British America

British America and the British West Indies
British America and the British West Indies
1607–1783
	Flag of Great Britain
	British colonies in North America which were part of British America (red) at its peak, and other dependencies held by the British Crown at the time (pink)
Status	Colonies of England (1607–1707); Colonies of Great Britain (1707–1783)
Capital	Administered from London, England
Common languages	English, French, Spanish, Dutch and many indigenous languages
Religion	Anglicanism, Protestantism, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Native American religion
Government	Constitutional monarchy
Monarch
• 1607–1625	James I & VI (first)
• 1760–1783	George III (last)
History
• Roanoke Colony	1585
• Virginia Colony	1607
• New England	1620
• King Charles II charter for Rhode Island and Providence Plantations	1663
• Rupert's Land	1670
• Treaty of Utrecht	1713
• Treaty of Paris	1763
• Treaty of Paris	1783
Currency	Pound sterling, Spanish dollar, colonial money, bills of credit, commodity money and many local currencies
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	New Netherland
	New France
	Spanish Florida
	New Sweden
British North America
British West Indies
United States
Spanish Florida
Today part of	Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Bermuda; British Virgin Islands; Canada; Cayman Islands; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Honduras; Jamaica; Mexico; Montserrat; Nicaragua; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos; United States

English America, and later British America, were the English, and later British, territories in North America (including Bermuda), Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana from 1607 to 1783. Formally, the British colonies in North America were known as British America and the British West Indies until 1776, when the Thirteen British Colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard declared their independence and formed the United States of America.^[1] After that, British North America (or, simply but not inclusively, Canada) was used to describe the remainder of Britain's continental North American possessions. The term "British North America" was first used informally in 1783, but it was uncommon before the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839), called the Durham Report.

British America gained large amounts of new territory following the Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended Britain's involvement in the Seven Years' War. At the start of the American War of Independence in 1775, the British Empire included 20 colonies north and east of New Spain (present-day areas of Mexico and the Western United States). East and West Florida were ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the American Revolution, and then ceded by Spain to the United States in 1819. All but one of the remaining colonies of British North America apart from the British West Indies united together from 1867 to 1873 forming the Dominion of Canada. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

History

Between 1606 and 1670, a number of English colonies were established on Indian land in North America by individuals and companies granted commercial charters by King James I, King Charles I, Parliament, and King Charles II to found and run settlements there. The first such permanent settlement was founded at Jamestown by the Virginia Company whose investors expected to reap rewards from their speculative investments, but there were an estimated 14,000 natives in the region. Indian political leadership sought to resettle the English colonizers from Jamestown to another location and expected them to become members of the Confederacy. Other colonizers, both English and German, did join the Powhatans.^[2] The first colonizers were welcomed by the Indians with dancing, feasting and tobacco ceremonies.^[3]

List of North American colonies in 1775

There were twenty British colonies in continental and Canadian maritime North America in 1775.^[4] These were:

1) The Thirteen Colonies that eventually formed the original states of the United States of America:

New England Colonies

Province of Massachusetts Bay
Province of New Hampshire
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – founded in 1636 as a sanctuary for European religious freedom by Baptists expelled from Massachusetts Bay by the Puritans and formally authorised by charter of King Charles II on 8 July 1663.^[5]^[6]
Connecticut Colony

Middle Colonies

Southern Colonies: (Virginia and Maryland may also be grouped as the Chesapeake Colonies)

2) Other British colonies and territories (ruled by Britain since 1763) that were later ceded by Britain to Spain (the Floridas) or the United States (the Indian Reserve and Southwestern Quebec); all this territory eventually became part of the United States of America: