Thirteen Colonies, 1700-1750 | Britain, France & Spain | North American colonies | US history
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- What were the thirteen British colonies?
What happened during colonial times?
North America, the future United States and Canada, had a critical era during the eighteenth century. The 1700s saw the maturation of the colonies in North America.
England and Scotland joined in 1707 through the Act of Union, meaning that Great Britain was a united nation. France came to build new colonies stretching from Acadia to Quebec to the Great Lakes to the Midwest and down the Mississippi River. New Orleans was established in 1718.
Spain controlled Florida, Texas, and New Mexico. Their missions and influence spread in 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, within which they established Fortress Louisbourg.
The British colonies matured. James Oglethorpe established Savannah in Georgia in the 1730s. Benjamin Franklin was active in printing circles, working in newspaper publication. George Washington became a surveyor in Culpepper County, Virginia. A play called "Cato" by Joseph Addison featured a line invoking "liberty or death," and this was performed in Williamsburg, Virginia. The colonies bartered and traded timber, iron, wheat, tobacco, indigo, rice, and other materials in their growing economy. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and William & Mary were universities.
France secured peaceful relations with many nations, establishing fur trade 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 yet another conflict that sparked in Canada.
The War for Jenkins' Ear pitted Spanish Florida against South Carolina and Georgia, with battles happening at Fort Augustine and Fort Frederica.
The Great Awakening spread revival across the colonies. Preachers and ministers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley brought Methodism and Presbyterianism along with an evangelical fervor to the colonies. Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed churches, Mennonites, and other churches were also active in the colonies, though Puritanism was slowly fading out in New England.
This is a film by Jeffrey Meyer, historian and librarian.
This is amazing!! As much as I’ve studied genealogy & history this is the first video to pull so much together in such a concise and easy to follow way 👏👏👏 thank you!
Thank you, friend! Much appreciated!
i wish the internet was available when i was in school .all those years ago
Thanks Jeffrey the Librarian. I am very much enjoying your American history content and hope you will continue.
Thank you so much for your contribution! Your contribution helps make this work possible.
Thanks!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the contribution.
I love these series on early North America. Keep up the good work!
Keep producing awesome, easy to follow descriptions of history. Appreciate you helping us travel.
Thanks for watching! Happy travels.
One thing that’s fascinating is to see the leftovers of French-Spanish-Native interaction through loan words. In Choctaw, the word shapo (hat) comes from chapeaux. Katos (cat) comes from Spanish gato. And the French bayou comes from Choctaw bok (river)
We are waiting for the next 1750 to 1800s and the rest......perfect Job
I'm enjoying these very much, especially the international context and the detailed timeline. My own area and timeline of interest are coming about 50 years after this video's timeline, but you began to touch on it with Ft. Orleans. I'll be looking forward to new information as you are able to share it.
I love watching your videos as I develop my family tree. They paint the larger context and help drive my research. Your style, voice and clarity are much appreciated. Thank you once again. Merci avec tout mon coeur, de Montréal, Québec.
Yes! I've also found this while trying to find some historical information with which to place some of my ancestors. I don't know if this truly answers my original question, but this is a great overview of everything going on on this side of the Atlantic during this time.
Will have to see if the second installment is more what I am looking for.
Love it! Just watched the video to 1700 last week .. so I didn’t have to wait long. Thank you thank you!
love these videos! been checking back everyday after the 1565-1700 video. I forgot how much of a history nerd I am. keep up the good work! Setup a Subscribestar page.
You forgot to mention the Geat Peace of 1701 signed in Montreal between France and 39 Indian nations. This ended the wars that had been raging for over 50 years, allowed the French to expand inside the American continent, act as an arbiter between the natives and made them join an alliance against the English colonies.
Always nice the hear about the parts that may be overlooked.
I think you should be doing a North American history on TH-cam.
C'est vrai!
He left out ALOT of shit, prob so he could keep the focus on religion. Didn’t even mention the piracy going on in the Caribbean between these 3…plus the Dutch.
They just rushed up to sign It with the last of the Mohicans
Glad I found this place. Well put together, and I learned allot. I play it back at 1.25 speed and its a good voice speed.
As a retired educator this endeavor was very didactic and well presented congrats. Thank you!
I’m impressed that you correctly distinguish between English and British, whereas so many other content makers use the terms English and British as though they mean the same thing. For example ‚Knowing Better’ refers to Jamestown as being founded by the British, and ‚Ravignon’ archaically refers to the English Crown when discussing a period after 1707. As a Scotsman the distinction is important to me.
Thank you. I spent a summer in college doing an archaeology dig in East Lothian. We stayed in North Berwick. You have a beautiful country.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian I dare say us Welsh might get a mention sometime?
Yeah it is to me as an English man, sick of hearing Britain this and UK that, and it's mostly the British saying it.
Great job, Jeffrey. Loved it. Can’t wait for the next one
At last a content maker who makes the distinction between English and British. Thank you.
I studied in Scotland for a summer and learned very clearly that this was an important distinction.
@@JeffreytheLibrarianI did summer classes at Stirling University. May I ask where you studied? Really enjoy your content
Another great video! Thank you for making them
Excellent content! I hope we get more soon
Some of the best videos on TH-cam I’ve found recently! Excellent work. Please continue these! 🙏
You might like the FORGOTTEN HISTORY” channel
cant wait for the 1750-1800 video!!!! these are great!
Thanks! great videos
Thank you for your kindness!
Great content. A couple of small typos on the picture captions: Wattou = Watteau; Hogart = Hogarth
Thanks for catching those!
Grew up in San Antonio. Moved to St. Augustine at 20. Spent 33 years there, back home in Texas now.
I always noticed how similar San Antonio and St.Augustine were. The architecture felt like home.
The same civilization built those places, so I'm sure you are seeing a lot of similarities.
Great videos, I enjoy these so much.
Great series, can’t wait for the next one, I think the most interesting things are coming (:
Great video. I’m really learning that I don’t know too much about early American history
Thank you very much for this series. It is very educational.
Thank you!
I am thoroughly enjoying this series of videos. They are fantastic!
Thank you! More to come!
I
Love this channel so much thank you 🙏
I’d really like to see a video in this style on the seven years war and how it extended from North America to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. This is fascinating. Keep up the good work.
Great video
I'm enjoying this series. Looking forward to the next installment.
Wonderful video! One small correction - Yale was the fourth college or university founded in the English colonies of North America. King William's College in Annapolis, now St. John's College, was founded in 1696.
I had seen that college on a few lists, and I regret not including it. I will mention it in a future video.
Nice history here! As a Canadian, I often think that the influence of the Canadian colonies often gets overlooked in the political formation of the continent. And Canada would play a continuing role in the latter half of the 18th century, spurring conflict between Britain and the American colonies that would eventually lead to the revolutionary war.
We are Niagara Falls regulars. Love Ontario-on-the-Lake. USA is very fortunate to share a border with Canada.
Awesome video; one correction. Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners" speech was in Northampton MA and then later in Enfield CT. Not Enfield MA (which did not exist then, and does not exist now, but did exist for a few decades before being covered by Quabbin reservoir).
I have never seen such a concise video of North American colonization. Thanks.
Its crasy how they dont teach the fact that the slaves came to usa because the french were in the south and needed slaves to pick their tobacco aparently.
Like #523 I pre liked it and and commenting through the commercials. Jeffery, you make some of the best videos I have ever seen. Thank you brother. Keep on keeping on!!
Excellent. A wonderful comprehensive presentation of the critical milestones of the era. One nitpick: sometimes your voice loses volume at the end of a sentence and those last words are lost.
Thank you for doing this. It's so incredibly informative in an easy to understand format.
Much appreciated!
Thank you. Can you fo one one east and west Florida?
I saw a program several years ago that said East and West Florida were part of the American Colonists at the time of the Revolution but did not fight in the Revolutionary War. As a result they were not considered part of the new country, i.e., not considered part of the original States. I believe they were given back to Spain since they didn't "earn" their freedom. Has anyone else heard of this?
Great content. Quite interesting.
Danke!
Vielen Dank!
Really great content. Can’t wait for more!
Great presentation!
5:31 NORTH CAROLINA!!!
Love the edit.
It was a good catch. Otherwise, every other comment would be "you said Virginia instead of North Carolina."
About 90% of the info in this video.was unknown to me (the war of Jenkins' Ear? WOW!), and my mind is hungry for more more more. Keep these going, they are incredibly good. Edit: Subscribed!
Very informative and a refresher course for me! Please expand your scope of studies, I’d appreciate that!
Historians always seems to forget the French settlements in what is now southern Illinois... Cahokia was settled in 1699 (and is still there)... and Kaskaskia was settled in 1703 and, in the 19th century, became the first capital of the state of Illinois... etc.
These "Pays des Illinois" settlements flourished, developing excess agricultural produce and lumber, which was then rafted down the river to support the newer settlement at New Orleans.
And the French fort protecting the Pays des Illinois was: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_de_Chartres
Just attended a creole concert and they shared their stories of History. Carondelet area in St Louis was once a french city.
And he didn't mention the first European settlement West of the Mississippi by the French at St.Genevieve, Missouri in 1740. A very historic landmsrk.
Interesting historical discussion. Thanks Jeffrey.
very informative and I like the timeline organization of historical reference. Great work!
Much appreciated!
Love this !! I have watched the first 2 bideos but now I can't find the next video. It would help if the years are in the titles as you did in the first 2 videos. Or create a playlist that has them all in sequence. Thanks
The following videos are also colonial period: The French and Indian War Period, 1750-1763 and then Revolutionary Stirrings, 1763-1775. There is also a George Washington/Fort Necessity Video (1753-1755), as well as a Stamp Act (1765) and Proclamation of 1763.
I really enjoyed this method of teaching. I was under the impression (From High School) that only British were in North America during this time frame. This has really opened my eyes.
I would love to see an entire series on the history of the world in this style. In school we only learn about a small segment of history at a time, without ever considering what is going on elsewhere.
That's a shame. The "battle royale" nature of colonial American history is part of why I find it so fascinating.
I almost did not watch this. I am so glad I did! It was very informative. The content was delivered concisely with easy to understand, uncomplicated visuals. I went to your store. It needs help. Perhaps use AI to generate some better images for your products.
Thank you for watching the video. I am in the process of rebuilding my webpage, and then the store will come next. I know, I need more designs and stuff.
if it had been shown this way, I might've paid more attention way back in my school days. Now, shows like this, with good graphics, and tying dates together is the best way to remember them.
Also, the new boom in genealogy is showing me I had ancient relatives involved in the early days described. Thanks.
Excellent documentary!!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent overview. Thank you!
Are you creating a 1750 to ? Section ?? My wife have been glued to these for an hour haha
Yes, I will continue through American history. My next video will return to the Civil War, but then we will get back to the colonies.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian By the way - Great video.
Just started watching your videos the other day - they are excellent. On this one though, just a couple of little things:
- Enfield is actually in
Connecticut - not Massachusetts .
(Unless the border was
different back than. Enfield is very close to the Massachusetts border though - I live in Connecticut.)
I’ve always heard that Edwards gave his famous sermon in a non-fiery manner. (Although the content was very intense .)
At least in theological circles, George Whitefield‘s last name is always pronounced WIT-field, not WHITE-field.
I’m open to correction on all of those though .
The borders did change. A historical marker in Enfield explains: "Enfield became part of Connecticut in 1749 by secession from the royal government of Massachusetts Bay and union with the charter government of Connecticut."
I realize I mispronounced Whitefield's name.
Thanks for watching!
@@JeffreytheLibrarian i’ll definitely keep watching - these videos are fascinating!!!!
The audio cuts out regularly. So thanks for transcript.
Subscribed and looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for the great vid!
