The Americas

British Colonies in the Americas (New England)
AD 1583 - 1783

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The English crown made its first tentative efforts to establish overseas settlements in the sixteenth century. Maritime expansion, driven by commercial ambitions and by competition with France, accelerated in the seventeenth century and resulted in the establishment of settlements in North America and the West Indies.

With the Spanish very active in South America and the Gulf of Mexico, and as far north as their newly-founded colony in Florida, early explorative efforts from the British Isles were generally either aimed at islands or much further north, mainly towards Newfoundland (probably location of Vinland) and the New England coast of the modern USA.

Unlike the New Spain colony, or New France to the north and west of New England, the British colonies did not have one overall viceroy in charge. Instead, each newly-founded colony or province had its own governor, most of whom answered directly to the English crown (and later the British crown). Some other colonies were attempts at creating new homes which could be independent of the perceived injustices in England or Scotland).

However, Britain's American colonies came to rival those of the Spanish in terms of wealth and military might. Thanks to this, when they became independent, they were ideally placed to extend that might and over much of North America, usually to the cost of the Native North American tribes.

The term 'New England' applies today only to six states in the north-eastern USA, these being Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The name was coined by John Smith in 1616, and was officially recognised in 1620. The colonies overall bore no collective label, except for the brief 'Dominion of New England' in 1686-1689 which was universally abhorred and was ditched as soon as King James II had been removed from the throne.

Instead the term 'British Colonies' is used here for all of the British settlements and provinces, whether English, Scottish, Welsh or otherwise, and across the entire colonial period up until the capture of the province of Quebec on the eve of the Revolutionary War (the American War of Independence) and the refocus of colonial activities by Britain on what is now Canada.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Mick Baker, from Britain's Bloody History: Plymouth, Laura Quigley, from Indian Tribes of the New England Frontier (Osprey No 428 Men-at-Arms Series), Michael Johnson, from Everyday Life of the North American Indian, Jon Manchip White (1979), from The Encyclopaedia of North American Indian Tribes, Bill Yenne (1986), from The Native Tribes of North America - A Concise Encyclopaedia, Michael Johnson (1993), from the Atlas of Indians of North America, Gilbert Legay (1995), and from External Links: First Nations: Issues of Consequence, Lee Sultzman, and Legends of America, and Encyclopaedia Britannica.)

1497

Explorer John Cabot sets sail from Bristol in England to become the first European since the Vikings to make landfall in Newfoundland, arriving on 24 June. The later city of St John in Newfoundland is named after him, although the exact location of his landfall is disputed. The name is first recorded on a Portuguese map of 1519.

John Cabot, Italian navigator and explorer, surveyed the Newfoundland coast for Henry VII of England, making him the first European visitor to the Americas since the Vikings

1583

The first English colony in North America is chartered on 5 August at St John's Bay, Newfoundland, by Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The colony comprises mainly of Portuguese and French fishing villages, but Sir Humphrey sinks with his ship in a storm before he can make it home. No settlement is made there until 1604.

1585 - 1587

The English Roanoke Colony is founded in late 1585 or early 1586 on Roanoke Island (in modern North Carolina). Founded by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a permanent settlement in the Virginia Colony (which itself is named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen), the first stockaded town is named Fort Raleigh.

Dwellings are probably more like barracks for the initial colonists - elongated English-style cottages with wattle-and-daub-covered walls and perhaps internal divisions. Hidden by outer banks, the island is protected from being spotted by passing Spanish ships. The colony is abandoned the following year, leaving a hundred and eight colonists starving, who are then massacred by the natives.

The Roanoke Colony, located on the large island to the lower centre-left of the illustration, was founded in 1586, but by the following year it had failed

An attempt by John White to re-establish the colony in 1587 also fails, with the settlers disappearing utterly after three years without supplies from England, which is involved in a war with Spain. Only the bones of a single man are found, along with the word 'Croatoan', the name of a native tribe, etched onto a tree.

As this has almost certainly been scratched out by one of the colonists, the presumption is that they have joined that tribe in order to survive. They become known as the 'Lost Colony' after John White returns to them from his drawn-out trip home for supplies to find them gone.

1589

With little or no Spanish Colonial control, the Mosquito Coast along the Atlantic makes a perfect haven for Dutch and English pirates who are searching for safe bases from which to launch attacks on gold-laden shipping from New Spain.

