British colonization of the Americas

The establishment and expansion of English, and later British, colonies in North America and the Caribbean from the sixteenth century onward. It involved settlement, commerce, warfare, Indigenous dispossession, and systems of coerced labor.

Chartered company: A corporation granted a charter that authorized commercial activity and sometimes government in a territory. Royal charters gave companies such as the Virginia Company authority to finance settlements and govern colonists.
John Cabot: An Italian navigator who sailed for England and explored the North American coast in 1497. His voyage helped establish England’s claim to North American exploration before permanent settlement began.
Powhatan: A paramount chief who led a confederacy of Indigenous communities in the Chesapeake region during early English settlement. His diplomacy and conflict with Jamestown settlers shaped the colony’s early survival and expansion.
King Philip's War: A war between Indigenous forces and New England colonies in 1675–1676, led by Metacom. The conflict devastated communities and accelerated English territorial expansion in New England.
French colonization of the Americas: The establishment of French settlements and imperial claims in the Americas, especially in Canada and the Caribbean. French expansion competed with British claims and often relied on different settlement and trade patterns.
Mercantilism: An economic doctrine that treated colonial trade and resources as instruments of state power. British policy sought colonial markets and materials while restricting trade to strengthen the imperial economy.
Roanoke Colony: An English settlement attempt on Roanoke Island in the 1580s that disappeared from the historical record. Its failure exposed the practical obstacles facing England’s earliest colonial ventures.
Pocahontas: A Powhatan woman whose life intersected with English settlement and diplomacy in early seventeenth-century Virginia. Her story illuminates both Indigenous diplomacy and the unequal colonial accounts that later mythologized it.
Pequot War: A 1636–1638 conflict between English colonists and their Indigenous allies against the Pequot people in New England. The war ended with Pequot defeat and expanded English control over Indigenous lands.
Dutch colonization of the Americas: The establishment of Dutch trading posts and colonies in the Americas during the seventeenth century. Dutch ventures offer a comparison with Britain’s expanding, increasingly territorial empire.

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