Search results
People also ask
When did British colonial possessions pass to a new state?
Where were British colonies established?
What was the British colonization of the Americas?
What territories did the British Empire control?
How did the British colonize Canada?
When did England become a dominant colonial power in North America?
When the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed in 1707 by the union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England, the latter country's colonial possessions passed to the new state. Similarly, when Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801 to form the United Kingdom, control over its colonial possessions passed to the latter state.
- Overview
- 1588
- 1600
- 1603–07
- 1651
- 1655
- 1661
- 1664
- 1670
- 1757
verified
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
MLA
APA
Chicago Manual of Style
In 1588 the English fleet defeats the Spanish Armada and establishes the superiority of English ships and seamanship. England is now ready to enter the race for overseas trade and possessions.
Elizabeth I grants a charter to the East India Company, which begins establishing trading posts in India.
Elizabeth’s successor is James I. After succeeding to the throne in 1603 he lays plans to colonize North America. The first permanent English settlement on the continent is Jamestown Colony, Virginia, founded in 1607.
The great Navigation Act is passed. This and other Navigation Acts eventually create a closed economy between Britain and its colonies. All colonial exports have to be shipped on English ships to the British market, and all colonial imports have to come by way of England.
An expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell wrests control of Jamaica from Spain. English settlers bring in vast numbers of enslaved Africans to work the sugar estates on the island.
The first permanent British settlement on the African continent is made at James Island (later Kunta Kinteh Island) in the Gambia River, which becomes a key post in the transatlantic slave trade.
The Dutch trade New Amsterdam (New York City) for a British island in Southeast Asia.
By this time there are British American colonies in New England, Virginia, and Maryland and settlements in the Bermudas, Honduras, Antigua, Barbados, and Nova Scotia, Canada.
British colonial administrator Robert Clive overthrows the nawab, or ruler, of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey on June 23. This victory makes Clive the virtual master of Bengal.
Oct 2, 2009 · The Commonwealth of Nations. After independence, many former British colonies and most of the dominions joined the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states. Fifteen of these, including the United Kingdom, retained a common monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence proclaiming the colonies' sovereignty from the British Empire as the new United States of America.
- English Colonial Expansion. Sixteenth-century England was a tumultuous place. Because they could make more money from selling wool than from selling food, many of the nation’s landowners were converting farmers’ fields into pastures for sheep.
- The Tobacco Colonies. In 1606, King James I divided the Atlantic seaboard in two, giving the southern half to the London Company (later the Virginia Company) and the northern half to the Plymouth Company.
- The New England Colonies. The first English emigrants to what would become the New England colonies were a small group of Puritan separatists, later called the Pilgrims, who arrived in Plymouth in 1620 to found Plymouth Colony.
- The Middle Colonies. In 1664, King Charles II gave the territory between New England and Virginia, much of which was already occupied by Dutch traders and landowners called patroons, to his brother James, the Duke of York.
Colonies were established in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Though most British colonies in the Americas eventually gained independence, some colonies have remained under Britain's jurisdiction as British Overseas Territories.
Sep 9, 2024 · Movements for the end of slavery came to fruition in British colonial possessions long before the similar movement in the United States; the trade was abolished in 1807 and slavery itself in Britain’s dominions in 1833.
