4:** [Treaty of Utrecht](https://bliptext.com/articles/peace-of-utrecht) \n**Date Event 4:** 1713 \n**Event 5:** [Province of Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia) \n**Date Event 5:** 1732 \n**Event 6:** [French and Indian War](https://bliptext.com/articles/french-and-indian-war) \n**Date Event 6:** 1754–1763 \n**Event 7:** [Articles of Association](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-association) \n**Date Event 7:** 1774 \n**Event 8:** [Independence declared](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-declaration-of-independence) \n**Date Event 8:** 1776 \n**Event End:** [Treaty of Paris](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1783) \n**Year End:** 1783 \n**P 1:** Pre-colonial North America \n**P 2:** New Netherland \n**Flag P 2:** Statenvlag.svg \n**S 1:** United Colonies \n**Flag S 1:** Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg \n**Flag Type:** [Flag of British America](https://bliptext.com/articles/red-ensign) (1707–1775) [Flag of the United Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/grand-union-flag) (1775–1777) \n**Image Flag:** Colonial-Red-Ensign.svg \n**Image Flag 2:** Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg \n**National Anthem:** [God Save the King](https://bliptext.com/articles/god-save-the-king) · [[File:Rufst du, mein Vaterland, [God Save the King](https://bliptext.com/articles/god-save-the-king), Íslands minni, Kongesangen and Oben am jungen Rhein (1938).oga]] \n**Image Map:** Map of territorial growth 1775.svg \n**Image Map Caption:** The Thirteen Colonies (shown in red) in 1775 with modern borders overlaid \n**Leader 1:** [James I & VI](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-vi-and-i) (first) \n**Year Leader 1:** 1607–1625 \n**Leader 2:** [George III](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-iii) (last) \n**Year Leader 2:** 1760–1776 \n**Title Leader:** Monarch \n**Stat Year 1:** 1625 \n**Stat Pop 1:** 1,980 \n**Stat Year 2:** 1775 \n**Stat Pop 2:** 2,400,000 \n**Today:** [United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) \n:::\n\n# \nThe **Thirteen Colonies** were a group of [British colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-colonization-of-the-americas) on the [Atlantic coast](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-coast-of-the-united-states) of [North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-america) during the 17th and 18th centuries.\nGrievances against the imperial government led the 13 colonies to begin uniting in 1774, and expelling British officials by 1775.\nAssembled at the [Second Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-continental-congress) in [Philadelphia](https://bliptext.com/articles/philadelphia), after armed conflict had broken out in April, they appointed [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington) as commander-in-chief of the [Continental Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-army) to fight the [American Revolutionary War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolutionary-war).\nIn 1776, Congress adopted the [Declaration of Independence](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-declaration-of-independence) as the [United States of America](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) and, asserting its sovereignty, the United States allied with Britain's enemy, France.\nDefeating British armies with its French ally, the former Thirteen Colonies had its sovereignty recognized by Britain in the [Treaty of Paris](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1783) in 1783.\nThe Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: the [New England Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-england-colonies) ([New Hampshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-hampshire), [Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-massachusetts-bay), [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-rhode-island-and-providence-plantations), and [Connecticut](https://bliptext.com/articles/connecticut-colony)); the [Middle Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-colonies) ([New York](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-york), [New Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-jersey), [Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pennsylvania), and [Delaware](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-colony)); and the [Southern Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/southern-colonies) ([Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maryland), [Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia), [North Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-north-carolina), [South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-south-carolina), and [Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia)).\nThese colonies were part of [British America](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-america), which also included territory in [The Floridas](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-floridas), the [Caribbean](https://bliptext.com/articles/caribbean), and what is today [Canada](https://bliptext.com/articles/canada).\nThe Thirteen Colonies were separate entities under the Crown, but had similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, and each was dominated by [Protestant](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism-in-the-united-states) English-speakers.\nThe first of the colonies, Virginia, was established at [Jamestown](https://bliptext.com/articles/jamestown-virginia), in 1607.\nThe New England Colonies, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, were substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion.\nThe other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion.\nThe Middle Colonies were established on the former Dutch colony of [New Netherland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-netherland).\nBetween 1625 and 1775, the colonial population grew from 2 thousand to 2.4 million, largely displacing the region's [Native Americans](https://bliptext.com/articles/native-americans-in-the-united-states).\nThe population included people subject to a system of [slavery](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavery-in-the-colonial-united-states), which was legal in all of the colonies.\nIn the 18th century, the British government operated under a policy of [mercantilism](https://bliptext.com/articles/mercantilism), in which the central government administered its colonies for Britain's economic benefit.\nThe 13 colonies had a degree of [self-governance and active local elections](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-government-in-the-thirteen-colonies), and they resisted London's demands for more control over them.\nThe [French and Indian War](https://bliptext.com/articles/french-and-indian-war) (1754–1763) against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the 13 colonies.\nDuring the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with one another instead of dealing directly with Britain.\nWith the help of [colonial printers and newspapers](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-american-publishers-and-printers), these inter-colonial activities and concerns were shared and led to calls for protection of the colonists' \"[Rights as Englishmen](https://bliptext.com/articles/rights-of-englishmen)\", especially the principle of \"[no taxation without representation](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-taxation-without-representation)\".\nLate 18th century conflicts with the British government over taxes and rights led to the [American Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolution), in which the Thirteen Colonies joined together for the first time to form the [Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-congress) and raised the [Continental Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-army), declaring independence in 1776.\nThey fought the [American Revolutionary War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolutionary-war) (1775–1783) with [the aid of the Kingdom of France](https://bliptext.com/articles/france-in-the-american-revolutionary-war) and, to a much lesser degree, the [Dutch Republic](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-republic) and the [Kingdom of Spain](https://bliptext.com/articles/spain-and-the-american-revolutionary-war).\n\n# British colonies\nIn 1606, King [James I of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-vi-and-i) granted charters to both the [Plymouth Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-company) and the [London Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-company) for the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in America.\nThe London Company established the [Colony of Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia) in 1607, the first permanently settled English colony on the continent.\nThe Plymouth Company founded the [Popham Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/popham-colony) on the [Kennebec River](https://bliptext.com/articles/kennebec-river), but it was short-lived.\nThe [Plymouth Council for New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-council-for-new-england) sponsored several colonization projects, culminating with [Plymouth Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-colony) in 1620 which was settled by English Puritan separatists, known today as the [Pilgrims](https://bliptext.com/articles/pilgrims-plymouth-colony).\nThe Dutch, Swedish, and French also established successful American colonies at roughly the same time as the English, but they eventually came under the English crown.\nThe Thirteen Colonies were complete with the establishment of the [Province of Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia) in 1732, although the term \"Thirteen Colonies\" became current only in the context of the [American Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolution).\nIn London, beginning in 1660, all colonies were governed through a state department known as the [Southern Department](https://bliptext.com/articles/southern-department-great-britain), and a committee of the Privy Council called the [Board of Trade and Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/lords-of-trade-and-plantations).\nIn 1768, a [specific state department](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-office) was created for America, but it was disbanded in 1782 when the [Home Office](https://bliptext.com/articles/home-office) took responsibility.\n# [The Thirteen Colonies of British America:{{legend|#AF4523| (Dark Red): New England Colonies}} {{legend|#E7774F| (Red-Brown): Middle Colonies}} {{legend|#C8673C| (Brown): Southern Colonies|undefined | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Thirteencolonies///politics///cropped.jpg]\n\n## New England colonies\nPlymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven Colonies formed the [New England Confederation](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-england-confederation) in 1643, and all New England colonies were included in the [Dominion of New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/dominion-of-new-england) (1686–1689).\n# [A 1584 map of the east coast from Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout, drawn by the English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer John White; in 1607, Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, was established in this region. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Roanoke///map///1584.JPG]\n\n## Middle colonies\n

[Delaware Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-colony) (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware), established in 1664 as [proprietary colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/proprietary-colony)

[Province of New York](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-york), established as a proprietary colony in 1664; chartered as royal colony in 1686; included in the [Dominion of New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/dominion-of-new-england) (1686–1689)

[Province of New Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-jersey), established as a proprietary colony in 1664; chartered as a royal colony in 1702\n

[Province of Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pennsylvania), established in 1681 as a proprietary colony

\n\n\n## Southern colonies\n

[Colony of Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia), established in 1607 as a proprietary colony; chartered as a royal colony in 1624.

[Province of Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maryland), established 1632 as a proprietary colony.

[Province of North Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-north-carolina), previously part of the Carolina province (see below) until 1712; chartered as a royal colony in 1729.

[Province of South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-south-carolina), previously part of the Carolina province (see below) until 1712; chartered as a royal colony in 1729.

[Province of Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia), established as a proprietary colony in 1732; royal colony from 1752.

\n\nThe [Province of Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-carolina) was initially chartered in 1629 and initial settlements were established after 1651.\nThat charter was [voided](https://bliptext.com/articles/void-law) in 1660 by [Charles II](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-ii-of-england) and a new charter was issued in 1663, making it a proprietary colony.\nThe Carolina province was divided into separate proprietary colonies, north and south in 1712, before both became royal colonies in 1729.\nEarlier, along the coast, the [Roanoke Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/roanoke-colony) was established in 1585, re-established in 1587, and found abandoned in 1590.\n\n# 17th century\n# [The 1606 grants by James I to the London and Plymouth companies. The overlapping area (in yellow) was granted to both companies on the stipulation that neither found a settlement within 100 mi of each other. The location of early settlements is shown, including Jamestown (J), Quebec (Q), Popham (Po), Port Royal (R), and St. Augustine (SA). | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Wpdms///king///james///grants.png]\n\n## Southern colonies\nThe first British colony was [Jamestown](https://bliptext.com/articles/jamestown-virginia), established on May 14, 1607 near [Chesapeake Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/chesapeake-bay).\nThe business venture was financed and coordinated by the [London Virginia Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-virginia-company), a joint-stock company looking for gold.\nIts first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold.\nThe colony survived and flourished by turning to tobacco as a cash crop.\nIn 1632, [King Charles I](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-i-england) granted the charter for the [Province of Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maryland) to [Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore](https://bliptext.com/articles/cecil-calvert-2nd-baron-baltimore).\nCalvert's father had been a prominent Catholic official who encouraged Catholic immigration to the English colonies.\nThe charter offered no guidelines on religion.\nThe [Province of Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-carolina) was the second attempted English settlement south of Virginia, the first being the failed attempt at [Roanoke](https://bliptext.com/articles/roanoke-colony).\nIt was a private venture, financed by a group of English [Lords Proprietors](https://bliptext.com/articles/lords-proprietors) who obtained a [Royal Charter](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-charter) to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like Jamestown.\nCarolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to that area.\nEventually, however, the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by Sir [John Colleton](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-colleton).\nThe expedition located fertile and defensible ground at [Charleston](https://bliptext.com/articles/charleston-south-carolina), originally Charles Town for [Charles II of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-ii-of-england).\n\n## Middle colonies\nBeginning in 1609, Dutch traders established fur trading posts on the [Hudson River](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudson-river), [Delaware River](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-river), and [Connecticut River](https://bliptext.com/articles/connecticut-river), seeking to protect their interests in the fur trade.\nThe [Dutch West India Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-west-india-company) established permanent settlements on the Hudson River, creating the Dutch colony of [New Netherland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-netherland).\nIn 1626, [Peter Minuit](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-minuit) purchased the island of [Manhattan](https://bliptext.com/articles/manhattan) from the [Lenape](https://bliptext.com/articles/lenape) Indians and established the outpost of [New Amsterdam](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-amsterdam).\nRelatively few Dutch settled in New Netherland, but the colony came to dominate the regional fur trade.\nIt also served as the base for extensive trade with the English colonies, and many products from New England and Virginia were carried to Europe on Dutch ships.\nThe Dutch also engaged in the burgeoning [Atlantic slave trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-slave-trade), bringing some enslaved Africans to the English colonies in North America, although many more were sent to [Barbados](https://bliptext.com/articles/barbados) and Brazil.\nThe West India Company desired to grow New Netherland as it became commercially successful, yet the colony failed to attract the same level of settlement as the English colonies did.\nMany of those who did immigrate to the colony were English, German, [Walloon](https://bliptext.com/articles/walloons), or [Sephardim](https://bliptext.com/articles/sephardi-jews).\nIn 1638, Sweden established the colony of [New Sweden](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-sweden) in the [Delaware Valley](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-valley).\nThe operation was led by former members of the Dutch West India Company, including Peter Minuit.