Thirteen colonies

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New England, Central Atlantic and Southern Colonies.
Transparent coloring: area of ​​today's US states (Virginia including West Virginia).

The Thirteen Colonies - also written numerically: 13 colonies - are those British colonies in North America or British America that separated from their mother country, the Kingdom of Great Britain , in the Declaration of Independence of the United States in 1776 . Other British possessions in North America such as the previous French colony of Québec and the colonies of Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and Prince Edward Island remained loyal to the British Crown and later became Canada united. The colonies of East Florida and West Florida - formerly Spanish and now also owned by the British - also remained loyal .

Geography and structure

Map of the Chesapeake Bay (1584). In 1607, Jamestown was the first permanent British settlement here.

Geographically included the 13 colonies that developed during the Revolutionary War as a United States of America (USA) constituted, the North American east coast from the lower reaches of the St. Lawrence River in the north to the peninsula Florida in the south. Up until 1763, northern neighbors were the French Canada colony around the St. Lawrence River and the Acadia to the east of it, which was originally French-owned . The most important obstacle to expansion in the south was the Spanish Florida. In the west, the colonies were initially limited to the coastal area; later the Appalachians formed the borderline. The spatial and geographical conditions were quite inconsistent. While the Atlantic coastal plain is more extensive in the south and rises continuously towards the Appalachians, the northern Appalachians slide like a barrier between the coastal areas and the Great Lakes. Historians usually divide the 13 colonies into three groups:

  1. New England
    1. Province of New Hampshire , later New Hampshire
    2. Massachusetts Bay Province , later Massachusetts and Maine
    3. Rhode Island Colony and Providence Plantations , later Rhode Island
    4. Connecticut Colony and New Haven , later Connecticut
  2. Medium colonies
    1. Province of New York , later New York and Vermont
    2. Province of New Jersey , later New Jersey
    3. Pennsylvania Province , later Pennsylvania
    4. Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware as a suburb of Pennsylvania), later Delaware
  3. Southern colonies
    1. Maryland Province , later Maryland
    2. Colony of Virginia , later Virginia and West Virginia
    3. Province of North Carolina , later North Carolina
    4. Province of South Carolina , later South Carolina
    5. Georgia Province , later Georgia

The founding stretched over a period of 125 years. First colony was Virginia (1607). The three New England colonies of Massachusetts (1629), Rhode Island and Connecticut (both 1636) and Maryland (1634) followed between 1620 and 1636. The first New England foundation - the Plymouth Plantation founded by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620 - initially functioned as an independent colony and only became part of Massachusetts in 1696. The area of ​​the mid-Atlantic colonies of New York, New Jersey and Delaware was first developed by the Dutch ( Nieuw Nederland ) and Swedes ( Nya Sverige ) and only came into possession of the Kingdom of England in the 1660s . In 1663, 1680 and 1681 the colony population expanded to include three more: Carolina, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. The last of the 13 colonies was Georgia, which was only founded in 1732.

The 13 colonies correspond to 16 of today's 50 states in the USA. By the end of the War of Independence, however, numerous smaller and larger territorial changes took place. In 1729 Carolina was divided into North Carolina and South Carolina. Delaware was part of Pennsylvania until 1776 - albeit under de facto self-government from 1702 onwards . Maine was part of the Massachusetts colony until the Revolutionary War and was not constituted as a US state until 1820. Vermont Territory was claimed by France until the Seven Years War . After that it was a disputed territory between the two colonies of New Hampshire and New York and only became a US state after the end of the Revolutionary War. The western borders of what is now Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York were also not established until after the War of Independence. In addition, the exact course of the border with Canada remained unclear well into the 19th century .

development

Elisabeth I (around 1580)

The British colonization of the later US east coast was part of the early modern discovery and conquest activities , as a result of which the major European powers Spain , France, the Netherlands and England divided the North American continent among themselves. In contrast to the imperial dominated Spanish Empire in Mexico , the rest of Central America and South America and the far-flung, mostly kaprizierten to trade French possessions in what is now Canada, the British colonies on the North American east coast were settler colonies where the actual reclamation and colonization of land in Was in the foreground.

In terms of time, the English and British colonization attempts were made relatively late. In geopolitical terms, they were part of the struggle with the Spanish Empire that was forced by Elizabeth I. After an unsuccessful attempt at settlement near Roanoke Island on the coast of what is now North Carolina (1586-1590), the first successful establishment took place in 1607 with Jamestown in what is now Virginia. The second foundation was the Plymouth Colony in what is now New England (1620). The first settlements were only able to consolidate in the course of the so-called Great Migration between 1630 and 1650. Initiated, among other things, by the internal British disputes before and during the English Civil War , first thousands, then tens of thousands, emigrated to the new colonies. Massachusetts became the dominant colony in New England; the port city of Boston advanced to become the most important center of the New England colonies . The colonies in New England, shaped by Puritan emigrants, were strengthened by the establishment of religious dissidents (Rhode Island and Connecticut). In the 1660s, the area of ​​the British colonies expanded by taking over the Dutch and Swedish settlements between New England and Virginia. The most important city here was New York , the former Nieuw Amsterdam .

Reconnaissance march under Myles Standish, military commander in chief of the Puritan settlement in Plymouth (1623)

The expansion into the interior was accompanied by numerous violent clashes with the indigenous people . In Virginia these were the First and Second Powhatan Wars . The first (1610–1622) brought the settlements around Jamestown temporarily to the brink of destruction, the second (1644–1646) finally pushed the local east coast tribes into the hinterland. The Pequot War (1636–1637) and the King Philip's War (1676–1678) produced similar results in New England. Step by step, a closed settlement area developed along the east coast, from which settlers continued to advance into previously undeveloped areas. In addition to the comparatively large colony of New York, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Ontario , the re-establishment of Pennsylvania in 1682 established itself as a bridge to the hinterland. This was not just an above-average prosperous colony. The colony capital Philadelphia , founded in 1682 , soon advanced to become the most important city of the 13 colonies.

A characteristic difference between the southern colonies and those further north was slavery . It did not establish itself in mass form until the end of the 17th century . However, slave labor and a feudal aristocratic social structure determined by rural gentry ideals increasingly shaped the face of the southern colonies - especially that of the lower south with the two colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. The most important city - and at the same time an important metropolis for the slave trade - became Charleston .

