Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. The American Enlightenment led these colonies to the American Revolutionary War. They declared independence as the United States of America in July 1776, which was achieved by 1783 under the Treaty of Paris.

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Thirteen Colonies
1607–1776
Flag of British America (1707–1775) Flag of Thirteen Colonies (1776–1777)
The Thirteen Colonies (shown in red) in 1775 with modern borders overlaid
Status	Colonies
Government	Various colonial arrangements
Monarch
• 1607–1625	James I & VI (first)
• 1760–1776	George III (last)
History
• Roanoke Colony	1585
• Virginia Colony	1607
• New England	1620
• Rhode Island Royal Charter	1663
• New Netherland ceded to England	1667
• Treaty of Utrecht	1713
• Province of Georgia	1732
• French and Indian War	1754–1763
• Articles of Association	1774
• Independence declared	1776
• Treaty of Paris	1783
Population
• 1625	1,980[1]
• 1775	2,400,000[1]
Preceded by Succeeded by Pre-colonial North America New Netherland United Colonies Province of Quebec (1763–1791) New Brunswick

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The Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: the New England Colonies, which included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; the Middle Colonies, which included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; and the Southern Colonies, which included Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.[2]

The Thirteen Colonies had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, dominated by Protestant English-speakers. The first of these colonies was Virginia, established in 1607. The founding of the New England Colonies, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion. The other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion. The Middle Colonies were established on the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which became New York. All 13 colonies were part of Britain's possessions in the New World, which also included territory in Canada, Florida, and the Caribbean.[3]

The colonial population grew from about 2,000 to 2.4 million between 1625 and 1775, displacing Native Americans. This population included people subject to a system of slavery which was legal in all of the colonies prior to the American Revolutionary War. In the 18th century, the British government operated its colonies under a policy of mercantilism, in which the central government administered its possessions for the economic benefit of the mother country.

The 13 colonies had a high degree of self-governance and active local elections, and they resisted London's demands for more control over them. The French and Indian War (1754–1763) against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the 13 colonies. During the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with one another instead of dealing directly with Britain. With the help of colonial printers and newspapers, these inter-colonial activities and concerns were shared and led to calls for protection of the colonists' "Rights as Englishmen", especially the principle of "no taxation without representation". Conflicts with the British government over taxes and rights led to the American Revolution, in which the colonies worked together to form the Continental Congress. The colonists fought the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) with the aid of the Kingdom of France and, to a much lesser degree, the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Spain.[4]