The Colonies
Creation: Let’s learn more about the creation of the 13 Colonies.
The 13 colonies were formed during the late 1600s into the early- and mid-1700s on the eastern coast of the present-day United States. By the time the American Revolution started in 1765, historians note that around 2.5 million settlers and colonists were living in early America.
Many of the colonies were very successful in the beginning. Families moved from Europe and grew fast in the New World. Despite the ever-present issue of disease and food shortages, colonial families had many children, which was out of necessity to help with the settlements and colonies.
America today has 50 states, but this didn’t happen overnight. In the beginning, America had only 13 colonies or settlements.
What we call the 13 colonies are actually a group of settlements, whereby the ‘settlers’ were there as faith-seekers, opportunity-seekers, and because they disagreed with the British government.
This period in early American history is characterized by many events, attitudes, and ideas about how people should live. For example, there was a constant feeling of British corruption (or misconduct) and opportunism (or taking advantage of people) displayed by the King of England. The colonists did not feel as though they were treated fairly and wanted to live by their own rules and representative governments.
This belief created a movement in the colonies grounded in equality of opportunity, which is an idea that even persons of low social rank can raise themselves up through hard work, dedication, talent, and righteous behavior to the top of the economic and social order. These feelings combined with the distance between the colonies and the king, led to some interesting historical events that shaped the America we know today.
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