History of the Thirteen Colonies

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New England, Central Atlantic and Southern Colonies. Soft coloring: area of ​​today's US states.

The history of the Thirteen Colonies covers the period from the first founding of British colonies on the North American east coast in 1607 to the end of the American War of Independence and the Peace of Paris in 1783. Thematically, it is about the colonial prehistory of the United States . On a larger scale, it is part of the modern history of discovery and conquest on the American continent . It can be roughly divided into four phases: the early period when the colony was founded, a subsequent phase marked by growth and consolidation, a period in the first half of the 18th century that was heavily influenced by territorial disputes between Great Britain and its main colonial rival, France , and finally a fourth from End of the Seven Years' War until the end of the War of Independence.

Before 1600: North America in the Age of Discovery

Henry Hudson's expeditions
Walter Raleigh (1588)

In the first decades after the discovery of America in 1492 , the major European powers directed their interest primarily to the Caribbean and Central and South America . The dominant power was Spain , whose New Spanish colonial empire comprised most of what is now Latin America until the middle of the 17th century . The northern part of the continent, however, was considered terra incognita well into the 16th century . The first explorer to reach the North American mainland was John Cabot (1497). Like Cabot, Giovanni da Verrazzano also looked for the legendary Northwest Passage (1524). The explorer and navigator Jacques Cartier made his first exploratory trips into the interior of what is now Canada : on behalf of France , he made three trips up the St. Lawrence River between 1534 and 1541 . The first permanent establishment on North American territory is the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine in the north of what was then Spanish Florida (1565). Pensacola , located in the far west of today's Florida , was founded possibly even earlier - namely in 1559 .

The first major European power to show more determined interests in North America was France. As early as the 1540s, Jacques Cartier and Jean-François de Roberval made their first attempts to settle in what is now Québec . During the 16th century, Breton and Basque fishermen established trading relationships with Indian tribes such as the Micmac and Abenaki who lived at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. The first permanent trading post was established there in 1600 with Tadoussac . Shortly afterwards, the geographical exploration of the Acadia, east of the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, began by Samuel de Champlain . The most important settlement establishment in the early period of French colonization was Québec (1608). The voyages of discovery of the British navigator Henry Hudson proved to be important for the expansion of the fur trade and the development of what is now Canada . Even Hudson did not succeed in finding the Northwest Passage leading to the Pacific . Instead, he discovered Hudson Bay, far to the north, and opened it up for the fur trade. Until the end of the 17th century, however, the European settlement in what is now Canada was of little consequence. In 1627, for example, a little more than 100 French settlers lived there .

Compared to Spain, Portugal and France, Great Britain started colonial activities in North America relatively late . Due to the competitive situation with Spain, Elizabeth I pushed activities in the New World more purposefully than her predecessors . Elisabeth's favorite Walter Raleigh tried to settle on Roanoke Island off the coast of what is now North Carolina in 1585 . The Roanoke colony was, however, under a bad star: The first settlement was given up the following year due to supply problems. A second attempt was made in 1587. Due to the state of war with the Spanish Armada , no journey took place in 1588. In 1590 the colony disappeared. The partly unexplained history of the "Lost Colony" is still part of the American legends. What is certain is that the first English child known by name in North America was born there in 1587 - Virginia Dare .

1600–1650: the early colonization phase

Virginia colony with surrounding Powhatan area
Pocahontas (drawing by Mary Cowden, 1883)

Southern colonies

The first permanent British settlement in the area of ​​the later 13 colonies was Jamestown in Virginia, founded in 1607 . The number of first settlers was 105; a high percentage of them died in the first few years - from illness, hunger or as a result of confrontations with the Indians living there. The foundation of on the Chesapeake Bay located Virginia Colony was carried out by the Virginia Company - a trading company , one for opening up the field royal charter had obtained shortly and the present in the territory US state of Maine pursued settlement intentions. The local company was headed by Captain John Smith . Up until the 1610s, the company's success was on the brink. Thomas Dale, one of the first governors , established a draconian regime to maintain internal order. New settlers were mainly convicts and convicts - so-called indentured servants , who had to do several years of forced labor to pay off their debts .

The situation only improved when the planter John Rolfe invented a new way of growing tobacco . The relationship with the surrounding Indian tribes - especially the Powhatan predominant in the region - was changeable. Especially in the early days, the settlement was heavily dependent on Indian support - especially for the cultivation of the crops maize and tobacco. The chief's daughter Pocahontas was particularly committed to peaceful coexistence . In order to promote peaceful coexistence, she married the Virginian John Rolfe in 1614. Nevertheless, the underlying conflicts ultimately erupted in two Indian wars . The First Powhatan War in 1622, a general Indian revolt in the region, killed 347 settlers and an unknown number of Indians, and brought the colony to the brink of destruction. The Second Powhatan War in 1644 was fought by an already consolidated, viable colony. As a result, this marked the end of the Indians as an independent force in the Chesapeake Bay area.

Immigrant numbers in the Virginia Colony area rose slowly at first. In 1620 there were fewer than 1000 inhabitants in the colony. Since the charter company had meanwhile gone bankrupt, it was taken over by the crown in 1624 . Although Anglo - Anglican colonists made up the majority, Virginia was not a homogeneous colony. South of the James River and in what would later become Norfolk Country, settlements of adherents of the state churches critical of the Puritan faith emerged. In 1619 90 young women fit for marriage had arrived, as were the first African slaves . The colony was able to consolidate until 1630; In 1640 the population reached 10,000.