\nNew Sweden established extensive trading contacts with English colonies to the south and shipped much of the tobacco produced in Virginia.\nThe colony was conquered by the Dutch in 1655, while Sweden was engaged in the [Second Northern War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-northern-war).\nBeginning in the 1650s, the English and Dutch engaged in a [series of wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglo-dutch-wars), and the English sought to conquer New Netherland.\n[Richard Nicolls](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-nicolls) captured the lightly defended New Amsterdam in 1664, and his subordinates quickly captured the remainder of New Netherland.\nThe 1667 [Treaty of Breda](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-breda-1667) ended the [Second Anglo-Dutch War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-anglo-dutch-war) and confirmed English control of the region.\nThe Dutch briefly regained control of parts of New Netherland in the [Third Anglo-Dutch War](https://bliptext.com/articles/third-anglo-dutch-war) but surrendered claim to the territory in the 1674 [Treaty of Westminster](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-westminster-1674), ending the Dutch colonial presence in America.\nThe British renamed the colony of New Amsterdam to \"York City\" or \"New York\".\nLarge numbers of Dutch remained in the colony, dominating the rural areas between Manhattan and Albany, while people from New England started moving in as well as immigrants from Germany.\nNew York City attracted a large polyglot population, including a large black slave population.\nIn 1674, the proprietary colonies of [East Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-jersey) and [West Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-jersey) were created from lands formerly part of New York.\nPennsylvania was founded in 1681 as a proprietary colony of Quaker [William Penn](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-penn).\nThe main population elements included the Quaker population based in Philadelphia, a Scotch-Irish population on the Western frontier, and numerous German colonies in between.\nPhiladelphia became the largest city in the colonies with its central location, excellent port, and a population of about 30,000.\n# [New Netherland with 17th-century Dutch claims in areas that later became English colonies shown in red and yellow. Present U.S. states are shown in gray. Four British colonies, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, are referred to as the middle colonies. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Nieuw///Nederland.png]\n\n## New England\nThe [Pilgrims](https://bliptext.com/articles/pilgrim-fathers) were a small group of [Puritan](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritans) separatists who felt that they needed to distance themselves physically from the Church of England, which they perceived as corrupted.\nThey initially moved to the Netherlands, but eventually sailed to America in 1620 on the [Mayflower](https://bliptext.com/articles/mayflower).\nUpon their arrival, they drew up the [Mayflower Compact](https://bliptext.com/articles/mayflower-compact), by which they bound themselves together as a united community, thus establishing the small [Plymouth Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-colony).\n[William Bradford](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-bradford-1590-1657) was their main leader.\nAfter its founding, other settlers traveled from England to join the colony.\nMore Puritans immigrated in 1629 and established the [Massachusetts Bay Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/massachusetts-bay-colony) with 400 settlers.\nThey sought to reform the [Church of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-england) by creating a new, ideologically pure church in the New World.\nBy 1640, [20,000 had arrived](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritan-migration-to-new-england-1620-1640); many died soon after arrival, but the others found a healthy climate and an ample food supply.\nThe Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies together spawned other Puritan colonies in New England, including the [New Haven](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-haven-colony), [Saybrook](https://bliptext.com/articles/saybrook-colony), and [Connecticut](https://bliptext.com/articles/connecticut-colony) colonies.\nDuring the 17th century, the New Haven and Saybrook colonies were absorbed by Connecticut.\n[Roger Williams](https://bliptext.com/articles/roger-williams) established Providence Plantations in 1636 on land provided by [Narragansett](https://bliptext.com/articles/narragansett-people) sachem [Canonicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/canonicus).\nWilliams was a Puritan who preached religious tolerance, [separation of Church and State](https://bliptext.com/articles/separation-of-church-and-state), and a complete break with the Church of England.\nHe was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony over theological disagreements; he founded the settlement based on an egalitarian constitution, providing for majority rule \"in civil things\" and \"liberty of conscience\" in religious matters.\nIn 1637, a second group including [Anne Hutchinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/anne-hutchinson) established a second settlement on [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquidneck-island), today called Aquidneck.\n[Samuel Gorton](https://bliptext.com/articles/samuel-gorton) and others established a settlement near Providence Plantations which they called Shawomet.\nHowever, Massachusetts Bay attempted to seize the land and put it under their own authority, so Gorton travelled to London to gain a charter from the King.\n[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-rich-2nd-earl-of-warwick) assisted him in gaining the charter, so he changed the name of the settlement to Warwick.\nRoger Williams secured a Royal Charter from the King in 1663 which united all four settlements into the [Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-rhode-island-and-providence-plantations).\nOther colonists settled to the north, mingling with adventurers and profit-oriented settlers to establish more religiously diverse colonies in [New Hampshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-hampshire) and [Maine](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maine).\nMassachusetts absorbed these small settlements when it made significant land claims in the 1640s and 1650s, but New Hampshire was eventually given a separate charter in 1679.\nMaine remained a part of Massachusetts until achieving statehood in 1820.\nIn 1685, King [James II of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-ii-of-england) closed the legislatures and consolidated the New England colonies into the [Dominion of New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/dominion-of-new-england), putting the region under the control of Governor [Edmund Andros](https://bliptext.com/articles/edmund-andros).\nIn 1688, the colonies of New York, West Jersey, and East Jersey were added to the dominion.\nAndros was overthrown and the dominion was closed in 1689, after the [Glorious Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/glorious-revolution) deposed King James II; the former colonies were re-established.\nAccording to Guy Miller, the Rebellion of 1689 was the \"climax of the 60-year-old struggle between the government in England and the Puritans of Massachusetts over the question of who was to rule the Bay colony.\"\n\n# 18th century\nIn 1702, East and West Jersey were combined to form the [Province of New Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-jersey).\nThe northern and southern sections of the Carolina colony operated more or less independently until 1691 when [Philip Ludwell](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-ludwell) was appointed governor of the entire province.\nFrom that time until 1708, the northern and southern settlements remained under one government.\nHowever, during this period, the two halves of the province began increasingly to be known as North Carolina and South Carolina, as the descendants of the colony's proprietors fought over the direction of the colony.\nThe colonists of Charles Town finally deposed their governor and elected their own government.\nThis marked the start of separate governments in the [Province of North-Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-north-carolina) and the [Province of South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-south-carolina).\nIn 1729, the king formally revoked Carolina's colonial charter and established both North Carolina and South Carolina as crown colonies.\nIn the 1730s, Parliamentarian [James Oglethorpe](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-oglethorpe) proposed that the area south of the Carolinas be colonized with the \"worthy poor\" of England to provide an alternative to the overcrowded debtors' prisons.\nOglethorpe and other English philanthropists secured a royal charter as the Trustees of the colony of Georgia on June 9, 1732.\nOglethorpe and his compatriots hoped to establish a utopian colony that banned slavery and recruited only the most worthy settlers, but by 1750 the colony remained sparsely populated.\nThe proprietors gave up their charter in 1752, at which point Georgia became a crown colony.\nThe population of the Thirteen Colonies grew immensely in the 18th century.\nAccording to historian [Alan Taylor](https://bliptext.com/articles/alan-taylor-historian), the population was 1.5 million in 1750, which represented four-fifths of the population of [British North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-north-america).\nMore than 90 percent of the colonists lived as farmers, though some seaports also flourished.\nIn 1760, the cities of Philadelphia, New York, and [Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston) had a population of more than 16,000, which was small by European standards.\nBy 1770, the economic output of the Thirteen Colonies made up forty percent of the [gross domestic product](https://bliptext.com/articles/gross-domestic-product) of the entire British Empire.\nAs the 18th century progressed, colonists began to settle far from the Atlantic coast.\nPennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Maryland all laid claim to the land in the [Ohio River](https://bliptext.com/articles/ohio-river) valley.\nThe colonies engaged in a scramble to purchase land from Indian tribes, as the British insisted that claims to land should rest on legitimate purchases.\nVirginia was particularly intent on western expansion, and most of the elite Virginia families invested in the [Ohio Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/ohio-company) to promote the settlement of the [Ohio Country](https://bliptext.com/articles/ohio-country).\n\n## Global trade and immigration\nThe British American colonies became part of the global British trading network, as the value tripled for exports from America to Britain between 1700 and 1754.\nThe colonists were restricted in trading with other European powers, but they found profitable trade partners in the other British colonies, particularly in the Caribbean.\nThe colonists traded foodstuffs, wood, tobacco, and various other resources for Asian tea, West Indian coffee, and West Indian sugar, among other items.\nAmerican Indians far from the Atlantic coast supplied the Atlantic market with beaver fur and deerskins.\nAmerica had an advantage in natural resources and established its own thriving shipbuilding industry, and many American merchants engaged in the transatlantic trade.\nImproved economic conditions and easing of religious persecution in Europe made it more difficult to recruit labor to the colonies, and many colonies became increasingly reliant on slave labor, particularly in the South.\nThe population of slaves in America grew dramatically between 1680 and 1750, and the growth was driven by a mixture of forced immigration and the reproduction of slaves.\nSlaves supported vast plantation economies in the South, while slaves in the North worked in a variety of occupations.\nThere were a few local attempted slave revolts, such as the [Stono Rebellion](https://bliptext.com/articles/stono-rebellion) and the [New York Conspiracy of 1741](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-conspiracy-of-1741), but these uprisings were suppressed.\nA small proportion of the English population migrated to America after 1700, but the colonies attracted new immigrants from other European countries.\nThese immigrants traveled to all of the colonies, but the Middle Colonies attracted the most and continued to be more ethnically diverse than the other colonies.\nNumerous settlers immigrated from Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant—particularly \"[New Light](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-and-new-light)\" [Ulster](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulster) [Presbyterians](https://bliptext.com/articles/presbyterianism).\nProtestant Germans also immigrated in large numbers, particularly to Pennsylvania.\nIn the 1740s, the Thirteen Colonies underwent the [First Great Awakening](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-great-awakening).\n\n## French and Indian War\nIn 1738, an incident involving a Welsh mariner named [Robert Jenkins](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-jenkins-master-mariner) sparked the [War of Jenkins' Ear](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-of-jenkins-ear) between Britain and Spain.\nHundreds of North Americans volunteered for Admiral [Edward Vernon](https://bliptext.com/articles/edward-vernon)'s [assault](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-cartagena-de-indias) on [Cartagena de Indias](https://bliptext.com/articles/cartagena-colombia), a Spanish city in South America.\nThe war against Spain merged into a broader conflict known as the [War of the Austrian Succession](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-of-the-austrian-succession), but most colonists called it [King George's War](https://bliptext.com/articles/king-george-s-war).\nIn 1745, British and colonial forces [captured](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-louisbourg-1745) the town of [Louisbourg](https://bliptext.com/articles/louisbourg), and the war came to an end with the 1748 [Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-aix-la-chapelle-1748).\nHowever, many colonists were angered when Britain returned Louisbourg to France in return for [Madras](https://bliptext.com/articles/chennai) and other territories.\nIn the aftermath of the war, both the British and French sought to expand into the Ohio River valley.\nThe [French and Indian War](https://bliptext.com/articles/french-and-indian-war) (1754–1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [Seven Years' War](https://bliptext.com/articles/seven-years-war).\nPrevious colonial wars in North America had started in Europe and then spread to the colonies, but the French and Indian War is notable for having started in North America and spread to Europe.\nOne of the primary causes of the war was increasing competition between Britain and France, especially in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley.\nThe French and Indian War took on a new significance for the British North American colonists when [William Pitt the Elder](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-pitt-1st-earl-of-chatham) decided that major military resources needed to be devoted to North America in order to win the war against France.\nFor the first time, the continent became one of the main theaters of what could be termed a [world war](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war).\nDuring the war, it became increasingly apparent to American colonists that they were under the authority of the [British Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-empire), as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in their lives.\nThe war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways.\nIt caused men to travel across the continent who might otherwise have never left their own colony, fighting alongside men from decidedly different backgrounds who were nonetheless still American.\nThroughout the course of the war, British officers trained Americans for battle, most notably [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington), which benefited the American cause during the Revolution.\nAlso, colonial legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.\nThe relations were not always positive between the British military establishment and the colonists, setting the stage for later distrust and dislike of British troops.\nAt the 1754 [Albany Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/albany-congress), Pennsylvania colonist [Benjamin Franklin](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-franklin) proposed the [Albany Plan](https://bliptext.com/articles/albany-plan) which would have created a unified government of the Thirteen Colonies for coordination of defense and other matters, but the plan was rejected by the leaders of most colonies.\nIn the [Treaty of Paris (1763)](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1763), France formally ceded to Britain the eastern part of its vast North American empire, having secretly given to Spain the territory of [Louisiana](https://bliptext.com/articles/louisiana-new-france) west of the Mississippi River the previous year.\nBefore the war, Britain held the thirteen American colonies, most of present-day [Nova Scotia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nova-scotia), and most of the [Hudson Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudson-bay) watershed.\nFollowing the war, Britain gained all French territory east of the Mississippi River, including Quebec, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio River valley.\nBritain also gained [Spanish Florida](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-florida), from which it formed the colonies of [East](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-florida) and [West Florida](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-florida).\nIn removing a major foreign threat to the thirteen colonies, the war also largely removed the colonists' need for colonial protection.\nThe British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe.\nThe colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before.\nHowever, disunity was beginning to form.\n[British Prime Minister](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nThis was a successful wartime strategy but, after the war was over, each side believed that it had borne a greater burden than the other.\nThe British elite, the most heavily taxed of any in Europe, pointed out angrily that the colonists paid little to the royal coffers.\nThe colonists replied that their sons had fought and died in a war that served European interests more than their own.\nThis dispute was a link in the chain of events that soon brought about the American Revolution.\n# [Territorial changes following the French and Indian War; land held by the British before 1763 is shown in red and land gained by Britain in 1763 is shown in pink | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/NorthAmerica1762-83.png]\n\n## Growing dissent\nThe British were left with large debts following the French and Indian War, so British leaders decided to increase taxation and control of the Thirteen Colonies.\nThey imposed several new taxes, beginning with the [Sugar Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/sugar-act) of 1764.\nLater acts included the [Currency Act of 1764](https://bliptext.com/articles/currency-act-of-1764), the [Stamp Act of 1765](https://bliptext.com/articles/stamp-act-of-1765), and the [Townshend Acts](https://bliptext.com/articles/townshend-acts) of 1767.\n[Colonial newspapers and printers](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-american-publishers-and-printers) in particular took strong exception against the Stamp Act which imposed a tax on newspapers and official documents, and played a central role in disseminating literature among the colonists against such taxes and the idea of taxation without colonial representation.\nThe [Royal Proclamation of 1763](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-proclamation-of-1763) restricted settlement west of the [Appalachian Mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/appalachian-mountains), as this was designated an [Indian Reserve](https://bliptext.com/articles/indian-reserve-1763).\nSome groups of settlers disregarded the proclamation, however, and continued to move west and establish farms.\nThe proclamation was modified and was no longer a hindrance to settlement, but the fact angered the colonists that it had been promulgated without their prior consultation.\n\n## American Revolution\nParliament had directly levied duties and excise taxes on the colonies, bypassing the colonial legislatures, and Americans began to insist on the principle of \"[no taxation without representation](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-taxation-without-representation)\" with intense protests over the [Stamp Act of 1765](https://bliptext.com/articles/stamp-act-of-1765).\nThey argued that the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament, so it was a violation of their rights as Englishmen for taxes to be imposed upon them.\nParliament rejected the colonial protests and asserted its authority by passing new taxes.\nColonial discontentment grew with the passage of the 1773 [Tea Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/tea-act), which reduced taxes on tea sold by the [East India Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-india-company) in an effort to undercut the competition, and Prime Minister North's ministry hoped that this would establish a precedent of colonists accepting British taxation policies.\nTrouble escalated over the tea tax, as Americans in each colony boycotted the tea, and those in Boston dumped the tea in the harbor during the [Boston Tea Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston-tea-party) in 1773 when the [Sons of Liberty](https://bliptext.com/articles/sons-of-liberty) dumped thousands of pounds of tea into the water.\nTensions escalated in 1774 as Parliament passed the laws known as the [Intolerable Acts](https://bliptext.com/articles/intolerable-acts), which greatly restricted self-government in the colony of Massachusetts.\nThese laws also allowed British military commanders to claim colonial homes for the quartering of soldiers, regardless of whether the American civilians were willing or not to have soldiers in their homes.\nThe laws further revoked colonial rights to hold trials in cases involving soldiers or crown officials, forcing such trials to be held in England rather than in America.\nParliament also sent [Thomas Gage](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-gage) to serve as Governor of Massachusetts and as the commander of British forces in North America.\nBy 1774, colonists still hoped to remain part of the British Empire, but discontentment was widespread concerning British rule throughout the Thirteen Colonies.\nColonists elected delegates to the [First Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-continental-congress), which convened in [Philadelphia](https://bliptext.com/articles/philadelphia) in September 1774.\nIn the aftermath of the Intolerable Acts, the delegates asserted that the colonies owed allegiance only to the king; they would accept royal governors as agents of the king, but they were no longer willing to recognize Parliament's right to pass legislation affecting the colonies.\nMost delegates opposed an attack on the British position in Boston, and the Continental Congress instead agreed to the imposition of a boycott known as the [Continental Association](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-association).\nThe boycott proved effective and the value of British imports dropped dramatically.\nThe Thirteen Colonies became increasingly divided between [Patriots](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriot-american-revolution) opposed to British rule and [Loyalists](https://bliptext.com/articles/loyalist-american-revolution) who supported it.\n# [Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin was recycled to encourage the former colonies to unite against British rule. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c////Benjamin///Franklin///-///Join///or///Die.jpg]\n\n# American Revolutionary War\nIn response, the colonies formed bodies of elected representatives known as [Provincial Congresses](https://bliptext.com/articles/provincial-congress), and colonists began to boycott imported British merchandise.\nLater in 1774, 12 colonies sent representatives to the [First Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-continental-congress) in [Philadelphia](https://bliptext.com/articles/philadelphia).\nDuring the [Second Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-continental-congress), the remaining colony of Georgia sent delegates as well.\nMassachusetts Governor [Thomas Gage](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-gage) feared a confrontation with the colonists; he requested reinforcements from Britain, but the British government was not willing to pay for the expense of stationing tens of thousands of soldiers in the Thirteen Colonies.\nGage was instead ordered to seize Patriot arsenals.\nHe dispatched a force to march on the arsenal at [Concord, Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/concord-massachusetts), but the Patriots learned about it and blocked their advance.\nThe Patriots repulsed the British force at the April 1775 [Battles of Lexington and Concord](https://bliptext.com/articles/battles-of-lexington-and-concord), then lay [siege to Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-boston).\nBy spring 1775, all royal officials had been expelled, and the [Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-congress) hosted a convention of delegates for the Thirteen Colonies.\nIt raised an army to fight the British and named [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington) its commander, made treaties, declared independence, and recommended that the colonies write constitutions and become states, later enumerated in the 1777 [Articles of Confederation](https://bliptext.com/articles/articles-of-confederation).\nIn May 1775, the [Second Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-continental-congress), assembled in the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, began recruiting soldiers for the Revolutionary War against the British, printing its own money, and appointing [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington) as commander of Patriot militias.\nThose from New England that had launched the [Siege of Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-boston), which forced [British troops](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-army-during-the-american-revolutionary-war) to withdraw from [Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston).\nThe patriot militias later were formalized into the [Continental Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-army) under Washington's command.\n# [A map of the Thirteen Colonies (in red) and nearby colonial areas (1763–1775) just before the Revolutionary War | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/British///colonies///1763-76///shepherd1923.PNG]\n\n## Declaration of Independence\nThe Second Continental Congress charged the [Committee of Five](https://bliptext.com/articles/committee-of-five), including [John Adams](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-adams), [Benjamin Franklin](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-franklin), [Thomas Jefferson](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-jefferson), [Robert R. Livingston](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-r-livingston), and [Roger Sherman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roger-sherman), with authoring the [Declaration of Independence](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-declaration-of-independence).\nThe committee, in turn, asked Jefferson to author the first draft, which Jefferson largely wrote in isolation between June 11, 1776, and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 [Market Street](https://bliptext.com/articles/market-street-philadelphia) in Philadelphia, now called the Declaration House and within walking distance of [Independence Hall](https://bliptext.com/articles/independence-hall).\nConsidering Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over these 17 days, and he likely wrote his first draft quickly.\nOn July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted and issued the Declaration as a letter of grievances to King [George III](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-iii);\nWith the help chiefly of France, they defeated the British in the [American Revolutionary War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolutionary-war).\nThe decisive victory came at the [Siege of Yorktown](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-yorktown-1781) in 1781.\nIn the [Treaty of Paris (1783)](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1783), Britain officially recognized the independence of the United States of America.\n\n# Population of Thirteen Colonies\nThe colonial population rose to a quarter of a million during the 17th century, and to nearly 2.5 million on the eve of the American revolution.\nThe estimates do not include the Indian tribes outside the jurisdiction of the colonies.\nGood health was important for the growth of the colonies: \"Fewer deaths among the young meant that a higher proportion of the population reached reproductive age, and that fact alone helps to explain why the colonies grew so rapidly.\"\nThere were many other reasons for the population growth besides good health, such as the [Great Migration](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritan-migration-to-new-england-1620-40).\nBy 1776, about 85% of the white population's ancestry originated in the [British Isles](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-isles) (English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Welsh), 9% of [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-american) origin, 4% [Dutch](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-american) and 2% Huguenot French and other minorities.\nOver 90% were farmers, with several small cities that were also seaports linking the colonial economy to the larger British Empire.\nThese populations continued to grow at a rapid rate during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, primarily because of high birth rates and relatively low death rates.\n[Immigration](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-immigration-to-the-united-states) was a minor factor from 1774 to 1830.\nAccording to the United States Historical Census Data Base (USHCDB), the ethnic populations in the British American Colonies of 1700, 1755, and 1775 were:\n\n## Slavery\n[Chattel slavery](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavery) was legal and practiced in all of the Thirteen Colonies.\nIn most places, it involved house servants or farm workers.\nIt was of economic importance in the export-oriented tobacco plantations of Virginia and Maryland and on the rice and indigo plantations of South Carolina.\nAbout 287,000 slaves were imported into the Thirteen Colonies over a period of 160 years, or 2% of the estimated 12 million taken from Africa to the Americas via the [Atlantic slave trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-slave-trade).\nThe great majority went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished.\nBy the mid-18th century, life expectancy was much higher in the American colonies.\nThe numbers grew rapidly through a very high birth rate and low mortality rate, reaching nearly four million by the [1860 census](https://bliptext.com/articles/1860-united-states-census).\nFrom 1770 until 1860, the rate of natural growth of North American slaves was much greater than for the population of any nation in Europe, and was nearly twice as rapid as that in England.\nThe legal status of chattel slavery has been explained by William M. Wiecek: \"By the time of the Revolution, each of the mainland colonies had at least the rudiments of a statutory law of slavery...and nine of them had fairly elaborate slave codes that specified four basic legal characteristics of American slavery. First, the statutes defined slavery as a lifetime condition, distinguishing it from servitude and other forms of unfree status, which lasted only for a term of years. Second...slave status was made hereditable through the mother. In so providing, the American colonies reversed the common-law rule that personal status followed the condition of the father.... The third fundamental statutory characteristic of American slavery was racial identification....The fourth and most troublesome of the elements of slavery for colonial legislators was the precise legal status of a slave as property....\nsouthern jurisdictions ...settled on the legal definition of a slave as a 'chattel personal.'\"\n\n# Religion\nAccording to Patricia Bonomi, \"early Americans in all sections lived not in a spiritual desert but in a world where religion formed a key component of their mental landscape.\"\nProtestantism was the predominant religious affiliation in the Thirteen Colonies.\nThere were also a few Catholics in Maryland as well as [Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/jews), and [deists](https://bliptext.com/articles/deists), many colonists had no religious connection.\nThe [Church of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-england) was officially established in most of the South.\nThe [Puritan movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritan-movement) divided into the [Congregational](https://bliptext.com/articles/congregational-church) and the [Unitarian denominations](https://bliptext.com/articles/unitarian-universalist-association), and was the established religious affiliation in Massachusetts and Connecticut into the 19th century.\nIn practice, this meant that tax revenues were allocated to church expenses.\nThe [Anglican](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglican) parishes in the South were under the control of local vestries and had public functions such as repair of the roads and relief of the poor.\nAfter 1700 the vestry no longer dominated the minister.\nThe colonies were religiously diverse, with different Protestant denominations brought by British, German, Dutch, and other immigrants.\nThe [Reformed tradition](https://bliptext.com/articles/reformed-tradition) was the foundation for [Presbyterian](https://bliptext.com/articles/presbyterian), [Congregationalist](https://bliptext.com/articles/congregationalist), and [Continental Reformed](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-reformed) denominations.\nFrench [Huguenots](https://bliptext.com/articles/huguenots) set up their own Reformed congregations.\nThe [Dutch Reformed Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-reformed-church) was strong among [Dutch Americans](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-americans) in New York and New Jersey, while [Lutheranism](https://bliptext.com/articles/lutheranism) was prevalent among [German immigrants](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-american).\nGermans also brought diverse forms of [Anabaptism](https://bliptext.com/articles/anabaptism), especially the [Mennonite](https://bliptext.com/articles/mennonite) variety.\n[Reformed Baptist](https://bliptext.com/articles/reformed-baptist) preacher [Roger Williams](https://bliptext.com/articles/roger-williams) founded [Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations) which became the Colony of Rhode Island and [Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations).\nJews were clustered in a few port cities.\nThe Baltimore family founded [Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/maryland) and brought in fellow Catholics from England.\nCatholics were about 1.6% of the population or 40,000 in 1775.\nOf the 200–250,000 Irish who came to the Colonies between 1701 and 1775 less than 20,000 were Catholic, many of whom hid their faith or lapsed because of prejudice and discrimination.\nBetween 1770 and 1775 3,900 Irish Catholics arrived out of almost 45,000 white immigrants (7,000 English, 15,000 Scots, 13,200 Scots-Irish, 5,200 Germans).\nMost Catholics were English Recusants, Germans, Irish, or blacks; half lived in Maryland, with large populations also in New York and Pennsylvania.\nPresbyterians were chiefly immigrants from Scotland and Ulster who favored the back-country and frontier districts.\n[Quakers](https://bliptext.com/articles/quakers) were well established in Pennsylvania, where they controlled the governorship and the legislature for many years.