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In New England, where most of the people lived in villages and towns, local government was conducted in town meetings. Only citizens who owned property or paid taxes, however, were allowed to vote or to become a member of the assembly. Most of the colonies established assemblies similar to the English Parliament to govern themselves.
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Over the years, however, the interaction between the colonists and the Native Americans turned more often to conflict. Some of the colonists established friendly relations with the Native Americans living near them. The early colonists adopted Native American foods and herbs, methods of raising crops, war techniques, and words. Life in the colonies was influenced by the Native American tribes that had lived on the land since long before the Europeans arrived. Early Relations with the Native Americans Georgia, the last of the original 13 colonies, was settled in 1733. In 1729 the territory was divided into the colonies of North and South Carolina. South of Virginia, the land known as Carolina was settled by the English during the second half of the 1700s. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by an English Quaker named William Penn. The English also seized nearby New Jersey and Delaware from the Dutch in 1664. The English changed its name from New Netherland to New York. In 1664 an English fleet seized the Dutch colony. The English colonists in New England and Virginia viewed the Dutch as intruders. Meanwhile, in 1624, Dutch settlers had founded a colony called New Netherland in the area of the Hudson River. Maryland, just north of Virginia, was settled in 1634. People from the Massachusetts Bay Colony established the colonies of Connecticut in 1635 and Rhode Island in 1636. Permanent settlements were made in what is now New Hampshire in 1623. Plymouth Colony was made part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.Įnglish colonies spread along the coast near Massachusetts and Virginia in the 1620s and 1630s. The Puritans also had left England because of disagreements with the Church of England. Near Plymouth, another group of English Protestants called the Puritans founded the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. After landing in what became the state of Massachusetts, they established their colony. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a ship called the Mayflower. The Pilgrims were a group of Protestants who left England because they objected to some of the beliefs and practices of the Church of England. The second English colony to be established in America was Plymouth. This was the House of Burgesses (or citizens). In 1619 the people of Virginia organized the first representative assembly in America.
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The English founded their first permanent settlement on the continent at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. ( See also Americas, Exploration and Settlement of the.) In 1609 Henry Hudson, in command of a Dutch ship, sailed into New York Bay and up the river that later was named after him. Ten years later another French expedition led by Jacques Cartier sailed up the Saint Lawrence River. In 1524 a French expedition commanded by Giovanni de Verrazzano explored the coast of North America from North Carolina northward to Canada. England laid claim to North America based on this voyage, though for decades it made little effort to colonize the land. In 1497 the Englishman John Cabot explored the coast of what is now eastern Canada. Meanwhile, three other countries also became interested in the new land: England, France, and the Netherlands. Through later explorations, Spain also established control over what is now the southwestern United States. He landed in what is now Florida in 1513 and claimed it for his country. The first Spanish explorer to reach the shores of what is now the United States was Juan Ponce de León. The Spanish established colonies in the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and South America. When the king and queen of Spain learned of what Columbus had found, they laid claim to much of the new lands. Others were killed in warfare or forced into slavery. Many died of diseases carried by the Europeans. Columbus’ discovery began an era of European exploration and colonization that had a devastating effect on the Native Americans. The continents of North and South America and the nearby islands became known as the New World. This voyage and three later ones revealed vast new lands to the Europeans. The history of the Americas forever changed when the explorer Christopher Columbus arrived from Spain in 1492.