A traditional view of the Mosquito Coast shows what could be a 'dream holiday' view of the Atlantic coast in this part of Central America, making it an ideal residence for the coastal natives groups who made this their home prior to the arrival of Europeans

1600

By this time, three distinctive native tribes of the Eastern Woodland dominate the territory now known as Virginia (see feature link). These tribes speak three different languages - Algonquian, Siouan and Iroquoian - and live in organised villages along the banks of the coastal waterways, in woodlands and mountain valleys.

When Europeans begin arriving in the region, they meet Indian people of the coastal plain which is inhabited by an Eastern Algonquin empire, today collectively known as Powhatan. The south-western coastal plain is occupied by Iroquois, Nottoway, and Meherrin. The Piedmont is home to two Sioux confederacies: the Monacan and the Manahoac.

1604

The settlement of St John in Newfoundland is founded, making it the oldest incorporated settlement in North America. The settlement is used on a seasonal basis until it becomes permanent in 1620.

1606 - 1607

The Virginia Company is chartered by James I of England when two companies are given the rights to settle the coast of North America. The Virginia Company of London, or London Company, is centred on the James River in Virginia, while the Virginia Company of Plymouth, or Plymouth Company, is to handle the coastal strip to the north, although it fails to get started (this territory becomes known as New England).

The Iroquois, shown here in the 1800s, settled the eastern areas of the Eastern Woodlands in large numbers in the first millennium AD, but gradual eastwards encroachment into Algonquian lands saw the Iroquoian Meherrin and Nottoway living amongst them in eastern Virginia and North Carolina by the time the Europeans arrived

Robert Hunt, vicar of Holy Cross Church in Hoath, England (see feature link), in 1594, arrives at the James River colony in 1607 and celebrates the first Anglican communion in the new colonies, thereby laying the basis for the Episcopalian church in the later United States.

The Popham Colony, or Sagadahoc Colony, is founded by the Plymouth Company in 1607, but is abandoned in 1608.

1607

James Fort is founded, the earliest part of the later Jamestown Colony (1609). Captain John Smith encounters Pocahontas (real name Matoaka or Amonute).

She is about twelve years old, with an estimated date of birth of 1595 and is the daughter of Powhatan, the chief of the Powhatan confederacy of native tribes (see feature link). Smith later recounts how she saves him from execution at the hands of the natives when he is captured (and see 1611, below).

However, this would appear to be a ritualised 'mock execution', performed in order to adopt Smith as a weroance - the English becoming, in Powhatan's eyes, yet another sub-tribe to be controlled and brought under his influence, assimilation being more subtle than conquest.

John Smith is shown in this illustration trading with the native Americans who resided close to James Fort, although his explorations took him much further afield, across the northern edge of Chesapeake Bay and into Susquehannock territory (click or tap on image to view full sized)

Smith is also paraded before the Rappahannock in case he may be the murderer of one of their minor chiefs. Smith is declared innocent, not fitting the description of the murderer.

A staunch opponent of Smith's is Captain Gabriel Archer. He is deeply involved in the colony's politics and leads some of the first expeditions up the James River, seeking gold and silver. He takes a deadly dislike to Smith, and conspires unsuccessfully to have him executed in the colony - Smith's second lucky escape.

1608

Exploring the northern edge of Chesapeake Bay, Captain John Smith meets the Susquehannock for the first time. He is especially impressed with their size, deep voices, and the variety of their weapons. Their height must indeed be exceptional, because the Swedes also comment on it thirty years later.

He also meets a group of Manahoac, who live in at least seven villages to the west of the early European settlement, above the falls of the Rappahannock River. The Manahoac are friends of the Monacan and enemies of the powerful Powhatan.

In the same year, one of the Nansemond towns is raided and houses and canoes are destroyed in order to force the Indians to give the settlers corn. John Smith and his men demand four hundred bushels of corn or the village will be demolished. The Indians agree and the English leave with most of the tribe's corn supply.

The Powhatan confederacy (the pale orange area) was formed towards the end of the sixteenth century, and under its second paramount chief it rapidly expanded to cover territory which is now divided between the states of Delaware and Maryland (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1609 - 1610

The Bermuda islands are settled by the London Company in 1609, followed by the founding of the Jamestown Settlement on 14 May 1610 in an area which contains no native settlements, making it the first permanent English settlement in North America.

In the same year, the Cuper's Cove settlement is founded in Newfoundland by the Society of Merchant Venturers. It is abandoned in the 1620s. The winter of 1609-1610 is an especially harsh one.

The Jamestown settlers are besieged by Powhatan natives as the opening phase of the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609-1614), and have insufficient food to last the winter. First they eat their horses, then dogs, cats, rats, mice, and snakes. Some are driven to eat the leather of their shoes. As the winter crawls on, nothing is spared to maintain life.

