Thirteen Colonies

Thirteen Colonies
1607–1776
Flag of British America (1707–1775) Flag of Thirteen Colonies (1776–1777)
Anthem: God Save the King
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
Preceded by Succeeded by Pre-colonial North America New Netherland United Colonies
Today part of	United States

The Thirteen Colonies were colonies in British North America in what is now the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. They were founded for different reasons. Some people thought that they would make a lot of money in new goods in America that could not be found in Europe, such as tobacco. Others left to find freedom of religion or just to make a new start. Some wanted to be in charge and to change things that they did not like back at England.

The first colony was Virginia, which was started in 1607 at Jamestown. The last colony of the thirteen to be started was Georgia in 1732.

The Thirteen Colonies (listed from north to south):

1. New Hampshire
2. Massachusetts
3. Rhode Island
4. Connecticut Colony
5. New York
6. New Jersey
7. Pennsylvania
8. Delaware
9. Maryland
10. Virginia Colony
11. North Carolina
12. South Carolina
13. Georgia

The colonies are often divided into three groups. The northern group was called New England and included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

There were four Middle Colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

The South had five colonies: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

New England had small farms and focused on fishing, forestry (trees and lumber), shipping, and small industry to make money.^[2]

The South had large plantation farms that grew tobacco and later cotton. Plantations were farmed first by indentured servants, who would work for a period of years in return for their passage to America and land. They were later replaced by slaves.

The Middle Colonies had medium-sized farms. They also had people from many different cultures with many different beliefs.^[3]

All three regions were tied to the "Atlantic economy". Colonists built merchant vessels, and merchants traded slaves, agricultural goods, gold, fish, lumber, and manufactured goods between America, the West Indies, Europe and Africa.^[4]

After the French and Indian War, Great Britain made new taxes and other laws that angered some people in the colonies. That led to a war between Great Britain and its former colonies: the American Revolutionary War.

The colonies said why they wanted to become independent of Great Britain on July 4, 1776 at the Declaration of Independence and became known as the United States of America.

1. ↑ U.S. Census, 1906, p. 9
2. ↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot (1972). The Oxford History of the American People. New York City: Mentor. pp. 199–200. ISBN 0451-62600-1.
3. ↑ Kennedy, David; Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas A. Bailey (2006). The American Pageant (13th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618479406.
4. ↑ Kurlansky, Mark (1997). Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. New York: Walker. ISBN 0-8027-1326-2.