French and Indian War: French troop commander Montcalm tries to prevent a massacre of prisoners (1757)

The first half of the 18th century was marked by further expansion - especially inland, where the Appalachian Mountains now advanced as the borderline to the as yet undeveloped areas. As a further component, however, the increasing disputes between Great Britain and France were added. They started with the Palatinate War ( King William's War , 1689–1697), continued with the War of Spanish Succession ( Queen Anne's War , 1702–1713) and the War of Austrian Succession ( King George's War , 1744–1746) and finally culminated in the Seven Years War ( French and Indian War in North America: 1754–1763). A characteristic feature of these wars was their hybrid form: unlike their European counterparts, regular units were only marginally involved. The main combatants were settler militias and Indian tribes who participated on one side or the other. The most important ally of the British was the Iroquois Federation. The majority of the tribes in the east coast hinterland, on the other hand, tended more towards the French side due to the British settlement pressure. The character of these conflicts only changed in the Seven Years' War, which took on the character of a final war for supremacy on the North American continent. For the first time, both sides also used regular troop units on a larger scale. England remained the victor in this contest. The result of the Peace of Paris of 1763 was that all French possessions in Canada and east of the Mississippi fell to the British.

The question of westward expansion was one of the two reasons that eventually led to the separation from Great Britain and the establishment of the USA. The Proclamation Line from 1763 established the Appalachian ridge as the provisional settlement western border. Due to growing settlement pressure - especially in the direction of the Ohio Valley , which has recently come under British sovereignty - this borderline was controversial from the start. The so-called stamp tax from 1765 was also controversial. In addition, the colonial representative bodies increasingly demanded self-government and equal treatment with the inhabitants of the British Isles. The resistance against the British colonial policy led in 1775 finally to the War of Independence, the 13 colonies declared in its wake for independent and subsequently to the United States of America merged . In the Peace of Paris in 1783, the 13 colonies not only took over government power over the previous colonial area. The area between the Appalachian Mountains, Mississippi and the Great Lakes , which Great Britain had taken over from the French in the Seven Years' War , also became part of the USA .

Territorial expansion and politics

Territorial expansion

Populated areas and settlement limits: before 1700 and until 1763.

A characteristic feature of the 13 colonies was the steadily expanding and thus changing settlement area. The frontier continually shifted further to the west, into the interior of the country. Starting from a few settlement bases on the east coast, the populated areas spread bit by bit: first into the coastal areas, later into the Appalachian foothills and - from the middle of the 18th century - beyond their main chain. Striking cornerstones of this development were:

  • 1620: approximate point of transition from which the success of colonies on the east coast of North America could no longer be doubted.
  • 1630 to 1677: the spread of New England settlers in the coastal plain and up the rivers. Remaining Indian populations were left behind in higher areas, and the power of the Indians in southern New England was broken in the course of two great Indian wars - the Pequot War and the King Philip's War.
  • 1635: Settlement of the upper Connecticut Valley by the Puritan Thomas Hooker and his followers who migrated from Massachusetts .
  • 1636: Rhode Island Colony founded by dissidents Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson . Providence and Portsmouth emerged as larger cities there .
  • 1638: Founding of the New Haven Colony on the lower Connecticut River by the two devout Puritans John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton . In 1662 the two settlements on the Connecticut River were united to form the Connecticut colony.
  • 1650–1672: Development of the Piedmont Plateau in front of the Appalachians .
  • 1663: Foundation of the Carolina Crown Colony.
  • 1676: After the suppression of the rebellion directed against the oligarchy in Virginia by Nathaniel Bacon ( Bacon's Rebellion ), the defeated turned west and advanced the frontier in the direction of the Appalachians.
  • 1677–1704: Closure of still uninhabited gaps along the east coast; Settlement of the higher-lying areas in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Indian populations still living there were either displaced, wiped out or assimilated.
  • around 1700: The Spaniards in the southern colonies are pushed further in the direction of Florida.
  • 1704: further expansion north into the New Hampshire colony area and the Maine area.
  • 1712: first exploration of the Shenandoah valley off the Appalachians .
  • 1732: Georgia Colony founded.
  • 1725: roughly the time when New England Indians were no longer seen as an existential threat.
  • from 1750: further expansion of territory from Virginia and the Carolinas.

By 1750 the settlement border had roughly reached the Appalachian Mountains. The populated terrain can be roughly divided into three. The first zone was the coastal areas. A commercially oriented agriculture developed there early on - along with a steadily increasing increase in prosperity. The most important urban trading centers of the colonies were also established in this zone: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Charleston. The second zone was the hinterland. The transition area between the coast and the actual Frontier comprised large parts of New England as well as less fertile areas in the interior of the Central Atlantic and southern colonies. Economically, subsistence farming dominated the picture there. Slavery played a minor role in this hinterland zone; However, trade and handicrafts were also poor. Due to the high birth rate , this zone represented the majority of those who moved further west, thereby shifting the frontier forward. Finally, the third zone was the frontier itself. An essential feature of this region was that its course was constantly in flux. Residents on the colonist side were mainly trappers , fur traders , lumberjacks and advanced farmers - so-called backwoodsmen , who had penetrated the wilderness on their own and acted as pioneers for subsequent settlements.

Political structure

Politically, the development of the individual colonies depended heavily on their respective legal status. Formalized relations between the colonies did not exist until 1754; all relationships were directed towards the motherland. Formally, three basic types had developed in the course of settlement: trading company , owner and crown colonies . In the early phase of settlement, trading company and owner colonies were the predominant model; both were issued in the form of a royal charter . The exception was Virginia, whose charter company - the Virginia Company of London - had previously gone bankrupt and was therefore converted into a crown colony in 1624. The new foundations that took place little by little established a patchwork of different legal forms, each with their own forms of administration and participation. The crown colonies (New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia), which over time had grown to seven, were contrasted by: a hybrid of crown and charter colony (Massachusetts), two charter colonies (Rhode Iceland and Connecticut) and three owner colonies (Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland)

Apart from the legal status, the political conditions in the individual colonies are quite similar. One unifying factor was the English language , another was the English legal system , which was adopted in the colonies. The adoption of the British bicameral system created politically similar conditions . The lower house , the so-called assembly, formed the counterweight to the council or senate , whose members were appointed by the governor . In practice, the combination of governor, council and assembly enabled various possible combinations: In the crown colonies, the governor was usually appointed. In the owner colonies, he was determined by the owners. In Massachusetts, the Board of Governors was also elected. There was no council in Pennsylvania and Delaware; in Rhode Island, however, the governor was also directly elected.

