British America[a] | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1607–1783 | |||||||||||||||||||||
.svg) .svg) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Anthem: God Save the King | |||||||||||||||||||||
 British colonies in continentalNorth America (red) and the island colonies of the British West Indies of the Caribbean Sea (pink), after theFrench and Indian War (1754–1763) and before theAmerican Revolutionary War (1775–1783) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | Colonies ofEngland (1607–1707) Colonies ofScotland (1629–1632) Colonies ofGreat Britain (1707–1783) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy with various colonial arrangements | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | |||||||||||||||||||||
• 1607–1625 (first) | James VI and I | ||||||||||||||||||||
• 1760–1783 (last) | George III | ||||||||||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1607 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1610 | |||||||||||||||||||||
• Bermuda | 1614 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1620 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1632 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1655 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1667 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1670 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1713 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1763 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1775–1783 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1783 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Pound sterling,Spanish dollar,bills of credit,commodity money, and many localcurrencies | ||||||||||||||||||||
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British America collectively were variouscolonies ofGreat Britain and its predecessor states inthe Americas prior to the conclusion of theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1783.
England made its first attempts at colonizing the Americas in 1585. From 1607, numerous permanent English settlements were made, ultimately reaching fromHudson Bay, to theMississippi River and theCaribbean Sea. Much of these territories were occupied byindigenous peoples, whose populations declined due toepidemics, wars, and massacres. In theAtlantic slave trade, England and other European empires shipped Africans to the Americas for labor in their colonies. Slavery became essential to colonial production, as onBarbados,Jamaica, and other sugar islands.
Colonial projects expanded. In 1664, England took theNew Netherland colony from theDutch Republic. In the 1680s, Britain and France began frequent wars over colonies and trade, including their overlapping territorial claims in British America andNew France, and relations with theIroquois. InQueen Anne's War (1702–1713), the British tookNewfoundland and the Hudson Bay area from the French. In theFrench and Indian War (1754–1763)—the North American theatre of theSeven Years' War—the British won the eastern half of modern-dayCanada and the eastern Mississippi valley from New France, andthe Floridas from New Spain.
In the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783),thirteen of these British colonies rebelled againstthe Crown and formed theUnited States of America (U.S.), an independent country of thirteen states. In the 1783Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, Britain recognized the U.S. as an independent country, and ceded to it the British territories directly east of the Mississippi River. The continental territories in North America which the British retained are collectively referred to as "British North America", but the term was only used after the 1839Durham Report was published.
Native Americans were present in southernNew England by around 9500 BCE.[1] They might have settled in modernIllinois in as early as 5000 BCE, and in theOhio River Valley in as early as 350 BCE. In theHopewellian period from 200 BCE to 500 CE, numerous Native American societies formed around New England due to ideal agricultural conditions. Major groups of this area include theAlgonquian,Mohicans,Susquehannock, andWyandot.
Around 1570 CE, in modern-dayNew York state, five native tribes—theCayuga,Mohawk,Oneida,Onondaga, andSeneca peoples—formed aconfederation ruled throughparticipatory democracy, known as theIroquois Confederacy. It was highly efficient at governing the region, and played an important part in the politics of later British and French colonies.[2]
Around 1000 CE, two settlements on the modern Canadian island ofNewfoundland were established byNorse Viking explorers, but were soon abandoned. The next known European settlement in North America occurred some 500 years later.[3] In 1492, a Spanish expedition led by Spanish explorerChristopher Columbus landed in theCaribbean, on an island whose identity is disputed.[4] Christopher's brother,Bartholomew Columbus, founded the Spanish colony ofSanto Domingo on the island ofHispaniola in 1496, the first European colony since the Norse's.[5] In 1526, Spain founded theSan Miguel de Gauldape colony in either modern Georgia or the Carolinas. It lasted for a few months.[6]
In 1534, France explored theGulf of St. Lawrence, startingfur trade with the natives, and eventually what became their colonyNew France.[7] In 1559, Spain founded a settlement at modernPensacola, Florida, which was abandoned by 1561. In 1570, SpanishJesuits founded theAjacán Mission atChesapeake Bay in modern Virginia, but they were killed by the localPowhatan people. In 1589 or 1599, a French colony was founded atSable Island inNova Scotia, but the colony had failed by 1603; another French colony atSaint Croix Island in modernMaine also existed from 1604 to 1607.[6] In 1604, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, France started a new colony, later namedQuebec.[7]
In 1585, the English began their first settlement in North America, theRoanoke Colony. Its initial form only lasted until 1586 due to conflict with the local Native Americans.[8] In 1587, around 115 colonists led by GovernorJohn White settled back at Roanoke.[9][8] White went back on a ship to England to get supplies for the colony, but his return was delayed by English's conflict with theSpanish Armada. In August 1590, White returned to the colony, which had been abandoned. Left behind was an inscription on a post that said "CROATOAN" and a carving into a tree that said "CRO".[8] Where the colonists went to in those years is considered a mystery by some. However, "Croatoan" was an island south of Roanoke where Native Americans lived.[9]
A number of English colonies were established in America between 1607 and 1670 by individuals and companies whose investors expected to reap rewards from their speculation. They were granted commercial charters by KingsJames I,Charles I, andCharles II, and by theParliament of Great Britain. Later, most colonies were founded, or converted to,royal colonies.
