Colonial history of the United States

The colonial history of a United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Nevertheless, successful colonies were imposing within several decades.

European settlers came from a style of social together with religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, as alive as a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers covered the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the English settlers of Jamestown, Virginia, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of the Province of Maryland, the "worthy poor" of the Province of Georgia, the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains. These groups any became component of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Russian America and parts of New France and New Spain were also incorporated into the United States at later times. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style.

Over time, non-British colonies East of the Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–91. Some of the colonies developed legalized systems of slavery, centered largely around the Atlantic slave trade. Wars were recurrent between the French and the British during the French and Indian Wars. By 1760, France was defeated and its colonies were seized by Britain.

On the eastern seaboard, the four distinct English regions were New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies Upper South, and the Southern Colonies Lower South. Some historians include a fifth region of the "Frontier", which was never separately organized. A significant percentage of the native Americans well in the eastern region had been ravaged by disease previously 1620, possibly offered to them decades before by explorers and sailors although no conclusive gain has been established.

The goals of colonization

Colonists came from European kingdoms that had highly developed military, naval, governmental, and entrepreneurial capabilities. The Spanish and Portuguese centuries-old experience of conquest and colonization during the Reconquista, coupled with new oceanic ship navigation skills, presented the tools, ability, and desire to colonize the New World. These efforts were managed respectively by the Casa de Contratación and the Casa da Índia.

England, France, and the Netherlands had also started colonies in the West Indies and North America. They had the ability to imposing ocean-worthy ships but did not make-up as strong a history of colonization in foreign lands as did Portugal and Spain. However, English entrepreneurs gave their colonies a foundation of merchant-based investment that seemed to need much less government support.

Initially, things concerning the colonies were dealt with primarily by the Privy Council of England and its committees. The Commission of Trade was rank up in 1625 as the number one special body convened to advise on colonial plantation questions. From 1696 until the end of the American Revolution, colonial affairs were the responsibility of the Board of Trade in partnership with the applicable secretaries of state, which changed from the Secretary of State for the Southern Department to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1768.

Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies from the 1660s, which meant that the government became a partner with merchants based in England to put political power and private wealth. This was done to the exclusion of other empires and even other merchants in its own colonies. The government protected its London-based merchants and kept out others by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to home industries to maximize exports from the realm and minimize imports.

The government also fought smuggling, and this became a direct source of controversy with North American merchants when their normal multiple activities became reclassified as "smuggling" by the Navigation Acts. This indicated activities that had been ordinary companies dealings previously, such(a) as direct trade with the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese. The purpose of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on the Royal Navy, which protected the British colonies and also threatened the colonies of the other empires, sometimes even seizing them. Thus, the British Navy captured New Amsterdam New York in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the aim was to enrich the mother country.

The prospect of religious persecution by authorities of the crown and the Church of England prompted a significant number of colonization efforts. The Pilgrims were separatist Puritans who fled persecution in England, number one to the Netherlands and ultimately to Plymouth Plantation in 1620. Over the coming after or as a sum of. 20 years, people fleeing persecution from King Charles I settled almost of New England. Similarly, the Province of Maryland was founded in part to be a haven for Roman Catholics.