Until well into the 18th century, the 13 colonies - according to the philosopher Edmund Burke - were shaped by the principle of “ salutary neglect ”. Similar to the system of royal colonies already practiced in the Caribbean , the remaining shareholder and owner colonies were gradually transferred to crown colonies. Only Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut were able to maintain their old legal status. Above all, England geared economic exchange towards bilateral trade relations at an early stage . The Navigation Act of 1651 was a key milestone in this regard. A second Navigation Act followed in 1660. The latter stipulated that cotton , sugar and tobacco could only be exported to England. The trade relations repeatedly caused disputes between parliaments and governors. In the 18th century, disputes over taxes and political say essentially determined the politics of the individual colonies - a point of conflict that ultimately led to the War of Independence.

Regardless of the mercantilist- oriented forms of exchange, England tried to bind the North American colonial administration more politically to the mother country. From 1686 to 1688, James II combined all of the New England and Central Atlantic colonies into a Dominion of New England . After his fall and the establishment of a parliament in the wake of the Glorious Revolution , this measure was reversed. Instead, a Board of Trade and Plantations was created in 1696 - a supreme British colonial authority, which from then on was the highest authority for relations between colonies and the motherland. In general, however, the policy of "wholesome neglect" remained dominant. Separate financial resources, for example, were not available to the local governors. Nor were there regular British soldiers - a fact that didn't change until the beginning of the Seven Years' War.

population

Population growth

Population development
year colony 1650 1700 1750 1780
1652 Maine 49.133
1680 New Hampshire 1,305 4,958 27,505 87,802
1620 Plymouth 1,566
1629 Massachusetts 14,037 55,941 188,000 268,627
1636 Rhode Island 785 5,894 33,226 52,946
1636 Connecticut 4.139 25,970 111,280 206.701
1624 new York 4.116 19,107 76,696 210,541
1664 New Jersey 14,010 71,393 139,627
1681 Pennsylvania 17,950 119,666 327,305
1681 Delaware 185 2,470 28,704 45,385
1634 Maryland 4,504 29,604 141,073 247,959
1607 Virginia 18,731 58,560 236,681 538.004
1663 North Carolina 10,720 72,984 270.133
1729 South carolina 6,260 74,000 180,000
1732 Georgia 5200 56,071
49,368 251,444 1,186,408 2,680,234

Exact figures on the population development of the colonies can only be determined using interpolation models. The figures determined vary somewhat in detail. The general trend of only a few hundred first colonists over six-digit numbers in the middle settlement period to the indication of "over two million" at the time of the War of Independence is, however, undisputed. In the early phase of colonization, emigration was rather slow. The number of first-time settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, was 105. In 1616, 350 of the 1,600 new arrivals were still alive. In the New England colony of Plymouth, founded in 1620, the death rate was also high: of the 101 first-time colonists, many did not survive the first winter. In the first decades, two main factors were responsible for the new generation of colonists: a) the system of debt bondage and convict labor , which was particularly pronounced in the early southern colonies, b) the religious and political upheavals in the mother country. In the course of the "Great Migration" between 1630 and 1640, tens of thousands of new settlers moved to the colonies. In the first decades of the 17th century it was mainly Puritan dissidents who emigrated. During the course of the English Civil War and the rule of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell , the relationship was temporarily reversed in favor of opponents of the Calvinist creed. In the 18th century, the specific motive of religious oppression largely faded into the background.

In figures, the population increase was as follows: From 1610 to 1640, the population of the colonies increased from around 500 to several tens of thousands. In 1689 the population was already around 200,000. One fifth of them lived in the central colonies, two fifths each in the northern and southern colonies. The million mark was exceeded in the middle of the 18th century, the two million mark around 1760. It must be taken into account that the figures given are estimates; only the first US census from 1791 provides reliable figures .

The population was distributed extremely unevenly, both ethnically and regionally. The hinterland and the mid-Atlantic colonies grew faster than the South and New England colonies during the second surge in the 18th century. In New England the population explosion had already started at the end of the 17th century. The hinterland of the Old West along the Frontier acted as a catchment basin for all those who were dissatisfied with the conditions in the older settlement areas. West of the Appalachians, shortly before the War of Independence, only a very small part of the population lived. Figures for 1770 show the largest cities : Philadelphia (35,000), New York (25,000), Boston (16,000) and Charleston (11,000).

origin

Distribution according to origin and settlement areas
Origin 1700 in%
Origin 1770 in%

The origin of the settlers was most homogeneous at the beginning of colonization. In the south, British from England and Wales made up the largest proportion of the population. Black Africans followed in second place . The latter were mainly concentrated in the plantation region on the coast, but a smaller number were also located in the hinterland. In the 18th century, Iro Scots and - in smaller numbers - Germans moved there . The latter came mostly from Pennsylvania and began settling the Shenandoah Valley southwards.

Ethnic homogeneity was most pronounced in the New England colonies. According to the first US census, 81% of the population there was of English origin. The situation was most heterogeneous in the Central Atlantic colonies. According to the 1791 census, the proportion of English residents in New York State was 52%, and in Pennsylvania only 35%. Dutch made up 17.5% of the population in New York and 16.6% of the population in New Jersey. A considerable number of Iro Scots and French Huguenots had settled in the hinterland of the two colonies of New York and Pennsylvania . The proportion of Germans in Pennsylvania was around a third, for all colonies taken together it was still 10%. Nevertheless, the claim that German has almost become the official language in the colonies is based on nationalistic myths from the time of the Empire (see Muhlenberg legend ). In fact, it is true that the English language has always remained the standard despite the occasional high level of German immigration. Another peculiarity of the Central Atlantic colonies were the Jewish communities that had developed in some cities. In New York they went back to the Dutch colonial times. Favorable settlement conditions - and, connected with this, a religiously tolerant attitude - also existed in some cities in the south.

English emigration in the 17th century was largely due to the political and religious upheavals on the British Isles. However, there were also economic reasons. One factor that promoted emigration , for example, was the collapse of the cloth industry during the Thirty Years War . The periodically recurring subsistence crises on the Irish island were also the reason for the massive immigration of Northern Irish Ulster Scots. German emigration peaked in 1750 with 30,000 immigrants. Around 100,000 German emigrants settled in the colonies by the time of the War of Independence. The recruitment of new colonists in Europe took place in part by means of heavily exaggerated, idealistically colored praise. An example of this kind of animation was the treatise published in 1734 as The Nunmehro in the New World cheerfully and without home Woe living Schweitzer .

religion

Bedeutendster Unlike in the early colonial period was between state-church- oriented Anglicans and Puritans state church critical. While the former preferred to settle in the southern colonies, New England became the domain of the Puritans. Pioneers in the north were the Puritan pilgrim fathers. The Pilgrim Fathers, also referred to by the term separatists , were members of a Puritan schism that turned particularly uncompromisingly against the Anglican state church and - unlike the moderate mainstream of Puritanism - no longer considered a renewal of the same to be possible.

