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Creating the Empire, 1660-1720
Overview
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During the first half of the seventeenth century, England’s colonies developed without any real governmental plan or control. Colonies were private ventures with charters from the British government but nothing came in the way of supervision of support because of political turmoil in Great Britain during the first half of the seventeenth century. When the chaos was over, Britain had been transformed into a constitutional monarchy in which the crown and Parliament jointly ruled. The British state became stronger and more centralized. The economic theory of mercantilism guided Britain’s economic development and was implemented in the Navigation Acts. In the absence of strict British control new colonies, New Netherland, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, were developed in the second half of the seventeenth century. Each developed in a different manner from the others. Britain’s political stablility made her confident that she could challenge France for world supremacy. Between 1689 and 1713 Britain fought two wars against France and her allies. These wars resulted in endemic conflict on the colonial frontiers. Of the three European nations with colonies in the New World, Britain was the only nation to have a substantial presence in America north of the Rio Grande. The French and Spanish both maintained outposts but these had not become thriving colonies vital to their nation’s economy. More than anything they functioned as military outposts to keep other nations out of the region. The Spanish focused their attentions on Mexico and Latin America while settlements in New Mexico and Florida languished. For the French the West Indies were valuable possessions; not so Quebec and Louisiana. The center of France’s New World political economy was in the Caribbean. Any profit France made from its New World colonies came from the Caribbean. Spain’s settlement at St. Augustine, Florida was intended to be a self-supporting military outpost. It never developed to that extent and in 1763 Spain abandoned Florida. Spain’s colony in New Mexico was the location of the only successful Indian revolt in North America. The Pueblo Revolt was successful for thirteen years but in 1696 Spain reconquered New Mexico. Spain’s frontier settlements in New Mexico were always precarious at best.
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