There are a large number of legends and stories of varying degrees of reliability about brave sailors who had traveled to North America long before Columbus. Among them were Chinese monks who landed in California in about the 5th century, and Spanish, Portuguese, Irish missionaries and travelers who allegedly visited the mainland in the 6th, 7th and 9th centuries. The area of ​​North America is 24.7 million square meters. km This rich land, of course, was a welcome prey for many countries.
The most reliable information is reports of Norwegian sailors who visited the mainland in the 10-14 centuries. But the Norman settlements fell into decay already in the 14th century, leaving no noticeable marks regarding the cultural connection between the peoples of the European and American continents. In this sense, North America was rediscovered in the 15th century. Before other Europeans, it was the British who did this.
The first expeditions of the British
The discovery by the British of America marked the beginning of the voyage of John Cabot (otherwise his name sounds like Giovanni Cabbo or Gabbotto) and Sebastian, his son, who, strictly speaking, were not native British, but Italians in the service of England. Having received two caravels from the king, Cabot was obliged to find the sea route leading to China. Apparently, in 1497 he reached the shores of Labrador (where, incidentally, he met the Eskimos), as well as, possibly, Newfoundland, where he met the Indians painted with red ocher.
So the first meeting of the Europeans in the 15th century with the "redskins" of North America took place. In 1498, the Cabot expedition again reached the coast of this mainland.
The first practical result of this was the discovery of the richest fish shallows off the coast of the already mentioned Newfoundland. Entire fleets of fishing vessels from England reached here, their number was growing every year.
The beginning of colonization
Colonization of North America began in the 17th century. By this time, the British already had competitors in the person of the Spaniards and the French, who also sought to colonize this mainland. The British government believed that Canada was the natural possession of Britain in America, since the Canadian coast was discovered by the Cabot expedition long before the French. Attempts to establish possessions were carried out as early as the 16th century, but were unsuccessful: the British did not find gold, but neglected farming. Only at the beginning of the 17th century did the first English colonies appear. They were agricultural.
Thus, the 17th century was the first stage in the colonization of this continent.
The first permanent English colonies in North America in the 17th century
Capitalism in England developed largely due to the success of foreign trade, as well as the creation of monopoly trading companies in the colonies. For this purpose, two trading companies were established with significant funds: London (Varginsky, or South) and Plymouth (Northern). They were organized by subscription to shares. Royal diplomas of England transferred to the disposal of these firms land located between 34 and 41 ° north latitude, as well as unlimited inland. Britain acted as if this territory belonged to its government, and not to the Indians.
Virginia
Sir Hamford Gilbert received the first charter authorizing the establishment of an American colony. Before staying and starting work, he carried out an exploratory expedition to Newfoundland, but crashed on the way back. Thus, the rights of Gilbert passed to Sir Walter Reilly, his relative, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth herself. In 1584, he decided to establish a colony south of the Chesapeake Bay and in honor of the "virgin queen" called her Virginia (from Latin virgo - girl). The English map of America, thus, replenished with another possession. The following year, another group of colonizers set off here, based in the current state of North Carolina, on Roanoke Island. After a year, they returned to their home country, as the chosen place was dangerous to health. Among these colonists was John White, a famous artist. He brought many sketches from the life of the Algoikins - local Indians. The fate of another group that arrived in Virginia in 1587 is unknown.
At the beginning of the 17th century, a virgin commercial company carried out a project to create a colony, proposed by Walter Reilly. Big revenues were expected from this enterprise. At its own expense, the company delivered immigrants obliged to work out their debt within four to five years.
Jamestown was chosen as the site for the colony founded in 1607, but the choice was unsuccessful. The place was unhealthy, with many mosquitoes, marshy. In addition, the British soon became enemies of the Indians. Clashes with them and illness in a few months claimed the lives of about two-thirds of the colonists.