In contrast to the radical group in Plymouth, the settlers in Massachusetts were moderate Puritans. The moderate stance referred only to the Anglican state church - not to the Calvinist principles. In the 17th century, Puritanism in Massachusetts in particular experienced a noticeable radicalization. The rigid and intolerant control system, which in some cases took on traits of theocracy , led to the establishment of two offspring colonies very early on: Rhode Island and Connecticut. The theological dogmatics of the Massachusetts colony was strongly influenced by its three spiritual leaders: John Cotton (1585–1652), Increase Mather (1639–1723) and his son Cotton Mather (1663–1728). All three propagated a strongly fundamentalist interpretation of Puritanism. The puritanical radicalism reached its climax with the witch trials of Salem (1692). From the turn of the 18th century, a rethink and a turn towards liberalization finally began. The privileged special position of the puritanically oriented Congregational Church, however, remained in this part of the colonies for a long time - with the result that Baptists , Quakers and Anglicans only enjoyed tolerant status.

In the southern colonies, the Anglican Church was dominant. However, with the increased influx of non-English emigrants, Baptists and Presbyterians also grew in strength. They had the greatest influence in the Carolinas and upstate Virginia. Religion played a minor role in public life in the middle colonies. Due to the large non-English population, a wide range of different faiths coexisted: Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed , German Reformed , Pietists , Huguenots and finally Catholics . The Catholicism had especially in Maryland his stronghold and was in all the colonies a minority, often gave her reservations direction. Roughly simplified, the strongholds of the individual creeds can be estimated as follows: Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and the Vermont area - Puritans, southern colonies - Anglicans, Rhode Island and South Carolina - Baptists, Pennsylvania - Quakers and Lutherans , New York - Dutch Reformed , Maryland - Catholics, Virginia upstate, and Pennsylvania - Presbyterians.

The Great Awakening movement in the 1730s and 1740s ensured a further differentiation of the creeds . Triggered by the English preacher John Wesley , the focus was more on the personal experience of faith than before. Spread by the two preachers Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield , the new movement found numerous followers, especially in the northern and central colonies. In addition to the Baptists, the newly formed Methodists in particular benefited from this revival movement . In addition, it had strong theological influences on traditional New England Puritan teaching. It updated the link between the idea of ​​salvation and American territory and was thus one of the spiritual sources from which the later American sense of mission was fed.

Independence advocates and loyalists

The political factioning into ( liberal ) Whigs and ( conservative ) Tories , which had developed in the motherland from the end of the 17th century, was only partially reflected in the colonies. The political culture there was strongly determined by the ideas of the British Whigs, that of the British Tories could only gain a foothold in the North American colonies. Factors that reinforced this trend that the two directed against the colony rights policy were Stuart - monarchs . Charles II and James II. As well as the negative image of the Scottish Jacobites , who fought for a re-installation of the Stuart monarchy. From the 1740s, however, the differences between the two political cultures began to level out. Instead, the question of colonial representation rights came more and more to the fore.

Joseph Brant (1786)

As far as the conflict that ultimately culminated in the War of Independence was concerned, a large majority agreed with the demands for more independence and a say. On the question of pro or contra independence, however, neither side had a clear majority. The historian Michael Hochgeschwender estimates the proportion of the Tory population skeptical of independence at around 20-25%; The largest population group in the War of Independence were the neutrals. The question experienced a strong polarization through the course of the War of Independence itself. Tory militias also fought on the British side - a factor which partially gave the War of Independence features of civil war . The proclamation on the liberation of slaves for Africans who fought in British associations, which was written in 1775 by the British Governor Lord Dunmore and known as Dunmore's Proclamation , ultimately proved to be ineffective. In the southern colonies, the proclamation was generally understood as a call for slave revolts . One factor that generally benefited the British was the fact that the Indian tribes on the border - if they intervened in the dispute - took part on the British side. Joseph Brant , a leader of the Iroquois, was promoted to captain in the British Army . In return, he and his campaigners received a reservation in the Canadian province of Ontario after the defeat .

After the fighting ended, the republic managed to reintegrate the majority of the former loyalists . However , the USA rejected a total amnesty . After the end of the War of Independence, around 60,000 people left the former colonies. There were also around 33,000 slaves. The majority found exile in Canada. Some exiled Tories continued to pursue a total opposition line there and organized the Indian border war in Vermont, western New York and the Ohio Valley from Canada.

The Old Plantation. Late 18th century painting

African

Black Africans were the only population group that involuntarily lived in the colonies or was dragged into them. The first slaves were introduced to Virginia in 1619. However, the system of slavery was not widespread until the end of the 17th century with the Atlantic triangular trade . Seen globally, it was only part of a spectrum of different forms of forced labor that the colonial powers Spain, Portugal , the Netherlands, France and England established on the American double continent. In the early colonization period, slavery competed with various forms of debt bondage - specifically the temporary system of indentured servants . Compared with the murderous conditions on the sugar islands in the Caribbean ( Barbados , Jamaica ) and the associated high mortality rates, the fate of the slaves in the mainland colonies was bearable. Harsher conditions were initially limited and mainly established themselves in the rice-growing areas of South Carolina. The plantation economy , which spread across the whole of the lower south , formed the basis of the gentry society that dominated there - a system strongly characterized by feudal aristocratic traits, which differed greatly from that in the central and northern colonies.

Slaves in the 13 colonies (around 1770)

Expressed in numbers, the system of slavery was as follows: Around 1770 there were around 500,000 black African slaves in the colonies. Most of them lived in the southern colonies; there slaves made up a good third of the population. Another calculation puts 400,000 Africans in 1760 - a quarter north of Maryland and three quarters south of it. Strongholds of slavery were Virginia south of the James River with 4 slaves per white taxpayer and South Carolina with 7 to 13, in some areas up to 40 slaves. In 1790 there were around 700,000 enslaved black Africans living in the United States - 290,000 of them in Virginia, 100,000 each in Maryland, North and South Carolina, 25,000 in New York and 57,000 in the colonies of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In total, more than 9.5 million Africans were deported to the Americas. The North American share of this was around 5%.

