British colonization

Main article: British colonization of the Americas

The strip of land along the eastern seacoast was settled primarily by English colonists
in the 17th century, along with much smaller numbers of Dutch and Swedes.
Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that employed forms of
unfree labor such as slavery and indentured servitude,[14] and by a British policy of
benign neglect (salutary neglect) that permitted the development of an American
spirit distinct from that of its European founders.[15] Over half of all European
migrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants.[16]

The first successful English colony was established in 1607, on the James River at
Jamestown. It languished for decades until a new wave of settlers arrived in the late
17th century and established commercial agriculture based on tobacco. Between the
late 1610s and the Revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 convicts to
their American colonies.[17] During the Georgian era English officials exiled 1,000
prisoners across the Atlantic every year.[18] One example of conflict between Native
Americans and English settlers was the 1622 Powhatan uprising in Virginia, in which
Native Americans had killed hundreds of English settlers. The largest conflict
between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century was King Philip's
War in New England,[19] although the Yamasee War may have been bloodier.[20]

The Plymouth Colony was established in 1620. New England was initially settled
primarily by Puritans who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.[21]
The Middle Colonies, consisting of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Delaware, were characterized by a large degree of diversity. The
first attempted English settlement south of Virginia was the Province of Carolina,
with Georgia Colony the last of the Thirteen Colonies established in 1733.[22]
Several colonies were used as penal settlements from the 1620s until the American
Revolution.[23] Methodism became the prevalent religion among colonial citizens
after the First Great Awakening, a religious revival led by preacher Jonathan
Edwards in 1734.[21]

Political integration and autonomy

The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a watershed event in the political
development of the colonies. The influence of the main rivals of the British Crown in
the colonies and Canada, the French and North American Indians, was significantly
reduced. Moreover, the war effort resulted in greater political integration of the
colonies, as symbolized by Benjamin Franklin's call for the colonies to "Join or Die".

Following Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America, King George III
issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 with the goal of organizing the new North
American empire and stabilizing relations with the native Indians. In ensuing years,
strains developed in the relations between the colonists and the Crown. The British
Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765, imposing a tax on the colonies to help pay
for troops stationed in North America following the British victory in the Seven
Years' War.

The British government felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of this
military presence, and should pay at least a portion of the expense. The colonists did
not share this view. Rather, with the French and Indian threat diminished, the
primary outside influence remained that of Britain. A conflict of economic interests
increased with the right of the British Parliament to govern the colonies without
representation being called into question.
Two ships in a harbor, one in the distance. Onboard, men stripped to the waist and
wearing feathers in their hair are throwing crates overboard. A large crowd, mostly
men, is standing on the dock, waving hats and cheering. A few people wave their
hats from windows in a nearby building.
Nathaniel Currier's 1846 depiction of the Boston Tea Party.[24]

The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a direct action by colonists in the town of Boston
to protest against the taxes levied by the British government. Parliament responded
the next year with the Coercive Acts, which sparked outrage and resistance in the
Thirteen Colonies. Colonists convened the First Continental Congress to coordinate
their resistance to the Coercive Acts. The Congress called for a boycott of British
trade, published a list of rights and grievances, and petitioned the king for redress of
those grievances.

The Congress also called for another meeting if their petition did not halt
enforcement of the Coercive Acts. Their appeal to the Crown had no effect, and so
the Second Continental Congress was convened in 1775 to organize the defense of
the colonies at the onset of the American Revolutionary War.
Formation of the United States of America (1776–1789)
Main article: History of the United States (1776–1789)
Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, one of the rebels' first successes in the
Revolutionary War

The Thirteen Colonies began a rebellion against British rule in 1775 and proclaimed
their independence in 1776. They subsequently constituted the first thirteen states of
the United States of America. The 1783 Treaty of Paris represented the Kingdom of
Great Britain's formal acknowledgment of the United States as "free sovereign and
independent states".[3][25]

The United States defeated Britain with help from France especially, and also the
United Provinces and Spain in the American Revolutionary War. The colonists' 1777
capture of the British invasion army at Saratoga secured the Northeast and led the
French into an open alliance with the United States.[26]

In 1781, Washington led a combined American and French army, acting with the
support of a French fleet, and captured a large British army led by General
Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The surrender of General Cornwallis ended
serious British efforts to find a military solution to their American problem. As
Seymor Lipset observes, "The United States was the first major colony successfully
to revolt against colonial rule. In this sense, it was the first 'new nation'."[27]
Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

Side by side with the states' efforts to gain independence through armed resistance, a
political union was being developed and agreed upon by them. The first step was to
formally declare independence from Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the Second
Continental Congress, still meeting in Philadelphia, declared the independence of
"the united States of America" in the Declaration of Independence. July 4 is
celebrated as the nation's birthday. The new nation was founded on Enlightenment
ideals of liberalism and dedicated to principles of republicanism, which emphasized
civic duty and a fear of corruption and hereditary aristocracy.[28] The new nation
was governed by Congress, and followed the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
Union of 1777 (which was formally adopted in 1781).

After the war finally ended in 1783, there was a period of prosperity, with the entire
world at peace. The national government was able to settle the issue of the western
territories, which were ceded by the states to Congress and became territories (and
after 1791 started to become states). Nationalists worried that the new nation was too
fragile to withstand an international war, or even internal revolts such as the Shays'
Rebellion of 1786 in Massachusetts. A series of attempts to organize a movement to
outline and press reforms culminated in the Congress calling the Philadelphia
Convention in 1787. The structure of the national government was profoundly
changed on March 4, 1789, when the American people replaced the confederation-
type government of the Articles with a federation-type government of the
Constitution. The new government reflected a radical break from the normative
governmental structures of the time, favoring representative, elective government
with a power-sharing executive, rather than the monarchical structures common
within the western traditions of the time. The system of republicanism borrowed
heavily from the Enlightenment ideas and classical western philosophy: a primacy
was placed upon preserving individual liberty and upon constraining the power of
government through a system of separation of powers.[29]

To assuage the Anti-Federalists who feared a too-powerful national government, the