Thirteen Colonies

The **Thirteen Colonies**, also known as the **Thirteen British Colonies** or the **Thirteen American Colonies**, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. The American Enlightenment led these colonies to the American Revolutionary War. They declared independence as the United States of America in July 1776, which was achieved by 1783 under the Treaty of Paris.

The Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: the New England Colonies, which included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; the Middle Colonies, which included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; and the Southern Colonies, which included Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The Thirteen Colonies had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, dominated by Protestant English-speakers. The first of these colonies was Virginia, established in 1607. The founding of the New England Colonies, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion. The other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion. The Middle Colonies were established on the Dutch colony of New Netherland. All 13 colonies were part of Britain's possessions in the New World, which also included territory in Canada, Florida, and the Caribbean.

The colonial population grew from about 2,000 to 2.4 million between 1625 and 1775, displacing Native Americans. This population included people subject to a system of slavery which was legal in all of the colonies prior to the American Revolutionary War. In the 18th century, the British government operated its colonies under a policy of mercantilism, in which the central government administered its possessions for the economic benefit of the mother country.

The 13 colonies had a high degree of self-governance and active local elections, and they resisted London's demands for more control over them. The French and Indian War (1754–1763) against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the 13 colonies. During the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with one another instead of dealing directly with Britain. With the help of colonial printers and newspapers, these inter-colonial activities and concerns were shared and led to calls for protection of the colonists' "Rights as Englishmen", especially the principle of "no taxation without representation". Conflicts with the British government over taxes and rights led to the American Revolution, in which the colonies worked together to form the Continental Congress. The colonists fought the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) with the aid of the Kingdom of France and, to a much lesser degree, the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Spain.

## British colonies

In 1606, King James I of England granted charters to both the Plymouth Company and the London Company for the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in America. The London Company established the Colony of Virginia in 1607, the first permanently settled English colony on the continent. The Plymouth Company founded the Popham Colony on the Kennebec River, but it was short-lived. The Plymouth Council for New England sponsored several colonization projects, culminating with Plymouth Colony in 1620 which was settled by English Puritan separatists, known today as the Pilgrims. The Dutch, Swedish, and French also established successful American colonies at roughly the same time as the English, but they eventually came under the English crown. The Thirteen Colonies were complete with the establishment of the Province of Georgia in 1732, although the term "Thirteen Colonies" became current only in the context of the American Revolution.

In London beginning in 1660, all colonies were governed through a state department known as the Southern Department, and a committee of the Privy Council called the Board of Trade and Plantations. In 1768, a specific state department was created for America, but it was disbanded in 1782 when the Home Office took responsibility.

### New England colonies

Main article: New England Colonies

1. Province of Massachusetts Bay, chartered as a royal colony in 1691
	* Popham Colony, established in 1607; abandoned in 1608
	* Plymouth Colony, established in 1620; merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691
	* Province of Maine, patent issued in 1622 by Council for New England; patent reissued by Charles I in 1639; absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1658
	* Massachusetts Bay Colony, established in 1628; merged with Plymouth Colony in 1691
2. Province of New Hampshire, established in 1629; merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641; chartered as royal colony in 1679
3. Connecticut Colony, established in 1636; chartered as royal colony in 1662
	* Saybrook Colony, established in 1635; merged with Connecticut Colony in 1644
	* New Haven Colony, established in 1638; merged with Connecticut Colony in 1664
4. Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations chartered as royal colony in 1663
	* Providence Plantations established by Roger Williams in 1636
	* Portsmouth established in 1638 by John Clarke, William Coddington, and others
	* Newport established in 1639 after a disagreement and split among the settlers in Portsmouth
	* Warwick established in 1642 by Samuel Gorton
	* These four settlements merged into a single Royal colony in 1663

Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven Colonies formed the New England Confederation in 1643, and all New England colonies were included in the Dominion of New England (1686–1689).