\nQuakers were also numerous in Rhode Island.\n[Baptists](https://bliptext.com/articles/baptists) and [Methodists](https://bliptext.com/articles/methodists) were growing rapidly during the [First Great Awakening](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-great-awakening) of the 1740s.\nMany denominations sponsored missions to the local Indians.\n\n# Education\nHigher education was available for young men in the north, and most students were aspiring Protestant ministers.\nNine institutions of higher education were chartered during the colonial era.\nThese colleges, known collectively as the [colonial colleges](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-colleges) were [New College (Harvard)](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-college), the [College of William & Mary](https://bliptext.com/articles/college-of-william-mary), [Yale College (Yale)](https://bliptext.com/articles/yale-university), the [College of New Jersey (Princeton)](https://bliptext.com/articles/princeton-college), [King's College (Columbia)](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university), the [College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania)](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-pennsylvania), the [College of Rhode Island (Brown)](https://bliptext.com/articles/brown-university), [Queen's College (Rutgers)](https://bliptext.com/articles/rutgers-college) and [Dartmouth College](https://bliptext.com/articles/dartmouth-college).\nThe College of William & Mary and Queen's College later became public institutions while the other institutions account for seven of the eight private [Ivy League](https://bliptext.com/articles/ivy-league) universities.\nWith the exception of the College of William and Mary, these institutions were all located in New England and the Middle Colonies.\nThe southern colonies held the belief that the family had the responsibility of educating their children, mirroring the common belief in Europe.\nWealthy families either used tutors and governesses from Britain or sent children to school in England.\nBy the 1700s, university students based in the colonies began to act as tutors.\nMost New England towns sponsored public schools for boys, but public schooling was rare elsewhere.\nGirls were educated at home or by small local private schools, and they had no access to college.\nAspiring physicians and lawyers typically learned as apprentices to an established practitioner, although some young men went to medical schools in Scotland.\n# [Map of higher education in the 13 Colonies immediately prior to the American Revolution. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Colonial///Colleges///map.svg]\n\n# Government\nThe three forms of colonial government in 1776 were provincial ([royal colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-colony)), [proprietary](https://bliptext.com/articles/proprietary-colony), and [charter](https://bliptext.com/articles/charter-colony).\nThese governments were all subordinate to the British monarch with no representation in the [Parliament of Great Britain](https://bliptext.com/articles/parliament-of-great-britain).\nThe administration of all British colonies was overseen by the [Board of Trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/board-of-trade) in London beginning late in the 17th century.\nThe provincial colony was governed by commissions created at the pleasure of the king.\nA governor and his council were appointed by the crown.\nThe governor was invested with general executive powers and authorized to call a locally elected assembly.\nThe governor's council would sit as an upper house when the assembly was in session, in addition to its role in advising the governor.\nAssemblies were made up of representatives elected by the freeholders and planters (landowners) of the province.\nThe governor had the power of absolute veto and could [prorogue](https://bliptext.com/articles/legislative-session) (i.e., delay) and dissolve the assembly.\nThe assembly's role was to make all local laws and ordinances, ensuring that they were not inconsistent with the laws of Britain.\nIn 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.\nLaws could be examined by the British Privy Council or Board of Trade, which also held veto power of legislation.\nNew Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were crown colonies.\nMassachusetts became a crown colony at the end of the 17th century.\nProprietary colonies were governed much as royal colonies, except that lord proprietors appointed the governor rather than the king.\nThey were set up after the [English Restoration](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-restoration) of 1660 and typically enjoyed greater civil and religious liberty.\nPennsylvania (which included Delaware), New Jersey, and Maryland were proprietary colonies.\nCharter governments were political corporations created by [letters patent](https://bliptext.com/articles/letters-patent), giving the grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government.\nThe charters provided a fundamental constitution and divided powers among legislative, executive, and judicial functions, with those powers being vested in officials.\nMassachusetts, Providence Plantation, Rhode Island, Warwick, and Connecticut were charter colonies.\nThe Massachusetts charter was revoked in 1684 and was replaced by a provincial charter that was issued in 1691.\n[Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations) merged with the settlements at [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquidneck-island) and [Warwick](https://bliptext.com/articles/warwick-rhode-island) to form the Colony of [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquidneck-island) and [Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations), which also became a charter colony in 1636.\n\n## British role\nAfter 1680, the imperial government in London took an increasing interest in the affairs of the colonies, which were growing rapidly in population and wealth.\nIn 1680, only Virginia was a royal colony; by 1720, half were under the control of royal governors.\nThese governors were appointees closely tied to the government in London.\nHistorians before the 1880s emphasized American nationalism.\nHowever, scholarship after that time was heavily influenced by the \"Imperial school\" led by [Herbert L. Osgood](https://bliptext.com/articles/herbert-l-osgood), [George Louis Beer](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-louis-beer), [Charles McLean Andrews](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-mclean-andrews), and [Lawrence H. Gipson](https://bliptext.com/articles/lawrence-h-gipson).\nThis viewpoint dominated colonial historiography into the 1940s, and they emphasized and often praised the attention that London gave to all the colonies.\nIn this view, there was never a threat (before the 1770s) that any colony would revolt or seek independence.\n\n## Political culture\nSettlers did not come to the American colonies with the intention of creating a democratic system; yet they quickly created a broad electorate.\nThe 13 colonies had no hereditary aristocrats as in Europe.\nThere were no rich gentry who owned all the farmland and rented it out to tenants, as in England and in the Dutch settlements in upstate New York.\nInstead there was a political system of local control that was governed by men elected in fair elections.\nThe colonies offered a broader base than Britain or indeed any other country.\nAny property owner could vote for members of the lower house of the legislature.\nGovernors were appointed in London but colonists elected the governor in Connecticut and Rhode Island.\nWomen, children, indentured servants, and slaves were subsumed under the interest of the family head and did not have a vote or a voice.\nIndians and free blacks were politically outside the system and usually could not vote.\nVoters were required to hold an \"interest\" in society; as the South Carolina legislature said in 1716, \"it is necessary and reasonable, that none but such persons will have an interest in the Province should be capable to elect members of the Commons House of Assembly\".\nThe main legal criterion for having an \"interest\" was ownership of real estate.\nIn Britain, 19 out of 20 men were controlled politically by their landlords.\nLondon insisted on this requirement for the colonies, telling governors to exclude from the ballot men who were not freeholders—that is, those who did not own land.\nHowever, in most places good farmland was cheap and so widely owned that 50% to 80% of the men were eligible to vote.\nAccording to historian Donald Radcliffe:\"The right to vote had always been extraordinarily widespread—at least among adult white males--even before the country gained its independence....Enfranchisement varied greatly by location. There certainly were communities, particularly newly settled communities where land was inexpensive, in which 70 or 80 percent of all white men were enfranchised. Yet there were also locales...where the percentages were far lower, closer to 40 or 50 percent....On the whole, the franchise was far more widespread than it was in England, yet as the revolution approached, the rate of property ownership was falling, and the proportion of adult white males who were eligible to vote was probably less than 60 percent.\"\nThe colonial political culture emphasized deference, so that local notables were the men who ran and were chosen.\nBut sometimes they competed with each other and had to appeal to the common man for votes.\nThere were no political parties, and would-be legislators formed ad hoc coalitions of their families, friends, and neighbors.\nElection day brought in all the men from the countryside to the county seat or town center to make merry, politick, shake hands with the grandees, meet old friends, and hear the speeches—all the while toasting, eating, treating, tippling, and gambling.\nThey voted by shouting their choice to the clerk, as supporters cheered or booed.\nIn Virginia candidate George Washington spent £39 for treats for his supporters.\nThe candidates knew that they had to \"swill the planters with bumbo\" (rum).\nElections were carnivals where all men were equal for one day and traditional restraints were relaxed.\nVoting was voluntary and typically about half the men eligible to vote turned out on election day.\nTurnout was usually higher in Pennsylvania and New York, where long-standing factions based on ethnic and religious groups mobilized supporters at a higher rate.\nNew York and Rhode Island developed long-lasting two-faction systems that held together for years at the colony level, but they did not reach into local affairs.\nThe factions were based on the personalities of a few leaders and an array of family connections, and they had little basis in policy or ideology.\nElsewhere the political scene was in a constant whirl, based on personality rather than long-lived factions or serious disputes on issues.\nThe colonies were independent of one other before 1774; indeed, all the colonies began as separate and unique settlements or plantations.\nFurther, efforts had failed to form a colonial union through the [Albany Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/albany-congress) of 1754 led by [Benjamin Franklin](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-franklin).\nThe thirteen all had well-established systems of self-government and elections based on the [Rights of Englishmen](https://bliptext.com/articles/rights-of-englishmen) which they were determined to protect from imperial interference.\n\n## Economic policy\nThe British Empire at the time was operated under the [mercantile system](https://bliptext.com/articles/mercantilism), where all trade was concentrated inside the Empire, and trade with other empires was forbidden.\nThe goal was to enrich Britain—its merchants and its government.\nWhether the policy was good for the colonists was not an issue in London, but Americans became increasingly restive with mercantilist policies.\nMercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires.\nThe government protected its 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.\nThe government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch.\nThe tactic used by mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London.\nThe government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain.\nThe government spent much of its revenue on a superb [Royal Navy](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-the-royal-navy), which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them.\nThus the British Navy captured [New Amsterdam](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-amsterdam) (New York) in 1664.\nThe colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.\nColonial commodities were shipped on British ships to the mother country where Britain sold them to Europe reaping the benefits of the export trade.\nFinished goods were manufactured in Britain and sold in the colonies, or imported by Britain for retail to the colonies, profiting the mother country.\nLike other New World colonial empires, the British empire's commodity production was dependent on slave labor; as observed in 1720s Britain, \"all this great increase in our treasure proceeds chiefly from the labour of negroes\" in Britain's colonies.\nBritain implemented mercantilism by trying to block American trade with the French, Spanish, or Dutch empires using the [Navigation Acts](https://bliptext.com/articles/navigation-acts), which Americans avoided as often as they could.\nThe royal officials responded to smuggling with open-ended search warrants ([Writs of Assistance](https://bliptext.com/articles/writ-of-assistance)).\nIn 1761, Boston lawyer [James Otis](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-otis-jr) argued that the writs violated the [constitutional rights](https://bliptext.com/articles/constitution-of-the-united-kingdom) of the colonists.\nHe lost the case, but John Adams later wrote, \"Then and there the child Independence was born.\"\nHowever, the colonists took pains to argue that they did not oppose British regulation of their external trade; they only opposed legislation that affected them internally.\n\n# Other British colonies\n[[File:British Colonies in North America c1750 v2.png|thumb|right|Some of the British colonies in North America, c. 17501. Newfoundland\n2. Nova Scotia\n3. Thirteen Colonies\n4. Bermuda\n5. Bahamas\n6. British Honduras\n7. Jamaica\n8. British Leeward Islands and Barbados]]\nBesides the grouping that became known as the \"thirteen colonies\",\nBritain in the late-18th century had another dozen colonial possessions in the [New World](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-america) surrounding the 13 colonies.\nThe [British West Indies](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-west-indies), [Newfoundland](https://bliptext.com/articles/newfoundland-colony), the [Province of Quebec](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-quebec-1763-1791), [Nova Scotia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nova-scotia), [Prince Edward Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/prince-edward-island), [Bermuda](https://bliptext.com/articles/bermuda), and [East](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-florida) and [West Florida](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-florida) remained loyal to the British crown throughout the war (although Spain reacquired Florida as the war was ending, and in 1821 sold it to the United States).\nSeveral of the other colonies evinced a certain degree of sympathy with the [Patriot](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriot-american-revolution) cause, but their geographical isolation and the dominance of British naval power precluded any effective participation.\nThe British crown had only recently acquired several of those lands, and many of the issues facing the Thirteen Colonies did not apply to them, especially in the case of Quebec and Florida.\n\n# Historiography\nThe [first British Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-british-empire) centered on the Thirteen Colonies, which attracted large numbers of settlers from Britain.\nThe \"Imperial School\" in the 1900–1930s took a favorable view of the benefits of empire, emphasizing its successful economic integration.\nThe Imperial School included such historians as [Herbert L. Osgood](https://bliptext.com/articles/herbert-l-osgood), [George Louis Beer](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-louis-beer), [Charles M. Andrews](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-m-andrews), and [Lawrence Gipson](https://bliptext.com/articles/lawrence-gipson).\nThe shock of Britain's defeat in 1783 caused a radical revision of British policies on colonialism, thereby producing what historians call the end of the First British Empire, even though Britain still controlled Canada and some islands in the West Indies.\n[Ashley Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/ashley-jackson-historian) writes:\n\"The first British Empire was largely destroyed by the loss of the American colonies, followed by a 'swing to the east' and the foundation of a second British Empire based on commercial and territorial expansion in South Asia.\"\nMuch of the historiography concerns the reasons why the Americans rebelled in the 1770s and successfully broke away.\nSince the 1960s, the mainstream of historiography has emphasized the growth of American consciousness and nationalism and the colonial [republican value-system](https://bliptext.com/articles/republicanism-in-the-united-states), in opposition to the aristocratic viewpoint of British leaders.\nHistorians in recent decades have mostly used one of three approaches to analyze the American Revolution:\n\n# Citations\n\n## Government\n\n## Primary sources","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T17:33:33.630Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T17:33:33.630Z","search_vector":"'coloni':2 'thirteen':1","search_content":" \n**Conventional Long Name:** Thirteen Colonies \n**Common Name:** Thirteen Colonies \n**Life Span:** 1607–1776 \n**Status:** Colonies \n**Empire:** Britain \n**Government Type:** Various [colonial arrangements](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-charters-in-the-thirteen-colonies) \n**Event Pre:** [Roanoke Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/roanoke-colony) \n**Date Pre:** 1585 \n**Event Start:** [Virginia Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia) \n**Year Start:** 1607 \n**Event 1:** [New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-council-for-new-england) \n**Date Event 1:** 1620 \n**Event 2:** [Rhode Island Royal Charter](https://bliptext.com/articles/rhode-island-royal-charter) \n**Date Event 2:** 1663 \n**Event 3:** [New Netherland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-netherland) ceded to [England](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-england) \n**Date Event 3:** 1667 \n**Event 4:** [Treaty of Utrecht](https://bliptext.com/articles/peace-of-utrecht) \n**Date Event 4:** 1713 \n**Event 5:** [Province of Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia) \n**Date Event 5:** 1732 \n**Event 6:** [French and Indian War](https://bliptext.com/articles/french-and-indian-war) \n**Date Event 6:** 1754–1763 \n**Event 7:** [Articles of Association](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-association) \n**Date Event 7:** 1774 \n**Event 8:** [Independence declared](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-declaration-of-independence) \n**Date Event 8:** 1776 \n**Event End:** [Treaty of Paris](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1783) \n**Year End:** 1783 \n**P 1:** Pre-colonial North America \n**P 2:** New Netherland \n**Flag P 2:** Statenvlag.svg \n**S 1:** United Colonies \n**Flag S 1:** Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg \n**Flag Type:** [Flag of British America](https://bliptext.com/articles/red-ensign) (1707–1775) [Flag of the United Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/grand-union-flag) (1775–1777) \n**Image Flag:** Colonial-Red-Ensign.svg \n**Image Flag 2:** Flag of the United States (1776–1777).svg \n**National Anthem:** [God Save the King](https://bliptext.com/articles/god-save-the-king) · [[File:Rufst du, mein Vaterland, [God Save the King](https://bliptext.com/articles/god-save-the-king), Íslands minni, Kongesangen and Oben am jungen Rhein (1938).oga]] \n**Image Map:** Map of territorial growth 1775.svg \n**Image Map Caption:** The Thirteen Colonies (shown in red) in 1775 with modern borders overlaid \n**Leader 1:** [James I & VI](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-vi-and-i) (first) \n**Year Leader 1:** 1607–1625 \n**Leader 2:** [George III](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-iii) (last) \n**Year Leader 2:** 1760–1776 \n**Title Leader:** Monarch \n**Stat Year 1:** 1625 \n**Stat Pop 1:** 1,980 \n**Stat Year 2:** 1775 \n**Stat Pop 2:** 2,400,000 \n**Today:** [United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) \n \n\n# \nThe **Thirteen Colonies** were a group of [British colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-colonization-of-the-americas) on the [Atlantic coast](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-coast-of-the-united-states) of [North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-america) during the 17th and 18th centuries.\nGrievances against the imperial government led the 13 colonies to begin uniting in 1774, and expelling British officials by 1775.\nAssembled at the [Second Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-continental-congress) in [Philadelphia](https://bliptext.com/articles/philadelphia), after armed conflict had broken out in April, they appointed [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington) as commander-in-chief of the [Continental Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-army) to fight the [American Revolutionary War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolutionary-war).\nIn 1776, Congress adopted the [Declaration of Independence](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-declaration-of-independence) as the [United States of America](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) and, asserting its sovereignty, the United States allied with Britain's enemy, France.\nDefeating British armies with its French ally, the former Thirteen Colonies had its sovereignty recognized by Britain in the [Treaty of Paris](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1783) in 1783.\nThe Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: the [New England Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-england-colonies) ([New Hampshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-hampshire), [Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-massachusetts-bay), [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-rhode-island-and-providence-plantations), and [Connecticut](https://bliptext.com/articles/connecticut-colony)); the [Middle Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/middle-colonies) ([New York](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-york), [New Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-jersey), [Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pennsylvania), and [Delaware](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-colony)); and the [Southern Colonies](https://bliptext.com/articles/southern-colonies) ([Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maryland), [Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia), [North Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-north-carolina), [South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-south-carolina), and [Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia)).\nThese colonies were part of [British America](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-america), which also included territory in [The Floridas](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-floridas), the [Caribbean](https://bliptext.com/articles/caribbean), and what is today [Canada](https://bliptext.com/articles/canada).\nThe Thirteen Colonies were separate entities under the Crown, but had similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, and each was dominated by [Protestant](https://bliptext.com/articles/protestantism-in-the-united-states) English-speakers.\nThe first of the colonies, Virginia, was established at [Jamestown](https://bliptext.com/articles/jamestown-virginia), in 1607.\nThe New England Colonies, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, were substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion.\nThe other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion.\nThe Middle Colonies were established on the former Dutch colony of [New Netherland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-netherland).\nBetween 1625 and 1775, the colonial population grew from 2 thousand to 2.4 million, largely displacing the region's [Native Americans](https://bliptext.com/articles/native-americans-in-the-united-states).\nThe population included people subject to a system of [slavery](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavery-in-the-colonial-united-states), which was legal in all of the colonies.\nIn the 18th century, the British government operated under a policy of [mercantilism](https://bliptext.com/articles/mercantilism), in which the central government administered its colonies for Britain's economic benefit.\nThe 13 colonies had a degree of [self-governance and active local elections](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-government-in-the-thirteen-colonies), and they resisted London's demands for more control over them.\nThe [French and Indian War](https://bliptext.com/articles/french-and-indian-war) (1754–1763) against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the 13 colonies.\nDuring the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with one another instead of dealing directly with Britain.\nWith the help of [colonial printers and newspapers](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-american-publishers-and-printers), these inter-colonial activities and concerns were shared and led to calls for protection of the colonists' \"[Rights as Englishmen](https://bliptext.com/articles/rights-of-englishmen)\", especially the principle of \"[no taxation without representation](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-taxation-without-representation)\".\nLate 18th century conflicts with the British government over taxes and rights led to the [American Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolution), in which the Thirteen Colonies joined together for the first time to form the [Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-congress) and raised the [Continental Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-army), declaring independence in 1776.\nThey fought the [American Revolutionary War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolutionary-war) (1775–1783) with [the aid of the Kingdom of France](https://bliptext.com/articles/france-in-the-american-revolutionary-war) and, to a much lesser degree, the [Dutch Republic](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-republic) and the [Kingdom of Spain](https://bliptext.com/articles/spain-and-the-american-revolutionary-war).\n\n# British colonies\nIn 1606, King [James I of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-vi-and-i) granted charters to both the [Plymouth Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-company) and the [London Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-company) for the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in America.\nThe London Company established the [Colony of Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia) in 1607, the first permanently settled English colony on the continent.\nThe Plymouth Company founded the [Popham Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/popham-colony) on the [Kennebec River](https://bliptext.com/articles/kennebec-river), but it was short-lived.\nThe [Plymouth Council for New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-council-for-new-england) sponsored several colonization projects, culminating with [Plymouth Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-colony) in 1620 which was settled by English Puritan separatists, known today as the [Pilgrims](https://bliptext.com/articles/pilgrims-plymouth-colony).\nThe Dutch, Swedish, and French also established successful American colonies at roughly the same time as the English, but they eventually came under the English crown.\nThe Thirteen Colonies were complete with the establishment of the [Province of Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia) in 1732, although the term \"Thirteen Colonies\" became current only in the context of the [American Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolution).\nIn London, beginning in 1660, all colonies were governed through a state department known as the [Southern Department](https://bliptext.com/articles/southern-department-great-britain), and a committee of the Privy Council called the [Board of Trade and Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/lords-of-trade-and-plantations).\nIn 1768, a [specific state department](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-office) was created for America, but it was disbanded in 1782 when the [Home Office](https://bliptext.com/articles/home-office) took responsibility.\n# [The Thirteen Colonies of British America:{{legend|#AF4523| (Dark Red): New England Colonies}} {{legend|#E7774F| (Red-Brown): Middle Colonies}} {{legend|#C8673C| (Brown): Southern Colonies|undefined | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Thirteencolonies///politics///cropped.jpg]\n\n## New England colonies\nPlymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven Colonies formed the [New England Confederation](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-england-confederation) in 1643, and all New England colonies were included in the [Dominion of New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/dominion-of-new-england) (1686–1689).\n# [A 1584 map of the east coast from Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout, drawn by the English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer John White; in 1607, Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, was established in this region. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Roanoke///map///1584.JPG]\n\n## Middle colonies\n [Delaware Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-colony) (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware), established in 1664 as [proprietary colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/proprietary-colony) \n [Province of New York](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-york), established as a proprietary colony in 1664; chartered as royal colony in 1686; included in the [Dominion of New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/dominion-of-new-england) (1686–1689) \n [Province of New Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-jersey), established as a proprietary colony in 1664; chartered as a royal colony in 1702\n [Province of Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-pennsylvania), established in 1681 as a proprietary colony \n \n\n## Southern colonies\n [Colony of Virginia](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-virginia), established in 1607 as a proprietary colony; chartered as a royal colony in 1624. \n [Province of Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maryland), established 1632 as a proprietary colony. \n [Province of North Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-north-carolina), previously part of the Carolina province (see below) until 1712; chartered as a royal colony in 1729. \n [Province of South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-south-carolina), previously part of the Carolina province (see below) until 1712; chartered as a royal colony in 1729. \n [Province of Georgia](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-georgia), established as a proprietary colony in 1732; royal colony from 1752. \n \nThe [Province of Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-carolina) was initially chartered in 1629 and initial settlements were established after 1651.\nThat charter was [voided](https://bliptext.com/articles/void-law) in 1660 by [Charles II](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-ii-of-england) and a new charter was issued in 1663, making it a proprietary colony.\nThe Carolina province was divided into separate proprietary colonies, north and south in 1712, before both became royal colonies in 1729.\nEarlier, along the coast, the [Roanoke Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/roanoke-colony) was established in 1585, re-established in 1587, and found abandoned in 1590.\n\n# 17th century\n# [The 1606 grants by James I to the London and Plymouth companies. The overlapping area (in yellow) was granted to both companies on the stipulation that neither found a settlement within 100 mi of each other. The location of early settlements is shown, including Jamestown (J), Quebec (Q), Popham (Po), Port Royal (R), and St. Augustine (SA). | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Wpdms///king///james///grants.png]\n\n## Southern colonies\nThe first British colony was [Jamestown](https://bliptext.com/articles/jamestown-virginia), established on May 14, 1607 near [Chesapeake Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/chesapeake-bay).\nThe business venture was financed and coordinated by the [London Virginia Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-virginia-company), a joint-stock company looking for gold.\nIts first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold.\nThe colony survived and flourished by turning to tobacco as a cash crop.\nIn 1632, [King Charles I](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-i-england) granted the charter for the [Province of Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maryland) to [Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore](https://bliptext.com/articles/cecil-calvert-2nd-baron-baltimore).\nCalvert's father had been a prominent Catholic official who encouraged Catholic immigration to the English colonies.\nThe charter offered no guidelines on religion.\nThe [Province of Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-carolina) was the second attempted English settlement south of Virginia, the first being the failed attempt at [Roanoke](https://bliptext.com/articles/roanoke-colony).\nIt was a private venture, financed by a group of English [Lords Proprietors](https://bliptext.com/articles/lords-proprietors) who obtained a [Royal Charter](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-charter) to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like Jamestown.\nCarolina was not settled until 1670, and even then the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to that area.\nEventually, however, the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by Sir [John Colleton](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-colleton).\nThe expedition located fertile and defensible ground at [Charleston](https://bliptext.com/articles/charleston-south-carolina), originally Charles Town for [Charles II of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-ii-of-england).\n\n## Middle colonies\nBeginning in 1609, Dutch traders established fur trading posts on the [Hudson River](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudson-river), [Delaware River](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-river), and [Connecticut River](https://bliptext.com/articles/connecticut-river), seeking to protect their interests in the fur trade.\nThe [Dutch West India Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-west-india-company) established permanent settlements on the Hudson River, creating the Dutch colony of [New Netherland](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-netherland).\nIn 1626, [Peter Minuit](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-minuit) purchased the island of [Manhattan](https://bliptext.com/articles/manhattan) from the [Lenape](https://bliptext.com/articles/lenape) Indians and established the outpost of [New Amsterdam](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-amsterdam).\nRelatively few Dutch settled in New Netherland, but the colony came to dominate the regional fur trade.\nIt also served as the base for extensive trade with the English colonies, and many products from New England and Virginia were carried to Europe on Dutch ships.\nThe Dutch also engaged in the burgeoning [Atlantic slave trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-slave-trade), bringing some enslaved Africans to the English colonies in North America, although many more were sent to [Barbados](https://bliptext.com/articles/barbados) and Brazil.