II Colonial Period

History of Colonial America was formed by European nations. After Christopher Columbus explored the Americas in 1492, the nations of Western Europe—Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and England—created vast colonial empires in the western hemisphere. European countries developed colonies for many reasons, but primarily to generate income. They used colonies to provide raw materials for trade and to serve as markets for finished products. English colonies eventually became dominant in North America because many settlers were drawn to their political systems. These systems encouraged representative government, religious toleration, economic growth, and cultural diversity.

European Colonial Ventures

The discovery of the Americas was made accidentally as a result of Europeans' desire to establish new trade routes with the Far East. During the 1500's and 1600's several European nations sponsored explorations in the New World and made claims based on those explorations. The Portuguese took the lead in explorations by rounding the tip of Africa and opening an eastern sea route to India. Beginning in 1519, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and England established colonies in the Americas. The colonial holdings of each European country developed in a different way. Spain made a great mining and agricultural empire in Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean. Great wealth sent to Spain in the form of gold and silver were envied by others. Portugal created a slave-based agricultural colony in Brazil. The French, who had the largest empire in North America, made profitable business of fishing and fur trading. The Dutch and the Swedes established successful colonies in the northeastern part of North America. Among the European invaders of North America, only the English established colonies of agricultural set-tlers, whose interests in Native Americans was less about trade than about the acquisition of land. That fact would have huge implications in the long struggle for control of North America.

Early English Settlement

During the 16th century, some English adventurers were exploring the east coast of North America. In 1588, the English navy destroyed the Spanish Armada and controlled some of the sea routes leading to America. This marked a turning point in the course of American history, for the English immigrants started to become the most important colonists in North America. This led to the establishment of the 13 English-American colonies.

●The Lost Colony of 1587

In 1585, the Queen of England had given Sir Walter Raliegh permission to start a colony in the New World. He sent 100 colonists with food and supplies to Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina. As governor, White hoped to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World by developing a self-sufficient economy and agriculture. However, within three years, the group disappeared without any signs. All that was found was a deserted settlement and the letters“CRO”carved on a tree and the word“CROATOAN”carved on one of the palisade's entrance posts. The Croatoans were a group of nearby Indians. No one knows what happened to them and Roanoke came to be known as the Lost Colony. Although the first English attempts at colonization were unsuccessful and the fate of these settlers remains unknown, their dreams, courage and ideals are symbols of the birthplace of America.

Development of 13 English Colonies

The first colonies in North America were along the eastern coast. Settlers from Spain, France, Sweden, Holland, and England claimed land beginning in the 17th century. But it was the English who eventually dominated the continent. By 1733, there were 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard under English control. They were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. These colonies had been founded in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. Regional differences had developed in their cultures and economies. All, however, had their English heritage in common.

The historians lump the colonies into three groups based on where they were, why they were founded, and what kinds of industry they had: New England colonies, mid-Atlanticcolonies, and Southern colonies. By the 18th century regional differences among the New England colonies, the middle colonies, and southern colonies, had already developed. The colonial economy was mainly agricultural with some industry and commerce.

●The New England Colonies

A group of people called Puritans came to America to seek freedom of religion and founded the New England colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. By and large, the people who settled in the New England Colonies wanted to keep their family unit together and practice their own religion. They were used to doing many things themselves and not depending on other people for much. Some of these people came to New England to make money, but they were not the majority. The people living in the colonies made a living by fishing and building ships. They also carried on much of the slave trade.

●The Mid-Atlantic Colonies

The Mid-Atlantic Colonies, composed of Pennsylvania（1682）, Delaware（1638）, New York（1624）, and New Jersey（1623）, were a mix of both northern and southern features, cre-ating a unique environment of early settlement by non-English Europeans, mostly Dutch and German. A combination of both urban and rural lifestyles made it more cosmopolitan, religiously pluralistic, and socially tolerant within a commercial atmosphere. From early colonial times, the Mid-Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of European people than in New England or the South. The people who founded the Middle Colonies were look-ing to practice their own religion（Pennsylvania mainly）or to make money. Many of these people didn't bring their families with them from England and were the perfect workers for the hard work required in ironworks and shipyards.

The Mid-Atlantic had rich farmland and a moderate climate which made farming much easier than it was in New England. Due to the ease of farming these colonies were able to provide food for their own people and to send to the other colonies; the Middle colonies became known as the breadbasket colonies. Market towns were extremely important in the colonies because people needed to go to town to trade the products they grew or made. Cities grew along major shipping routes and waterways.Such flourishing cities included New York City on the Hudson River, Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

●The Southern Colonies

The hope of gold, resources, and virgin lands drew English colonists to the Southern Colonies, which consist of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The first permanent English settlement in the New World was Jamestown, Virginia, founded by the London Company. The five southern English colonies displayed many similar characteristics. They all relied on a plantation economy and a staple crop, provided some religious toleration, allowing different religious groups to flourish. Slavery was also permitted and accepted in all the southern colonies. A rich and powerful aristocracy was dominant in the southern colonies.

Colonial Government

Colonial government was modeled on English government.

All of the English colonies, no matter how they were founded or by whom, had similar governments. Both the structure and philosophy of American government evolved out of English political thought and tradition. The concept of representative government, for example, developed in the New World in much the same way as it developed in England.

In the colonies, representative government was put into practice with the colonial assemblies（议会）. In both England and America, government was representative only to the extent that people had the right to vote. In both cases, only free adult white males had the privilege. Sometimes there were religious requirements, as with the Puritans of Massachusetts. Almost always there were property requirements.

The organization of government was also modeled after the familiar English system. By the 1760's, there were three types of colonies in America—charter colonies（自治殖民地，self-governing）, proprietary colonies（业主殖民地）, and royal colonies（王室殖民地）. In all three types, government had basically the same structure as government in England. Each colony had an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The governor was the chief executive in the colonies, as the king was in England.

Education in Colonial Period

Education was most emphasized in New England. Puritans believed all people should know how to read so they could study the Bible and save themselves. They passed laws to establish necessary schools for their children. The first college, Harvard, was set up in Massachusetts in 1636. By the mid-eighteenth century several well-known colleges were founded, including Yale in Connecticut, Columbia in New York and Princeton in New Jersey. Colonial schools laid the foundation of the American educational system in which all the American schools were left to the care of communities or the local authority.

End of the Colonial Period

The colonies began in the early 1600s. As decades passed, people from other countries brought new ideas and different religions to the colonies. By the time America declared its independence from Britain in 1776, the differences had become one of the most notable characteristics of the new people. They were no longer British colonists, but American citizens.