Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492 and subsequently made three further voyages. The Spanish established the settlement of La Isabela on Hispaniola in 1493, followed by Santo Domingo, founded in 1496 and relocated to its present site in 1502. Santo Domingo became the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.
The Italian navigator John Cabot, sailing on behalf of the English crown, reached the coast of Newfoundland in 1497, although the exact location of his landfall remains uncertain. During the following decades, Spanish and Portuguese expeditions explored and claimed territory throughout the Americas. Pedro Álvares Cabral reached Brazil in 1500, while Spanish explorers reached areas including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Florida, and Mexico. Juan Ponce de León explored Florida, while Francisco Hernández de Córdoba explored the Yucatán Peninsula and Hernán Cortés led the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico.
French and Spanish exploration continued throughout the sixteenth century. Jacques Cartier explored the Gulf and River St. Lawrence and laid the foundations for later French claims in what became Canada. Hernando de Soto explored the southeastern interior of North America and reached the Mississippi River in 1541. Meanwhile, Spanish settlements expanded in Florida, the Southwest, and, later, California.
English attempts at permanent settlement began in the late sixteenth century. The settlement established on Roanoke Island under the sponsorship of Sir Walter Raleigh failed to survive and became known as the "Lost Colony." In 1607, however, the English established Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
During the seventeenth century, European colonization expanded rapidly along the eastern coast of North America. English, French, Dutch, and Swedish settlers established colonies and trading settlements, while Spain continued to expand its presence in Florida and the Southwest. The Dutch established New Netherland, with New Amsterdam as its principal settlement, while the Swedes established New Sweden in the Delaware Valley. England gradually displaced both powers: the English seized New Netherland in 1664, renaming New Amsterdam as New York, while New Sweden had already been absorbed into New Netherland in 1655.
Britain's thirteen mainland colonies eventually became the core of British North America. Their foundations developed at different times, beginning during the reign of King James I with Jamestown in 1607. They were traditionally divided into three regional groups:
New England Colonies: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Middle Colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
Southern Colonies: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The Pilgrims, a group of English religious Separatists, sailed for North America aboard the Mayflower in 1620. They established Plymouth Colony and agreed to the Mayflower Compact, which provided a framework for self-government. The Pilgrims were dissatisfied with the Church of England and believed that true religious reform required separation from it.
A larger migration of English Puritans followed in the 1630s. Unlike the Pilgrims, most of these Puritans sought to reform the Church of England rather than separate from it completely. They established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the center of Puritan settlement in New England. Religious disagreements within Massachusetts led some colonists to establish new settlements. Roger Williams, an advocate of religious liberty and separation between church and civil government, founded Rhode Island. Other dissenters, including Anne Hutchinson, also contributed to the development of religiously diverse settlements in the region.
The colonial population grew rapidly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the English colonies, the population was only a few thousand in the 1620s, but it had grown to roughly 250,000 by 1700. By 1775, the population of Britain's thirteen mainland colonies had reached approximately 2.4 million. This rapid growth resulted from immigration, natural population increase, and the forced migration of enslaved Africans. It is important to note that these figures refer to colonial populations and do not represent the much larger and diverse Indigenous population that already inhabited North America.
Colonial Government
Three broad forms of colonial government developed in British North America:
Royal (or crown) colonies: These were ultimately governed under the authority of the English/British crown. A royal governor was appointed by the monarch, although colonial assemblies generally exercised significant authority over local taxation and legislation. Examples included Virginia, New Hampshire, New York, and, at various times, Massachusetts and the Carolinas.
Proprietary colonies: These were granted by the crown to individuals or groups known as proprietors, who exercised considerable authority over the colony. Examples included Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The Carolinas and New Jersey were also originally proprietary colonies before their political status changed.
Charter colonies: These operated under royal charters that granted colonists a greater degree of self-government. Connecticut and Rhode Island were the principal examples by the eighteenth century. Massachusetts also operated under a charter for much of its early history before becoming a royal colony in 1691.
These different forms of government gave the colonies varying degrees of political independence, but most developed representative assemblies and traditions of local self-government. These traditions later became important in the political disputes between the colonies and Britain that culminated in the American Revolution.
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