The form and regional spread of slavery varied greatly. In the northern colonies the abandonment of slavery came about very quickly. It played practically no role in Rhode Island and Connecticut, but it was more widespread in the mid-Atlantic colonies. Overall, according to the historian Michael Hochgeschwender, the northern and central colonies were societies with slaves, but not slave-holding societies . In these colonies, the detachment from the African roots took place comparatively quickly. In the southern colonies the picture was mixed. In Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, smaller tobacco and family farms were predominant. Due to the closer coexistence, a partial mixing of European and African forms of life took place here. In South Carolina and Georgia, on the other hand, forms of a specifically Afro-American culture developed early on . A special form of it was the slave language Gullah .

From the middle of the 17th century, the conditions under which slavery took place were legally established. For fear of slave revolts, the relevant slave codes increased in severity early on. They legalized lifelong slavery and hindered release conditions and banned sexual intercourse and marriages between blacks and whites . In the absence of other means of defense, the resistance of the enslaved Africans was more passive and subtle. Common forms of resistance were refusal to work , arson and flight . In the 18th century the system of slavery experienced a great boom and finally changed the image of the southern colonies permanently. A side effect of this was that the demand for white debt servants declined over time, as did immigration to the southern colonies.

Indians

The number of Indians on the American double continent as a whole, in North America and in the catchment area of ​​the 13 colonies has been clearly revised upwards by historical science in recent decades. In 1965, the number was between 900,000 and 1.5 million indigenous people in North America at the time of discovery; today, mean estimates put the number at 6 to 7 million. As in the other major regions of the double continent, the population decline on the North American east coast had long since started. Both Puritans and Virginians encountered an indigenous population whose resilience was weakened due to contacts that had already taken place . Current estimates: around 1570 there were around 3 million indigenous people east of the Mississippi, compared to just 300,000 in 1670. Interpolated numbers for southern New England: 120,000 (1570) and 12,000 (1670).

Marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe (1614), lithograph from 1861, 55.4 × 70.7 cm
The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth (1621), by Jennie A. Brownscombe , painted in 1914

The pattern of contact was similar in Virginia and New England. At the beginning, the few settlers were dependent on cooperation with the surrounding tribes. Well-known incidents that found their way into the creation of myths in the later United States were the wedding between the Virginia tobacco grower John Rolfe and the chief's daughter Pocahontas, as well as the first Thanksgiving , which the colonists of the Plymouth settlement celebrated together with Indians. Soon, however, the coexistence culminated in a series of violent clashes (in Virginia: first and second Powhatan War, in southern New England: Pequot War and King Philip's War ). As a result of the wars listed, as well as the less spectacular ones in the Central Atlantic colonies, there were no more Indians in the east coast colonies apart from assimilated ones . The King Philip's War 1675–1676 also marked a dividing point with regard to the respective populations: at 32,000, the number of New England settlers was already twice as high as that of the Indians.

Indian mission was an integral part of colonial politics from the start. Targeted missionary attempts began comparatively late (in Massachusetts: from 1644) and only achieved moderate success. Assimilated Indian groups got caught between the fronts during the early Indian Wars. In addition, they were considered outsiders in the eyes of both colonial and Indian societies. In terms of numbers, the converted Indians, the so-called " Praying Indians ", were hardly significant. In New England their share was less than 10% of the remaining Indian population. In the 19th century, the assimilated Indian groups on the east coast were largely extinct. Assimilation did not protect against direct violence either. The best-known example of this is the massacre at Gnadenhütten in Pennsylvania in 1782 of Christianized members of the Delaware.

The power-political struggle between the British and the French was decisive for the middle and late colonial period. The French Indian policy was strongly oriented towards trade exchange and accordingly more marked by a laissez-faire attitude. The most important partners in the French fur trade around the Great Lakes were the Hurons . In response, the region's dominant Iroquois Confederation entered into a close alliance with the British. The settlement border, which was steadily advancing to the west, put additional pressure on the tribes. The Lenni Lenape (Delaware), for example, withdrew from their original settlement areas on the central east coast to what was to become Pennsylvania and from there finally continued west. The ever closer clash of the different actors led to two larger internal Indian wars: In 1626 the Iroquois destroyed the Mohicans in the upper Hudson Valley. From 1634 to 1648 the Hurons - originally comprising around 18,000 people - were severely decimated by epidemics and finally exterminated by the Iroquois except for a few remains.

The Seven Years War and the War of Independence twelve years later put the tribes on and beyond the frontier in existential distress. The 1763 Pontiac Rebellion was joined by tribes from the Great Lakes area down to the Kentucky and Tennessee regions . Despite severely distressing colonial militias and regular units, it ultimately failed. The American War of Independence finally marked the end of Indian independence in the region between the Great Lakes and Appalachians . The Iroquois Confederation split into a neutral part, a majority that fought on the side of the British and a minority that went to war on the side of the United States. In the northwest region , the War of Independence culminated in a series of Indian wars, which at times brought success for the tribes involved, but could not permanently prevent further advance of the settlement border.

Economy and Social

economy

The economic relations between Great Britain and the colonies were determined by the principle of mercantilism . In accordance with the requirements of the Navigation Acts, Great Britain focused on an exchange characterized by a bilateral division of labor. Particularly exclusive raw materials such as indigo , tobacco, rice, wool and fur were only allowed to be sold to the mother country. Further regulations prohibited the production of competitive finished products such as iron , clothes or hats . Nevertheless, the share of the colonies in the Empire's gross national product rose continuously: The economic output of the colonies rose from 5% in 1700 to 40% in 1776. By the middle of the 18th century, domestic trade rose to 25% of the total volume. However, trade with the mother country and the Caribbean remained the engine of growth.

The society of the 13 colonies was predominantly agrarian . 80% of the population lived on farms and plantations, 10–15% worked as craftsmen , only 5% were merchants or members of the liberal professions . From a statistical point of view, land ownership was normal: 50 to 75% of all landless men succeeded in acquiring land in the course of their lives; only 25% remained permanently without land ownership. The livelihood of the population was good up to the lower middle class . The death rate was also lower than in the Old World . One reason for this was the lack of those intermittent subsistence crises that were the order of the day in Europe . On the other hand, the chronic shortage of money became a problem. Since the colonies did not have their own mint , they made do with their own paper currency at times. In the long run, however, this could not establish itself. Due to its dubious numerical value, it was explicitly declared invalid in the Currency Act of 1751 and 1765, respectively.