On 6 December 1606, three ships—theDiscovery,Godspeed, andSusan Constant—left England to start a colony on theJames River upstream fromChesapeake Bay. The settlement, known as theJamestown Colony, was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It invested into by theVirginia Company English trading company. The site fit criteria given by the Virginia Company: it was inland and surrounded by water on three sides, which made it defensible against a potential Spanish naval attack; it was not inhabited by local Native Americans; and the water around the shore was deep enough so the English ships could be tied at the shoreline.[10][11][12]
Jamestown, established on May 14, 1607, was the start of the Virginia Colony, and was the colony's capital until 1699.Edward Maria Wingfield was made the colony's first president, and governed with six council members. The colonists suffered from diseases, famines, and wars with thePowhatan. Some Powhatan helped the colonists, and without them, the colony likely would have failed. In 1612, EnglishmanJohn Rolfe arrived in Jamestown, and introducedtobacco farming there. Tobacco made the colony profitable for the Virginia Company. In 1619, Virginia governorGeorge Yeardley introduced a representativelegislative assembly to the government. The town expanded in the 1620s.[10][11][12]
In August 1607, 100 English settlers, men and boys, landed at present-dayPhippsburg, Maine, with the goal of establishing thePopham Colony, building a fort and ships there. However, as they arrived in August, they came too late to plant crops, and when they started running out of food, some of them returned to England. The colony's leader, George Popham, died in February 1608. His successor, Raleigh Gilbert, learned that he had inherited his father's estate in England, and returned home in autumn 1608. The other colonists followed him back.[13][14]
Thirty Powhatan tribes were organized under thePowhatan Confederacy, led by chiefPowhatan. Chief Powhatan initially thought the English could be good allies and help defend them from other native tribes and the Spanish. Relations worsened when the English demanded the Powhatan give them more land to grow tobacco. Inthree wars, the Powhatan lost more land: the first from 1610 to 1614, the second from 1622 to 1626, and the third from 1644 to 1646. The Powhatan were subject to more lifestyle restrictions placed upon them by the English. The third war ended when chief Powhatan's successor,Opechanacanough, was captured and killed byNecotowance—who became the new successor. However, Necotowance signed a peace treaty with the English which effectively ended the confederacy. The Powhatan lost more land to the English over the next decades.[15][16]
In 1511, the island of "Bermudas", later namedBermuda, was present on a Spanish map, possibly having been spotted as early as 1503. In 1609, 150 English people traveling on theSea Venture, a Virginia Company ship on course to Jamestown, were shipwrecked on Bermuda by ahurricane. At the time, the English named it the "Somers Isles" after the travelers' leader,George Somers. This started a permanent English settlement in Bermuda. Most of them continued onto Jamestown, leaving three people behind on Bermuda until a Virginia Company charter in 1612 brought 60 more people to the island. The Virginia Company governed Bermuda until 1684.[17]
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In 1620, a hundred EuropeanPilgrims, men and women, sailed to New England, establishing the permanentPlymouth Colony in modernMassachusetts. Forty of them were a part of theEnglish Separatist Church, a radical faction ofPuritanProtestants; they had moved from England to the Dutch Republic more than a decade prior, and then went to America seekingreligious freedom. The first Pilgrim ship, theMayflower, landed atPlymouth Rock in December. More than half of the colonists died in the first winter, but they ultimately made a thriving, mostly self-sufficient colony. They also made peace treaties with the local Native American tribes, and in autumn 1621, the Pilgrims andWampanoag shared a harvest feast which was the origin of the annual American holiday,Thanksgiving. Three other European ships traveled to Plymouth soon after: theFortune in 1621, andtheAnne and theLittle James in 1622. All adult males on the Mayflower signed theMayflower Compact, which wrote the first set of laws for the colony, which was later named theMassachusetts Bay Colony.[18][19]
In the 1620s,the Crown gave English CaptainJohn Mason and others a series of grants in the region of modern-dayNew Hampshire. On the establishment in 1623 of atrading and fishing settlement in the region, the modern borders of New Hampshire contained about 3,000 Native Americans. In 1629, a grant established the name New Hampshire for the region between thePiscataqua River and, to its south, theMerrimack River. The main English settlements were the towns ofExeter,Dover (originally "Bristol"), andPortsmouth (originally "Piscataqua" and then "Strawberry Bank"). From 1641 to 1679, the Massachusetts Bay Colony administered New Hampshire, until the landowning descendants of John Mason got into a conflict with Massachusetts for territorial and religious reasons. Massachusetts gave up their lands to become its own royal province, theProvince of New Hampshire.[20][21][22]