\nThe West India Company desired to grow New Netherland as it became commercially successful, yet the colony failed to attract the same level of settlement as the English colonies did.\nMany of those who did immigrate to the colony were English, German, [Walloon](https://bliptext.com/articles/walloons), or [Sephardim](https://bliptext.com/articles/sephardi-jews).\nIn 1638, Sweden established the colony of [New Sweden](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-sweden) in the [Delaware Valley](https://bliptext.com/articles/delaware-valley).\nThe operation was led by former members of the Dutch West India Company, including Peter Minuit.\nNew Sweden established extensive trading contacts with English colonies to the south and shipped much of the tobacco produced in Virginia.\nThe colony was conquered by the Dutch in 1655, while Sweden was engaged in the [Second Northern War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-northern-war).\nBeginning in the 1650s, the English and Dutch engaged in a [series of wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglo-dutch-wars), and the English sought to conquer New Netherland.\n[Richard Nicolls](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-nicolls) captured the lightly defended New Amsterdam in 1664, and his subordinates quickly captured the remainder of New Netherland.\nThe 1667 [Treaty of Breda](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-breda-1667) ended the [Second Anglo-Dutch War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-anglo-dutch-war) and confirmed English control of the region.\nThe Dutch briefly regained control of parts of New Netherland in the [Third Anglo-Dutch War](https://bliptext.com/articles/third-anglo-dutch-war) but surrendered claim to the territory in the 1674 [Treaty of Westminster](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-westminster-1674), ending the Dutch colonial presence in America.\nThe British renamed the colony of New Amsterdam to \"York City\" or \"New York\".\nLarge numbers of Dutch remained in the colony, dominating the rural areas between Manhattan and Albany, while people from New England started moving in as well as immigrants from Germany.\nNew York City attracted a large polyglot population, including a large black slave population.\nIn 1674, the proprietary colonies of [East Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-jersey) and [West Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-jersey) were created from lands formerly part of New York.\nPennsylvania was founded in 1681 as a proprietary colony of Quaker [William Penn](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-penn).\nThe main population elements included the Quaker population based in Philadelphia, a Scotch-Irish population on the Western frontier, and numerous German colonies in between.\nPhiladelphia became the largest city in the colonies with its central location, excellent port, and a population of about 30,000.\n# [New Netherland with 17th-century Dutch claims in areas that later became English colonies shown in red and yellow. Present U.S. states are shown in gray. Four British colonies, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, are referred to as the middle colonies. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Nieuw///Nederland.png]\n\n## New England\nThe [Pilgrims](https://bliptext.com/articles/pilgrim-fathers) were a small group of [Puritan](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritans) separatists who felt that they needed to distance themselves physically from the Church of England, which they perceived as corrupted.\nThey initially moved to the Netherlands, but eventually sailed to America in 1620 on the [Mayflower](https://bliptext.com/articles/mayflower).\nUpon their arrival, they drew up the [Mayflower Compact](https://bliptext.com/articles/mayflower-compact), by which they bound themselves together as a united community, thus establishing the small [Plymouth Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/plymouth-colony).\n[William Bradford](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-bradford-1590-1657) was their main leader.\nAfter its founding, other settlers traveled from England to join the colony.\nMore Puritans immigrated in 1629 and established the [Massachusetts Bay Colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/massachusetts-bay-colony) with 400 settlers.\nThey sought to reform the [Church of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-england) by creating a new, ideologically pure church in the New World.\nBy 1640, [20,000 had arrived](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritan-migration-to-new-england-1620-1640); many died soon after arrival, but the others found a healthy climate and an ample food supply.\nThe Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies together spawned other Puritan colonies in New England, including the [New Haven](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-haven-colony), [Saybrook](https://bliptext.com/articles/saybrook-colony), and [Connecticut](https://bliptext.com/articles/connecticut-colony) colonies.\nDuring the 17th century, the New Haven and Saybrook colonies were absorbed by Connecticut.\n[Roger Williams](https://bliptext.com/articles/roger-williams) established Providence Plantations in 1636 on land provided by [Narragansett](https://bliptext.com/articles/narragansett-people) sachem [Canonicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/canonicus).\nWilliams was a Puritan who preached religious tolerance, [separation of Church and State](https://bliptext.com/articles/separation-of-church-and-state), and a complete break with the Church of England.\nHe was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony over theological disagreements; he founded the settlement based on an egalitarian constitution, providing for majority rule \"in civil things\" and \"liberty of conscience\" in religious matters.\nIn 1637, a second group including [Anne Hutchinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/anne-hutchinson) established a second settlement on [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquidneck-island), today called Aquidneck.\n[Samuel Gorton](https://bliptext.com/articles/samuel-gorton) and others established a settlement near Providence Plantations which they called Shawomet.\nHowever, Massachusetts Bay attempted to seize the land and put it under their own authority, so Gorton travelled to London to gain a charter from the King.\n[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-rich-2nd-earl-of-warwick) assisted him in gaining the charter, so he changed the name of the settlement to Warwick.\nRoger Williams secured a Royal Charter from the King in 1663 which united all four settlements into the [Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/colony-of-rhode-island-and-providence-plantations).\nOther colonists settled to the north, mingling with adventurers and profit-oriented settlers to establish more religiously diverse colonies in [New Hampshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-hampshire) and [Maine](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-maine).\nMassachusetts absorbed these small settlements when it made significant land claims in the 1640s and 1650s, but New Hampshire was eventually given a separate charter in 1679.\nMaine remained a part of Massachusetts until achieving statehood in 1820.\nIn 1685, King [James II of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-ii-of-england) closed the legislatures and consolidated the New England colonies into the [Dominion of New England](https://bliptext.com/articles/dominion-of-new-england), putting the region under the control of Governor [Edmund Andros](https://bliptext.com/articles/edmund-andros).\nIn 1688, the colonies of New York, West Jersey, and East Jersey were added to the dominion.\nAndros was overthrown and the dominion was closed in 1689, after the [Glorious Revolution](https://bliptext.com/articles/glorious-revolution) deposed King James II; the former colonies were re-established.\nAccording to Guy Miller, the Rebellion of 1689 was the \"climax of the 60-year-old struggle between the government in England and the Puritans of Massachusetts over the question of who was to rule the Bay colony.\"\n\n# 18th century\nIn 1702, East and West Jersey were combined to form the [Province of New Jersey](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-new-jersey).\nThe northern and southern sections of the Carolina colony operated more or less independently until 1691 when [Philip Ludwell](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-ludwell) was appointed governor of the entire province.\nFrom that time until 1708, the northern and southern settlements remained under one government.\nHowever, during this period, the two halves of the province began increasingly to be known as North Carolina and South Carolina, as the descendants of the colony's proprietors fought over the direction of the colony.\nThe colonists of Charles Town finally deposed their governor and elected their own government.\nThis marked the start of separate governments in the [Province of North-Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-north-carolina) and the [Province of South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-south-carolina).\nIn 1729, the king formally revoked Carolina's colonial charter and established both North Carolina and South Carolina as crown colonies.\nIn the 1730s, Parliamentarian [James Oglethorpe](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-oglethorpe) proposed that the area south of the Carolinas be colonized with the \"worthy poor\" of England to provide an alternative to the overcrowded debtors' prisons.\nOglethorpe and other English philanthropists secured a royal charter as the Trustees of the colony of Georgia on June 9, 1732.\nOglethorpe and his compatriots hoped to establish a utopian colony that banned slavery and recruited only the most worthy settlers, but by 1750 the colony remained sparsely populated.\nThe proprietors gave up their charter in 1752, at which point Georgia became a crown colony.\nThe population of the Thirteen Colonies grew immensely in the 18th century.\nAccording to historian [Alan Taylor](https://bliptext.com/articles/alan-taylor-historian), the population was 1.5 million in 1750, which represented four-fifths of the population of [British North America](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-north-america).\nMore than 90 percent of the colonists lived as farmers, though some seaports also flourished.\nIn 1760, the cities of Philadelphia, New York, and [Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston) had a population of more than 16,000, which was small by European standards.\nBy 1770, the economic output of the Thirteen Colonies made up forty percent of the [gross domestic product](https://bliptext.com/articles/gross-domestic-product) of the entire British Empire.\nAs the 18th century progressed, colonists began to settle far from the Atlantic coast.\nPennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Maryland all laid claim to the land in the [Ohio River](https://bliptext.com/articles/ohio-river) valley.\nThe colonies engaged in a scramble to purchase land from Indian tribes, as the British insisted that claims to land should rest on legitimate purchases.\nVirginia was particularly intent on western expansion, and most of the elite Virginia families invested in the [Ohio Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/ohio-company) to promote the settlement of the [Ohio Country](https://bliptext.com/articles/ohio-country).\n\n## Global trade and immigration\nThe British American colonies became part of the global British trading network, as the value tripled for exports from America to Britain between 1700 and 1754.\nThe colonists were restricted in trading with other European powers, but they found profitable trade partners in the other British colonies, particularly in the Caribbean.\nThe colonists traded foodstuffs, wood, tobacco, and various other resources for Asian tea, West Indian coffee, and West Indian sugar, among other items.\nAmerican Indians far from the Atlantic coast supplied the Atlantic market with beaver fur and deerskins.\nAmerica had an advantage in natural resources and established its own thriving shipbuilding industry, and many American merchants engaged in the transatlantic trade.\nImproved economic conditions and easing of religious persecution in Europe made it more difficult to recruit labor to the colonies, and many colonies became increasingly reliant on slave labor, particularly in the South.\nThe population of slaves in America grew dramatically between 1680 and 1750, and the growth was driven by a mixture of forced immigration and the reproduction of slaves.\nSlaves supported vast plantation economies in the South, while slaves in the North worked in a variety of occupations.\nThere were a few local attempted slave revolts, such as the [Stono Rebellion](https://bliptext.com/articles/stono-rebellion) and the [New York Conspiracy of 1741](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-conspiracy-of-1741), but these uprisings were suppressed.\nA small proportion of the English population migrated to America after 1700, but the colonies attracted new immigrants from other European countries.\nThese immigrants traveled to all of the colonies, but the Middle Colonies attracted the most and continued to be more ethnically diverse than the other colonies.\nNumerous settlers immigrated from Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant—particularly \"[New Light](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-and-new-light)\" [Ulster](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulster) [Presbyterians](https://bliptext.com/articles/presbyterianism).\nProtestant Germans also immigrated in large numbers, particularly to Pennsylvania.\nIn the 1740s, the Thirteen Colonies underwent the [First Great Awakening](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-great-awakening).\n\n## French and Indian War\nIn 1738, an incident involving a Welsh mariner named [Robert Jenkins](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-jenkins-master-mariner) sparked the [War of Jenkins' Ear](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-of-jenkins-ear) between Britain and Spain.\nHundreds of North Americans volunteered for Admiral [Edward Vernon](https://bliptext.com/articles/edward-vernon)'s [assault](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-cartagena-de-indias) on [Cartagena de Indias](https://bliptext.com/articles/cartagena-colombia), a Spanish city in South America.\nThe war against Spain merged into a broader conflict known as the [War of the Austrian Succession](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-of-the-austrian-succession), but most colonists called it [King George's War](https://bliptext.com/articles/king-george-s-war).\nIn 1745, British and colonial forces [captured](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-louisbourg-1745) the town of [Louisbourg](https://bliptext.com/articles/louisbourg), and the war came to an end with the 1748 [Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-aix-la-chapelle-1748).\nHowever, many colonists were angered when Britain returned Louisbourg to France in return for [Madras](https://bliptext.com/articles/chennai) and other territories.\nIn the aftermath of the war, both the British and French sought to expand into the Ohio River valley.\nThe [French and Indian War](https://bliptext.com/articles/french-and-indian-war) (1754–1763) was the American extension of the general European conflict known as the [Seven Years' War](https://bliptext.com/articles/seven-years-war).\nPrevious colonial wars in North America had started in Europe and then spread to the colonies, but the French and Indian War is notable for having started in North America and spread to Europe.\nOne of the primary causes of the war was increasing competition between Britain and France, especially in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley.\nThe French and Indian War took on a new significance for the British North American colonists when [William Pitt the Elder](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-pitt-1st-earl-of-chatham) decided that major military resources needed to be devoted to North America in order to win the war against France.\nFor the first time, the continent became one of the main theaters of what could be termed a [world war](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-war).\nDuring the war, it became increasingly apparent to American colonists that they were under the authority of the [British Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-empire), as British military and civilian officials took on an increased presence in their lives.\nThe war also increased a sense of American unity in other ways.\nIt caused men to travel across the continent who might otherwise have never left their own colony, fighting alongside men from decidedly different backgrounds who were nonetheless still American.\nThroughout the course of the war, British officers trained Americans for battle, most notably [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington), which benefited the American cause during the Revolution.\nAlso, colonial legislatures and officials had to cooperate intensively in pursuit of the continent-wide military effort.\nThe relations were not always positive between the British military establishment and the colonists, setting the stage for later distrust and dislike of British troops.\nAt the 1754 [Albany Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/albany-congress), Pennsylvania colonist [Benjamin Franklin](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-franklin) proposed the [Albany Plan](https://bliptext.com/articles/albany-plan) which would have created a unified government of the Thirteen Colonies for coordination of defense and other matters, but the plan was rejected by the leaders of most colonies.\nIn the [Treaty of Paris (1763)](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1763), France formally ceded to Britain the eastern part of its vast North American empire, having secretly given to Spain the territory of [Louisiana](https://bliptext.com/articles/louisiana-new-france) west of the Mississippi River the previous year.\nBefore the war, Britain held the thirteen American colonies, most of present-day [Nova Scotia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nova-scotia), and most of the [Hudson Bay](https://bliptext.com/articles/hudson-bay) watershed.\nFollowing the war, Britain gained all French territory east of the Mississippi River, including Quebec, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio River valley.\nBritain also gained [Spanish Florida](https://bliptext.com/articles/spanish-florida), from which it formed the colonies of [East](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-florida) and [West Florida](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-florida).\nIn removing a major foreign threat to the thirteen colonies, the war also largely removed the colonists' need for colonial protection.\nThe British and colonists triumphed jointly over a common foe.\nThe colonists' loyalty to the mother country was stronger than ever before.\nHowever, disunity was beginning to form.\n[British Prime Minister](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nThis was a successful wartime strategy but, after the war was over, each side believed that it had borne a greater burden than the other.\nThe British elite, the most heavily taxed of any in Europe, pointed out angrily that the colonists paid little to the royal coffers.\nThe colonists replied that their sons had fought and died in a war that served European interests more than their own.\nThis dispute was a link in the chain of events that soon brought about the American Revolution.\n# [Territorial changes following the French and Indian War; land held by the British before 1763 is shown in red and land gained by Britain in 1763 is shown in pink | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/NorthAmerica1762-83.png]\n\n## Growing dissent\nThe British were left with large debts following the French and Indian War, so British leaders decided to increase taxation and control of the Thirteen Colonies.\nThey imposed several new taxes, beginning with the [Sugar Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/sugar-act) of 1764.\nLater acts included the [Currency Act of 1764](https://bliptext.com/articles/currency-act-of-1764), the [Stamp Act of 1765](https://bliptext.com/articles/stamp-act-of-1765), and the [Townshend Acts](https://bliptext.com/articles/townshend-acts) of 1767.\n[Colonial newspapers and printers](https://bliptext.com/articles/early-american-publishers-and-printers) in particular took strong exception against the Stamp Act which imposed a tax on newspapers and official documents, and played a central role in disseminating literature among the colonists against such taxes and the idea of taxation without colonial representation.\nThe [Royal Proclamation of 1763](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-proclamation-of-1763) restricted settlement west of the [Appalachian Mountains](https://bliptext.com/articles/appalachian-mountains), as this was designated an [Indian Reserve](https://bliptext.com/articles/indian-reserve-1763).\nSome groups of settlers disregarded the proclamation, however, and continued to move west and establish farms.\nThe proclamation was modified and was no longer a hindrance to settlement, but the fact angered the colonists that it had been promulgated without their prior consultation.\n\n## American Revolution\nParliament had directly levied duties and excise taxes on the colonies, bypassing the colonial legislatures, and Americans began to insist on the principle of \"[no taxation without representation](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-taxation-without-representation)\" with intense protests over the [Stamp Act of 1765](https://bliptext.com/articles/stamp-act-of-1765).\nThey argued that the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament, so it was a violation of their rights as Englishmen for taxes to be imposed upon them.\nParliament rejected the colonial protests and asserted its authority by passing new taxes.\nColonial discontentment grew with the passage of the 1773 [Tea Act](https://bliptext.com/articles/tea-act), which reduced taxes on tea sold by the [East India Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-india-company) in an effort to undercut the competition, and Prime Minister North's ministry hoped that this would establish a precedent of colonists accepting British taxation policies.\nTrouble escalated over the tea tax, as Americans in each colony boycotted the tea, and those in Boston dumped the tea in the harbor during the [Boston Tea Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston-tea-party) in 1773 when the [Sons of Liberty](https://bliptext.com/articles/sons-of-liberty) dumped thousands of pounds of tea into the water.\nTensions escalated in 1774 as Parliament passed the laws known as the [Intolerable Acts](https://bliptext.com/articles/intolerable-acts), which greatly restricted self-government in the colony of Massachusetts.\nThese laws also allowed British military commanders to claim colonial homes for the quartering of soldiers, regardless of whether the American civilians were willing or not to have soldiers in their homes.\nThe laws further revoked colonial rights to hold trials in cases involving soldiers or crown officials, forcing such trials to be held in England rather than in America.\nParliament also sent [Thomas Gage](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-gage) to serve as Governor of Massachusetts and as the commander of British forces in North America.\nBy 1774, colonists still hoped to remain part of the British Empire, but discontentment was widespread concerning British rule throughout the Thirteen Colonies.\nColonists elected delegates to the [First Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-continental-congress), which convened in [Philadelphia](https://bliptext.com/articles/philadelphia) in September 1774.\nIn the aftermath of the Intolerable Acts, the delegates asserted that the colonies owed allegiance only to the king; they would accept royal governors as agents of the king, but they were no longer willing to recognize Parliament's right to pass legislation affecting the colonies.\nMost delegates opposed an attack on the British position in Boston, and the Continental Congress instead agreed to the imposition of a boycott known as the [Continental Association](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-association).\nThe boycott proved effective and the value of British imports dropped dramatically.\nThe Thirteen Colonies became increasingly divided between [Patriots](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriot-american-revolution) opposed to British rule and [Loyalists](https://bliptext.com/articles/loyalist-american-revolution) who supported it.\n# [Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin was recycled to encourage the former colonies to unite against British rule. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c////Benjamin///Franklin///-///Join///or///Die.jpg]\n\n# American Revolutionary War\nIn response, the colonies formed bodies of elected representatives known as [Provincial Congresses](https://bliptext.com/articles/provincial-congress), and colonists began to boycott imported British merchandise.\nLater in 1774, 12 colonies sent representatives to the [First Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-continental-congress) in [Philadelphia](https://bliptext.com/articles/philadelphia).\nDuring the [Second Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-continental-congress), the remaining colony of Georgia sent delegates as well.\nMassachusetts Governor [Thomas Gage](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-gage) feared a confrontation with the colonists; he requested reinforcements from Britain, but the British government was not willing to pay for the expense of stationing tens of thousands of soldiers in the Thirteen Colonies.\nGage was instead ordered to seize Patriot arsenals.\nHe dispatched a force to march on the arsenal at [Concord, Massachusetts](https://bliptext.com/articles/concord-massachusetts), but the Patriots learned about it and blocked their advance.\nThe Patriots repulsed the British force at the April 1775 [Battles of Lexington and Concord](https://bliptext.com/articles/battles-of-lexington-and-concord), then lay [siege to Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-boston).\nBy spring 1775, all royal officials had been expelled, and the [Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-congress) hosted a convention of delegates for the Thirteen Colonies.\nIt raised an army to fight the British and named [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington) its commander, made treaties, declared independence, and recommended that the colonies write constitutions and become states, later enumerated in the 1777 [Articles of Confederation](https://bliptext.com/articles/articles-of-confederation).\nIn May 1775, the [Second Continental Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-continental-congress), assembled in the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia, began recruiting soldiers for the Revolutionary War against the British, printing its own money, and appointing [George Washington](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-washington) as commander of Patriot militias.\nThose from New England that had launched the [Siege of [Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston)](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-boston), which forced [British troops](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-army-during-the-american-revolutionary-war) to withdraw from [Boston](https://bliptext.com/articles/boston).\nThe patriot militias later were formalized into the [Continental Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-army) under Washington's command.\n# [A map of the Thirteen Colonies (in red) and nearby colonial areas (1763–1775) just before the Revolutionary War | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/British///colonies///1763-76///shepherd1923.PNG]\n\n## Declaration of Independence\nThe Second Continental Congress charged the [Committee of Five](https://bliptext.com/articles/committee-of-five), including [John Adams](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-adams), [Benjamin Franklin](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-franklin), [Thomas Jefferson](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-jefferson), [Robert R. Livingston](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-r-livingston), and [Roger Sherman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roger-sherman), with authoring the [Declaration of Independence](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-declaration-of-independence).\nThe committee, in turn, asked Jefferson to author the first draft, which Jefferson largely wrote in isolation between June 11, 1776, and June 28, 1776, from the second floor of a three-story home he was renting at 700 [Market Street](https://bliptext.com/articles/market-street-philadelphia) in Philadelphia, now called the Declaration House and within walking distance of [Independence Hall](https://bliptext.com/articles/independence-hall).\nConsidering Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson probably had limited time for writing over these 17 days, and he likely wrote his first draft quickly.\nOn July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted and issued the Declaration as a letter of grievances to King [George III](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-iii);\nWith the help chiefly of France, they defeated the British in the [American Revolutionary War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-revolutionary-war).\nThe decisive victory came at the [Siege of Yorktown](https://bliptext.com/articles/siege-of-yorktown-1781) in 1781.\nIn the [Treaty of Paris (1783)](https://bliptext.com/articles/treaty-of-paris-1783), Britain officially recognized the independence of the United States of America.\n\n# Population of Thirteen Colonies\nThe colonial population rose to a quarter of a million during the 17th century, and to nearly 2.5 million on the eve of the American revolution.\nThe estimates do not include the Indian tribes outside the jurisdiction of the colonies.\nGood health was important for the growth of the colonies: \"Fewer deaths among the young meant that a higher proportion of the population reached reproductive age, and that fact alone helps to explain why the colonies grew so rapidly.\"\nThere were many other reasons for the population growth besides good health, such as the [Great Migration](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritan-migration-to-new-england-1620-40).\nBy 1776, about 85% of the white population's ancestry originated in the [British Isles](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-isles) (English, Scots-Irish, Scottish, Welsh), 9% of [German](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-american) origin, 4% [Dutch](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-american) and 2% Huguenot French and other minorities.\nOver 90% were farmers, with several small cities that were also seaports linking the colonial economy to the larger British Empire.\nThese populations continued to grow at a rapid rate during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, primarily because of high birth rates and relatively low death rates.\n[Immigration](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-immigration-to-the-united-states) was a minor factor from 1774 to 1830.\nAccording to the United States Historical Census Data Base (USHCDB), the ethnic populations in the British American Colonies of 1700, 1755, and 1775 were:\n\n## Slavery\n[Chattel slavery](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavery) was legal and practiced in all of the Thirteen Colonies.\nIn most places, it involved house servants or farm workers.\nIt was of economic importance in the export-oriented tobacco plantations of Virginia and Maryland and on the rice and indigo plantations of South Carolina.\nAbout 287,000 slaves were imported into the Thirteen Colonies over a period of 160 years, or 2% of the estimated 12 million taken from Africa to the Americas via the [Atlantic slave trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-slave-trade).\nThe great majority went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished.\nBy the mid-18th century, life expectancy was much higher in the American colonies.\nThe numbers grew rapidly through a very high birth rate and low mortality rate, reaching nearly four million by the [1860 census](https://bliptext.com/articles/1860-united-states-census).\nFrom 1770 until 1860, the rate of natural growth of North American slaves was much greater than for the population of any nation in Europe, and was nearly twice as rapid as that in England.\nThe legal status of chattel slavery has been explained by William M. Wiecek: \"By the time of the Revolution, each of the mainland colonies had at least the rudiments of a statutory law of slavery...and nine of them had fairly elaborate slave codes that specified four basic legal characteristics of American slavery. First, the statutes defined slavery as a lifetime condition, distinguishing it from servitude and other forms of unfree status, which lasted only for a term of years. Second...slave status was made hereditable through the mother. In so providing, the American colonies reversed the common-law rule that personal status followed the condition of the father.... The third fundamental statutory characteristic of American slavery was racial identification....The fourth and most troublesome of the elements of slavery for colonial legislators was the precise legal status of a slave as property....\nsouthern jurisdictions ...settled on the legal definition of a slave as a 'chattel personal.'\"\n\n# Religion\nAccording to Patricia Bonomi, \"early Americans in all sections lived not in a spiritual desert but in a world where religion formed a key component of their mental landscape.\"\nProtestantism was the predominant religious affiliation in the Thirteen Colonies.\nThere were also a few Catholics in Maryland as well as [Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/jews), and [deists](https://bliptext.com/articles/deists), many colonists had no religious connection.\nThe [Church of England](https://bliptext.com/articles/church-of-england) was officially established in most of the South.\nThe [Puritan movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/puritan-movement) divided into the [Congregational](https://bliptext.com/articles/congregational-church) and the [Unitarian denominations](https://bliptext.com/articles/unitarian-universalist-association), and was the established religious affiliation in Massachusetts and Connecticut into the 19th century.\nIn practice, this meant that tax revenues were allocated to church expenses.\nThe [Anglican](https://bliptext.com/articles/anglican) parishes in the South were under the control of local vestries and had public functions such as repair of the roads and relief of the poor.\nAfter 1700 the vestry no longer dominated the minister.\nThe colonies were religiously diverse, with different Protestant denominations brought by British, German, Dutch, and other immigrants.\nThe [Reformed tradition](https://bliptext.com/articles/reformed-tradition) was the foundation for [Presbyterian](https://bliptext.com/articles/presbyterian), [Congregationalist](https://bliptext.com/articles/congregationalist), and [Continental Reformed](https://bliptext.com/articles/continental-reformed) denominations.\nFrench [Huguenots](https://bliptext.com/articles/huguenots) set up their own Reformed congregations.\nThe [Dutch Reformed Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-reformed-church) was strong among [Dutch Americans](https://bliptext.com/articles/dutch-americans) in New York and New Jersey, while [Lutheranism](https://bliptext.com/articles/lutheranism) was prevalent among [German immigrants](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-american).\nGermans also brought diverse forms of [Anabaptism](https://bliptext.com/articles/anabaptism), especially the [Mennonite](https://bliptext.com/articles/mennonite) variety.\n[Reformed Baptist](https://bliptext.com/articles/reformed-baptist) preacher [Roger Williams](https://bliptext.com/articles/roger-williams) founded [Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations) which became the Colony of Rhode Island and [Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations).\nJews were clustered in a few port cities.\nThe Baltimore family founded [Maryland](https://bliptext.com/articles/maryland) and brought in fellow Catholics from England.\nCatholics were about 1.6% of the population or 40,000 in 1775.