In 1632, a second colony - Maryland - was established in what would later become the southern United States . Unlike Virginia, this was an owner colony. Owner was the - of Charles I equipped with a royal charter - Catholic nobles Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore . In the early stages, Lord Baltimore tried to establish a feudal state based on fiefdoms . The first immigrants were Catholic nobles; Protestants , however, were allowed to work as service providers, tenants or craftsmen. Due to the composition of the immigrants, the political orientation within the colony was strongly loyal . Over time, however, a more mixed structure emerged in Maryland, the Catholic orientation faded into the background. In 1649 there was an official religious edict of tolerance . The population of the colony also grew over time and around 1650 was around 8,000.

Colonies in the New England area
Pilgrims before leaving for America

New England colonies

Unlike the colonists loyal to the state church in the south, the colonists of the New England colonies in the northeast corner of what would later become the US northern states were Puritans critical of the state church. The main reason for the emigration to the New England colonies was the pressure to conform to which the followers of Calvinism in England were subject. The settlers of the first colony in Plymouth were radical separatists. Unlike the mainstream in Puritanism, the Pilgrim Fathers no longer considered a reform of the Anglican Church possible. The motif of the "Saints" - who emigrated from England to the Dutch city ​​of Leiden in 1608 - was to shake off the yoke of antichristian bondage and to establish a "City upon a Hill" in the New World. On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower landed near Cape Cod . The group - consisting of 104 emigrants, including 41 "Saints" (separatists) and 63 "Strangers" (non-separatists) plus 43 members of the ship's crew - explicitly named Christian motives in the Mayflower Treaty as the motivation for establishing a colony.

As in Virginia, the early years of Plymouth Plantation were marked by setbacks. Many colonists died in the first year. The following year 1621 did not bring a good harvest . The American Thanksgiving Festival, which is still celebrated today, dates back to the first harvest festival that the settlers celebrated together with local Indians . Another problem with the colony was its undercapitalization. Myles Standish , originally hired by the colonists as the military commander in chief, traveled to London in 1625 to obtain further loans for the troubled colony. The first governor was William Bradford ; he remained in office until 1657. As the highest political leader, Bradford ensured the colony's survival. Due to the dominance of the radical Pilgrim Fathers, however, Plymouth always remained a comparatively insignificant colony - despite the independence it had maintained until 1696 . The population in 1650: around 1500.

Myles Standish

In contrast to the Plymouth Plantation, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in 1629 by moderate Puritans. Salem , the first branch, had already been founded the year before. The first governor of the colony became the founder of the pioneer settlement, John Endecott . Long-term successor in office - until 1657 - was John Winthrop . In 1630 Winthrop had brought 900 new settlers to the colony on nine ships - instead of just one like the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth. As early as 1631, the Massachusetts colonists had founded half a dozen settlements - including Boston and Cambridge . Boston became the center of the colony; the settlement area reached in the east to the Connecticut River and the later colony of New Hampshire and also included areas further north in what is now Maine.

The economic differentiation in the new colony took place quickly. For agriculture was soon joined by craft , fishing and fur trade. Unlike Plymouth, the Massachusetts colony was geared towards economic success. In terms of faith, the colonists there were part of the moderate mainstream of Puritanism. The moderate stance referred only to the political relationship with the Anglican state church - not to the interpretation of Calvinist-Puritan orthodoxy . Such a type of society established itself relatively quickly in the colony, which was characterized by religious intolerance and strong social control . On the one hand, local self-government institutions enjoyed a high priority. On the other hand, the families who immigrated early on clearly dominated the fate of the colony. By 1643 this grew steadily to a population of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Immigration was promoted by the Great Migration between 1630 and 1640: the suppression of Calvinism in the British motherland led to a wave of emigration from which the puritanical New England colonies in particular benefited.

The rigid control in Massachusetts led to offshoot colonies early on. In 1636 two new foundations arose: in the southeast corner of Rhode Island with Providence and Newport as centers and in the southwest, along the Connecticut River, Connecticut . The founders of the Rhode Island colony were two religious dissidents: the radical-puritan preacher Roger Williams and the (alleged) antinomist and spiritualist Anne Hutchinson . In Connecticut, differences over the oligarchic leadership in Massachusetts led to the re-establishment. In 1636 Thomas Hooker , who had turned his back on Massachusetts, merged the Connecticut River settlements. In 1662 Connecticut received its own charter - the settlement area of ​​Hooker and his supporters was united with the downstream colony of New Haven . In the 1630s the first great Indian War took place in New England - the Pequot War from 1636 to 1637. Starting from the settlements in Connecticut, an offensive war developed against the Pequot based in the region , which considerably weakened the power of the tribes in southern New England.

Central Atlantic colonies

Nieuw Amsterdam: Hugo Allard's 1676 depiction shows a city that has grown rapidly.

In contrast to the New England area in the north and the two southern colonies of Virginia and Maryland, the section of the Atlantic coast in between was first settled by the Dutch and Swedes . The development of the region was initiated by the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson in 1609. In 1612 the Dutch sent two ships up the river; the following year, the fur trade began with the Indian tribes resident there - especially Delaware and Algonquin tribes. In 1624, Dutch settlers established two fortified settlements: Fort Nassau on the Delaware River and Fort Oranje (later Albany ) on the Hudson. In 1624 the Dutch navigator Peter Minuit bought the area of ​​what would later become Manhattan from the Indians . In addition, Minuit led two expeditions with Scandinavian settlers to the area around Wilmington in what is now Delaware . Fortified base on the territory of the present-day city of Wilmington: Fort Christina.

