Colonial history of the United States

The colonial history of the United States tells how North America was settled by people from Europe from the early 1500s until 1783, when the United States became its own country. Before Europeans came, Native American peoples lived across the land. The first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States was built by the Spanish in Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565. Other countries, like England, France, and the Dutch Republic, also sent people to live in North America.

Many different groups of people came to the thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic coast. These included adventurers, farmers, tradesmen, and people looking for religious freedom. Groups such as the Dutch, Swedes, English Puritans, and Germans helped build these new communities. Over time, wars and changes led many of these colonies to become part of the United States.

During this time, there were conflicts between European powers and with Native American peoples. Diseases brought by settlers also reduced the numbers of Native Americans. The history of the colonies shaped the culture, economy, and government of the United States. For timelines of events, see Timeline of Colonial America and the American Revolution. For other uses, see Colonial America (disambiguation).

Goals of colonization

Mercantilism

Further information: Mercantilism

Mercantilism was a policy that Britain used on its colonies from the 1660s. It meant that the government worked with merchants in England to grow its power and wealth. They helped English merchants succeed by making rules and taxes. This way, Britain could sell more of its goods.

Freedom from religious persecution

Many people came to the colonies to find safety from being treated badly because of their religious beliefs. The Pilgrims, a group who didn’t agree with the Church of England, left England and settled in Plymouth Plantation in 1620. Over the next 20 years, many others moved to New England to escape being treated badly by King Charles I. The Province of Maryland was also created to be a safe place for Roman Catholics.

Early colonial failures

After the 1500s, many European countries tried to build colonies in what is now the United States, but most of these attempts failed. The people who tried to live there often died from sickness, hunger, not getting enough food or supplies, and fights with Native Americans.

Spain tried many times, such as at San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina (1526) and Fort San Juan in North Carolina (1567–68). France also had failures, like at Fort Caroline in Florida (1564–65) and Fort Saint Louis, Texas (1685–89). England’s most famous failure was the "Lost Colony of Roanoke" in North Carolina (1583–90). At Roanoke, Virginia Dare was the first English child born in America, but what happened to her remains a mystery. Another English attempt, Popham Colony in Maine, also did not last (1607–08).

New Spain

Main articles: New Spain and Spanish colonization of the Americas

Spain built a large empire in the Americas in the 1500s called New Spain. This included places like Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and parts west of the Mississippi River. It also included areas in Latin America such as Puerto Rico and islands in the Spanish East Indies like Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Later, some parts of New Spain became part of the United States.

Many areas that were once part of New Spain became U.S. lands after 1776 through wars and treaties. These included the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819, the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848, and the Spanish–American War in 1898. Some families in New Mexico and California became U.S. citizens in 1848.

Florida

Main articles: History of Florida and Spanish Florida

Spain set up small places in Florida in the early 1500s. The first was at Pensacola, Florida in 1559, but it didn’t last long. The most important was St. Augustine, started in 1565. It faced attacks and most Spanish people left after Florida was given to Great Britain in 1763. Some old buildings from this time are still there.

During wars, the British attacked Florida. Spain offered freedom to people who escaped from British places, and they settled in Florida to help protect it. In 1763, Spain gave Florida to Britain in exchange for Havana, Cuba. Britain didn’t send many people there. Spain took Florida back in 1783 after a big war. In 1810, people in West Florida tried to become independent but were taken over by the United States. The U.S. took control of East Florida in 1821.

Arizona and New Mexico

Main articles: History of Arizona and History of New Mexico

In the 1500s, Spain explored the southwest from Mexico. Francisco Coronado led an expedition in 1539 through areas now known as New Mexico and Arizona. Spain settled villages along the Rio Grande River, and Santa Fe became a main town in 1610. Local people pushed the Spanish out in 1680 but they returned in 1692. Control passed from Spain to Mexico, and then to the United States in 1846 during the Mexican–American War. Today, many people in these states are descendants of the early Spanish settlers.

California

Main article: History of California before 1900

Further information: Spanish missions in California and Territorial evolution of California

Spanish explorers sailed along California’s coast starting in 1542. For many years, they didn’t set up settlements. In 1769, Spain sent missionaries and soldiers to Alta California. They built missions, forts, settlements, and ranches along the coast. Father Junípero Serra started the first mission in 1769. These missions helped spread the Catholic faith and brought new ways of farming and animals. They also changed the lives of local Native Americans. Later, in the 1830s, the missions were closed and their lands sold.

Puerto Rico

Further information: History of Puerto Rico

In 1493, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Puerto Rico during his second voyage. The first European settlement was started in 1508 by Juan Ponce de León. Over time, more people came to live there. Spain brought in people from Africa to work. Puerto Rico stayed under Spanish control until 1898 when Spain lost a war to the United States. After that, Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory.

