English colonists

The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European settlements from the start of colonization until their incorporation into the United States of America. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands launched major colonization programs in eastern North America. Small early attempts often disappeared, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Everywhere, the death rate was very high among the first arrivals. Nevertheless, successful colonies were established within several decades.

European settlers came from a variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, soldiers, farmers, and tradesmen, but not from the aristocracy. Diversity has been an American characteristic from colonial times onward. Settlers traveling to the new continent were of various ethnic groups, including the Dutch of New Netherland, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden, the English Quakers of Pennsylvania, the English Puritans of New England, the English settlers of Jamestown, and the "worthy poor" of Georgia. These groups built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style.

Over time, non-British colonies were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated. In Nova Scotia, however, the British expelled French Acadian inhabitants; many relocated to Louisiana. No major civil wars occurred in the thirteen colonies. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–91. The colonies developed legalized systems of slavery, centered largely around the Atlantic slave trade. Wars were recurrent between the French and the British during the French and Indian Wars. By 1760, France was defeated and its colonies were seized by Britain.

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