The English established their first permanent colonies on St Christopher Island (Saint Kitts) near theCaribbean, andBarbados, in the 1620s, expanding to otherLeeward andWindward Islands,Jamaica, and theBahamas over the following decades. These became very valuable colonies due to sugar production fueled by slave labor, and a linchpin for thetriangular trade and quadrilateral trade with the mainland British colonies to the north, Europe, and Africa.[23]
From the 16th to 19th centuries, in theAtlantic slave trade, European powers—theDutch Republic, England, France, Portugal, and Spain—transported 10 to 12 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to work asslaves in the Americas.[24] In 1619, a group of twenty Africans were landed in Virginia, the firstAfrican-Americans. They were either slaves, those forced to work against their will and without pay; orindentured servants, those indebted to an employer for a limited time—the latter includes those who consented to the work or not. Both were true in this instance, as the group was forced to work and without pay and later freed.[25][26] Some European Americans were also indentured servants in English America.[25]
In 1641, Massachusetts became the first English colony in North America to legalize slavery. Virginia legalized it in 1661. More restrictive slave laws in the colonies were codified, and the amount of African slaves increased, especially in the 1660s.[25][26]Britannica writes: "the development of the belief that [Africans] were an“inferior” race with a “heathen” culture made it easier for whites to rationalize the enslavement of Black people. Enslaved Africans were put to work clearing and cultivating the farmlands of the New World." In total, 430,000 Africans were brought to the future territories of the United States.[25]
In 1632, EnglishmanGeorge Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore was granted a charter by English kingCharles I toproprietary rights to an area east of thePotomac River—to be a home forRoman Catholics facing repression in England—in exchange for a share of the income made from the land. Before George Calvert could develop the land, he died, and his sonCecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore was given the charter. Cecilius officially established theProvince of Maryland, named after Charles I's queen consortHenrietta Maria. In March 1634, Cecilius' younger brotherLeonard Calvert landed the founding expedition of Maryland, a permanent settlement, atSt. Clement's Island on the Potomac. This carefully chosen expedition of English Protestants and Catholics arrived at the island on the shipsThe Ark and theDove. The Marylanders learned from the mistakes of the Virginians by establishingtrading posts and farms and making peace with the local Native Americans. In 1639, Maryland received African slaves.[27][28]
ThePequot War from 1636 to 1638 was between thePequot people and English colonists with their Native American allies in New England. In the 1620s, the Pequot used "diplomacy, coercion, intermarriage, and warfare" to dominate the other natives in theLong Island—Connecticut River complex, in order to control the localfur andwampum trades. They also allied with the Dutch. The other native tribes sided with the English colonists when as they became more powerful and established the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies.[29][30]
The Pequot War's immediate cause was the murder of two English traders, Captain John Stone andJohn Oldham, allegedly by the Pequots' allies, the WesternNiantic people. In 1636, Massachusetts Bay Colony governorHenry Vane sentJohn Endecott on an expedition toBlock Island to demand the Western Niantic to surrender the traders' murderers. There, Endecott burned the Western Niantic people's villages, and then moved to a Pequot village where he did the same. The Pequot raided English settlements in retaliation. The tribes which were dominated by the Pequot sided with the English as the Pequot tribe was destroyed. Of the around 3,000 Pequot who lived in the region before the war, only 200 were alive after it. Many of these deaths occurred on May 26, 1637, in theMystic massacre, when an English militia, along with members of theNarragansett andMohegan tribes, set fire to thePequot Fort near theMystic River, killing 700 Pequot people.[29][30]
In 1629, Charles I of England made a grant for the lands below the Colony of Virginia—later known as theCarolinas—but the area was not populated by the English for decades. In the 1650s, English farmers and traders from Virginia moved south into theAlbemarle Sound region of the modern Carolinas, and in 1663, English kingCharles II made a grant in the region that officially established theProvince of Carolina. English proprietors established a government in the area, but its authority was unrecognized by settlers in the area. In 1712, the area's administration was split into two governments, the provinces ofNorth Carolina andSouth Carolina. The borders of the two colonies were finalized in 1735.[31]
