The Colonies and the English Empire
Proprietary grants to faraway lands were a cheap way for the king to reward friends. As the colonies grew, however, the grants became more valuable. After 1660, the king took initiatives to channel colonial trade through English hands and to consolidate royal authority over colonial governments. Occasioned by such economic and political considerations and triggered by King Philip’s War between colonists and Native Americans, these initiatives defined the basic relationship between the colonies and England that endured until the American Revolution (Map 4.3).
MAP ACTIVITY Map 4.3 American Colonies at the End of the Seventeenth Century By the end of the seventeenth century, settlers inhabited a narrow band of land that stretched from Boston to Norfolk, with pockets of settlement farther south. The colonies’ claims to enormous tracts of land to the west were contested by Native Americans as well as by France and Spain. READING THE MAP: What geographic feature acted as the western boundary for colonial territorial claims? Which colonies were the most settled and which the least? CONNECTIONS: The map divides the colonies into four regions. Can you think of an alternative organization? On what criteria would it be based?