Compared to the British and French, the Dutch and Swedes were laggards when it came to establishing colony. The Republic of the Seven United Provinces , the predecessor of today's Netherlands, was still at war with its former ruling power Spain. The Swedish attempts to settle were initiated by the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstierna . From 1624 Nieuw Amsterdam became the administrative seat of the Dutch colony - the first European settlement in the area of ​​today's Manhattan. The Nieuw Nederland colony was officially founded in 1625. On the one hand, the Dutch traded in fur with the Indians. In the Hudson valley, the center of the colony, agricultural farms were also established .

Around 1640, around 600 people lived in the Swedish colony on the Lower Delaware. Never more than a peripheral outpost, it was taken over by the Dutch in 1655. The total number of colonists in Nieuw Nederland grew to around 9,000 by 1664. The governor of the colony was Peter Stuyvesant from 1647 . As the colony general director commissioned by the Dutch West India Company , he - unlike his predecessor Willem Kieft , who tried to ensure peaceful coexistence - played a key role in promoting the incorporation of the Swedish settlement. Stuyvesant's attempts to enforce a strict Calvinist regime in the colony met with discontent and (at least passive) resistance from the residents. The lack of support from Stuyvesant was ultimately also a reason for the surrender of the Nieuw Nederland colony to the English in 1664 without a fight.

1650 to 1700: consolidation and expansion

At the beginning of the colonization era, spatially small settlement areas on the coast and the larger rivers defined the picture, until 1700 the settlement area grew to a more or less closed area along the coast. In addition, further colonies were founded. The older colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut were joined by others: Carolina in the south, New Hampshire in the north and the Dutch area in the middle. The colony of Pennsylvania, founded in 1681, developed into a dynamic re-establishment . The influx of European immigrants reached its first peak in the second half of the 17th century. While only around 50,000 settlers lived in the North American colonies around 1650, their number had grown to around 250,000 by 1700.

New England and Mid-Atlantic Colonies

John Cotton

In New England, Massachusetts was establishing itself more and more as the dominant colony. After the previous settlement had predominantly capped itself on the southern part of New England, territories were now also defined in the area to the north of it. In 1679, the area between Piscataqua and Connecticut River was separated from New Hampshire in the form of a now independent crown colony. The area of Vermont , west of New Hampshire, remained controversial well into the 18th century. For this reason, Vermont is not one of the 13 founding colonies of the United States. Joining the Union took place after the end of the War of Independence in 1791. The Maine district in the north, however, was assigned to Massachusetts in 1691 and was not constituted as a US state until 1820. With a time lag compared to Virginia, southern New England also experienced a second Indian war that finally clarified the balance of power: The King Philip's War of 1676/1677 is considered the bloodiest Indian war of the 17th century. As a result, it affected around 90 settlements, completely destroyed 13 of them and killed around 600 settlers and an estimated 3,000 Indians. In the end, the tribes on the north east coast were eliminated as a political force.

House of Ann Putnam convicted in the Salem witch trials (1908)

In Massachusetts in particular, New England Puritanism took on increasingly dogmatic, rigid features. The largest of the New England colonies, under the three spiritual leaders John Cotton , Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather, developed more and more features of a theocratic regime. The Salem witch trials were a high point of this development, which historians viewed as a crisis of Puritanism . Between 1690 and 1692, around 200 charges were brought and around 150 people were arrested . In the end, 19 death sentences were passed - most of them executed by hanging . The involvement of the chaplain Cotton Mather is controversial; It is considered certain that Mather was involved at least in the preliminary investigation phase . At the end of the 17th century, however, liberalization tendencies also began in New England . The number of Baptists , Anglicans, and Quakers increased slowly; from 1692 they were considered citizens with equal rights . In addition, the dominant role of Massachusetts was underlined by the annexation of the Plymouth Colony in 1692.

Meet William Penn with Indians. Painting by Benjamin West (1771/72)

The Dutch colony in the central Atlantic became the property of the English in 1664. The new governor Richard Nicolls granted the colony's ethnic groups generous terms and conditions. The charter for the New York core colony went to the brother of Charles II - the Duke of York and Albany . The territory of the New Jersey colony was separated from New York and became an independent colony. As a new foundation, the colony of Pennsylvania was founded in 1681. Like Maryland, Pennsylvania was an owner colony. The founder was the Quaker William Penn . A special feature of the new colony was its religiously open, tolerant policy. In addition to Quakers, Germans , Huguenots and Irish-Scottish Presbyterians also settled in Pennsylvania . The center of the colony was the newly founded city of Philadelphia . The Quakers themselves held the leadership role within the colony. However, they soon became a minority compared to the non-Quakers who also settled there. The three Lower Counties on Lower Delaware enjoyed a special role. Provided with its own parliament from 1704 , Delaware developed in fact (if not formally) into an independent colony.

Southern colonies

The southern colony area was gradually expanded towards Florida - a vaguely defined area that was under the rule of the Spaniards at the time. An important milestone was the establishment of the Carolina colony south of Virginia in 1663. Carolina was another owner colony. It was named after Charles II (in Great Britain: Charles II). The charter was owned by a group of eight speculators from the British aristocracy , including Anthony Ashley Cooper , patron of the philosopher John Locke , who temporarily served as Cooper's private secretary . In 1680 Charleston was founded . The settlement was initially rather hesitant. The economic basis was the cultivation of grain and tobacco. Economic success was finally brought about by the extensive cultivation of rice at the end of the 17th century .