A state department inLondon known as theSouthern Department governed all the colonies beginning in 1660 along with a committee of thePrivy Council, called theBoard of Trade and Plantations. In 1768, Parliament created a specificstate department for America, but it was disbanded in 1782 when theHome Office took responsibility for the remaining possessions ofBritish North America inEastern Canada,the Floridas, and theWest Indies.[32]
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In 1624, theDutch West India Company, achartered company of theDutch Republic,[34] founded the colony ofNew Netherland, which included the territory of modernNew York City, as well as parts ofNew Jersey,Long Island, andConnecticut. The colony's capital wasNew Amsterdam, which became New York City.[35] In 1650, New Netherland seized the lands of the nearby Swedish colony,New Sweden.[36]
In 1664, an Englishnaval squadron under ColonelRichard Nicolls threatened the Dutch to give up New Amsterdam. The Dutch governorPeter Stuyvesant wanted to resist the English, but he was not popular enough to be supported in that. He surrendered the city on February 9, 1664, and the English renamed it "New York" soon after. The English and Dutch lived peacefully there. The city was returned to the Dutch in 1673, before going back to the English in 1674.[35]
In 1681, a charter signed by Charles II of England gave all unoccupied lands in the region of the former New Netherland colony toWilliam Penn; the king was paying off a debt owed to Penn's father, AdmiralWilliam Penn. The charter was named after Admiral Penn, and included a word for "woodlands", "sylvania": theProvince of Pennsylvania. The son William Penn was aQuaker—someone from the Society of Friends in England—and planned to make the colony a home to fellow Quakers. Before Penn left for the colony, his cousinWilliam Markham established Penn's claim to, and the borders of, the area of modern-dayPhiladelphia.[36]
In 1682, Penn arrived in Pennsylvania with a governmental body named the General Assembly, who adopted theFrame of Government of Pennsylvania that guaranteed "freedom of conscience" in the colony. The local Native Americans were given peaceful treatment, which created good relations between them and the colony. William Penn returned to England in 1684, leaving behind a successful colony.[36]
King Philip's War, in New England from 1675 to 1676, was between some Native American tribes (the Narragansett,Nashaway,Nipmuc,Podunk, and Wampanoag peoples, as well as theWabanaki Confederacy) and English colonists with their own native allies (the Mohawk, Mohegan, and Pequot). Opposition to the English was led by Wampanoag chiefMetacom. The war started with the murder ofJohn Sassamon, a native who was Metacom's advisor and English language interpreter; before his murder, he was accused by Metacom of spying for the English. The murder escalated tensions between the natives and English over land disputes. In June 1675, the Plymouth Colony executed three Wampanoag who were found guilty of murdering Sassamon. King Philip's War took place in modern Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, andRhode Island. The English and their allies won, and most of their opposition was killed in the war or sold into slavery or indentured servitude.[37][38][39]
TheNine Years War from 1689 to 1697 was a conflict in Europe between France and an alliance of England and the Dutch Republic. They fought—as members of either the House ofBourbon orHabsburg—over the future successor to Spanish kingCharles II, who had no children yet. Its North American theater, taking place simultaneously, wasKing William's War. Canadian and New England colonists fought on behalf of the French and English sides, each with different Native American allies. Both sides had military successes. The 1697Peace of Rijswijk treaties which ended the war in Europe and North America left the Spanish succession dispute and the North American territorial disputes unsolved.[40][41][42]
TheSalem witch trials were a widely controversial event in Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. It started in spring 1692 inSalem, Massachusetts, when three girls who claimed to bepossessed by the devil accused several local women ofwitchcraft.Mass hysteria over alleged witchcraft spread throughout the colony. As witchcraft was illegal, a special court convened in Salem to hear the legal cases against alleged witches. More than 150 people were accused, and 27 of them died in relation to the trials, most of them sentenced to death by hanging.[43][44]
TheWar of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714 was a worldwide conflict that centered around the successor to Charles II of Spain, who died in 1700 with no children.[45][46]Philip V, grandson of French kingLouis XIV, ascended to the Spanish throne, provoking their rivals, the English and Dutch.[45] The war's North American theater wasQueen Anne's War from 1702 to 1713, as England (later Britain) and France fought for territory on the continent. English settlements—on the exposed frontier between British America and Canada, as well as aroundCharleston, South Carolina—were raided by the French and their Native American allies, so the Crown gave the colonists military aid. In the 1710Siege of Port Royal, Britain conquered theAcadia region of New France. Acadia was made the British province ofNova Scotia. In the 1713Treaty of Utrecht, France cededNewfoundland and theHudson Bay region to Britain.[45][47]
