British America
British America was part of the global British Empire after 1707, comprising colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain, and its predecessor state, the Kingdom of England. English overseas possessions in the Americas were separate colonies primarily in North America and various Caribbean islands. Following the American War of Independence, thirteen of its mainland North American colonies became the United States of America, with Britain retaining its northern mainland colonies in Canada and its Caribbean island colonies.
England made its first attempts at colonization in the Americas in 16th century. From 1607, numerous permanent English settlements were made, ultimately reaching from Hudson Bay, to the Mississippi River and the Caribbean Sea. Much of these territories were occupied by indigenous peoples, whose populations declined due to epidemics, wars, and massacres. In the Atlantic slave trade, England and other European empires shipped Africans to the Americas for labor in their colonies. Slavery became essential to colonial production, as on Barbados, Jamaica, and other sugar islands.
Colonial projects expanded. In 1664, England took the New Netherland colony from the Dutch Republic. In the 1680s, Britain and France began frequent wars over colonies and trade, including their overlapping territorial claims in British America and New France, and relations with the Iroquois. In Queen Anne's War, the British took Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay area from the French. In the French and Indian War —the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War—the British won the eastern half of modern-day Canada and the eastern Mississippi valley from New France, and the Floridas from New Spain.
In the American Revolutionary War, thirteen of these British colonies rebelled against the Crown and formed the United States of America, an independent country of thirteen states. In the 1783 Treaty 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 1839 Durham Report was published.
Background
Native American societies
were present in southern New England by around 9500 BCE. They might have settled in modern Illinois in as early as 5000 BCE, and in the Ohio River Valley in as early as 350 BCE. In the Hopewellian 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 the Algonquian, Mohicans, Susquehannock, and Wyandot.Around 1570 CE, in modern-day New York state, five native tribes—the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca peoples—formed a confederation ruled through participatory democracy, known as the Iroquois Confederacy. It was highly efficient at governing the region, and played an important part in the politics of later British and French colonies.
European exploration and colonization
Around 1000 CE, two settlements on the modern Canadian island of Newfoundland were established by Norse Viking explorers, but were soon abandoned. The next known European settlement in North America occurred some 500 years later. In 1492, a Spanish expedition led by Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean, on an island whose identity is disputed. Christopher's brother, Bartholomew Columbus, founded the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola in 1496, the first European colony since the Norse's. In 1526, Spain founded the San Miguel de Gauldape colony in either modern Georgia or the Carolinas. It lasted for a few months.In 1534, France explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, starting fur trade with the natives, and eventually what became their colony New France. In 1559, Spain founded a settlement at modern Pensacola, Florida, which was abandoned by 1561. In 1570, Spanish Jesuits founded the Ajacán Mission at Chesapeake Bay in modern Virginia, but they were killed by the local Powhatan people. In 1589 or 1599, a French colony was founded at Sable Island in Nova Scotia, but the colony had failed by 1603; another French colony at Saint Croix Island in modern Maine also existed from 1604 to 1607. In 1604, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, France started a new colony, later named Quebec.
History
16th century
Roanoke Colony
In 1585, the English began their first settlement in North America, the Roanoke Colony. Its initial form only lasted until 1586 due to conflict with the local Native Americans. In 1587, around 115 colonists led by Governor John White settled back at Roanoke. White went back on a ship to England to get supplies for the colony, but his return was delayed by English's conflict with the Spanish 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". 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.17th century
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 Kings James I, Charles I, and Charles II, and by the Parliament of Great Britain. Later, most colonies were founded, or converted to, royal colonies.File:Location of jamestown virginia.jpg|left|thumb|The Jamestown Colony, founded in 1607, with present-day U.S. state borders overlaidJamestown Colony and the Colony of Virginia
On 6 December 1606, three ships—the Discovery, Godspeed, and Susan Constant—left England to start a colony on the James River upstream from Chesapeake Bay. The settlement, known as the Jamestown Colony, was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It invested into by the Virginia 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.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 the Powhatan. Some Powhatan helped the colonists, and without them, the colony likely would have failed. In 1612, Englishman John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown, and introduced tobacco farming there. Tobacco made the colony profitable for the Virginia Company. In 1619, Virginia governor George Yeardley introduced a representative legislative assembly to the government. The town expanded in the 1620s.