Structurally, clear differences developed between the north and south of the colony over time. While small farms and plantations dominated the northern part of the colony, which was populated from Virginia, rice plantations with intensive slave farming were the dominant sector in the south . Slavery in particular was an element that strongly distinguished the south of the colony from the northern part. The slave density in South Carolina was the highest of any colony; Estimates for the year 1760 put the ratio of African to European population with a factor of two to one. At the end of the 17th century, the mother country took the different developments in the two parts of the colony into account politically. In 1691 Carolina was informally split, in 1701 it was finally officially divided into the henceforth independent colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina .

Inhabited areas and settlement limits: before 1700 and until 1763

Territorial, social and political development

Socially and politically , the colonies at the turn of the 18th century presented a very heterogeneous picture: in the north, settler colonies clearly characterized by puritanical traits , in the center colonies populated by different groups, strongly trade -oriented, and in the south colonies that are structurally increasingly clear differentiated into an upper south and a lower south . An additional differentiator was the frontier in the west. After the coastal areas - with the exception of a few gaps - had been fully populated, it advanced step by step towards the Appalachian Mountains . Socially, life in the colonies was shaped by various tensions and conflicts. Reservations against Catholics led to rebellions in New York and Maryland, for example. In 1676 the conflicts between the Virginian coastal oligarchy and the hinterland settlers (some of whom were still in debt bondage) led to Bacon's rebellion . The uprising led by the planter Nathaniel Bacon was put down. The trigger for the conflict - dealing with the Indian tribes on the border and the settlement of the areas there - provided persistent conflict material.

For a long time, the crown's colonial policy was shaped by the principle of “wholesome neglect”. Nevertheless, Great Britain tied its North American colonies more and more to the mother country. While company and owner colonies predominated in the early phase of colonization, crown colonies were the common type at the end of the 17th century . The internal political situation, however, was heterogeneous. In practice, a mixture of self-government elements (a kind of lower house in the form of an elected colony parliament, the assembly) and administrative forms (especially in the form of the colony governor - mostly determined by the British) dominated. In economic terms, the Navigation Act of 1651 and subsequent amendments set the course - towards bilateral exchange relations geared towards the motherland. Formalized relationships between the colonies did not exist until the middle of the 18th century. The integration into the structure of the British Empire was reinforced in 1696 by the creation of the Board of Trade and Plantations - an overarching colonial authority, which was supposed to better coordinate the exchange with the mother country.

French and British territories during the French and Indian War

1700 to 1763: Struggle with France for supremacy

The period from the end of the 17th century to the end of the Seven Years' War was marked by further territorial expansion. A special feature of this historical section were the increasing conflicts with France: first the Palatinate , Spanish and Austrian War of Succession and finally the Seven Years War , which led to the takeover of French holdings in North America by Great Britain. In North America, the supremacy conflict between England and France led to border wars, which increased in intensity over time and which, due to the alliances with the Indian tribes involved, also operate under the name French and Indian Wars . The largest of these wars was the French and Indian War (singular) - the American counterpart to the Seven Years War.

Colonial Wars before the Seven Years War

Theater of war in King George's War: the fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island

The French possessions in what is now Canada and in the area between Appalachians and Mississippi had also developed into a heterogeneous colonial structure by the end of the 17th century. The North American possessions of France consisted of five components: the core colony of New France on both sides of the Saint Lawrence River (centers: Québec, founded in 1608 and Montreal , which was founded in 1641), the Acadia to the east (comprising the present-day Canadian provinces) New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ), Terre-Neuve ( Newfoundland ) north of it, the trading posts around Hudson Bay in the north, the area south of the Great Lakes (Pays des Illinois) and, south of it, the rest of the vaguely named Louisiana operating territory. The designation New France or Nouvelle France originally marked the entire colonial area. In the 18th century, however, it was mainly established for the closed settlement area on the St. Lawrence River.

By the beginning of the 18th century , almost 10,000 Europeans lived in this huge area. Only the core colony around the St. Lawrence River showed continuous settlement density. Such was only rudimentary in Acadia. In the remaining parts of the French territory, trade with the Indian tribes resident there and trading posts established for this purpose dominated the picture. French Canada reached its greatest flowering and at the same time its greatest expansion under the governor Louis de Buade Comte de Frontenac . The Palatinate, Spanish and Austrian Wars of Succession also had their respective counterparts on the North American continent. The offshoot wars , which went down in American history under the collective name of French and Indian Wars , began with the King William's War between 1689 and 1697. They continued in Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) and King George's War (1744–1748 ). In the end they led to the French and Indian War between 1754 and 1763 - the counterpart to the Seven Years War in Europe. Essentially, the disputes listed were sparked by two territorial conflicts of interest: a) British desires in relation to Acadia, Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay area, b) border disputes regarding the region between the French colonies of Canada and the British east coast colonies.

The King William's War (1689 and 1697) opened the struggle for supremacy, but did not bring any decisive results. Militarily, during its course, British advances towards Acadia and Québec alternated with those of the French in the border areas south of the St. Lawrence River - combined with raids by Indian allies in northern New England. The British attack on Québec ultimately failed, as did the French attacks on New England coastal areas with no results. Characteristic of the form of war, which became characteristic of the course of the French and Indian Wars, was its hybrid form: regular associations only played a marginal role. The main combatants were the settler militias and Indian tribes who participated on one side or the other. The most important ally of the English was the Iroquois Confederation. The majority of the tribes in the east coast hinterland, however, leaned more towards the French side due to the British settlement pressure and proved to be an important ally in all French and Indian wars.