TheYamasee War from 1715 to 1716 was between the British in southeasternSouth Carolina, and theYamasee Native Americans with allies of other native tribes. The Yamasee resented the colonists for "settlers’ encroachment upon their land [and] unresolved grievances arising from the fur trade". The war started on April 15, 1715, when 90 white people—traders and their families—were killed by a group of Yamasee. Except for theCherokee andMuscogee, all the nearby native tribes aided Yamasee raids of plantations and trading posts. New Englanders gave the South Carolinians troops and military supplies, weakening the native war effort. Some of the natives escaped to Florida, joining theSeminole people.[48][49]
In the 1730s, Britain and Spain tried to find a diplomatic solution to their centuries-long dispute over colonial Georgia and the surrounding lands. These negotiations failed, only leading to more animosity between them.[50] The two empires fought in theWar of Jenkins' Ear from 1739 to 1748, which was subsumed into theWar of the Austrian Succession from 1740 to 1748. In 1738, as the British public was spiteful towards Spain for their attacks on British ships, British CaptainRobert Jenkins appeared before theHouse of Commons and showed them anamputated ear he alleged was cut off in 1731 by Spanishcoast guards in the West Indies. Members of Parliament who were in opposition toBritish prime ministerRobert Walpole seized on the political popularity of declaring war on Spain.[51] In the following years, British GeneralJames Oglethorpe captured many Spanish forts in Florida, British colonists in Georgia allied with the Native Americans to defend the colony from the Spanish, and the British kept their control over the region.[50]
TheFrench and Indian War from 1754 to 1763 was the North American theater of theSeven Years War, a worldwide conflict between Britain and France (despite the French and Indian War starting in 1754, the Seven Years War is commonly dated as 1756 to 1763). At the start, both countries had vast and conflicting territorial claims in North America. It started as a dispute over claims to the upperOhio River valley. Britain wantedPennsylvanians and Virginians to be able to settle and trade there; the area was already filled with English settlers, but the Native Americans there had alliances and trade with the French.[52][53]
In May 1754, British colonistGeorge Washington assumed control of theVirginian militia, andgarrisoned them atFort Necessity in Pennsylvania, 60 kilometers (40 miles) north ofFort Duquesne, occupied by the French. On May 28, the British attacked a French scouting party, killing its commanderJoseph Coulon de Jumonville. On June 3, the French attacked the British garrison at theBattle of Fort Necessity. Outnumbered, Washington surrendered the fort to the French, who burned it. He retreated with his militia back to Virginia. Virginia's government asked British kingGeorge II for aid; he was apprehensive, but ultimately sent a ground force under GeneralEdward Braddock to help overthrow Fort Duquesne, and a naval force under AdmiralEdward Braddock to patrol the Gulf of St. Lawrence and stop France from reinforcing Canadian troops.[52][53]
From June 19 to July 11, 1754, theAlbany Congress was held inAlbany, New York. It was a conference for delegates from seven of the thirteen colonies—Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—to plan a combined defensive alliance against the French, and to gain the Iroquois Confederacy's loyalty against the French. Representatives of the Iroquois nations withdrew from the negotiations after some time. The colonial delegates debated how to regulate British—Native American affairs and the westward immigration of British colonists. Pennsylvania delegateBenjamin Franklin proposed theAlbany Plan of Union, a "looseconfederation" of the colonies, headed by a president general that could levy certain taxes, to be paid to a centraltreasury. The delegates voted for the plan, but it was disallowed by the Crown, who wanted to maintain their regional authority and sovereignty. However, the conference's idea of unifying the thirteen colonies under a loose confederation carried in regional politics.[54][55]
The British formally declared war in 1756. The first great British victory was at theSiege of Louisbourg, at the eastern end of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in July 1758. In July, the British won theBattle of Fort Frontenac on the western end. In November, the Britishcaptured Fort Duquesne and replaced it withFort Pitt. The British closed in on the French in Quebec, and defeated them at theBattle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759. The French lost their remaining foothold in Canada,Montreal, during theMontreal campaign of September 1760. Spain joined the war as an ally of France, and the British began attacking Spanish and French territories in other parts of the world.[52][53]
