Achieving independence as the United States of America was a lengthy and unlikely struggle for the 13 original colonies. Over the centuries, the territory of the 13 colonies was contested by several European powers before the British established control of the Atlantic coast of North America. Even under British rule, the 13 colonies had their own unique geographic, cultural, religious, political, and economic attributes. It was not a straightforward task for these disparate entities to come together to resist efforts by the British Parliament to impose greater control over its North American colonies in the 18th century.
Early Exploration and Settlement
Britain’s control of the original 13 colonies, which came into being with the founding of Georgia in 1732, took place in the context of competition among European powers to colonize North America. The European colonization of the Americas began after Christopher Columbus’ first voyage of 1492. While Columbus never set foot on what is now American soil, his expeditions on behalf of the Spanish Crown encouraged further Spanish exploration of the Americas, leading to the foundation of St. Augustine in Florida, the first permanent European settlement on what is now the United States.
Other European nations simultaneously explored North America by staking their respective claims. Frenchman Jacques Cartier, for example, navigated the St. Lawrence River in the 1530s, and his compatriots founded colonies in Canada by the early 17th century. Simultaneously, the Dutch and Swedish established their own colonies in the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
While the original 13 colonies were initially divided amongst European nations, they eventually all ended up under British control. In 1607, England established its first permanent colony in Jamestown, Virginia. This was followed shortly by the settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. While these colonies naturally spread rapidly, military superiority in conflicts such as the Anglo-Spanish, Anglo-Dutch, and King Philip’s War enabled English and later British forces to establish control of all 13 original colonies from both European rivals and indigenous peoples.
Geography: Mapping the Colonies
The original 13 colonies were divided into three distinct regions confined by French and Spanish territories to the north and south respectively. The northernmost New England colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were defined by mountainous terrain and natural harbors. The port of Boston in Massachusetts was an important economic hub and symbol of early patriotism following the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party. Well-known Americans from New England included Revolutionary War spy Nathan Hale and the cousins Samuel Adams and John Adams.
South the New England colonies lay America’s middle colonies. Composed of the current-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, these territories enjoyed a more balanced climate, a mix of plains and rolling hills, and extensive waterways including the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, and John Jay, Founding Father and America’s first Chief Justice, are two notable figures of the middle colonies.
Lastly, the colonies of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia made up America’s southern territories to the north of Spanish Florida. The region’s hot summers, fertile soil, and coastal plains served as excellent agricultural land. However, these characteristics encouraged wealthy landowners to exploit the land with slaves. The slave economy in the south was a primary factor driving sectional tensions between the northern and southern states for decades after American independence. Virginia, the largest and most populous of the 13 colonies, was the birthplace of renowned Americans including future presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Colonial Life, Society, and Economy
While early American society was characterized by traditional gender roles, professions, and values, the New England, middle, and southern colonies each exhibited unique cultural and economic differences. In the north, large-scale agricultural pursuits proved futile, and families relied on subsistence farming, fishing, maritime trade, and hunting to endure harsh winters. Society in New England was influenced by the Puritanism of the Pilgrim Fathers, leading to a devout and highly educated society. Some of the United States’ most prestigious centers of higher education such as Harvard (Massachusetts) and Yale (Connecticut) are still based in New England’s original colonies. The northern colonies valued their political autonomy under the British Crown and quickly became a major hub for the American revolutionary movement in the years preceding the Revolutionary War.
On the other hand, America’s middle colonies experienced cultural and economic diversity in cities like Philadelphia and New York City. The region’s history of colonization by different European powers left a patchwork of Dutch, English, German, and Swedish families living alongside each other. The greater degree of tolerance meant that the middle colonies would play a key role in facilitating the movement of freed slaves escaping southern oppression via the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. Economically, middle colonies were collectively known as the “breadbasket” because of its fertile soil used to make wheat and barley delivered to other colonies. The south’s economy and culture, however, mainly revolved around its agrarian lifestyle with tobacco, indigo, rice, and cotton as its main crops. These colonies were organized in a hierarchical, “aristocratic” society where slavery flourished, in direct contrast to its northern neighbors.