This form of warfare was even more pronounced in the Queen Anne's War between 1702 and 1713. The border areas of Massachusetts and New York became the main target of French indigenous attacks. In New England, the resulting sequence of border skirmishes turned into a war of attrition, which the French side did not win, but which affected the affected regions noticeably. The Peace of Utrecht in 1711 brought decisive changes: the eastern part of Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland and the area on Hudson Bay became British property. The end of the war had severe consequences, especially for the French-speaking residents of Acadia. Due to the assimilation policy pursued by the British, numerous settlers preferred to leave the colony.

The third war of succession advanced to the (temporary) climax of the British-French power struggle - the King George's War between 1740 and 1748. In addition, this time the conflict shifted into the Ohio valley - a series of first British settlement attempts in this region. Another difference to the previous Wars of Succession was that the Iroquois Confederation, traditionally allied with the British, was largely neutral. Another special feature of this war was the concerted action of French and Spanish privateers on the Atlantic east coast. In terms of results, however, it was a draw. The Second Peace of Aachen confirmed the existing stalemate - a situation that was only to end with the Seven Years' War, which broke out in the following decade.

Inner-colonial changes in the 18th century

Domestically, consolidation and territorial expansion were the decisive factors in the first half of the 18th century. Georgia was added as the thirteenth colony in 1732 . The main purpose of establishing the new crown colony was to round off the border with Florida in Spain. The reasons for the start-up were partly of a philanthropic nature. Main player was the officer and Tory - lower house deputies James Edward Oglethorpe . The colony was intended to rehabilitate prisoners of guilt and to establish a socially just form of agriculture . In the beginning, slavery was forbidden, as was the import of rum . However, the well-intentioned intentions quickly proved ineffective. In the early 1750s, the British colonial administration overrode the restrictions on slavery. The social conditions of Georgia quickly approached those in northern South Carolina.

The population of the 13 colonies continued to grow rapidly between 1700 and 1750. While around 250,000 European settlers lived in the colonies at the beginning of the century, their number increased to over a million by 1750. The most populous colonies were Virginia (over 230,000), Massachusetts (around 188,000), Maryland (144,000) and Pennsylvania (just under 120,000). The hinterland and the mid-Atlantic colonies grew faster than New England and the south as a result of this population surge. The ethnic composition and religious affiliation were also more heterogeneous than in the 17th century . While English immigrants made up more than three quarters of the colonies in 1700, their proportion fell to a little more than half in 1755. The religious landscape changed primarily as a result of the Great Awakening in the 1740s and 1750s. This was a religious mass movement that brought inner contemplation and personal religious experience to the fore and established Methodism as a new Protestant trend .

The French and Indian War (1754 to 1763)

Fort William Henry today
Death of General Wolfe during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1763

The Seven Years' War - known in North America as the French and Indian War - lasted not only two years longer in the American theater than in Europe. It also started from there. In terms of extent and the intensity of its leadership , the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763 clearly stood out from its three predecessors. On the part of the British, the war increasingly developed into an offensive conflict over strategic supremacy in North America. Based on local disputes as a result of British settlements in the Ohio Valley, it soon expanded into a far-reaching dispute that took place throughout the greater region. What was new was that Great Britain used larger contingents of regular troops for the first time. There were also changes in the Indian alliance partners. The Iroquois tribes, traditional allies of the British, remained insecure cantonists in this war and participated on both sides. The French, on the other hand, succeeded in winning a broad Indian alliance - from Sioux and Comanche in the west to Hurons , Delaware, Shawnee and Choctaw in the immediate border area of ​​the colonies.

The center of the first fighting was the Upper Ohio Valley - western Pennsylvania and the area of ​​today's states of Ohio , Kentucky and Tennessee . Settlers from the colonies had already encountered French outposts here in previous years. One of the first successes of the settler militias - mainly from Virginia - was the conquest of Fort Duquesne , located at the confluence of the Ohio headwaters, in 1754. In the same year, the Albany Congress took place, at which the colonies attempted coordination with a view to better defense against France. The joint warfare of regular units of the British Army , Indian allies and settler militias, however, proved to be a hurdle. The core cadre of the British officer corps recruited in the Jacobite Wars had a condescending attitude towards the colonial militias - a factor which made coordinated action considerably more difficult. There were also different strengths and weaknesses in warfare: While the border war was an unfamiliar obstacle for the British troops, the militias showed their weaknesses especially when they were deployed far from their original areas of origin .

Although the British held their own in the Ohio area and quickly captured the Canadian province of Acadia, the British side suffered a series of setbacks in the early years of the war. In 1756 the French succeeded in taking Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario . In 1757 the border war culminated in northeast New York on the occasion of events during and after the siege of Fort William Henry . After the British occupation under George Munro surrendered, Native American allies of the French ambushed the withdrawing British troops, killing between 70 and 180 of them. The turn of the war for the British only came after William Pitt determined British war policy as a decisive actor from 1757. Militarily, the British now concentrated their forces mainly on the Saint Lawrence Valley. The first step was to break the connection between the French core colony there and the western areas. In 1759, Québec was taken - a company in the decisive battle of which both the British Commander-in-Chief Wolfe and his French rival Montcalm fell on the Abraham level . In 1760, colonists and the British army carried out a pincer attack on Montreal, eventually forcing the French governor to surrender New France.