Life was organized in a military fashion. Colonists were gathered together twice a day and sent in formation to work in the field, every evening they returned for lunch and for prayer to Jamestown. John Rolf, who took the “princess” Pocahontas, the daughter of the leader of the local Povhatan tribe, married himself, from 1613 began to grow tobacco. Since then, this product has become a long important item of income for the colonists and the Virginia company. The latter, encouraging immigration, gave them land allotments. The poor worked out the cost of the road from England to America, too, received an allotment for which they paid in fixed payments.
Maryland and Virginia
Later, in 1624, when Virginia (the territory of North America) began to be considered a royal colony, and its management passed into the hands of the governor appointed by the king, this service became a kind of land tax. Immigration of the poor has increased even more. So, if in 1640 the population of the colony was 8 thousand inhabitants, then in 1700 there were already 70 thousand. In Maryland, another English colony founded in 1634, immediately after its founding, Lord Baltimore endowed the colonists, large entrepreneurs and plantation owners, with land. The modern map of America has kept the names of these and other colonies of the time as states.
Both Maryland and Virginia specialized in tobacco production and were therefore heavily dependent on English imported goods. On large plantations of these colonies, the main labor force was the poor exported from England. "Bonded servants," as they were called, throughout the 17th century made up the bulk of immigrants to Maryland and Virginia.
Settlers
Their work very soon, however, was replaced by the slave labor of blacks, from the first half of the 17th century delivered to the southern English colonies in North America. The first large batch of them was delivered in 1619 to Virginia.
Among the colonists from the 17th century, free settlers also appeared. The “Pilgrim Fathers”, the English Puritans, went to the Plymouth northern colony, part of which were sectarians who fled from England from religious persecution. In November 1620, a ship with pilgrims moored at Cape Cod Cape. Half of them died in the first winter, because the settlers, mainly urban residents, could neither cultivate the land, nor hunt, nor fish. Only with the help of the Indians, who taught the arrivals to grow corn, the rest survived and even managed to pay their travel debts. The colony founded by sectarians from Plymouth was called New Plymouth.
Massachusetts
The Puritans, who were oppressed during the Stuart rule, founded the Massachusetts colony in North America in 1628. The Puritan Church had tremendous power in this colony. The local resident only in that case received the right to vote if he belonged to the church and had good recommendations from the preacher. Only one fifth of the male population in this order had the right to vote.
Later, during the English Revolution, the map of the colonies of Great Britain expanded. New possessions appeared. "Cavaliers" began to arrive in the British colonies in North America - emigrant aristocrats who did not want to put up with the established revolutionary regime in the country. They settled mainly in Virginia, a southern colony.
Caroline
Eight courtiers of King Charles II in 1663 received as a gift lands located south of Virginia and founded the Carolina colony (which later divided into North and South). Enriched Virginia landowners tobacco culture has spread here. However, in some areas, such as the Shenandoah Valley in western Maryland, and in the wetlands of South Carolina south of Virginia, there were no conditions for growing this crop. Rice was bred here, just like in Georgia.
The courtiers who owned Carolina wanted to get rich on the cultivation of rice, sugarcane, flax, hemp, silk, indigo, that is, goods that are scarce in England and imported from other countries. Madagascar rice variety was introduced here in 1696. Its cultivation has since become the main occupation of local residents for a hundred years. Rice was bred on the seashore and riverine swamps. Hard work was put on the shoulders of Negro slaves, who made up about half the population in 1700. In the current state of South Carolina, that is, in the southern part of the colony, slavery was established even more strongly than in Virginia. Large slave plantation owners had rich homes in Charleston, the cultural and administrative center of the colony. The heirs of its first owners in 1719 sold their rights to the English crown.
North Carolina, where mainly Virginia refugees (small farmers who were hiding from overwhelming taxes and debts) and Quakers, was of a different nature. There were very few black slaves and large plantations. In 1726, North Carolina became an English colony.
In all possessions, the population was replenished mainly by immigrants from Scotland, England and Ireland.