New France

Main articles: New France and French colonization of the Americas

New France was a large area in North America that France explored and claimed starting in the early 1600s. It included places around the Saint Lawrence River, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River. The area had several colonies such as Acadia, Canada, and Louisiana. After a war between France and Britain, these areas came under British or Spanish control. Later, the United States gained much of this land.

At its biggest around 1710, the French colonial empire covered more than 10,000,000 km². French explorers and settlers traveled west from Montreal, reaching places like Green Bay and Detroit. In the 1680s, an Italian explorer named Enrico Tonti helped start the first European settlements in areas that are now Arkansas and Illinois.

French claims in French Louisiana stretched from what is now Louisiana all the way to the Rocky Mountains. Towns like Mobile and New Orleans were founded, but growth was slow. Eventually, France sold this huge area to the United States in 1803, known as the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the country.

New Netherland

Main articles: New Netherland and Dutch colonization of the Americas

New Netherland was a colony the Dutch started in 1614. It was in areas that are now New York, New Jersey, and close by. The Dutch let people follow different religions and trade freely. Their main town was New Amsterdam, founded in 1625 on Manhattan Island. It grew into a big city.

In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York in 1674. Dutch traditions stayed in places like the Hudson River Valley until the early 1800s. You can still see Dutch influence today in names, houses, and families in parts of New Jersey and New York.

New Sweden

Main articles: New Sweden and Swedish colonization of the Americas

New Sweden was a small colony started by the Swedes along the Delaware River Valley from 1638 to 1655. It included parts of what are now Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The settlers lived mainly around Fort Christina, near today's city of Wilmington, Delaware. They also had smaller settlements near Salem, New Jersey and on Tinicum Island, Pennsylvania.

In 1655, the Dutch took over New Sweden and added it to their colony called New Netherland. Most of the Swedish settlers stayed in their homes. Later, England took over New Netherland and included it in its colonies. The Swedish settlers brought new traditions to America, including building log cabins and starting some of the first Lutheran churches. Many place names in the area today come from the Swedes.

Russian colonies

Main articles: Russian America and Russian colonization of the Americas

Russia explored parts of what is now Alaska in the 1730s. They built their first settlement there in 1784. A company was formed to trade for sea otter fur with local people. In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from Russia. Most Russians left, but a few church workers stayed to help the local communities.

English colonies

See also: English overseas possessions, British America, British colonization of the Americas, and Thirteen Colonies

England started building colonies in the early 1600s for many reasons. People in England felt strong and proud, but they also worried about threats from other countries. They did not plan to build a big empire right away. Instead, people moved to America for reasons like doing business, finding more space to live, and practicing their religion freely. Most people who moved in the 1700s were young men and women looking for a better life. Britain sent many people to its American colonies between the late 1600s and the American Revolution.

Chesapeake Bay area

Main articles: Jamestown, Virginia; Colony of Virginia; and Province of Maryland

Virginia

The first successful English colony was Jamestown, started on May 14, 1607, near Chesapeake Bay. A group of people paid for the trip and hoped to find gold. The first few years were very hard, with many people getting sick or going hungry. But the colony survived when they began growing tobacco, which became a very popular product to sell. By the late 1600s, Virginia made most of its money from tobacco, and richer people came to live there on big farms.

New England

Main articles: History of New England, Connecticut Colony, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Province of New Hampshire, and Colony of Rhode Island

Puritans

Main articles: Puritans and Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

The Pilgrims were a small group of people who wanted to be far away from England to practice their religion freely. They first moved to the Netherlands and then decided to start a new home in America. In 1620, they traveled on the ship called the Mayflower and landed in North America. They made a promise called the Mayflower Compact to work together as a community and started Plymouth Colony. William Bradford was their leader. After Plymouth, many more people from England joined them and started other colonies.

The Puritans were a larger group who also wanted to change the church in England, so they started the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 people. They wanted to create a new, pure church in America. By 1640, about 20,000 people had come, though many died soon after arriving. The Puritans created a close-knit community focused on religion and still influences America today.

Middle Colonies

Main article: Middle Colonies

The Middle Colonies included present-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. These colonies were very different because many people from different places and with different beliefs lived there.

South

The culture in the South was mostly influenced by British people who settled along the coast. Many early settlers were people who worked for their passage to America and later gained freedom. Wealthier people got large pieces of land.

The French and Spanish also set up colonies in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The Spanish started colonies in Florida in the 1500s.

In the mid-1700s, many people from Scotland and Ulster (in Ireland) moved to areas like Appalachia and the Piedmont. They became a big part of the population there.

The oldest university in the South, The College of William & Mary, started in 1693 in Virginia. It trained many leaders who later became important in the United States.