TheAnglo-Cherokee War of 1758 to 1761 was a small part of the French and Indian War, located in the southernmost thirteen colonies. Before the war, the Cherokee—about 7,700 to 9,000 in population—were allied with Britain against France, even though they [the Cherokee] resented parts of British rule. Some Cherokee mercenaries fought the French on the Virginia frontier. In late 1758, there was an incident where some Virginian colonists attacked Cherokee warriors returning from a battle with France. This was the final straw for the Cherokee in their opinion of the British. They rebelled, first in North Carolina, and spreading southwards. The war ended with a peace treaty between the British and Cherokee on September 23, 1761. The Cherokees were then ruled by a pro-English Cherokee man namedAttakullakulla; lines were drawn as boundaries between the southern colonies and Cherokee lands; and Frenchmen in Cherokee lands were expelled. The Cherokee ended the war with a population of about 6,900.[56]
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In 1760 and 1761, inTacky's Revolt, African slaves in the British colony ofJamaica rebelled against their colonial slave-owners. HistorianVincent Brown writes: "[Tacky's Revolt] was part of four wars at once: it was an extension of wars on the African continent; it was arace war between black slaves and white slave holders; it was a struggle among black people over the terms of communal belonging, effective control of local territory, and establishment of their own political legacies; and it was, most immediately, one of the hardest-fought battles [of the] Seven Years’ War."[57] The Caribbean's control by the British was key to winning the Seven Year's War, so in response to the uprising, "the full resources of transatlantic empire [came] to bear against the rebels", bringing a local conflict into the global war before ending it quickly.[58]
The British ultimately won the Seven Years War. Britain, France, and Spain formally ended the Seven Years War with theTreaty of Paris of 1763. France and Spain gave Britain Canada and Florida, respectively. France gave Louisiana to Spain, but kept itssugar-producing islands in the West Indies. Britain left the war with twice as muchnational debt, as their war effort was paid with large amounts of borrowed money from British and Dutch bankers.[53][59]
When the British inherited the French lands of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, they also received France and Spain's diplomatic situations with the Native Americans of Spain, Canada, and theGreat Lakes region. The British had to decide if the natives would be subject to the British Empire or allowed some autonomy. Their decision is represented by the words ofJeffrey Amherst, the governor general in North America, who said the Native Americans are "the Vilest Race of Beings that Ever Infested the Earth", and "the only true method of treating those [people] is to keep them in a proper subjection.” The British severed ties with the native nations. British settlers increased in native lands, while British troops were stationed in the Great Lakes region and restrictions were put on trade between the colonists and natives.[60]
The Native Americans, predicting "the English have a mind to cut them off the face of the earth", rebelled inPontiac's War from 1763 to 1765. Fourteen native tribes—who spokeAlgonquian,Iroquoian,Muskogean, orSiouan languages—started fighting the British in the Great Lakes region. Intense fighting went on for two years, and ended in a stalemate. Ultimately, the Crown was forced to give the natives more autonomy; this increased colonial resentment against the monarchy, fueling revolutionary sentiment.[60]
In March 1765, Parliament passed theStamp Act, taxing many transactions in the thirteen colonies to pay Britain's debt from the Seven Years War. The Crown also felt the colonies should repay them for saving the colonists from attacks by the natives. Previously, each colony decided how taxes were levied and collected, and the act was unpopular. The new taxes were never collected, as Americans rioted over them, and Benjamin Franklin influenced Parliament to rescind it.[61] TheTownshend Acts of June and July 1767 were the Crown asserting its authority over the colonies: colonist citizens and officials were illicitly smuggling British goods, so Parliament madecustoms commissioners to oversee the trade, stop smuggling, and tax the goods. The colonists stopped buying the goods and harassed the commissioners. The Crown then had troops occupyBoston.[61]
On March 5, 1770, onKing Street in Boston, amidst tensions between British soldiers and Bostonians, an argument between a soldier and a wigmaker led to 200 colonists surrounding seven soldiers and throwing objects at them. This prompted theBoston Massacre, when the soldiers fired at the crowd; five people died in the shooting, which was useful for the Patriot cause.Paul Revere'sengraving of the massacre (copied fromHenry Pelham's engraving) depicted the soldiers as the aggressors; it was distributed throughout the colonies, stoking anger against the Crown.[61][62]