The economic profile varied significantly within the individual colonies. The economy in the New England colonies was heavily influenced by agriculture and fishing . The timber industry and shipbuilding as well as tanneries , wool spinning mills and rum distilleries were added as complementary sectors . Agriculture was even more pronounced in the mid-Atlantic colonies than in the north. Fertile soils enabled a wide range of crops as well as additional dairy and livestock farming . In surpluses oriented toward farms dominated the scene. In parts of the Hudson Valley, on the other hand, the Dutch dominated large estates with the associated tenant system - a semi-feudal form of management that was very similar to the conditions in the French New Canada settlement on the Saint Lawrence River. The economy of the mid-Atlantic colonies was flanked by important trading centers such as New York and Philadelphia.

In the southern colonies the picture was mixed. The coastal areas of Virginia and South Carolina were characterized by plantation economies with a corresponding lifestyle and based on slave labor. Agricultural production here tended strongly towards monocultures . The focus on the main products tobacco, rice and indigo tied the southern colonies more closely to the economy of the mother country than the rest. The southern colonies metropolis Charleston became the most important export port. In North Carolina, on the other hand, smaller-scale forms of agriculture became more prevalent. In Virginia, finally, a reorientation towards grain cultivation took place over time . The coastal region on Chesapeake Bay , which is central to the upper south, changed its appearance as a result of this change. The up-and-coming port city of Baltimore in particular gained increasing importance here.

Social structure

Boston (1765)

The internal social structure of the 13 colonies was pervaded by different forms of hierarchy . The most homogeneous social composition was found in the New England colonies. The resident population was predominantly of English descent. In addition, New England distinguished itself as the basis of numerous sectarian religious communities . The life expectancy was due to the healthy climate higher than in the south. Small farming prevailed economically. In addition, the local self-governing institutions were strong. A typical form of gathering here was the town meeting . However, there were clear differences between town and country as well as coast and hinterland. Subsistence farming was widespread in the hinterland. In the cities, class and class contrasts became more important. The cosmopolitanism of the upper classes in Boston and Salem was significantly less than that of those in the center or in the south. The Boston lower class, on the other hand, was seen as chronically rebellious - a factor that earned the city the nickname "Unruly Boston".

The social structure in the central colonies was much more complex. For one thing, the English share of the population was significantly lower. In 1770 it was between 30 and 45%. There were also immigrants from Sweden, Scotland, Germany and families of Jewish origin . Characteristic for this part of the colonies was a differentiated mix of farmers, artisans, merchants, small entrepreneurs and workers . The large cities in the region were cosmopolitan and fully integrated into transatlantic trade. In Pennsylvania there were clear differences between the eastern and western parts of the colony. The Quaker elite concentrated in the east around the metropolis of Philadelphia. Due to the right to vote tailored to her, she held her supremacy until the War of Independence. In the western part of the colony, large Anglican landowners and Irish-Scottish new settlers dominated. Due to their social situation, they were significantly more conflict-oriented with respect to the Indians on the western border than the colony elite in the east.

In New Jersey and the older parts of New York, peasant lifestyles similar to New England coexisted with feudal-style large estates. In the Hudson Valley in particular, extensive land holdings that date back to the Dutch period dominated the picture - the so-called River Gods with long -established owner families such as the Rensselaers , Livingstons, de Lanceys, Schuylers and Philipps. The social climate in the central colonies was strongly influenced by cosmopolitanism and tolerance . Unlike New England, wealth was openly displayed; In terms of mentality, the population in the central colonies was considered to be more carefree and fun-loving than the New Englanders in the north.

18th century main plantation house on the James River, Virginia

The social structure of the south was rural-hierarchical. The only major metropolis in the region was Charleston. In detail, however, there were zones with significantly different characteristics in the southern colonies. The most important line of distinction was that between the upper and lower south ( Upper South and Lower South ) - a mark that had clearly emerged by the beginning of the War of Independence. The Upper South included the colonies of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware; the Lower South included the two Carolinas and Georgia. Due to the extensive slave economy, the social structure of the lower south was very similar to that in the Caribbean slave-owner colonies. Due to the high concentration of slaves (in the south in general: 40%, in South Carolina: over 50% of the resident population) the fear of slave revolts was great. The conditions in Georgia were originally more egalitarian. However, the conditions in the southernmost colony approached the conditions in neighboring South Carolina very quickly.

Aristocratic planter dynasties also stood at the top of the social pyramid in the Upper South. The society of estates typical of the southern colonies, with its clear demarcation between above and below, was broken up there by free farming similar to that in the north. In addition, there was a more heterogeneous population composition and a significantly lower proportion of slaves. In addition, the upper south had some medium-sized port cities such as Baltimore. The comparatively remote North Carolina was also characterized by a rather mixed structure. The second important dividing line was established between the low-lying tidewater region on the coast and the higher-lying Appalachian foreland of the Piedmont. The social structure of the Piedmont was in many ways similar to that of the central and northern colonies. Settlers in this region were predominantly Iro-Scots and Scots. Slavery played little role in this small-scale, subsistence-farming region. The constant clashes with the Indian tribes in the border region were more decisive here.

Social conflicts erupted violently several times in the course of the history of the colonies. The best-known example is Bacon's Rebellion - an uprising against the colonial oligarchy in Virginia in 1676 carried out by new settlers in the hinterland. The background was the - in the eyes of the rebels - too lax approach of the state government against the Indians in the hinterland. In other cases, the clashes took place between settler groups of different ethnic origins - for example in Pennsylvania between Iro Scots on the western colony border and German colonists. In the border regions of the Carolinas, on the other hand, the conflict was sparked by conflicting interests between border zone settlers and “Proprietors” from the coast. In the Hudson Valley, the dispute between the resident landowners and new settlers from Massachusetts escalated towards the end of the Seven Years' War. This conflict was further fueled by soil speculators from Boston who intended to break the land monopoly of the "River Gods".