New York
The population of another colony was significantly more diverse: New York (the former Dutch possession of the New Netherlands) with New Amsterdam (the current city of New York). After the British captured her, she went to the Duke of York, brother of Charles II, the English king. By that time there were no more than 10 thousand inhabitants who spoke 18 languages. Dutch influence was great, although immigrants from this country did not constitute a majority. Traces of it remain to this day: Dutch words have entered the American language, and the architectural style of the Netherlands has left its mark on the present look of the American towns and cities that make up modern North America. See a photo of New York in 1851 below.
Colonization growth
The colonization of North America by the British was very large. This continent seemed the promised land to the European poor. Here they planned to escape from religious persecution, harassment of large landowners and debts.
Various entrepreneurs recruited immigrants to America, even organized real raids on them. Agents in taverns soldered people. They were sent drunk to the ships recruited and taken to English colonies in North America.
One after another, English possessions appeared. Their population was growing rapidly. The agrarian revolution in Britain, which contributed to the mass deprivation of peasants' allotments, ousted many poor people from England who sought to obtain new land in the colonies.
On the mainland in 1625 there were only 1980 colonists, and in 1641 there were already 50 thousand people from England, not to mention other inhabitants. After another 50 years, the population increased to 200 thousand. In 1760, it amounted to 1695 thousand inhabitants, of which 310 were Negro slaves. Five years later, the number of colonists almost doubled.
War with the indians
For a long time, the colonists fought a war of destruction against the Indians, taking away their land. In just a few years, from 1706 to 1722, the Virginia tribes were almost completely destroyed, despite the "kinship" ties that connected the powerful leader with the British.
In New England, in the north, Puritans used other means: they bought land from the Indians through "trade deals." Later this gave rise to historians to argue that the ancestors of the Americans did not seize the lands of the Indians and did not encroach on their freedom, but concluded agreements with them. For a string of beads, for a handful of gunpowder, etc. one could "acquire" a huge plot of land. And the Indians, who were not aware of the existence of private property, usually did not know the contents of the transaction. In recognition of legal righteousness, the colonialists expelled the former owners from the lands, and if they did not agree to leave, they exterminated them. Especially cruel were the religious fanatics from Massachusetts. As the church preached, the beating of the Indians was pleasing to God. So many indigenous people died .
Pennsylvania
Some exceptions to this brutal policy of exterminating the local Indians were Pennsylvania, founded in 1682 by the wealthy Quaker William Penn, the son of an English admiral, for his like-minded persecuted in his native country. They tried to maintain friendly relations with local residents. However, when there were wars between the French and English colonies in 1744-1748 and 1755-1763, the Indians who entered into an alliance with the former became involved in it and were forced out of Pennsylvania (North America). Photos of modern Pittsburgh, located in the former colony, see below.
Colonization in the 19th century
Colonization of North America continued into the 19th century. In the first third of it, significant changes occurred in the economic and social development of British possessions in North America. Modern Canada includes former English colonies.
In the 19th century, about half a million immigrants entered Canada, the British domain of the same name, and the total population of the colonies exceeded 1 million. The economy was based on sawmills , farm-type agriculture and shipbuilding. Manufactories appeared. But the basis of production in the colonies was still small craft. English products imported into the colony strangled local production. So the social contradictions intensified. Colonial officials, speculators and businessmen appropriated land intended for the local population. These and other contradictions led to an uprising in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837-1838. They were suppressed, and their leaders publicly executed.
After the suppression of the uprisings, the British colonial department decided to continue the assimilation of the French Canadians, and in 1841 issued the Union Act, according to which Upper and Lower Canada, the former British colonies, were united into a single one called Canada. This law was an act of colonial violence and gross outrage.
British colonies in the 19th century
Great Britain at that time possessed vast overseas possessions. In the middle of the 19th century, the area of ​​North America, owned by England, consisted of the following colonies: Nova Scotia, Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, as well as British Columbia, located on the Pacific coast and separated from the rest by thousands of kilometers.
In the 60s, England headed for the unification of its colonies. In 1867, the "Dominion Canada" was formed, uniting the former colonies of Great Britain into one state. It included the provinces of the English-speaking Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, as well as French-speaking Quebec. The Constitution of Canada was adopted in the same year.
Countries - former colonies of Great Britain, thus were united under one flag.