Colonial history of the United States
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European settlements from the start of
colonization in the early 16th century until their incorporation into the United States of America. In the late 16th
century, England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands launched major colonization programs in eastern North
America.[1] Small early attempts sometimes disappeared, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke.
Everywhere, the death rate was very high among the first arrivals. Nevertheless, successful colonies were
established within several decades.
European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, soldiers, farmers,
and tradesmen, and some from the aristocracy. Settlers traveling to the new continent included the Dutch
of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of Pennsylvania, the
English Puritans of New England, the English settlers of Jamestown, the "worthy poor" of Georgia,
the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots people of the Appalachian Mountains.
These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Russian
Americaand parts of New France and New Spain were also incorporated into the United States at various points.
The diverse groups from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and
economic style.
Over time, non-British colonies East of the Mississippi River were taken over and most of the inhabitants were
assimilated. In Nova Scotia, however, the British expelled French Acadian inhabitants; many relocated to
Louisiana. No major civil wars occurred in the thirteen colonies. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived
failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–91. Some of the colonies developed legalized systems of
slavery,[2] 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 of what became the United States, the four distinct English regions were New England,
the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies (Upper South), and the Lower South. Some historians add a
fifth region of the Frontier, which was never separately organized.[1] By the time that European settlers arrived
around 1600–1650, a significant percentage of the Indians living in the eastern region had been ravaged by
disease, possibly introduced to them decades before by explorers and sailors (although no conclusive cause has
ever been established).[3]
New England colonies
Province of New Hampshire, established in the 1620s, chartered as crown colony in 1679
Province of Massachusetts Bay, established in the 1620s, a crown colony 1692
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, established 1636, chartered as crown colony in
1663
Connecticut Colony, established 1636, chartered as crown colony in 1662
Middle colonies
Province of New York, proprietary colony 1664–1685, crown colony from 1686
Province of New Jersey, proprietary colony from 1664, crown colony from 1702
Province of Pennsylvania, a proprietary colony established 1681
Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware), a proprietary colony established 1664
Southern colonies
Province of Maryland, a proprietary colony established 1632
Colony and Dominion of Virginia, proprietary colony established 1607, a crown colony from 1624
Province of Carolina, a proprietary colony established 1663
Divided into the Province of North Carolina and Province of South Carolina in 1712, each
became a crown colony in 1729
Province of Georgia, a crown colony established 1732