\nOf the 200–250,000 Irish who came to the Colonies between 1701 and 1775 less than 20,000 were Catholic, many of whom hid their faith or lapsed because of prejudice and discrimination.\nBetween 1770 and 1775 3,900 Irish Catholics arrived out of almost 45,000 white immigrants (7,000 English, 15,000 Scots, 13,200 Scots-Irish, 5,200 Germans).\nMost Catholics were English Recusants, Germans, Irish, or blacks; half lived in Maryland, with large populations also in New York and Pennsylvania.\nPresbyterians were chiefly immigrants from Scotland and Ulster who favored the back-country and frontier districts.\n[Quakers](https://bliptext.com/articles/quakers) were well established in Pennsylvania, where they controlled the governorship and the legislature for many years.\nQuakers were also numerous in Rhode Island.\n[Baptists](https://bliptext.com/articles/baptists) and [Methodists](https://bliptext.com/articles/methodists) were growing rapidly during the [First Great Awakening](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-great-awakening) of the 1740s.\nMany denominations sponsored missions to the local Indians.\n\n# Education\nHigher education was available for young men in the north, and most students were aspiring Protestant ministers.\nNine institutions of higher education were chartered during the colonial era.\nThese colleges, known collectively as the [colonial colleges](https://bliptext.com/articles/colonial-colleges) were [New College (Harvard)](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-college), the [College of William & Mary](https://bliptext.com/articles/college-of-william-mary), [Yale College (Yale)](https://bliptext.com/articles/yale-university), the [College of New Jersey (Princeton)](https://bliptext.com/articles/princeton-college), [King's College (Columbia)](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university), the [College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania)](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-pennsylvania), the [College of Rhode Island (Brown)](https://bliptext.com/articles/brown-university), [Queen's College (Rutgers)](https://bliptext.com/articles/rutgers-college) and [Dartmouth College](https://bliptext.com/articles/dartmouth-college).\nThe College of William & Mary and Queen's College later became public institutions while the other institutions account for seven of the eight private [Ivy League](https://bliptext.com/articles/ivy-league) universities.\nWith the exception of the College of William and Mary, these institutions were all located in New England and the Middle Colonies.\nThe southern colonies held the belief that the family had the responsibility of educating their children, mirroring the common belief in Europe.\nWealthy families either used tutors and governesses from Britain or sent children to school in England.\nBy the 1700s, university students based in the colonies began to act as tutors.\nMost New England towns sponsored public schools for boys, but public schooling was rare elsewhere.\nGirls were educated at home or by small local private schools, and they had no access to college.\nAspiring physicians and lawyers typically learned as apprentices to an established practitioner, although some young men went to medical schools in Scotland.\n# [Map of higher education in the 13 Colonies immediately prior to the American Revolution. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Colonial///Colleges///map.svg]\n\n# Government\nThe three forms of colonial government in 1776 were provincial ([royal colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-colony)), [proprietary](https://bliptext.com/articles/proprietary-colony), and [charter](https://bliptext.com/articles/charter-colony).\nThese governments were all subordinate to the British monarch with no representation in the [Parliament of Great Britain](https://bliptext.com/articles/parliament-of-great-britain).\nThe administration of all British colonies was overseen by the [Board of Trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/board-of-trade) in London beginning late in the 17th century.\nThe provincial colony was governed by commissions created at the pleasure of the king.\nA governor and his council were appointed by the crown.\nThe governor was invested with general executive powers and authorized to call a locally elected assembly.\nThe governor's council would sit as an upper house when the assembly was in session, in addition to its role in advising the governor.\nAssemblies were made up of representatives elected by the freeholders and planters (landowners) of the province.\nThe governor had the power of absolute veto and could [prorogue](https://bliptext.com/articles/legislative-session) (i.e., delay) and dissolve the assembly.\nThe assembly's role was to make all local laws and ordinances, ensuring that they were not inconsistent with the laws of Britain.\nIn 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.\nLaws could be examined by the British Privy Council or Board of Trade, which also held veto power of legislation.\nNew Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were crown colonies.\nMassachusetts became a crown colony at the end of the 17th century.\nProprietary colonies were governed much as royal colonies, except that lord proprietors appointed the governor rather than the king.\nThey were set up after the [English Restoration](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-restoration) of 1660 and typically enjoyed greater civil and religious liberty.\nPennsylvania (which included Delaware), New Jersey, and Maryland were proprietary colonies.\nCharter governments were political corporations created by [letters patent](https://bliptext.com/articles/letters-patent), giving the grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government.\nThe charters provided a fundamental constitution and divided powers among legislative, executive, and judicial functions, with those powers being vested in officials.\nMassachusetts, Providence Plantation, Rhode Island, Warwick, and Connecticut were charter colonies.\nThe Massachusetts charter was revoked in 1684 and was replaced by a provincial charter that was issued in 1691.\n[Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations) merged with the settlements at [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquidneck-island) and [Warwick](https://bliptext.com/articles/warwick-rhode-island) to form the Colony of [Rhode Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/aquidneck-island) and [Providence Plantations](https://bliptext.com/articles/providence-plantations), which also became a charter colony in 1636.\n\n## British role\nAfter 1680, the imperial government in London took an increasing interest in the affairs of the colonies, which were growing rapidly in population and wealth.\nIn 1680, only Virginia was a royal colony; by 1720, half were under the control of royal governors.\nThese governors were appointees closely tied to the government in London.\nHistorians before the 1880s emphasized American nationalism.\nHowever, scholarship after that time was heavily influenced by the \"Imperial school\" led by [Herbert L. Osgood](https://bliptext.com/articles/herbert-l-osgood), [George Louis Beer](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-louis-beer), [Charles McLean Andrews](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-mclean-andrews), and [Lawrence H. Gipson](https://bliptext.com/articles/lawrence-h-gipson).\nThis viewpoint dominated colonial historiography into the 1940s, and they emphasized and often praised the attention that London gave to all the colonies.\nIn this view, there was never a threat (before the 1770s) that any colony would revolt or seek independence.\n\n## Political culture\nSettlers did not come to the American colonies with the intention of creating a democratic system; yet they quickly created a broad electorate.\nThe 13 colonies had no hereditary aristocrats as in Europe.\nThere were no rich gentry who owned all the farmland and rented it out to tenants, as in England and in the Dutch settlements in upstate New York.\nInstead there was a political system of local control that was governed by men elected in fair elections.\nThe colonies offered a broader base than Britain or indeed any other country.\nAny property owner could vote for members of the lower house of the legislature.\nGovernors were appointed in London but colonists elected the governor in Connecticut and Rhode Island.\nWomen, children, indentured servants, and slaves were subsumed under the interest of the family head and did not have a vote or a voice.\nIndians and free blacks were politically outside the system and usually could not vote.\nVoters were required to hold an \"interest\" in society; as the South Carolina legislature said in 1716, \"it is necessary and reasonable, that none but such persons will have an interest in the Province should be capable to elect members of the Commons House of Assembly\".\nThe main legal criterion for having an \"interest\" was ownership of real estate.\nIn Britain, 19 out of 20 men were controlled politically by their landlords.\nLondon insisted on this requirement for the colonies, telling governors to exclude from the ballot men who were not freeholders—that is, those who did not own land.\nHowever, in most places good farmland was cheap and so widely owned that 50% to 80% of the men were eligible to vote.\nAccording to historian Donald Radcliffe:\"The right to vote had always been extraordinarily widespread—at least among adult white males--even before the country gained its independence....Enfranchisement varied greatly by location. There certainly were communities, particularly newly settled communities where land was inexpensive, in which 70 or 80 percent of all white men were enfranchised. Yet there were also locales...where the percentages were far lower, closer to 40 or 50 percent....On the whole, the franchise was far more widespread than it was in England, yet as the revolution approached, the rate of property ownership was falling, and the proportion of adult white males who were eligible to vote was probably less than 60 percent.\"\nThe colonial political culture emphasized deference, so that local notables were the men who ran and were chosen.\nBut sometimes they competed with each other and had to appeal to the common man for votes.\nThere were no political parties, and would-be legislators formed ad hoc coalitions of their families, friends, and neighbors.\nElection day brought in all the men from the countryside to the county seat or town center to make merry, politick, shake hands with the grandees, meet old friends, and hear the speeches—all the while toasting, eating, treating, tippling, and gambling.\nThey voted by shouting their choice to the clerk, as supporters cheered or booed.\nIn Virginia candidate George Washington spent £39 for treats for his supporters.\nThe candidates knew that they had to \"swill the planters with bumbo\" (rum).\nElections were carnivals where all men were equal for one day and traditional restraints were relaxed.\nVoting was voluntary and typically about half the men eligible to vote turned out on election day.\nTurnout was usually higher in Pennsylvania and New York, where long-standing factions based on ethnic and religious groups mobilized supporters at a higher rate.\nNew York and Rhode Island developed long-lasting two-faction systems that held together for years at the colony level, but they did not reach into local affairs.\nThe factions were based on the personalities of a few leaders and an array of family connections, and they had little basis in policy or ideology.\nElsewhere the political scene was in a constant whirl, based on personality rather than long-lived factions or serious disputes on issues.\nThe colonies were independent of one other before 1774; indeed, all the colonies began as separate and unique settlements or plantations.\nFurther, efforts had failed to form a colonial union through the [Albany Congress](https://bliptext.com/articles/albany-congress) of 1754 led by [Benjamin Franklin](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-franklin).\nThe thirteen all had well-established systems of self-government and elections based on the [Rights of Englishmen](https://bliptext.com/articles/rights-of-englishmen) which they were determined to protect from imperial interference.\n\n## Economic policy\nThe British Empire at the time was operated under the [mercantile system](https://bliptext.com/articles/mercantilism), where all trade was concentrated inside the Empire, and trade with other empires was forbidden.\nThe goal was to enrich Britain—its merchants and its government.\nWhether the policy was good for the colonists was not an issue in London, but Americans became increasingly restive with mercantilist policies.\nMercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires.\nThe government protected its 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.\nThe government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch.\nThe tactic used by mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London.\nThe government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain.\nThe government spent much of its revenue on a superb [Royal Navy](https://bliptext.com/articles/history-of-the-royal-navy), which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them.\nThus the British Navy captured [New Amsterdam](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-amsterdam) (New York) in 1664.\nThe colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.\nColonial commodities were shipped on British ships to the mother country where Britain sold them to Europe reaping the benefits of the export trade.\nFinished goods were manufactured in Britain and sold in the colonies, or imported by Britain for retail to the colonies, profiting the mother country.\nLike other New World colonial empires, the British empire's commodity production was dependent on slave labor; as observed in 1720s Britain, \"all this great increase in our treasure proceeds chiefly from the labour of negroes\" in Britain's colonies.\nBritain implemented mercantilism by trying to block American trade with the French, Spanish, or Dutch empires using the [Navigation Acts](https://bliptext.com/articles/navigation-acts), which Americans avoided as often as they could.\nThe royal officials responded to smuggling with open-ended search warrants ([Writs of Assistance](https://bliptext.com/articles/writ-of-assistance)).\nIn 1761, Boston lawyer [James Otis](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-otis-jr) argued that the writs violated the [constitutional rights](https://bliptext.com/articles/constitution-of-the-united-kingdom) of the colonists.\nHe lost the case, but John Adams later wrote, \"Then and there the child Independence was born.\"\nHowever, the colonists took pains to argue that they did not oppose British regulation of their external trade; they only opposed legislation that affected them internally.\n\n# Other British colonies\n[[File:British Colonies in North America c1750 v2.png|thumb|right|Some of the British colonies in North America, c. 17501. Newfoundland\n2. Nova Scotia\n3. Thirteen Colonies\n4. Bermuda\n5. Bahamas\n6. British Honduras\n7. Jamaica\n8. British Leeward Islands and Barbados]]\nBesides the grouping that became known as the \"thirteen colonies\",\nBritain in the late-18th century had another dozen colonial possessions in the [New World](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-america) surrounding the 13 colonies.\nThe [British West Indies](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-west-indies), [Newfoundland](https://bliptext.com/articles/newfoundland-colony), the [Province of Quebec](https://bliptext.com/articles/province-of-quebec-1763-1791), [Nova Scotia](https://bliptext.com/articles/nova-scotia), [Prince Edward Island](https://bliptext.com/articles/prince-edward-island), [Bermuda](https://bliptext.com/articles/bermuda), and [East](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-florida) and [West Florida](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-florida) remained loyal to the British crown throughout the war (although Spain reacquired Florida as the war was ending, and in 1821 sold it to the United States).\nSeveral of the other colonies evinced a certain degree of sympathy with the [Patriot](https://bliptext.com/articles/patriot-american-revolution) cause, but their geographical isolation and the dominance of British naval power precluded any effective participation.\nThe British crown had only recently acquired several of those lands, and many of the issues facing the Thirteen Colonies did not apply to them, especially in the case of Quebec and Florida.\n\n# Historiography\nThe [first British Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/first-british-empire) centered on the Thirteen Colonies, which attracted large numbers of settlers from Britain.\nThe \"Imperial School\" in the 1900–1930s took a favorable view of the benefits of empire, emphasizing its successful economic integration.\nThe Imperial School included such historians as [Herbert L. Osgood](https://bliptext.com/articles/herbert-l-osgood), [George Louis Beer](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-louis-beer), [Charles M. Andrews](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-m-andrews), and [Lawrence Gipson](https://bliptext.com/articles/lawrence-gipson).\nThe shock of Britain's defeat in 1783 caused a radical revision of British policies on colonialism, thereby producing what historians call the end of the First British Empire, even though Britain still controlled Canada and some islands in the West Indies.\n[Ashley Jackson](https://bliptext.com/articles/ashley-jackson-historian) writes:\n\"The first British Empire was largely destroyed by the loss of the American colonies, followed by a 'swing to the east' and the foundation of a second British Empire based on commercial and territorial expansion in South Asia.\"\nMuch of the historiography concerns the reasons why the Americans rebelled in the 1770s and successfully broke away.\nSince the 1960s, the mainstream of historiography has emphasized the growth of American consciousness and nationalism and the colonial [republican value-system](https://bliptext.com/articles/republicanism-in-the-united-states), in opposition to the aristocratic viewpoint of British leaders.\nHistorians in recent decades have mostly used one of three approaches to analyze the American Revolution:\n\n# Citations\n\n## Government\n\n## Primary sources","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History