What happened during the colonial era?
North America, the future United States and Canada, experienced a critical period in the 18th century. The 1700s saw the maturation of colonies in North America.
England and Scotland joined in 1707 through the Act of Union, meaning that Britain was a united nation. France came to build new colonies stretching from Acadia to Quebec, through the Great Lakes, the Midwest, and along the Mississippi River. New Orleans was founded in 1718.
Spain controlled Florida, Texas and New Mexico. Their missions and influence extended throughout the American Southwest.
During Queen Anne's War, Britain secured French Port Royal in Acadia, which became Port Annapolis. Britain now held Nova Scotia in Canada, but France retained Cape Breton Island, in which it established Fortress Louisbourg.
The British colonies are maturing. James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Georgia in the 1730s. Benjamin Franklin was active in printing circles, working in newspaper publishing. George Washington became a surveyor in Culpepper County, Virginia. A play called /"Cato/" by Joseph Addison featured a phrase invoking /"liberty or death/", and it was performed in Williamsburg, Virginia. The colonies bartered and traded lumber, iron, wheat, tobacco, indigo, rice, and other materials as part of their growing economies. Princeton, Yale, Harvard and William & Mary were universities.
France ensured peaceful relations with many countries, establishing fur trading posts at Fort Miamis, Fort Michilimackinac (Mackinac or Mackinaw), Fort Toulouse, New Orleans, Fort Detroit, Fort Rouge and others.
Britain established Halifax in Nova Scotia to counter French Louisbourg. King George's War was another conflict that broke out in Canada.
The War for Jenkins' Ear pitted Spanish Florida against South Carolina and Georgia, with battles at Fort Augustine and Fort Frederica.
The Great Awakening spread revival throughout the colonies. Preachers and ministers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley brought Methodism and Presbyterianism and an evangelical fervor to the colonies. Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed churches, Mennonites, and other churches were also active in the colonies, although Puritanism slowly died out in New England.
This is a film by Jeffrey Meyer, historian and librarian.
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