The Peace of Paris in 1763 marked the end of French colonial rule in North America. France ceded its remaining possessions - the Canada Colony in the Saint Lawrence Valley, western Acadia (New Brunswick) and the eastern part of Louisiana including the Illinois areas to England. The western part of Louisiana - the area of ​​the later Louisiana Purchase - came provisionally to Spain. Spain, which had entered the war on the side of France, in turn ceded Florida to England. The war had an aftermath in the areas north of the Ohio. A tribal rebellion along the Frontier, initiated by Ottawa chief Pontiac , affected the entire western colony border area. Participating tribes were: Hurons, Delaware, Shawnee, Ottawa, Miami , Kickapoo , Potawatomi , Ojibway and parts of the Iroquois Seneca . 2000 settlers were killed in the wake of this Indian War, 450 soldiers were either killed or abducted; individual Indian troops advanced as far as Virginia and Maryland. Ultimately, however, the settler militias and the army managed to put down the uprising - even if the fighting lasted until 1766. The opening up of the areas north of the Ohio, which the Pontiac uprising wanted to prevent, turned out to be a point of contention, which at that time drove the alienation between the colonies and the motherland, which was already very advanced.

1763 to 1783: the American Revolution

1763 to 1775: in the run-up to independence

The Stamp Act as a funeral: caricature from 1766

The development, which gained momentum from 1763 and, in individual aspects, extended beyond the end of the War of Independence, is known in historiography under the umbrella term American Revolution . They usually start at the end of the Seven Years' War. The conflict material that had accumulated in its course was not least of a mental nature. The colonists felt they were being treated with condescension by the representatives of the motherland, but the British were of the opinion that the colony inhabitants did not show them enough respect. The increasing alienation was intensified by the fact that Great Britain still adhered to bilateral, England-oriented economic relations after the dismissal of William Pitt (1761), who was oriented towards the unification of the Empire. An indication of the more rigid centralization oriented towards the motherland, which became apparent in British colonial policy, was the treatment of the Franco-Acadians after 1755, who had been expelled from Nova Scotia because of their resistance to British rule.

Benjamin Franklin

The Proclamation Line, declared in 1763, became the first point of contention between the colonies and the crown . It banned private land purchases beyond the Appalachian ridge and placed the area west of the Appalachian Mountains under direct military control of the British Army. The intentions behind this administratively drawn western border were twofold: On the one hand, the British colonial administration wanted to avoid further disputes with the Indian tribes living across this border. Secondly, from the British point of view, unhindered expansion to the west made the already inadequate control of the colonial territories more difficult. In addition, there was the fact that a number of unresolved territorial claims were pending between the colonies themselves . In practice, the Proclamation Line served its purpose only inadequately: Thousands of settlers had meanwhile already settled beyond the Appalachians; their practical effect was consequently little.

The second reason for growing disagreements arose from England's intention to use the colonies to pay off the war costs incurred . The reasoning used by the Crown to justify new tax levies: England ultimately led the war to protect the settlers; in addition, the colonists paid less taxes than the inhabitants in the motherland anyway . The first new taxation measure was the Stamp Act , enacted in 1765 - a special tax declared as a stamp tax on all printed documents . In cooperation with British merchants , the colony negotiator Benjamin Franklin succeeded in 1766 in having the Stamp Act canceled. In its place, however, came new taxation - the Townshend Acts of 1767. The subject of taxation this time: consumer goods such as lead , paint , paper , glass and tea - imported goods that the colonies had to import.

A tax collector is tarred and feathered

The Stamp Act and Proclamation Line marked the beginning of general resistance against British colonial power. The regional parliaments of Virginia, Massachusetts, and other colonies passed resolutions against the unpopular stamp duty. A congress held in New York challenged the UK Parliament's right to tax in general. The demands of the colonies condensed into the slogan: No taxation without representation . The Sons of Liberty formed as an underground resistance movement . Their actions focused primarily on measures against tax and customs collectors and the boycott of English products . The leading head of the more radical colonist faction was the Boston lawyer Samuel Adams . The tug-of-war over the controversial Proclamation Line also continued. On the one hand, the British conceded exceptions in the Treaties of Fort Stanwix , Hard Labor and Lochaber (1768 and 1770). On the other hand, the Quebec Act of 1774 exacerbated the situation - by adding the area west of the Appalachians and north of the Ohio to the reorganized Canadian province of Québec .

In the course of the late 1760s and early 1770s, the clashes intensified. When customs officials tried to confiscate the cargo of the merchant ship Liberty in June 1768 , serious tumult broke out in Boston. On March 5, 1770, the so-called Boston Massacre took place - a clash that killed five people. The tax collections of the British meanwhile increasingly came to nothing. One of the reasons for this was the activities of the Sons of Liberty, whose agitation led to customs officers being increasingly hindered, physically attacked and, in individual cases, tarred and feathered . The boycott of British goods proved to be a particularly effective weapon. The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773 , at which colonists disguised as Indians sank the cargo of a British merchant ship in the harbor basin . The immediate reaction of the British was to place the colony of Massachusetts under British military administration in the winter of 1773/1774. In September 1774 the First Continental Congress was constituted . The venue was Philadelphia. Fifty-five MPs from 12 colonies (Georgia was missing) tried to coordinate the colonies' attitude towards Great Britain. The moderate line, which mainly represented the Central Atlantic colonies, largely prevailed during the course of the Congress. Nevertheless, the delegates took two important decisions: a) the commitment to continue the boycott of goods against British goods in an organized manner, b) the preparation of the Second Continental Congress , which took on the role of a de facto government during the War of Independence .

War of Independence and Peace of Paris

George Washington (1772)
Margaret Kemble Gage
Thomas Paine
General Burgoyne surrenders in Saratoga (1777)

Open hostilities began on April 19, 1775 with two skirmishes near the New England towns of Lexington and Concord . Settler militias forced the British units involved to retreat to nearby Boston. The story that the insurgents gained an advantage through the relationship between American officer Joseph Warren and Margaret, wife of British Governor Thomas Gage, is not verified . On May 10, the Second Continental Congress was formed - this time also with representatives from Georgia. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were newly represented as important representatives of colony interests . Meeting in different places, the Second Continental Congress performed the functions of a provisional government during the War of Independence . The most urgent measure in the early days was the amalgamation of the insurgent militias to form a supra-local unit under a uniform command structure - the Continental Army . The commander in chief of the newly formed army was George Washington - a politician and militia leader who had already demonstrated negotiating skills and military talent in the French and Indian War.

The military course of the War of Independence, which began in 1775, was changeable. In addition to Indian allies, in whose eyes the British represented the lesser evil (mainly from the Cherokee , Shawnee, Delaware and Iroquois Mohawk tribes ), several tens of thousands of Hessian and Brunswick mercenaries , some of whom were evicted, took part in the fighting on the British side . There were also - to a lesser extent - loyalist militias . The Tory militias were numerically less significant. Regardless of this, their existence contributed to the fact that the American War of Independence partly assumed the features of a civil war . The fighting was initially concentrated in the north - in the New England region. The Continental Army's first success - victory at the Battle of Ticonderoga (May 1775) - was undone by its defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775). The plan to occupy the Canadian province of Québec and to pull the residents living there to the American side failed, among other things, because of the provisional state of the Continental Army. Although she succeeded in taking the New England metropolis of Boston in March 1776, her radius of action remained limited in the first few years.

The military development in 1776 and 1777 brought the rebellious colonies several times to the brink of defeat. After the fighting in New England, the mid-Atlantic colonies increasingly became the main theater of war. The British Commander-in-Chief, Major General William Howe , occupied the city of New York, landed massive reinforcements in the surrounding area and inflicted a series of defeats on the Continental Army - including that in the Battle of Long Island , which pushed the Continental Army out of the area around New York . In December 1776, the Continental Army finally had to retreat across the Delaware River. Although she managed to assert herself in a series of smaller and larger disputes . The taking of the temporary continental congress venue Philadelphia in September 1777 could not prevent it.

As early as the first two years of the war, the harshness with which the British proceeded led to increasing bitterness among the population. At the beginning of the survey, the focus was only on equal political participation , but the question of breaking away from Great Britain and independence has now become more and more popular. The motivation of the colonists was substantially strengthened by Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense , which appeared in 1776. At the request of Virginia, the American Declaration of Independence finally took place on July 4, 1776 - a document which the future US President Thomas Jefferson played a key role in drafting. The battle of Saratoga in the autumn of 1777 brought about a major militarily turning point , with the failure of a poorly coordinated British plan aimed at cutting off the New England colonies from the rest of the colonies.

British Supreme Commander Henry Clinton
British surrender after the Battle of Yorktown. Mural in the Capitol

As a result, the tide turned increasingly in favor of the insurgents. The continental army, which had been weakened in its fighting strength by disease, hunger and the loss of troops, was fundamentally restructured. From 1777, the Prussian general Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben became its chief inspector and supreme instructor . Another foreigner who became involved with the American colonists from 1777 onwards was the French general Marquis de Lafayette . Ultimately, a decisive factor in the war was the fact that France intervened in the war in favor of the newly founded USA . The main theater of war shifted increasingly to the south in the following years. Under Howe's successor Henry Clinton , the British succeeded in taking Savannah and Charleston. The colonists' troops, which operated from the hinterland and supported by French units, were able to tie the British to the coastal plain. The Battle of Yorktown , Virginia in 1781 - a de facto decisive victory - finally put an end to all hopes of the British to win the war in North America.

North America after the Peace of Paris in 1783

The Paris peace negotiations, which began in 1782, came to an end with the peace treaty of September 3, 1783. In addition to the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, as a result they brought new border determinations. In the west, the Mississippi now formed the official western border of the USA. The northern border with Canada remained as it was. The 31st degree of latitude was set as the border to (now Spanish) Florida. The old constitutions from the colonial era were replaced by new state constitutions between 1776 and 1800 . Only Rhode Island and Connecticut kept their charters from the time of Charles II. The establishment of the new US state led to an era of upheaval that lasted well into the 1790s. One question that arose after the War of Independence was the treatment of the loyalists. Today's figures assume around 100,000 people who left the USA after the end of the war. Over a long period of time, however, the republic managed to reintegrate the majority of the former loyalists. In the Old Northwest in what is now Ohio and Indiana, however, the War of Independence resulted in a series of Indian Wars that lasted well into the 1790s and prompted the new US President George Washington to found the Legion of United States - the first standing Army of the newly established state.

