Colonial history of the United States
The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the early 16th century until the unifying of thirteen British colonies and creation of the United States in 1783, during the American War of Independence. Native Americans occupied the territory of North America prior to European colonization and remained a factor throughout the colonial era. The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a permanent settlement in what became the United States, at Saint Augustine, Florida. Although Spain claimed sovereignty over all North America, its main interest was central Mexico with dense, hierarchically organized indigenous populations, who rendered tribute and labor to overlords, and newly discovered deposits of precious metals. Those resources made Spain wealthy. In the late sixteenth century, other European powers including England, France, and the Dutch Republic sought to replicate Spain's colonial success and launched colonization expeditions in North America in territory that Spain claimed but had not colonized.
English settlers in the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers included 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 Virginian Cavaliers, 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 all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1783. Parts of what had been New France were incorporated during the American Revolution and soon after. Parts of New Spain were incorporated in several stages, and Russian America was also incorporated into the United States at a later time. 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 Mississippi River were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated. In Nova Scotia, however, the British expelled the French Catholic Acadians, and many refugees relocated to Louisiana. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–1691. 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, and the Southern Colonies. Some historians add a fifth region of the "Frontier", which was never separately organized. The colonization of the United States resulted in a large decline of the indigenous population primarily because of newly introduced diseases. A significant percentage of the indigenous people living in the eastern region had been ravaged by disease before 1620, possibly introduced to them decades before by explorers and sailors.
Goals of colonization
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 increase 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 domestic industries to maximize exports from the realm and minimize imports.Freedom from religious persecution
The prospect of religious persecution by the 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, first to the Netherlands and ultimately to Plymouth Plantation in 1620. Over the following 20 years, people fleeing persecution from King Charles I settled most of New England. Similarly, the Province of Maryland was founded in part to be a haven for Roman Catholics.Early colonial failures
After the turn of the 16th century, several European countries attempted to found colonies in what is now the United States. Most of those attempts ended in failure. The colonists themselves faced high rates of death from disease, starvation, inefficient resupply, conflict with Native Americans, attacks by rival European powers, and other causes.Spain had numerous failed attempts, including San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, Pánfilo de Narváez's expedition to Florida's Gulf coast, Pensacola in West Florida, Fort San Juan in North Carolina, and the Ajacán Mission in Virginia. The French failed at Parris Island, South Carolina, Fort Caroline on Florida's Atlantic coast, Saint Croix Island, Maine, and Fort Saint Louis, Texas. The most notable English failures were the "Lost Colony of Roanoke" in North Carolina and Popham Colony in Maine. It was at the Roanoke Colony that Virginia Dare became the first English child born in America; her fate is unknown.
New Spain
Starting in the 16th century, Spain built a colonial empire in the Americas consisting of New Spain and other vice-royalties. New Spain included territories in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, much of the United States west of the Mississippi River, parts of Latin America, and the Spanish East Indies. New Spain encompassed the territory of Louisiana after the Treaty of Fontainebleau, though Louisiana reverted to France in the 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso.Many territories that had been part of New Spain became part of the United States after 1776 through various wars and treaties, including the Louisiana Purchase, the Adams–Onís Treaty, the Mexican–American War, and the Spanish–American War. There were also several Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, but Spain gave the United States all claims to the Pacific Northwest in the Adams–Onís Treaty. There were several thousand families in New Mexico and California who became American citizens in 1848, plus small numbers in the other colonies.
Florida
Spain established several small outposts in Florida in the early 16th century. The first was at Pensacola, Florida, in 1559 under Tristán de Luna y Arellano, though it was short-lived. The most important was St. Augustine, founded as Mission Nombre de Dios in 1565 but repeatedly attacked and burned by pirates, privateers, and English forces, and nearly all the Spanish left after the Treaty of Paris ceded Florida to Great Britain. Certain First Spanish Period structures remain today, especially those made of coquina, a limestone quarried nearby.The British attacked Spanish Florida during numerous wars. As early as 1687, the Spanish government had begun to offer asylum to slaves from British colonies, and the Spanish Crown officially proclaimed in 1693 that runaway slaves would find freedom in Florida in return for converting to Catholicism and four years of military service to the Spanish Crown. In effect, Spaniards created a maroon settlement in Florida as a front-line defense against English attacks from the north. This settlement was centered at Fort Mose. Spain also intended to destabilize the plantation economy of the British colonies by creating a free black community to attract slaves. Notable British raids on St. Augustine were James Moore's 1702 raid and James Oglethorpe's 1740 siege.
In 1763, Spain traded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for control of Havana, Cuba, which the British had captured during the Seven Years' War. Florida was home to about 3,000 Spaniards at the time, and nearly all quickly left. Britain occupied Florida but did not send many settlers to the area. Dr. Andrew Turnbull's failed colony at New Smyrna, however, resulted in hundreds of Menorcans, Greeks, and Italians settling in St. Augustine in 1777. During the American Revolution, East and West Florida were Loyalist colonies. Spain regained control of Florida in 1783 by the Peace of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War. Spain sent no more settlers or missionaries to Florida during the Second Spanish Period. The inhabitants of West Florida revolted against the Spanish in 1810 and formed the Republic of West Florida, which was quickly annexed by the United States. The United States took possession of East Florida in 1821 according to the terms of the Adams–Onís Treaty.
Arizona and New Mexico
Throughout the 16th century, Spain explored the southwest from Mexico. The first expedition was the Niza expedition in 1538. Francisco Coronado followed with a larger expedition in 1539, throughout modern New Mexico and Arizona, arriving in New Mexico in 1540. The Spanish moved north from Mexico, settling villages in the upper valley of the Rio Grande, including much of the western half of the present-day state of New Mexico. The capital of Santa Fe was settled in 1610 and remains one of the oldest continually European-inhabited settlements in the United States. Local people expelled the Spanish for 12 years following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; they returned in 1692 in the bloodless reoccupation of Santa Fe. Control was by Spain and Mexico until 1846, when the American Army of the West took over in the Mexican–American War. About a third of the population in the 21st century is descended from the Spanish settlers.California
Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of present-day California starting with Cabrillo in 1542–43. From 1565 to 1815, Spanish galleons regularly arrived from Manila at Cape Mendocino, about 300 miles north of San Francisco or farther south. Then they sailed south along the California coast to Acapulco, Mexico. Often they did not land, because of the rugged, foggy coast. Spain wanted a safe harbor for galleons. They did not find San Francisco Bay, perhaps because of fog hiding the entrance. In 1585 Gali charted the coast just south of San Francisco Bay,and in 1587 Unamuno explored Monterey Bay.
In 1594 Soromenho explored and was shipwrecked in Drake's Bay just north of San Francisco Bay, then went south in a small boat past Half Moon Bay and Monterey Bay. They traded with Native Americans for food.
In 1602 Vizcaino charted the coast from Lower California to Mendocino and some inland areas and recommended Monterey for settlement. The King agreed, but the settlement project was diverted to areas off Japan.
No settlements were established until 1769. From 1769 until the independence of Mexico in 1820, Spain sent missionaries and soldiers to Alta California who created a series of missions operated by Franciscan priests. They also operated presidios, pueblos, and ranchos, along the southern and central coast of California. Father Junípero Serra, founded the first missions in Spanish upper Las Californias, starting with Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769. Through the Spanish and Mexican eras they eventually comprised a series of 21 missions to spread Roman Catholicism among the local Native Americans, linked by El Camino Real. They were established to convert the indigenous peoples of California, while protecting historic Spanish claims to the area. The missions introduced European technology, livestock, and crops. The Indian Reductions converted the native peoples into groups of Mission Indians; they worked as laborers in the missions and the ranchos. In the 1830s the missions were disbanded and the lands sold to Californios. The indigenous Native American population was around 150,000; the Californios around 10,000; including immigrant Americans and other nationalities involved in trade and business in California.