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Early British Settlementsin North America

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In 1494, Spain and Portugal divided the lands

Columbus had discovered between themselves [The Treaty of Tordesillas].

Conquistadores followed [Cortés and Pizarro]. However, other European nations also wanted

to conquer land in the Americas.

It Started With Spain

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Arriving in 1524, the French established

themselves in North America in the land that is presently Canada, as well as the upper northeastern United States.

The French created trade networks that extended down the Mississippi River to the port city of New Orleans.

The French and the British

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England eventually sent explorers to claim

land and establish settlement in North America to compete with Spain and France.

The British

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In 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh established the colony of Roanoke off the coast of present-day North Carolina, which mysteriously vanished later.

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In 1607, the Virginia Company was set up to

establish a permanent colony in America and authorized Captain John Smith to organize the Jamestown Colony on the James River.

It established English settlers who were accustomed to having rights by giving them a charter providing them with the same privileges as they enjoyed as citizens of Britain.

The Virginia Company

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Captain John Smith brought the first British settlers to the Chesapeake Bay Region in 1607.

Initially established by the Virginia Company, the colony acquired a royal charter from King James I in 1624 in the expectation that it would provide gold, religious influence, and glory to England.

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Under the leadership of John Rolph, tobacco farming was introduced to the colony and soon became an important cash crop.

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In the early 1600s, the New England colonies

(Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire) were settled by a number of Calvinists who were known as the Puritans.

The Puritans sought to purify the Anglican Church by ridding it of any ceremony it still had in common with Roman Catholicism.

The Puritans were strict Protestants.

The New England Colonies

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The Pilgrims were Puritans who wished to form

a new church. Escaping persecution, they came to North

America with the condition that they would spend their first seven years working for the Virginia Company (in exchange for a share of the profits they gained during that time).

The Pilgrims of Plymouth

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In 1620, the Pilgrims boarded the ship known as the Mayflower and set sail for Virginia.

They were unable to get to Virginia and instead landed in Plymouth Bay.

They chose a site for their settlement and created what is now known as Massachusetts.

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Non-Puritans and dissenters were punished and often banished from the colony though.

Some dissenters, when banished left with followers and formed their own colonies.

Roger Williams, a minister from Salem who advocated a complete separation of church and state, believed that the biddings of conscience stood above civil or church laws.

He and his followers established the settlement of Providence, in what was later the colony of Rhode Island.

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New York came into being when the English

took over the Dutch colony of New Netherlands.

Its principal city of New Amsterdam had originally been founded as a fur trading center by the Dutch West India Company in 1623.

New Netherlands acquired its present name when King Charles II granted it to his brother, the Duke of York.

Other Settlements

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Georgia, founded and chartered in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, was the last of the British colonies.

English debtors crowding jails in London were transported to this colony.

Georgia served as a buffer between the valued Carolina plantations, and Florida, then a Spanish possession.