The period is known as the 'Starving Time' to historians, and is one of the most horrific periods of early colonial history. The final stage of that horror is when the living have to resort to cannibalising the bodies of the dead.

The 1617 Jamestown parish church is in a location which today is increasingly at risk of flooding due to global warming, so four of its most notable internments were archaeologically excavated in 2013 and examined closely to confirm their identities: Captain Gabriel Archer, Sir Ferdinando Wainman, Captain William West, and the colony's first Anglican preacher, Reverend Robert Hunt

Written documents suggest this to later historians, but in 2013 archaeologists discover the proof to back it up in the form of human bones which display clear signs of chops and cuts, probably by an inexperienced butcher, and possibly by a woman, who make up the majority of the fort's inhabitants.

Relief finally arrives in the form of Lord De La Warr, who sails into the settlement with food and new colonists. After six months of siege and starvation, only sixty of the original three hundred settlers have survived.

Sir Ferdinando Wainman is part of De La Warr's expedition. A military man, he takes charge of the community's defences. Like many early settlers he doesn't adapt to the harsh Virginia climate and he dies a few months later from disease, becoming the first English knight to be buried in the Americas.

Captain William West is a relative of Sir Ferdinando and he arrives on the same ship. He is killed by the natives near the location of present-day Richmond. Like Sir Ferdinando, he is buried in an elaborate human-shaped coffin, both being laid to rest in the colony's burial site (the first church is built in 1617, either over these important graves, or they are moved to its chancel soon afterwards).

Established on 14 May 1607, the Jamestown colony gave England its first foothold in the European race for control of the New World despite Spanish attempts at domination

1610 - 1616

The 'Citie of Henricus' settlement is founded in 1611 by Sir Thomas Dale (now in Chesterfield County, Virginia) as an alternative to the swampy Jamestown Settlement area. The native Arrohattec who had until very recently lived in this area appear to have become extinct, leaving their village a ghost town.

From 1610 Pocahontas becomes a friend of the newly-founded Jamestown Colony. When she visits the Patawomeck on behalf of her father in 1613, she is taken hostage by the weroance, Japasaws. He has been helping the English in their efforts to evade Powhatan's intention of starving them into submission (see feature link).

Japasaws trades her to an English sea captain named Samuel Argall, in exchange for a copper kettle! This results in a truce in the First Anglo-Powhatan War and Pocahontas becomes a pawn in the politics of the day.

When Powhatan refuses to trade for his daughter, Pocahontas becomes resident at Henricus, where she is treated extremely courteously by the English. She is baptised as a Christian, taking the name Rebecca, and she meets tobacco plantation owner Captain John Rolfe who is pioneering a new strain of tobacco plant. The two marry on 5 April 1614,

Warriors of the Powhatan confederacy watch over their fellows in this early illustration which also seems to show English colonists and a stockaded settlement

The marriage leads to peace talks and the end of the Powhatan-driven war. A son is born to the couple on 30 January 1615, named Thomas Rolfe. The family sail to England to promote the colony in 1616, with Pocahontas being greeted at court by James I. She dies at Gravesend in March 1617 of an unspecified illness (smallpox is suspected).

1615 - 1618

The London and Bristol Company creates the Renews settlement in Newfoundland in 1615 (but it is abandoned in 1619). The same company founds the New Cambriol settlement (also in Newfoundland), only for it also to be abandoned before 1637. In 1618 the Society of Merchant Venturers founds the Bristol's Hope settlement in Newfoundland, but it is abandoned in the 1630s.

1620

On 21 November, the Pilgrim Fathers arrive at Cape Cod in New England on the Mayflower (this land had formerly been the Plymouth Company territory). They are leaving behind them the confused religious situation in England, hoping to found a new and better community in the New World (see feature link).

Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower - little did they realise what horrors awaited them on the coast of the New World (Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZ61-206)

1622 - 1624

The Province of Maine (the far north-eastern corner of the modern USA) is founded in 1622, its name perhaps originating from the French province of the same name in New France. But it is not all plain sailing for the English in the Americas.

The Jamestown Massacre devastates the Jamestown Settlement and the Citie of Henricus on Good Friday, 22 March 1622. Natives of the Powhatan confederacy launch a surprise attack which leaves a quarter of the colony's population dead (347 people, although the Patawomeck refuse to participate in the massacre). They are led in this Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622-1644) by Opechancanough.

In 1623, the Province of New Hampshire is settled immediately to the south of Maine, but in response to the native attack, in 1624 King James dissolves the charter company controlling the Jamestown colony and Virginia becomes an English royal colony.

1625

The English colonists defeat the Powhatan, the only Eastern Algonquin confederacy which had been strong enough to challenge the nearby Susquehannock people. The Susquehannock are freed up by the Powhatan defeat, so now the Delaware - and also the Dutch of New Netherland - are attacked by the Susquehannock from the Susquehanna Valley.

The Susquehannock territories were centred around the river which bore their name, but extended far to the east, towards Lake Erie where they abutted the generally peaceful Erie people and north to the Iroquois nations, who certainly were not peaceful (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1628 - 1629

Salem Colony is founded. The following year it is merged with the new Massachusetts Colony, which takes its name from the local natives. Nova Scotia (New Scotland) is founded opposite and to the south-west of Newfoundland between 1629-1632. The Province of Maine borders it to the west.

1630

A fleet of eleven ships leaves England, bound for New England, with colonists led by the Puritan John Winthrop. He has collected people together to settle the new world, which offers religious freedom from the Anglican Church which is still seen by some as being too steeped in Catholicism despite its separation from the Catholic Church almost a century before. By the year's end the colonists found the city of Boston, naming it after the town in Lincolnshire in England.

1631 - 1641

Proceeding outwards from North America, the earl of Warwick's Providence Island Company is formed on Providence Island in the Caribbean (now part of Colombia). The company makes contact with the Miskito and establishes friendly relations with the king and his people.

Two English bases are founded in the region and, in 1638, the kingdom of Mosquitia is officially recognised by England.

Their height and deep voices, plus the variety of Susquehannock weapons, made a deep impression on the early Europeans who met them, notably John Smith in 1608 and the first Swedish settlers a generation later

1633 - 1636

Connecticut Colony is founded in 1633 out of territory which is part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. It is named from an Algonquian native word for 'long river', Quinatucquet. The nearby Province of Maryland (named after the Virgin Mary) is founded a year later.

The Conoy and Patuxenet welcome these new colonists but the Susquehannock are not nearly as friendly, especially when settlements begin to creep steadily up the western side of Chesapeake Bay from Fort St George on the St Mary's River.

The New Albion colony is also chartered to settle areas of Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but it fails by 1649. In 1636, the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations are founded, as is the New Haven Colony, north of Rhode Island (only to be merged with the neighbouring Connecticut Colony in 1662).

1637 - 1638

The death of a settler from the British Colonies leads to the destruction of between six and seven hundred Native Americans. The remainder are sold into slavery in Bermuda. On 26 May 1637, the Mystic Massacre is a major event in the early days of the Pequot War.

Warships at the time of the English Civil War, with ninety of them mustered in Plymouth Sound in 1625 (with the kind permission of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Library of Toronto)

English colonists, with Mohegan and Narragansett allies, attack a large Pequot village on the Mystic River in what is now Connecticut, killing around five hundred villagers. The war itself takes place in Connecticut and Rhode Island, pitching the Pequot against an alliance of the Mohegan, Narragansett, and Niantic.

1638

The first wave of Swedish and Finnish settlers arrive under the leadership of Peter Minuit (former director-general of New Netherland).

They create New Sweden when they settle land on the lower Delaware (claimed by the Dutch) and build Fort Christina. The land is claimed to have been purchased from the local Delaware and Susquehannock, although they counter the claim with accusations of land theft.

1642 - 1644

Problems between the colonists and the Susquehannock have increased to such a degree that the governor of Maryland declares the Susquehannock to be enemies of the colony, to be shot on sight. By 1644, attempts at securing a peaceful resolution have failed, and Susquehannock trade with the English is temporarily halted.

Founded by the first settlers of New Sweden in 1638, Fort Christina on the lower Delaware was named in honour of Queen Christina of Sweden

1644 - 1646

The Second Battle of Virginia - sometimes referred to as the start of a Third Anglo-Powhatan War - takes place in 1644, with the native Powhatan confederacy still under Opechancanough.

This bookends the Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622-1644). The result is that the English completely crush the Powhatan and take control of eastern Virginia (see feature link), while allowing the Susquehannock to extend their own dominion beyond Powhatan territory.

In 1645, the Susquehannock end their hostilities with Maryland and sign a treaty which cedes their claims in Maryland between the Choptank and Patuxent rivers. The Susquehannock hardly notice the brief interruption of trade with the English because the settlers of New Sweden have more than made up the difference.

The Susquehannock are also able to continue to trade with New Netherland by using the portages between the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Hudson rivers to New Amsterdam.

This painting by Edward Moran in 1898 was entitled 'Sir Henry Hudson entering New York Bay, September 11, 1609, with Indian family watching on shore in foreground'

1649

Spain has not settled the Bahamas, although it had enslaved and deported a substantial number of natives to work in Cuba and Hispaniola until that population had dwindled to nothing by 1515. Now the first permanent European settlement is established there by English Puritans who are known as the 'Eleutheran Adventurers'.

1655

English troops take the island of Jamaica in the West Indies from New Spain, making it a hub for rum production and slave trading, as well as a colonial hub for British West Indies colonial territories.

1660 - 1669

The Iroquois strike the Delaware throughout the Delaware Valley and throughout the 1660s, effectively taking them out of the war. For the Susquehannock, the worst blow is a smallpox epidemic which strikes in 1661. Their population is devastated to a point from which it never recovers.

The Susquehannock nevertheless manage to hold on. A treaty is signed between them, the Passyunk Lenape, and Maryland, ending the lingering hostility with the English. The agreement provides firearms and ammunition, since the Maryland colonists are well aware of the value of the Susquehannock as a buffer against the New Netherland-allied Iroquois.

The Lenni-Lenape were distributed as shown in this map, located mainly in New Jersey and adjacent territories, including the western section of Long Island, with a questionable group of possible Munsee speakers alongside them (click or tap on map to view full sized)

In 1663, with English help, the Susquehannock are able to turn back a major Iroquois invasion. In the following year the English take New York from the Dutch (see 1664-1667, below), and shortly afterwards form their own alliance with the Iroquois. In 1666 Maryland, however, does not feel entirely assured by this and renews its treaty with the Susquehannock.

The year 1667 coincides with another outbreak of smallpox, so the Iroquois make peace with New France and their native allies and this allows them to concentrate on their war with the Susquehannock.

With the support of Maryland, the Susquehannock fight on in an increasingly bitter struggle, but by autumn 1669 they are down to only three hundred warriors and are forced to ask the Iroquois for peace. The Iroquois response to their offer is to torture and kill the Susquehannock ambassador who delivers it.

1664 - 1667

An English fleet attacks and captures the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, renaming it the 'Province of New York' after the Duke of York (later James II). It includes territory belonging to the modern states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont.

As one Indian war rumbled on and another started up, Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant was forced to surrender New Amsterdam to the British on 8 September 1664, allowing the colony's new owners to rename it New York City (click or tap on image to view full sized)

The capture of New Amsterdam leads to the Second Anglo-Dutch War the following year, which ends with the Netherlands agreeing to the English ownership of the colony in exchange for Suriname.

In addition, English colonists are far more numerous than the Dutch, and the conquest of New York opens new areas for their settlement. The Dutch have at least paid for native lands, but the English claim the land by right of discovery and pay only when absolutely necessary. Connecticut Puritans found Newark in 1666 and begin expanding into New Jersey.

1670

The Province of South Carolina receives its first permanent settlement. The Province of Georgia is settled around the same time. Also in 1760, the Hudson's Bay Company is incorporated by English royal charter as 'The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay'.

In the vast north-western region of what is now Canada which it eventually comes to control, it acts as the de facto government until more accountable forms of colonial government can be formed to take over.

Scalping Knife Mountain in Canada's British Colombia is typical of the rugged and beautiful scenery in western Canada, overlooking the Arrow Lakes in the foreground

1673 - 1674

New York is seized by the Dutch during the Third Anglo-Dutch war, but is returned as part of the Treaty of Westminster in 1674. Also in 1674, parts of the province of New York are divided to become the province of New Jersey.

Chief Mehocksett of the New Jersey Delaware and his brother, Chief Petequoque, together with Chief Socoroccett, sell parcels of land to the English which, because the colonists have a habit of not paying, leads to confrontations with the Rankoke, Sawkin, and Soupnapka tribes, which requires a peace conference with New York's Governor Edmund Andros, the fourth incumbent of the post.

1675

The Iroquois finally defeat the Susquehannock. Driven from Pennsylvania, the survivors settle on the upper Potomac River at the invitation of the governor of Maryland, although in reality there is no refuge for them. The location may be acceptable to a royal governor, but it is deeply resented by the local colonists.

After several depredations (probably by Iroquois), a thousand-man 'army' which is little more than an armed mob assembles under Colonel John Washington (great-grandfather of George Washington).

The Susquehanna Valley became the focus of Susquehannock settlement from around the middle of the twelfth century, well before any Europeans had reached the Americas on a permanent basis

In direct defiance of the orders of Virginia's governor, Washington's militia under the command of Nathaniel Bacon besieges the Susquehannock in an old fort on the Potomac and, following the murder of six of their sachems, they abandon the fort and launch a series of retaliatory raids on the Virginia and Maryland frontier.

Most of the blame for these raids falls on the Virginians' Pamunkey and Occaneeche allies and leads to their near annihilation by the colonists during Bacon's Rebellion the following year.

Afterwards, the Susquehannock move north but are attacked by Maryland militia near Columbia, Maryland, where many are killed. Some manage to reach safety with the Meherrin in North Carolina. More moderately, the Lenape have already sold some of their northern New Jersey lands to the English settlers in 1673 and they sell more in 1681.

1675 - 1676

King Philip's War (the First Indian War) erupts in New England between settlers of the British Colonies and the Native Americans as a result of tensions over colonial expansion activities. The bloody war rages up and down the Connecticut River valley in Massachusetts and in the Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies, eventually resulting in six hundred colonists and three thousand natives being killed, including women and children on both sides.

Nathaniel Bacon refused to follow Governor Berkley's accommodation-not-annihilation approach to dealing with the native Americans - instead he was happy to support the dissatisfied settlers who had suffered from poor crops and high taxes and wanted the natives punished and pushed out

King Philip (the colonist's nickname for Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoag who is also leading the Narragansett in this war) is hunted down and killed on 12 August 1676, in a swamp in Rhode Island.

Known as the 'Great Swamp Fight of Rhode Island', the fight ends the war in southern New England. In New Hampshire and Maine, the Saco people continue to raid settlements for another year and-a-half.

1676

The remaining Susquehannock have little choice but to surrender to the Iroquois. Considering the circumstances, they are treated well. Under the terms of the agreed peace, the Susquehannock are resettled amongst the Mohawk and Oneida.

There they become members of the Iroquois 'covenant chain' (a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois league and the British Colonies, with other Native American tribes added).

With Spain - perhaps the most powerful European nation at this time - having already conquered large swathes of the central and southern Americas, other Europeans headed northwards to discover fresh territory and perhaps their own route to China

Their dominion over the Delaware and other former allies is also surrendered to the league. During the following years, several Susquehannock rise to leadership as Iroquois war chiefs. Although treated with respect, the Susquehannock are not free.

1681

The Province of Pennsylvania is founded, although areas of the territory have already been settled by Dutch and Swedes since 1631. It is named after the owner of the Royal Charter, the Quaker William Penn, 'Penn-silva-nia'; silvia being Latin for forest or woods.

He had been baptised in the church of All Hallows by The Tower in London in 1644, a year after his father (also William Penn) had been married at the Guild Church of St Martin-within-Ludgate (see feature links for both churches).

Having been expelled from Oxford and arrested for his Quaker beliefs, Penn entertains the curious notion that his royal charter does not override native rights to the land. Before beginning his 'Holy Experiment' - a colony with religious tolerance - Penn sends William Markham to negotiate the purchase of south-eastern Pennsylvania.

The remnants of a great many tribes of the eastern seaboard congregated as the Stockbridge, Brotherton, and Housatonic, seeking protection amongst numbers - this oil painting is entitled 'Delaware Indians sign the Treaty of Penn', by Benjamin West

In November, Penn arrives and signs a treaty at Shackamaxon (Philadelphia) with Tamanend, the sachem chosen by several groups of Lenape to represent them for the occasion. The agreement has been described by Voltaire as 'the one treaty with the Indians which the whites never broke'.

1683

William Penn attempts to sign a treaty with the Susquehannock, only to learn that they (like the Delaware) first need Iroquois approval. Subsequent dealings by the Pennsylvania government of the British Colonies concentrates on the Iroquois and ignores the subservient tribes.

1685

Surveyors mark out Wall Street in New York along the line of the original New Amsterdam stockade.

1688 - 1697

The North Yarmouth Skirmish involves the Abnaki. This forms a prelude to the First French-Indian War (1689-1697) which is also known as King William's War or the Second Indian War to the English settlers.

Battles which take place in 1689 include Lachine near Montreal (involving the Iroquois), and Dover, New Hampshire (involving the Ossipee, Pennacook, and Pigwacket). The Schenectady Massacre, and the battles of Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, and Fort Loyal, Falmouth, all occur in 1690, the last of these again involving the Abnaki.

The First French-Indian War involved a complex mixture of British, French, and many Indian tribes all pitched against one another, with allegiances shifting according to circumstance

The 1691 Battle of Saco also involves the Abnaki, with the Battle of York, Maine, taking place in 1692. The war simmers until the 1697 Battle of Haverhill, Massachusetts ends in defeat for the Abnaki. The subject Lenape lose two-thirds of their warriors during the war whilst serving as Iroquois auxiliaries.

1691

The Plymouth colony at Cape Cod is merged with the Massachusetts Bay colony. King William's War (1690-1697) sees the New French territory of Acadia captured by the British, but it is returned as part of the peace settlement.

1699

The British dismantle the defensive wall around the former Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

1702 - 1713

Acadia is recaptured from New France by the British during Queen Anne's War and this time it remains in British hands, as confirmed by the Treaties of Utrecht in 1713, becoming part of the territory of Nova Scotia.

Within the same time period, the Tuscarora War of 1711-1713 largely involves the Tuscarora people alone, and takes place in Northern Carolina. Under Chief Hancock they attack several settlements, killing settlers and destroying farms. The conflict includes the Neuse/Pamlico Settlement of 1711 and the 1712 Barnwell Campaign against the Tuscarora and their allies.

In 1713, James Moore and allied Yamasee warriors defeat the raiders in 'Moore's Fight'. The final defeat of the Tuscarora occurs at the hands of Tom Blount, with a treaty subsequent being agreed.

Government House stands on Mount Fitzwilliam hill, in the Bahamas, a Georgian construction of stuccoed-coral-rock on Duke Street

1704 - 1718

During William Penn's lifetime, things go relatively well. To make room for the English, the Lenape move west to the upper Schuykill, Brandywine, and Lehigh valleys, with the settlers' Delaware Colony being detached from Pennsylvania in 1704.

By 1718 - the same year in which Britain restores its control of the Bahamas following a takeover by pirates from 1706 - the Iroquois have assumed complete control of the affairs of the Lenape - an arrangement which has been encouraged by Pennsylvania's governors to ensure that the Lenape do not come under the influence of New France. When William Penn dies in the same year, his three sons by his second marriage inherit his estate but apparently none of his honesty.

1737

Pennsylvania's authorities 'establish' the infamous 'Walking Purchase' agreement, a treaty supposedly signed in 1686 in which the Lenape cede the land between the junction of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers as far west as a man can walk in a day and a half (about sixty-four kilometres, or forty miles).

This is bad enough, but Penn's son, Thomas, hires three of the fastest men in the colony and offers a prize to the one who can cover the greatest distance.

The Lenape were taken in by the proposed terms of Pennsylvania's 'Walking Purchase' agreement and ended up losing twice as much land as anticpated

Running on a prepared path, the winner goes twice the distance anticipated by the Lenape, which costs them most of the Lehigh valley. Realising they have been cheated, the Lenape expect the Iroquois to defend their interests, but the Iroquois are furious that the Lenape have dared to sign a treaty without their permission. Pennsylvania also takes the precaution of bribing them to stay angry and enforces the agreement.

1744 - 1748

The Treaty of Lancaster is signed in 1744, in which the Iroquois give permission to the British to build a trading post at the forks of the Ohio (at Pittsburgh), but both Pennsylvania and Virginia interpret the agreement to mean that the Iroquois are ceding their claims to Ohio.

Pennsylvania's claim is more modest and also focuses on eastern Ohio, but Virginia sees itself as master of the entire Ohio Valley, westwards to the Illinois River, and including Kentucky and lower Michigan.

The War of the Austrian Succession is a wide-ranging conflict which encompasses the North American King George's War, two Silesian Wars, the War of Jenkins' Ear, and involves most of the crowned heads of Europe in deciding the question of whether Maria Theresa can succeed as archduke of Austria and, perhaps even more importantly, as Holy Roman emperor.

King George's War was just one phase in a complicated power struggle between Britain and France for control of North America, and also for political and military dominance in Europe, and the native Americans were forced to take sides in the struggle

Austria is supported by Britain, the Netherlands, the Savoyard kingdom of Sardinia, and Saxony (after an early switchover), but opposed by an opportunistic Prussia and France, who had raised the question in the first place to disrupt Habsburg control of Central Europe, backed up by Bavaria and Sweden (briefly). Spain joins the war in an unsuccessful attempt to restore possessions lost to Austria in 1715.

The War of Jenkins' Ear pitches Britain against Spain between 1739-1748. The Russo-Swedish War, or Hats' Russian War, is the Swedish attempt to regain territory lost to Russia in 1741-1743. King George's War is fought between Britain and France in the French Colonies in 1744-1748.

The First Carnatic War of 1746-1748 involves the struggle for dominance in India by France and Britain. Henry Pelham, leader of the English government in Parliament, is successful in ending the war, achieving peace with France and trade with Spain through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Austria is ultimately successful, losing only Silesia to Prussia.

1747 - 1749

Plans for opening Ohio to settlement get underway when Virginia grants a charter to the Ohio Company. Pennsylvania considers the Ohio tribes to be subject to the Iroquois, but when they refuse the league's orders to return to the Susquehanna, it is obvious that something needs to be done.

As shown by this modern image, a French expedition visited Logstown in 1749 (location of the eponymous 1752 treaty), under the command of Pierre-Joseph Celeron de Blainville

1752

With British traders subverting the loyalty of their allies, and the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee defying its authority, New France decides to militarily enforce its claims to Ohio. It turns first to the Detroit tribes (Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot), usually its most dependable allies, but the tribes are thinking of trading with the British themselves and do not want to fight the Ohio tribes.

In June, Charles Langlade, a French-Ojibwe of mixed blood, leads a war party of 250 Ojibwa and Ottawa from Mackinac and destroys the Miami village and British trading post at Piqua, Ohio.

Following the initial shock of this attack, the tribes of the French alliance fall into place, and the French follow up their success by building a line of forts across western Pennsylvania to block British access to Ohio. Most Delaware and Shawnee have no desire to be controlled by the French and therefore turn to the Iroquois for help.

From the Iroquois perspective, the French and British seem like two thieves fighting over their land, but they decide that the French are the more immediate threat. The league signs the Logstown Treaty, which reconfirms their 1744 cession of land and gives the British permission to build a blockhouse at Pittsburgh. Before it is finished however, the French burn it.

The capture of Fortress Louisbourg by the British in 1745 was a good indicator of the way things were developing as far as French interests in North America were concerned, although a final British victory was far from certain

1754 - 1758

In May a conference is held at Albany between representatives of the British Colonies and Iroquois League to prepare for war with New France. Unable to defend Ohio, the Iroquois cede it to Pennsylvania, but they fully intend to keep the Wyoming and Susquehanna valleys.

Unfortunately, an Albany trader manages to get some of the minor Iroquois representatives drunk, and when they sober up they discover that they have signed an agreement with a Connecticut land company which opens up the valleys to settlement.

Rather than achieve unity, the conference ends with the Iroquois furious with the British about this treaty, Pennsylvania protesting Connecticut's attempt to claim its territory, and the Delaware threatening to kill any whites who try to settle in the Wyoming Valley.

Meanwhile, Virginia has decided to act on its own and sends an expedition commanded by a twenty-two year-old militia major named George Washington to demand the surrender of Fort Duquesne, the new fort built by the French at Pittsburgh. Major Washington gets himself into a fight with French soldiers and starts the French-Indian War.

By the start of the eighteenth century, The New France capital of Quebec was a thriving colonial city, the focus of French colonial attempts to create a powerful new state in North America

The Fourth French-Indian War erupts, starting with the Battle of Great Meadows. Two more battles are fought in 1754, these being Fort Necessity and Braddock's Defeat, with Crown Point (Lake George) taking place in 1755 against the Mohawk and the Caughnawaga who are led by Hendrick, while in earlier battles the Mingo people are led by Half-King. In 1756, Oswego is the only battle.

In 1757 the siege of Fort William Henry involves the Upper Great Lakes Indians - generally Iroquois, Ottawa, and Abnaki from New France. When the fort's red-coated British and blue-coated troops of the British colonies are forced to surrender after days of bombardment, they are offered all the honours of war.

The French General Montcalm allows them to march back to Fort Edward with their weapons and possessions intact. His native allies have other ideas, however. After rampaging through the fort to kill and scalp the wounded and dig up corpses for the same treatment, they charge into the assembled body of retreating British and massacre between seventy and one hundred and eighty of them.

General James Wolfe completed his victory over the French - giving the British nominal control of the vast and still largely unexplored northern territories - but paid for it with his life in 1759

Colonel Munro and various other scattered survivors eventually reach the protection of Fort Edward (the massacre is portrayed with brutal realism in the 1992 film, Last of the Mohicans, although Munro is killed in this version).

The following year, 1758, sees battles take place at Louisburg and Fort Frontenac with little native involvement.

1759 - 1763

In 1759 General James Wolfe claims New France for Britain with victory over the French near Quebec, although he dies achieving it. It takes a further two years for British forces to end French opposition to their gains within the territory but the province of Quebec is eventually secured for Britain.