ESL theme : American Colonies

1, Original map

Colonies During the French and Indian Wars, 1754-1763

The Original 13 English Colonies 1607-1733

2, Names of the first 13 colonies and History

The Thirteen Colonies were some of the colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America founded between 1607 (Virginia) and 1733 (Georgia) by a variety of interests from England and later Great Britain. They are best known as the founding political entities of the United States of America.

The colonies were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Each colony developed its own system of self-government. Residents of these colonies were mostly independent farmers, who owned their own land and voted for their local and provincial government. Benjamin Franklin, in 1772, after examining the wretched hovels in Scotland surrounding the opulent mansions of the land owners, said that in New England "every man" is a property owner, "has a Vote in public Affairs, lives in a tidy, warm House, has plenty of good Food and Fuel, with whole clothes from Head to Foot, the Manufacture perhaps of his own family." Following aseries of protests in the 1760s and 1770s, these colonies united militarily in opposition to Great Britain and the rule of King George III with the outbreak of theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1775. In 1776 they declared their independence and formed a new nation, the United States of America.

Before independence, the thirteen were part of a larger set of colonies in British America. Those in the British West Indies, Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec,Nova Scotia and East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown throughout the war, although there was a degree of sympathy with the Patriot cause in several of them. However, their geographical isolation and the dominance of British naval power precluded any effective participation.

The British empire settled its first permanent colony in the Americas at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. This was the but the first of 13 colonies in North America. The 13 colonies can be divided into three regions: New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. The chart below provides additional information include: years of settlement and founders.

Sort: Colony Name, Year

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COLONY NAME	YEAR FOUNDED	FOUNDED BY	BECAME ROYAL COLONY
Virginia	1607	London Company	1624
Massachusetts	1620	Puritans	1691
New Hampshire	1623	John Wheelwright	1679
Maryland	1634	Lord Baltimore	N/A
Connecticut	c. 1635	Thomas Hooker	N/A
Rhode Island	1636	Roger Williams	N/A
Delaware	1638	Peter Minuit and New Sweden Company	N/A
North Carolina	1653	Virginians	1729
South Carolina	1663	Eight Nobles with a Royal Charter from Charles II	1729
New Jersey	1664	Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret	1702
New York	1664	Duke of York	1685
Pennsylvania	1682	William Penn	N/A
Georgia	1732	James Edward Oglethorpe	1752