What was the connection between the colonies and the English empire?

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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).

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Figure false: Pine Tree Shilling
Figure false: In violation of English rules that forbade colonies from issuing their own currency, John Hull, a wealthy Boston merchant and shipowner, began to mint coins in 1652. Shown here is one of his pine tree shillings, both sides boldly announcing its origins. Courtesy of the Museum of the American Numismatic Association.

CHRONOLOGY

1636–1637

  • – Pequot War.

1675–1676

  • – King Philip’s War.

1686

  • – Dominion of New England is created.

1688

  • – England’s Glorious Revolution.

1689–1697

  • – King William’s War.

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Figure false: MAP 4.3 American Colonies at the End of the Seventeenth Century
Figure false: 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.
Figure false: > MAP ACTIVITY
Figure false: 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?
Figure false: CONNECTIONS: The map divides the colonies into four regions. Can you think of an alternative organization? On what criteria would it be based?