3 The British Atlantic World

1660–1750

In England in 1688, the much-despised King James II was deposed during the Glorious Revolution. From the late seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century, the British colonies in North America entered into their maturity under the new limited monarchy of William and Mary. Several sources included here hint at the growing self-consciousness of North American colonists who increasingly viewed themselves as British subjects with rights that government was bound to respect.

Political maturity went hand in hand with colonial economic development. As Great Britain developed its Atlantic trade, the colonies became critical partners in the imperial trade networks. One tragic consequence of economic expansion was the increased use and reliance on slave labor, the effects of which are described in two of the sources included here. Great Britain’s imperial ambitions also resulted in a series of military conflicts with its European neighbors that spread to the North American colonies. Unable to avoid warfare, some colonists developed strategic alliances with Native Americans. The willingness of Native Americans to ally with the colonists had less to do with friendly feelings toward the Americans and more with their recognition of the colonists’ growing power on the continent.