The Crown withdrew its soldiers from Boston, and rescinded the Townshend Acts. However, in 1773, they enacted theTea Act to help the strugglingBritish East India Company. The company could now sell tea in the colonies at a cheaper price than local tea merchants, who imported from Dutch traders—hurting local merchants' business. Colonists were again angered, wanting to trade with which ever country they wanted and not be forced to buy English tea. TheSons of Liberty, a group of radical Patriot agitators, responded with theBoston Tea Party, disguising themselves as Mohawk to board British ships in theBoston Harbor, and dumping 92,000 pounds of tea into the water. Parliament, many members of which had large shares in the British East India Company, wanted to punish the colonists.[61]
The Crown, wanting to punish the Massachusetts colonists, passed laws from March to June 1774 which some colonists labeled the "Intolerable Acts". The colony's elected council was replaced with one ran by the Crown, and Britishmilitary governor GeneralThomas Gage was given vast powers. Town meetings without official approval were banned, and the Boston Harbor was closed until the losses from the Tea Party were paid off. TheQuartering Act allowed British troops—until then, camping in the countryside—to garrison in unoccupied buildings in town, and the colonists were required to support the soldiers' housing and food.[61] TheFirst Continental Congress of colonists met inPhiladelphia in September 1774, to formally denounce "taxation without representation" and the forced maintenance of the garrisons.[63]
At the start of theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1775, the British Empire included 23 colonies and territories on the North American continent.[64] On April 18, 1775, British troops in Boston began marching toConcord, Massachusetts, to seize an arms cache owned by American militiamen. The militia waswarned of this, and they intercepted the British at theBattles of Lexington and Concord the next day, starting the war. British troops and theirLoyalist colonist allies fought againstPatriot rebel colonists. The Second Continental Congress voted to form theContinental Army, headed by George Washington, to lead the Patriot war effort. TheBattle of Bunker Hill in Boston on June 17 ended in a British victory, but motivated Patriots.[63]
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By June 1776, a majority of colonists in the thirteen colonists were in favor of seceding from the Crown. On July 4, the Continental Congress voted to adopt theDeclaration of Independence, written mainly byThomas Jefferson, declared the colonies as a country of thirteen unified states independent from Britain, named the "United States of America". In 1777, the British tried to cut off American forces by putting themselves between New England and the colonies to the south. In theBattles of Saratoga nearSaratoga, New York in September and October, the Americans forced the surrender of a British army.[63] Also that year, the U.S. adopted theArticles of Confederation, a federalconstitution that was enforced from 1781 to 1789.[65]
The American victory at Saratoga influenced France, still Britain's rival, to openly join the war on the American side, after secretly aiding them for a year. The French openly declared war on Britain in June 1778. The Spanish and Dutch, also enemies with Britain, began helping the Americans.[63][66] In autumn 1781, a British army underCharles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis were forced by Franco-Americans troops intoYorktown, Virginia, near Chesapeake Bay. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis' armysurrendered to the French and Americans. The remaining British troops were relegated to the Carolinas and Georgia; they did not engage in "decisive action" with the Americans, and in late 1782, the Crown pulled them out of the colonies, effectively ending conflict.[63][67]
TheTreaty of Paris was deliberated in 1783 between American statesmen Benjamin Franklin,John Adams, andJohn Jay; and representatives of KingGeorge III. The two countries formally ended the war, and Britain recognized the U.S. government as legitimate. Britain ceded the territory of the former thirteen colonies, as well as most British territory to the east of theMississippi River and the vast Northwest Territory, which spanned the modern states ofOhio,Michigan,Indiana,Illinois,Wisconsin, and partially,Wisconsin. Britain made peace treaties with France, the Dutch Republic, and Spain later in 1783.[68]
After 1783, Britain cededEast andWest Florida to the Kingdom of Spain, which in turn ceded them to the United States in 1821. The Atlantic archipelago of theBahamas had been administratively grouped with the North American continent, but with the loss of the Floridas was grouped with the British colonies of the Caribbean as the British West Indies.
Most of the remaining colonies to the north (including the continental colonies and the archipelago of Bermuda, the nearest landfall from which was North Carolina, but the nearest other British territory from which became Nova Scotia) formed the Dominion ofCanada in 1867, with the colony of Newfoundland (which had become theDominion of Newfoundland in 1907, leaving Bermuda as the only remaining British colony in British North America, before reverting to a colony in 1934) joining the independentCommonwealth realm ofCanada in 1949, and Bermuda, elevated (by the independence of the thirteen colonies that became the United States) to the role of anImperial fortress and the most important British naval and military base in the Western Hemisphere (due to its location, 1,236 km (768 mi) south ofNova Scotia, and 1,538 km (956 mi) north of theBritish Virgin Islands, and handily placed for naval and amphibious operations against its nearest neighbor, the nascent United States, during the 19th century), remains as aBritish Overseas Territory today.
TheThirteen Colonies that became the original states of theUnited States were:
Colonies and territories that became part ofBritish North America (and from 1867 the Dominion ofCanada):
Colonies that became part of British North America (but which would be left out of the 1867Confederation of Canada):
Colonies and territories that were ceded to Spain or the United States in 1783:
TheHome Office was formed on 27 March 1782, responsible for the administration of all British territory, within and without the British Isles, taking over the administration of the British colonies, including those of British North America, from theBoard of Trade and the firstColonial Office. Dissatisfaction with the thenHome Secretary (who oversaw the Home Office),William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, during two decades of war with the French Republic led to colonial business being transferred to theWar Office in 1801, which became theWar and Colonial Office, with theSecretary of State for War was renamed theSecretary of State for War and Colonies. From 1824, theBritish Empire was divided by the War and Colonial Office into four administrative departments, includingNORTH AMERICA, theWEST INDIES,MEDITERRANEAN AND AFRICA, andEASTERN COLONIES, of which North America included:[71]
North America
TheColonial Office and War Office, and theSecretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for War, were separated in 1854.[72][73] The War Office, from then until the 1867confederation of theDominion of Canada, split the military administration of the British colonial and foreign stations into nine districts:North America And North Atlantic;West Indies;Mediterranean;West Coast Of Africa And South Atlantic;South Africa;Egypt And The Sudan;INDIAN OCEAN;Australia; andChina. North America And North Atlantic included the followingstations (or garrisons):[74]
North America and North Atlantic
The Colonial Office, by 1862, oversaw eight Colonies in British North America,[75] including:
North American Colonies, 1862
By 1867, administration of theSouth Atlantic Ocean archipelago of theFalkland Islands, which had been colonized in 1833, had been added to the remit of the North American Department of the Colonial Office.[76]
North American Department of the Colonial Office, 1867
Following the 1867 confederation, Bermuda and Newfoundland remained as the only British colonies in North America (although the Falkland Islands also continued to be administered by the North American Department of the Colonial Office).[77] The reduction of the territory administered by the British Government would result in reorganization of the Colonial Office. In 1901, the departments of the Colonial Office included:North American and Australasian;West Indian;Eastern;South African; andWest African (two departments).[78] In 1907, theColony of Newfoundland became theDominion of Newfoundland, leaving theImperial fortress of Bermuda as the sole remaining British North American colony. By 1908, the Colonial Office included only two departments (one overseeing dominion andprotectorate business, the other colonial): Dominions Department (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Newfoundland, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Australian States, Fiji, Western Pacific, Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, Swaziland, Rhodesia); Crown Colonies Department. The Crown Colonies Department was made up of four territorial divisions: Eastern Division; West Indian Division; East African and Mediterranean Division; and the West African Division. Of these, theWest Indian Division now included all of the remaining British colonies in the Western Hemisphere, from Bermuda to the Falkland Islands.[79]
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The annual return has been issued by the Colonial-office, containing the list of Governors and Bishops. Our North American colonies are eight in number, - Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Vancouver Island, and British Colombia;
CANADA: PROVINCES OF CANADA-Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, North-west Territories, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island; NEWFOUNDLAND; BERMUDA; FALKLAND ISLANDS