Education, culture and everyday life

Education and culture

Founded in 1636: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The first higher educational institutions were established as early as the 17th century. The New England colony of Massachusetts led the way. The first university was founded in 1636: Harvard University in Cambridge near Boston. The second university was William and Mary College in Williamsburg , Virginia (1693). Yale University in New Haven , Connecticut followed in 1701 . Further foundings followed around the middle of the 18th century: the College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (1740), Princeton in New Jersey (1746), Columbia University in New York City (1754), Brown in Rhode Island (1764), Rutgers in New Jersey (1766) and Dartmouth College , New Hampshire (1769). The elementary school system was most developed in the New England colonies. There were beginnings in the Central Atlantic colonies. In the southern colonies this component was almost completely absent. The literacy status before the War of Independence: Half of the men could read and write , while the proportion of women was only a quarter.

Benjamin Franklin (1767)

The letterpress established itself in comparison to Europe rather hesitant. In 1639 the first printing press was put into operation in Cambridge . Maryland followed in 1685, Virginia in 1730. Until the beginning of the 18th century, theological or other religious publications dominated. Probably the most widely read poem after the Bible was The Day of Doom by Michael Wigglesworth (1662). An important publication of the earlier phase of colonization was Magnalia Christi Americana by Cotton Mather (1702) - a pioneering story of the Puritans in America with a religious meaning. Important poets in the 17th century were Michael Wigglesworth, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor . A major mathematician of the North American colonial era was Thomas Godfrey, the most well-known universally educated printer, publisher , author and politician Benjamin Franklin .

From 1700 the volume of printed publications increased significantly. By the middle of the 18th century books , newspapers , magazines and pamphlets were common in all colonies. The postal service provided the free transport of newspapers as early as 1710 . Benjamin Franklin expanded this in his role as Postmaster General. Educated colonists also increasingly participated in the transatlantic exchange. The Enlightenment - mainly in its British version - also increasingly gained a foothold in more educated circles. There were local differences: while more radical variants of the Whigs philosophy were particularly popular in the northern and central colonies, the south was more oriented towards the leader of the country party, the British politician and philosopher Lord Bolingbroke . Philadelphia developed into an intellectual and cultural focal point in the colonies. Benjamin Franklin became the leading figure of a moderately oriented American Enlightenment. The circle around Franklin included the astronomer David Rittenhouse , the doctor Benjamin Rush , the writer Francis Hopkinson and the artists Benjamin West and Charles Willson Peale . New England adapted the ideas of the Enlightenment comparatively late: the counterpart to the Philadelphia-based American Philosophy Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge , was not founded until 1780. Freemasonry was also present in the colonies early on . In 1730 the first American provincial lodge was founded . Freemasonry was also strongly represented among the leaders of the independence movement. Well-known representatives: Benjamin Franklin and George Washington .

In terms of theater and music , there were sometimes considerable differences between the Puritan New England colonies and the south. Theater was forbidden among the Puritans. The reasons for the rejection arose from the puritanical ideology : reservations against the professional pursuit of entertaining activities and, in general, against drawing a living from unproductive work . In the south, on the other hand, there was great interest in theatrical performances . The performances, however, were usually performed by amateur drama groups . The first piece allegedly performed in North America was Ye Beare and Ye Club, dating from 1665. The New England Puritans were moderately tolerant of music. Increase Mather, the second among the three leading Puritan theologians, even advocated dancing - but only among members of the same sex . Cotton Mather, his successor, campaigned for an improvement in church singing and, for this purpose, called for more consistent singing from notes . Under his aegis, the Bay Psalm Book was expanded to include thirteen melodies in 1698 .

In the painting there was little independent approaches. Landscape paintings , the most common genre , were flanked by portraits . Often the European background of the person portrayed was brought out in these and his social position was staged. An early portraitist of Indian life is the painter John White (1540–1593), who took part in Walter Raleigh's Roanoke expedition, among others . Architecture and commodities manufacturing were subject to local deviations. A practical, space-saving form dominated the building of houses . In the south, the combination of willow rods and clay was a common building raw material . The so-called log cabins ( log cabins ) appeared at the end of the 17th century. This type of construction was probably established by settlers from Scandinavia . In addition, there were construction techniques that were adapted by the Indians. Extravagant moves were frowned upon in furniture production too . With the Puritan New Englanders, for example, a simplified form of the Anglo-Flemish style with reduced ornamentation was common.

Everyday life and jurisprudence

In the south and in the New England colonies, jurisdiction and everyday regulations that go beyond this are sometimes very different. As a rule, the jurisdiction in the colonies was based on the principles of British common law ; Even the correct judge's wig was just as important in colonial jurisdiction as it was in the mother country. The draconian of punishment essentially corresponded to the common practices of the 17th and 18th centuries. The death penalty as the harshest form of sanction, for example, was set not only for murder , but - even if not consistently implemented - also for certain sexual practices , adultery , rape , robbery , horse theft , arson , high treason and espionage . The so-called Blue Laws, which were devoted to observance of the Sabbath rest and general sexual morality , were more or less valid in all colonies. A specialty in the south were - in the early colonial epoch - the regulations on debt bondage and - in the middle and late period - the slave codes coined for African-Americans . Corporal punishment of subordinates was also a widespread practice . It not only encompassed family dependencies , but was also widespread against unfree and semi-free workers and domestic staff .

Cotton Mather (around 1700)

In the New England colonies, the trend towards religiously colored jurisdiction established itself early on . According to the Puritan ideology, America should be a "plantation of religion, not a plantation of trade" . While Virginia was closely following the English legal system, justice in the New England colonies was based heavily on biblical principles. This development was reinforced by the radicalization of New England Congregationalism in the course of the 17th century. Increase Mather, for example, was tolerant of alcohol consumption ; his successor, Cotton Mather, was already tending towards an abolitionist stance. The regulations regarding appropriate clothing also contained a trend towards simplicity. Striking or even extravagant clothes were frowned upon. In addition, the type of clothing chosen also emphasized class, social differences. Deviations from current sexual morality were punished with corporal punishment - for example, through public flogging , for example for illegitimate intercourse. The usual penalty for this: 30 lashes on the back. Other common sanctions were: the use of branding irons , exposure to public pillory , clamping the tongue in a split stick and - in the case of arson - public burning . The death penalty for adultery was - with the exception of the Plymouth Colony and Rhode Island - set in all New England colonies. In practice, however, the judgments in this regard were much milder.