Chesapeake society

In Virginia and Maryland, the richest people owned a lot of land and had a lot of power. About 60 percent of white people owned farms, while the bottom third had no land and were very poor.

Carolinas

Main articles: History of South Carolina, History of North Carolina, and Province of Carolina

The Province of Carolina was first tried to settle in the 1600s but succeeded later. People from Barbados brought enslaved Africans with them, and rice farming became important.

North Carolina had fewer rich people and was mostly made up of small farms.

Georgia

Main article: Province of Georgia

James Oglethorpe started the Georgia Colony in 1733. He wanted to protect the British colonies from Spain by creating a buffer zone and also give people who owed money a chance to start a new life. Georgia was started with strict rules against slavery and alcohol, but these rules were later changed.

East and West Florida

Main articles: History of Florida, East Florida, and West Florida

Spain gave Florida to Britain in 1763, which created the colonies of East and West Florida. They stayed loyal to Britain during the American Revolution but were given back to Spain in 1783.

Unification of the British colonies

Colonial wars

Main article: Colonial American military history

In the 1640s, colonies started working together to stay safe, mostly from nearby native peoples and from the French and the Dutch. The Puritan colonies of New England made a confederation to work together on military and legal matters. From the 1670s, leaders like Sir Edmund Andros and Francis Nicholson tried to find ways for the colonies to work together on defense. After King Phillips War, Andros made the Covenant Chain, a set of agreements with native nations that helped keep peace for many years.

The northern colonies often faced attacks from the Wabanaki Confederacy and the French from Acadia, especially in places like present-day Maine and New Hampshire.

One event that reminded colonists they were all British was the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) in Europe. This war also happened in the colonies, where it was called "King George's War". Battles happened in Europe, but American soldiers fought the French and their allies in New York, New England, and Nova Scotia, including the Siege of Louisbourg (1745).

At the Albany Congress in 1754, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the colonies join together with a Grand Council to share plans for defense and growing. This plan did not work because leaders from the colonies and King George II did not agree, but it showed that the British colonies in North America were moving toward becoming one.

French and Indian War

Main article: French and Indian War

The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was the American part of a bigger European war called the Seven Years' War. This war began in North America and then spread to Europe. One big reason for the war was growing competition between Britain and France, especially around the Great Lakes and Ohio valley.

The war became very important for the British colonies when William Pitt the Elder decided to use Britain’s military power to fight France in North America. For the first time, the colonies were a main place for this “world war”. During the war, British leaders trained American soldiers, including George Washington. Leaders from the colonies had to work together for the first time on a big military plan. However, the relationship between British soldiers and the colonists was not always good.

In the 1763 Treaty of Paris, France gave most of its North American land to Britain, including areas around the Great Lakes and the Ohio River valley. Britain also got Spanish Florida, and created the colonies of East and West Florida. By removing a big threat from France, the war also reduced the need for the colonists to rely on Britain for protection.

Even though the British and colonists won together against a common enemy, they began to feel different. After the war, Britain wanted the colonies to help pay for the war costs, but many colonists felt they had already done their part by fighting. This disagreement helped lead to the American Revolution.

Ties to British Empire

The colonies were different from each other but they were all part of the British Empire. Most colonists came from the British Isles, and many still had family ties with Britain. Wealthy people in cities like Boston, New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia saw themselves as British. They built homes in the Georgian style, followed British styles of dress and dance, and were interested in ideas from Europe.

Many of the political structures of the colonies were based on ideas from Britain, including support for republicanism and traditions like the Whig party. Many Americans thought their governments were modeled after the British constitution. The laws in the colonies often came from English law; indeed, common law from England is still used in the United States today. Eventually, disagreements over these political ideas, especially about political representation, helped cause the American Revolution.

Another way the colonies felt connected was through buying British goods. Britain’s economy grew fast in the late 1600s, and by the mid-1700s, factories in Britain were making more than Britain could use. Britain sold these goods to the colonies, and Britain’s exports to North America grew a lot. British merchants let colonists buy goods with credit, so people from Nova Scotia to Georgia were buying the same British products.

Atlantic world

In recent years, historians have looked at the whole Atlantic world. They study topics like people moving between countries, trade, colonization, armies and governments, spreading religions, and the slave trade. This was the Age of the Enlightenment, and ideas moved back and forth across the Atlantic, with Benjamin Franklin from Philadelphia helping share these ideas.

In 2008, Francois Furstenberg suggested that wars between big powers like Britain, the American colonies, Spain, France, and native peoples from 1754 to 1815 were important. He called this long fight the “Long War for the West” over who would control the land.

Women helped the growing economy in the Atlantic world. They sold things like dairy products and vegetables to ships and traders, connecting local markets with bigger trade networks across the Atlantic.

