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Founding of Jamestown
Jametown was the first succesful English colony in the Americas. The first settlers of Jamestown were young men who were seeking gold. They nearly starved as they were not prepared to establish a permanent settlement. However, once it was discovered that tobacco grew well in Virginia, Jamestown developed a thriving economy, built on plantation agriculture and slave labor. -
Establishment of the Virginia House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first elected legislature in the English colonies. Its establishment contributed the colonial belief that the English colonies had the right to elect their own legislatures. It was the percieved threat to this right, after the French and Indian War, that led to the American Revolution. -
First Africans brought to the English Colonies
A Spanish ship brought the first Africans to the colony of Jamestown in 1619. Because they had been christened as Christians on board ship, colonial law at the time forbade enslaving them. Instead, they were treated as indentured servants and those who survived their term of indenture were freed. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was signed by the Pilgrims to establish a government upon their arrival at what was to become the Plymouth Colony. Like the Virginia House of Burgesses, the Mayflower Compact contributed to the development of the colonial belief that the colonies, althought subject to the King, were at least partially self-governing. -
First of the Navigation Acts passed.
The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by he British Parliament to regulate colonial trade. These laws restricted the ability of the colonies to trade with countries other than Britain in order to ensure that Britain was the primary beneficiary of trade. -
Virginia established legal slavery
The growing cash crop economy of Virginia, combined with a decline in the number of Englishmen and women who were willing to work as indentured servants, led Virginia to legalize the institution of slavery. Eventually, slavery would be legal in all of the English colonies in North America. -
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Salutary Neglect
Beginning in the 18th Century, Britain stopped strictly enforcing the laws restricting colonial trade. It was very difficult and expensive to enforce these laws, and since both the English and the American economies were growing, England saw no need to strictly enforce them. -
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French and Indian War
War fought in part for control over the North American continent. Most Native Americans backed the French, as they were viewed as less of a threat to Native culture and land holdings. After a few early defeats, Britain managed to defeat the French, who then abandoned the North American continent. Although they were victorious, the war left Britain deeply in debt. British attempts to tax the colonies to pay off their war debt contributed to the American Revolution. -
Proclamation of 1763
In 1763, Britain declared that the colonists were not allowed to settle west of the Applachian Mountains. Britain did this because they feared that colonial expansion might cause another war -- and because the larger their empire, the harder and more expensive it would be to govern. Colonists were angry at the limitation, viewing western lands as ripe for settlement. The Proclamation was often ignored. -
Stamp Act
One of the first British attempts to raise revenue by taxing the colonies directly (rather than just regulating colonial trade). Because colonists were not represented in the British Parliament, they viewed this as a violaton of their right, as Englishmen, to be represented in any government that taxed them. The colonists begain to protest under the motto of "No taxation without representation." -
Tea Act
Although the Tea Act lowered the tax on tea imported into the colonies by te British East India Company, it also assured a monoply on the tea trade for the British East India Company, threatening coloniea merchants. -
Boston Tea Party
To protest the Tea Act, a group of American colonists boarded a ship in the port of Boston and dumped the tea it was carrying into the Harbor. Britain responded by passing the intolerable acts. -
Intolerable or Coercive Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of British Laws meant to punish the colony of Massachusetts for their resistance to British taxes. Britain hoped that bif they made an example of Massachusetts, the other colonies would end their resistance. The plan backfired as actually increased colonial resistance to British rule. -
Publication of Common Sense
Written by Thomas Paine, Common Sense was a short pamphlet that argued the American colonies should declare themselves free from British Rule. Common Sense was instrumental in convincing many colonists to support the cause of independence. -
Adoption of the Declaration of Independence
Written by a committee headed by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence asserted that the North American colonies were now a "free ndependent." Deeply influenced by Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, the Declaration argued that government was created to protect the rights of citizens and that, because the British government had not protected their rights, the colonies had a right to rebel.