Back الاستعمار البريطاني للأمريكيتين Arabic Colonización británica AST Англійская каланізацыя Амерыкі Byelorussian Colonització britànica d'Amèrica Catalan Britiske kolonier i Nordamerika i 1700-tallet Danish Britische Kolonisierung Amerikas German Βρετανικός αποικισμός της Αμερικής Greek British colonization of the Americas English Colonización británica de América Spanish Amerikako britainiar kolonizazioa Basque
The British colonization of the Americas is the history of the first relationships between England, Scotland, and Great Britain with North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean. This relationship is called colonization because an outside group forcefully took control of land and resources. This land that was taken over was called a colony.
Britain was not the first European country to build colonies in the Americas. People from Scandinavia built a colony called Vinland in the area of Newfoundland (now part of Canada) around 1000 AD. In 1492, Christopher Columbus told Spain about islands in the Carribean and it also built colonies.
English colonization started in 1585, when Sir Walter Raleigh built the doomed Roanoke Colony. The first successful English colony in the Americas was built in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Around 30,000 Algonquian peoples lived in the region at the time. In 1620, a group of mostly Pilgrim people came to North America because they disagreed with Anglican England about religion. They built a colony on the coast of what is now Massachusetts. These two were the first of many North American colonies. The English also took over land in the Caribbean, including Barbados and Jamaica.
In the 1670s, England took over control of New Netherland from the Dutch. In 1763, Britain took control of the French colony of Canada, France's territory east of the Mississippi River, and several Caribbean territories
Many of the North American colonies separated from Britain by winning the American Revolutionary War, which ended in 1783. Historians refer to the British Empire after 1783 as the "Second British Empire." Britain cared about taking over economic control of Asia and Africa more than taking over land in the Americas. However, it did take over British Columbia, Trinidad, and British Guiana and build the Falkland Islands and British Honduras.
Most of the remaining colonies in North American joined the Confederation of Canada in the 1860s or 1870s, though Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949. Britain stopped all control of Canada with the Statute of Westminster 1931. However, Britain and Canada are still connected. Canada recognizes the British monarch as head of state.
Other British colonies became countries during the Cold War. Many joined the Commonwealth of Nations to work together. Colonies that did not become countries are now called British Overseas Territories.