Growing dissent and the American Revolution

Main article: American Revolution

During colonial times, Americans said they had the right as English people to make their own laws about taxes. But in 1765, the British Parliament said it had the right to tax the colonies, and this led to protests that finally caused the American Revolution. The first big protest was against the Stamp Act of 1765, when colonists from all 13 colonies met for the first time to work together against British taxes. The Boston Tea Party in 1773 threw British tea into Boston Harbor because it had a secret tax Americans refused to pay. Britain reacted harshly in Massachusetts, which helped start the Revolutionary War in 1775.

The idea of becoming independent from Britain grew stronger after Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense in 1776, and groups like the Sons of Liberty spoke up for independence. Britain passed several taxes and punishments that made colonists more unhappy. By then, the 13 colonies formed the Continental Congress and began preparing for war.

Impacts of colonialism

European views saw nature and humans as separate, with land as something to own and use for profit. Native groups saw their land differently, but European settlers brought their own ideas about ownership. Settlers joined native economies by trading things like corn and beaver pelts.

Europeans introduced the idea of mortgages, which let people buy things by paying later. This changed land from something to use into something to own. Because of different ideas about land, European settlers could take land that native groups shared together. Native groups sometimes worked together to solve these problems.

In European culture, land was often passed down to the firstborn child, and others had to find their own land. This desire for new land was one reason for European expansion, along with religion and discovery. Profit became a big reason for taking resources. The difference in culture between Europeans and native groups let Europeans take advantage of both local and global trade.

Colonial life

Main article: Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies

In the British colonies, there were three types of governments: royal, proprietary, and charter. All were under the King of England, not the British Parliament. By the late 1600s, the Board of Trade in London managed all British colonies. Each colony had a colonial agent in London to speak for them.

Some colonies, like New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Massachusetts, were crown colonies. These were ruled by governors chosen by the king, with councils and assemblies of elected representatives. Other colonies, such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, were proprietary colonies, led by appointed rulers called lord proprietors. Finally, colonies like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were charter colonies, which had more self-rule through charters from the king.

Colonies had lively politics, and many young men got involved. Voting was easier than in Britain, so many men could vote. Colonies made decisions through elected groups, handling things like land, taxes, and roads. Different groups, such as merchants, farmers, and religious people, had a say in politics. The idea of equal rights and good citizens became important.

Main articles: Disease in colonial America and History of medicine in the United States

Life in the colonies was hard, especially for new people and children. Diseases like malaria, diphtheria, and yellow fever were common. People used local healers, ministers, and some doctors. Medical care was not well-organized, and public health was not a big concern.

Main article: History of religion in the United States

Religion was very important in colonial life. The first services were Anglican in Jamestown, Virginia, but many religions were practiced, including Puritan, Catholic, and Jewish faiths. Freedom of religion was a key idea, and many new religious groups formed. By the time of the American Revolutionary War, there were thousands of churches, mostly Protestant.

The First Great Awakening was a big religious movement in the 1730s and 1740s. It made faith more personal and emotional for many people and changed some traditional ways.

See also: Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies and Native American women in Colonial America

Women’s lives were different in each colony. In New England, Puritan beliefs said women should follow their husbands and care for children. In other places, like Pennsylvania, women had more rights and could own property. Women helped families in many ways, such as cooking, crafting, and managing homes. By the mid-1700s, ideas about marriage began to change.

Main article: Slavery in the colonial history of the United States

Slavery was part of colonial life, especially in the Southern Colonies. Many enslaved people were brought from Africa to work on farms growing crops like tobacco and rice. Over time, more enslaved people were born in the colonies. There were some attempts to resist and rebel.

Historian Carl Bridenbaugh studied cities like Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Philadelphia, and Charles Town (Charlestown, South Carolina). These cities grew and became important for trade and ideas. They had different social groups and were more democratic than European cities.

In New England, Puritans built close communities where people worked together. Towns were self-governing, with meetings where men made choices. The Congregational church was important to community life, though not everyone attended. The economy included farming, shipbuilding, and trade, especially with the West Indies.

Main articles: History of education in the United States § Colonial Era, and Education in the Thirteen Colonies

Education was important, especially for reading the Bible. Many towns had schools, and there were colleges like Harvard College and Yale College. Most children learned basic reading and writing, though girls had fewer chances. Printing and newspapers were popular, but arts and literature were not as strong as in Europe.

The Mid-Atlantic region had many new immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and other places. They brought their own traditions and built homes in different styles. Farming practices varied, with some growing crops like wheat and others raising animals. Cities like Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore grew and had many different people, including many African Americans.

The Southern Colonies had large farms worked by enslaved Africans. Wealthy farmers grew crops like tobacco and rice, while smaller farms were run by families. Women in the South had special roles in families and communities.