Witch Trial in Salem (1692)

The best-known example of religious fanaticism in New England are the Salem witch trials in 1692, during which around 200 indictments were brought. 150 suspects were arrested , 19 people and two dogs were hung up , and one convicted person who had not confessed was pressed to death . The involvement of the chief colony chaplain, Cotton Mather, is controversial; however, his involvement in the preliminary investigation phase is documented. Historians value the Salem Trials as a reaction to the internal crisis of New England Puritanism. In the course of the 18th century, religious control gradually relaxed. While Quakers were still being expelled in the 17th century and, in individual cases, even executed, liberalization gradually began with the increased influx of members of other Protestant communities .

A peculiarity in the early colonial period was the lack of immigrant women. The shortage of women and the general shortage of offspring was a major problem, especially in the Virginia colony. In 1619 90 young women of marriageable age were shipped to Virginia. Due to the lack of settlers, the trading company also switched to the forced deportation of orphans . Since the first batch had positive experiences, the colony requested 100 more children in 1619 . The traditional role of women was also little questioned in the further course of the development of the colonies. Although the conditions at the border modified male supremacy, they did not fundamentally call it into question. Entrepreneurs, for example, were usually widows who carried on their husbands' business.

The traditional role model has been questioned by some enlighteners. The radical enlightener Thomas Paine, for example, questioned Christian marriage in his book Reflections of Unhappy Marriages (1776) . Extending the marriage beyond the phase of passion is, according to Paine, no further than “open prostitution , even if it is softened by the letter of the law.” By and large, changes in role understanding are within the framework that is also in Europe prevailed: with the result that real changes in the direction of emancipation only took place after the colonial period - in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.

See also

literature

German

English

  • Charles M. Andrews : The Colonial Period of American History. 4 volumes. Original edition: 1934–1938. Reprint: Simon Publications, San Antonio 2001, ISBN 978-1-931313-33-9 (Volume 1).
  • Stephen Foster: British North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-920612-4 .
  • Richard Middleton: Colonial America: A History, 1565-1776. 3. Edition. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken 2002, ISBN 978-0-631-22141-8 .

Web links

Commons : Thirteen Colonies  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ These are the states of the USA that border the Atlantic today from Georgia in the south to Massachusetts in the north and the landlocked states of Pennsylvania and Vermont , which at that time was still part of the province of New York . Maine, in the far north, was still part of the non-breakaway 13 colonies of Nova Scotia.
  2. ↑ Essentially the eastern part of what is now Canada.
  3. ↑ Ben Kiernan : Earth and Blood. Genocide and Annihilation from Antiquity to the Present. DVA, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-421-05876-8 , p. 282 ff.
  4. ↑ Gerd Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1: From Puritanism to the Civil War 1600–1860. 4th edition. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-88679-166-1 , p. 9.
  5. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 13.
  6. ↑ Hans R. Guggisberg, Hermann Wellenreuther: History of the USA. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1974/2002, 4th edition, ISBN 978-3-17-017045-2 , pp. 17-19.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Reinhard: The submission of the world. Global history of European expansion 1415–2015. CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-68718-1 , p. 518.
  8. ↑ Kiernan: Earth and Blood. Pp. 290-297.
  9. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 22.
  10. ↑ Michael Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Birth of a Nation 1763–1815. CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-65442-8 , p. 53.
  11. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 64.
  12. ↑ Jürgen Heideking, Christof Mauch: History of the USA. UTB, Stuttgart 1996/2006, 4th edition, ISBN 978-3-7720-8183-5 , p. 26.
  13. ↑ The list essentially follows the presentation by Gerd Raeithel in History of North American Culture , Volume 1, pp. 22-24.
  14. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 14.
  15. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 546.
  16. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 17.
  17. ↑ a b c Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 18.
  18. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 31.
  19. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 29.
  20. ↑ a b Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 31/32.
  21. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 20/21.
  22. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 20.
  23. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 30.
  24. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 20/21.
  25. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 31.
  26. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 33.
  27. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 32.
  28. ↑ Table based on Wolfgang Reinhard: Die Unterwerfung der Welt, p. 538.
  29. ↑ The information on population development is based on the main sources used; in detail: see respective footnote.
  30. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 8/9.
  31. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 15.
  32. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 18.
  33. ↑ a b Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 26.
  34. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 533.
  35. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 171.
  36. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 538.
  37. ↑ a b diagram after Jürgen Heideking, Christof Mauch: History of the USA. P. 19.
  38. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 8/9.
  39. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 16.
  40. ↑ Bernd Stöver: United States of America. History and culture. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63967-8 , p. 76.
  41. ↑ John A. Hardon: American Judaism . Loyola University Press, Chicago 1971, pp. 6 ff. And pp. 26/27
  42. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 50.
  43. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 534.
  44. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 35.
  45. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 27.
  46. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 13/14.
  47. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 11.
  48. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 51.
  49. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 26.
  50. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 12.
  51. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 27.
  52. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 17.
  53. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 42/43.
  54. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 426/427.
  55. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 80/81.
  56. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 306/307, 315.
  57. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 323.
  58. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 340/341.
  59. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 308.
  60. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 318.
  61. ↑ a b Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 535.
  62. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 5/6.
  63. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 71.
  64. ↑ a b c Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 6.
  65. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 156.
  66. ^ Stöver: United States of America. Pp. 72/73.
  67. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 36.
  68. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 72.
  69. ↑ a b Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 537.
  70. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 2.
  71. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 2/3.
  72. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 63.
  73. ^ Stöver: United States of America. Pp. 59-61.
  74. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. Pp. 529/530.
  75. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 61.
  76. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 337/338.
  77. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 488.
  78. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 532.
  79. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 489.
  80. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 58.
  81. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 85.
  82. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 340.
  83. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 342.
  84. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 19-23.
  85. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 48.
  86. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 533.
  87. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 49.
  88. ↑ a b c d e Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 24.
  89. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 15.
  90. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 25.
  91. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 8-9.
  92. ↑ a b Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 35.
  93. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 12.
  94. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 36.
  95. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 37.
  96. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 38.
  97. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 16.
  98. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 39.
  99. ↑ a b Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 38/39.
  100. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 25.
  101. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 8.
  102. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 43/44.
  103. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 41/42.
  104. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 39/40.
  105. ^ A b c Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 28.
  106. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 191.
  107. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 102-106.
  108. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 109-111.
  109. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 21/22.
  110. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 79/80.
  111. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 112/113.
  112. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 113/114.
  113. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 114-116.
  114. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 522.
  115. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 55.
  116. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 525.
  117. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 53.
  118. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 54.
  119. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 125-127.
  120. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 128-132.
  121. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 525.
  122. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 15.
  123. ↑ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 12.
  124. ↑ a b Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 158-160.