Government and Politics
While they were all subjects of the British Empire, the original 13 colonies witnessed varying degrees of involvement from the Crown. For example, while governors were appointed in royal and proprietary colonies, corporate colonies elected their own executive representatives. Legislative bodies among the colonies, however, were more standardized. Typically, Governor’s Councils advised colony-level decision-makers, and colonists were only allowed to participate in Representative Assemblies, the lower house, if they met a certain property requirement.
Due to the dispersed nature of the original 13 colonies, perhaps the most important form of government to everyday colonists was local authority. In New England, town meetings facilitated shared understanding for families to participate in community decision-making. In the south, county systems performed similar roles with slightly less participation from everyday citizens due to ingrained hierarchies. These small gatherings allowed like-minded groups of individuals to control local laws and taxes.
While mostly unconcerned with local matters, the British government exercised clear control over colonial economies. Under the mercantilist system, the colonial economy primarily benefitted Britain by restricting the flow of overseas trade to European countries other than England, demanding more exports than imports, and limiting the manufacture of goods that jeopardized English supply. Over time, early American colonists began to challenge this structure. Grievances over economic policy and taxation without representation encouraged revolutionary sentiment in the decades before the Revolutionary War.
Pre-Revolution Conflicts and Wars
Aside from smaller skirmishes between European powers and Native Americans in North America, the original 13 colonies participated in several major conflicts before the American Revolutionary War. Queen Anne’s War—which served as the American theater of the War of Spanish Succession—witnessed intense conflicts between British colonists against Spanish and French subjects and their respective Native American allies in the continent from 1702 to 1713. From northern fronts in Canada to southern fronts in Florida and Alabama, Queen Anne’s War impacted all 13 original colonies. After one decade of fighting, the Treaty of Utrecht marked an end to combat, granting Britain considerable territorial gains in Canada including the regions of Arcadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay.
Almost four decades later, Britain and France and their Native American allies once again squared off in North America for control of the Ohio Valley. Part of the wider Seven Years’ War fought between European powers, the French and Indian War offered combat experience to key leaders of the American Revolutionary War including future Commander-in-Chief George Washington, who was directly involved in initiating hostilities.
After nearly ten years of fighting, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 finalized terms that saw France cede vast territories, specifically in Canada and French possessions east of the Mississippi River, to Britain. The French and Indian War left Britain with a sizable amount of debt, prompting Parliament to increase taxes on its American colonies to pay for their defense. These revenue-raising efforts inspired political opposition that would lead to the American Revolution.
American Revolution and Independence
After the Stamp and Townshend Acts of the 1760s burdened an already strained American economy, American colonists were disgruntled by increases in the prices of everyday items. Americans in the 13 colonies argued that as subjects of the British Empire they enjoyed full political rights and could not be subject to taxation without its representatives having a vote.
Although the British authorities sought to moderate the initial taxes, escalating tensions about the powers of the British government in the 13 colonies led both sides along the road to hostilities. The Boston Massacre of 1770 further inflamed Patriot sentiment across the 13 colonies, while the Boston Tea Party three years later led Britain to double down on political and economic sanctions against its New England colonies via the so-called Intolerable Acts. As a result, key American figures including Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson rushed to consider the fate of the colonies at the First and Second Continental Congresses.
By April 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out with fighting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. One year later, the colonies officially drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence after decades of political and economic tensions, and the United Colonies became the United States. Ultimate triumph, however, would not prove easy. The Continental Army, led by George Washington, recruited soldiers from each of the original 13 colonies. After six years of intense fighting which took place across the 13 colonies the United States achieved independence after forcing Lord Cornwallis to surrender at the Siege of Yorktown.
In 1781, the 13 colonies were brought together into a single political entity under the Articles of Confederation. Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison believed that the federal government was too weak under such arrangements and campaigned for the ratification of the Constitution of the United States in 1789, which enabled closer integration between the 13 states. Over the centuries, with major land acquisitions such as the Louisiana Purchase, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the purchase of Alaska and annexation of Hawaii, the original 13 states have now become 50.