Establishment Dates for the Thirteen Colonies

The founding of the USA founding colonies spanned a period of 125 years. Some smaller colonies broke up into larger ones during this period. Others - such as New York and Carolina - have been broken up into smaller units over the course of colony history. Two other areas - the territories of Maine and Vermont - only became US states during the War of Independence or later. The historical parameters of the individual colony foundations here at a glance:

Territory of the Thirteen Colonies
year colony Type US state Remarks
New England colonies
1652 Province of Maine CK Maine Part of Massachusetts until the Revolutionary War ; US state since 1820
1777 Vermont disputed between New Hampshire and New York; 1777 independence, 1791 US state
1680 New Hampshire Colony CK New Hampshire spun off from Massachusetts
1620 Plymouth Colony CK Massachusetts up to 1696 separately; then part of Massachusetts
1629 Province of Massachusetts Bay CK Massachusetts
1636 Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations CK Rhode Island Massachusetts Colony offshoot
1636 New Haven Colony CK Connecticut Massachusetts Colony offshoot; United with Connecticut in 1661
1636 Colony of Connecticut CK Connecticut Massachusetts Colony offshoot
Central Atlantic colonies
1624 Province of New York KK new York originally part of Nieuw Nederland ; Taken over by England in 1664
1664 Province of New Jersey EK New Jersey originally part of Nieuw Nederland; Taken over by England in 1664
1681 Province of Pennsylvania EK Pennsylvania
1681 Delaware Colony EK Delaware part of Pennsylvania until the Revolutionary War; since 1711 self-administration
Southern colonies
1634 Province of Maryland EK Maryland
1607 Colony of Virginia CK Virginia West Virginia split in 1861
1663 Province of Carolina KK North Carolina originally Carolina; Division into North and South Carolina in 1712
1729 South carolina KK South carolina originally Carolina; Division into North and South Carolina in 1712
1732 Province of Georgia EK Georgia
Legend: CK = charter or trading company colony; EK = owner colony; KK = crown colony

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans R. Guggisberg, Hermann Wellenreuther: History of the USA. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1974/2002, 4th edition, ISBN 978-3-17-017045-2 , pp. 10-11.
  2. ↑ Michael Iwanowski : Florida. Tips for individual explorers. Iwanowski's travel book publisher, Dormagen 2010, ISBN 978-3-933041-89-0 . Excerpts online at Google Books .
  3. ↑ 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. 487/488.
  4. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. Pp. 503/504.
  5. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 8/9.
  6. ^ A b c Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 9.
  7. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 14/15.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Heideking, Christof Mauch: History of the USA. UTB, Stuttgart 1996/2006, 4th edition, ISBN 978-3-7720-8183-5 , pp. 3–5.
  10. ↑ Bernd Stöver: United States of America. History and culture. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63967-8 , p. 63.
  11. ↑ Ben Kiernan : Earth and Blood. Genocide and Annihilation from Antiquity to the Present. DVA, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-421-05876-8 , pp. 290-297.
  12. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 508.
  13. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. , P. 515.
  14. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. Pp. 20/21.
  15. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 16.
  16. ↑ Hermann Wellenreuther: Fall and Rise. History of North America from the beginning of settlement to the end of the 17th century. Lit, Münster u. a. 2000, ISBN 3-8258-4447-1 , p. 301
  17. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 510.
  18. ^ A b c Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 17.
  19. ↑ a b c Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 538.
  20. ↑ a b c Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 10.
  21. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 20.
  22. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 10/11.
  23. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 17/18.
  24. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 19.
  25. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 11
  26. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 63.
  27. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 489.
  28. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 7.
  29. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 24.
  30. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 21.
  31. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 517.
  32. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 39.
  33. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 39/40.
  34. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 22-24.
  35. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 12.
  36. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 72/73.
  37. ↑ a b Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 525.
  38. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 128-132.
  39. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick : Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin Group, New York 2006, ISBN 0-670-03760-5 (Engl.).
  40. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 518.
  41. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 13/14.
  42. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 23.
  43. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 15.
  44. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 25.
  45. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 156.
  46. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 7.
  47. ↑ Michael Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Birth of a Nation 1763–1815. CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-65442-8 , pp. 36–41.
  48. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, pp. 22/23.
  49. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 26.
  50. ↑ The classification comes from the philosopher Edmund Burke ; see also Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 20.
  51. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 20.
  52. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 31/32.
  53. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 30.
  54. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 31.
  55. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 31.
  56. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 42.
  57. ↑ Wellenreuther: Fall and Rise. P. 195.
  58. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 495.
  59. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. Pp. 496/497.
  60. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 23.
  61. ↑ a b Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 53.
  62. ↑ a b Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 547.
  63. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 6.
  64. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 533.
  65. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 19.
  66. ↑ Reinhard: The submission of the world. Pp. 526/527
  67. ^ A b Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 24.
  68. ↑ a b Reinhard: The submission of the world. P. 548.
  69. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 54.
  70. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 31.
  71. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 56/57.
  72. ↑ The events around Fort Henry in James Fenimore Cooper's leather stocking novel The Last of the Mohicans were processed literarily .
  73. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. Pp. 60/61.
  74. ↑ Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. Pp. 24/25.
  75. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 66.
  76. ↑ See also the overall presentation in Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution.
  77. ^ A b Heideking, Mauch: History of the USA. P. 26.
  78. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 62.
  79. ^ A b c Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 34.
  80. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 64.
  81. ^ A b c Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 35.
  82. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 36.
  83. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. Pp. 35/36
  84. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 67.
  85. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 39.
  86. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 37/38.
  87. ^ Stöver: United States of America. P. 87.
  88. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 38.
  89. ^ Stöver: United States of America. Pp. 93-95.
  90. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 172.
  91. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 40.
  92. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 334.
  93. ^ Raeithel: History of North American Culture. Volume 1, p. 223.
  94. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 309.
  95. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. Pp. 40/41.
  96. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 41/42.
  97. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 42.
  98. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 44.
  99. ^ A b Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 45.
  100. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 48.
  101. ^ Guggisberg, Wellenreuther: History of the USA. P. 48 ff.
  102. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 308.
  103. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 317.
  104. ^ Hochgeschwender: The American Revolution. P. 342.

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

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