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This author claimed that English colonization would be the benefit of England and also the benefit of God. He made an argument that protestant England needed to rescue North America from the Catholic world.
England and Spain had more than just a religious rivalry. -
In 1588, the Spanish Armada, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, embarked on a mission to invade England. The Armada's primary objective was to transport additional troops from the Netherlands for the planned invasion. However, the English navy, under the leadership of Charles Howard and Francis Drake, engaged the Spanish fleet in a series of naval maneuvers and battles that ultimately led to the defeat of the Armada.
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Three ships (Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery), were sent. They arrived in the spring of 1607 at the James River. -
Europeans landed the first colony in the territory of North America. A few weeks later, they have named the river "James" in honor of James I, king of England. Then, it was named "Jamestown". The idea occurred by the little group of huts that became the first lasting English settlement in America. -
It altered relations between the colonists and indigenous people. The wars cleared the land for colonization and cultivation and also provided the English with slaves for their fields. The Powhatans never fully welcomed the English but, during John Smith’s time, agreed to a peace which ended in 1610. John Rolfe reestablished good relations with the natives by marrying the famous Pocahontas in 1614, but when she died in 1617, tensions again mounted and a second war broke out in 1622.
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The Puritans known as the Pilgrims founded Plymouth, the second English colony in America, in 1620.
Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. -
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Settlers from other countries founded colonies as well. The Dutch founded New Netherland in 1624. The Swedish settled in Delaware, part of New Sweden, in 1638. The Dutch and the Swedish also moved into what is now New Jersey.
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Dutch established New Amsterdam (later New York City) on Manhattan Island.
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In 1630 another group of Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts controlled New Hampshire from 1641 to 1679, and in 1691 Plymouth was joined with Massachusetts.
Some colonists from Massachusetts settled in Connecticut in the 1630s. It became an official colony in 1662. -
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A group of Roman Catholics founded Maryland in 1634.
It was founded as a haven for English Catholics. -
Another group from Massachusetts founded Rhode Island in 1636. That group was led by the minister Roger Williams, who disagreed with the religious rules of Massachusetts.
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The Carolina region had become an English colony in 1663. In 1729 Carolina was split into North and South Carolina. -
In the 1650s the Dutch took over the Swedish lands, but in 1664 the English took over all the Dutch territory. From that time to independence, all the colonies were ruled by the kings and queens of England. New Netherland was renamed New York by the British, and that colony governed New Jersey until 1738.
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In 1681 an English Quaker leader, William Penn, set up the colony of Pennsylvania. Delaware became part of Pennsylvania the next year. Delaware formed its own government but remained under Pennsylvania’s control until independence. -
In 1710 CE, the Colony of Carolina was divided into North and South and more tobacco plantations were established which deprived more indigenous people of their lands while, at the same time, Christianizing the natives and encouraging their use of tobacco as a recreational drug, thereby cutting their ties with their traditional understanding and use of the plant.
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Georgia—the last of the original 13 colonies—was settled in 1733. -
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The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773. It was one of the key events leading up to the American Revolution.
It was an incident in which 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company were thrown from ships into Boston Harbor by American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians. The Americans were protesting both a tax on tea (taxation without representation) and the perceived monopoly of the East India Company. -
In 1776, the 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. The names of the colonies were Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia.