The Thirteen Colonies

The thirteen colonies were a series of British settlements in the new world. They started developing between the years of 1607-1733.Then the colonies all joined together to gain independence from the British in 1776 in a big war called the revolutionary war. I’ll be talking about three colonies: Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Virginia was the first colony in the new world. It developed in 1607 with its capital being Jamestown until 1699 when it became Williamsburg. Virginia’s main export was tobacco. Later, the colony had its charter revoked for a time by King James I, who made it a crown colony. Different parts of the colony Virginia eventually split up and became part of: West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Plymouth colony and Massachusetts Bay colony were combined to make the Province of Massachusetts, basically the colony of Massachusetts. William and Mary were the people who issued a new charter for Massachusetts. I have said Massachusetts a lot already. I challenge you to count how many times I say Massachusetts (including that one)! Massachusetts was a religious colony occupied with mostly puritans, though other religions were tolerated. The name Massachusetts came from a local Native American tribe named, Massachusett.

In 1691, the same William and Mary founded the colony of New Hampshire. The colony was named after Hampshire country in England and was first part of Massachusetts. New Hampshire’s optimal trade is timber, but the only problem was that England wanted to keep all of the good timber to themselves so they could make ship masts. What jerks!

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