Natchitoches was head of the El Camino Real leading from a mission/fort called San Miguel de Cuellar de los Adaes. A Spanish fort of Los Adaes was eventually set up on the West Bank of Bayou Pierre (north of present day Robeline, La.).
Thank you!!
As a huge Natchitoches fan, I jumped on here to mention this exact point!!
I don't know how you attempt to summarize this era and somehow forget to mention Natchitoches and Los Adaes?!?!
I visit there a couple times a year, and each time I learn more about the history of North America.
(Plus, Natchitoches and Los Adaes offer a lot more neat things worth mentioning, instead of what the theater students were doing at William and Mary. Just sayin' 😉)
Great work , thank you.
I love your videos I was waiting on this one.
Well structured presentation
Thanks!
Great content... Although I was disappointed that you failed to mention Fort Moore in South Carolina on the Savannah River. Settlements were established as early as 1685 and in 1716 , Fort Moore was built on the bluff of the Savannah River in present day Beech Island. This was the southernmost reach of the British Colonies. And served as the "buffer" between the French, Spanish and several Native American nations some 20 to 50 years before Augusta was established. ( Settlement of New Winsor - 1685, Fort Moore - 1716, Augusta - 1735 ) Before Georgia was established this area was a major trade route. First the fur trade, then used by plantation owners. this was such an important and strategic area because it could be accessed by land and water, the Savannah River. The area was known as Savano (Savannah) Town because it was occupied by the Savano Indians which would give the river its name and the future settlement of Savannah.
Excellent presentation.. I had NO IDEA that the French colonies were so numerous even though the settlers were sparce.
Something that you didn't know is that Spain was the key factor for the win in The Revolutionary War. There is an article from The Massachusetts Society 'Sons of the American Revolution' ( SAR ) called ‘Spain and the Independence of The United States.’ And after reading the article it is not a surprise to know than the Spanish Commander Bernardo de Galvez has the same honour of be Honorary Citizeship of the United States like Laffayete…
Great stuff Jeffrey love your voice inflection
Very good presentation with useful info👍🏻👍🏻 thank you
Thank you!
Please do more of these. But can you please keep them in chronological order and do the whole history from this video to say w w2?
would you like fries with that?
@@kidkique haha just a suggestion
I plan on continuing to move forward through time. I really appreciate the nice comments. Thanks!
Thanks! As a Canadian we were taught about French and British conflicts but for some reason only within the region that became Canada. This helps explain the rest of the story. BTW Detroit would have been pronounced de troi while it was still French.
I think it's normal for schools to keep the history within their own country. Canada is a beautiful country. I love Niagara-on-the-Lake.
This is the best map that I have ever seen simply explaining how the French, more than anyone else, was able to affect so much of America today with where they settled. It never occurred to me that they just also sailed right down the river too.
Well done!
Thank you, friend!
Great work on the videos.
It's like a refresher course of what I forgot back in primary school education.
Unfortunately, grade school history books are almost always written through the lens of Northeastern American scholars, and much like your videos, they seem to gloss over anything that didn't occur on the east coast.
Topics like the El Camino Real, Natchitoches Louisiana (1714), Los Adaes, No Man's Land, gulf coastal region history, etc. are hardly ever mentioned or taught to young students.
Having visited many historical areas throughout the nation, I've always found the tired old stories of the Mayflower, the founding of English universities, Jamestown, etc. to be important... but they are not nearly as interesting as the amazing, unfamiliar stories that surround places like Natchitoches Louisiana, Los Adaes, the El Camino Real, Mobile, No Man's Land, and people like Louis Juchereau de St. Denis.
When you read about that side of history, it adds a lot more flair and excitement to the story (like tales of black market trading amongst the colonists/explorers of the different European empires in North America).
🇺🇸🇬🇧🇫🇷🇪🇸
Yes, england would never call our 1776 war the War of Independence, as we do. It was a loss for them.
Although britain did have to break free from the vikings and others, so u would think they would have remembered and had more compassion on America. If they had, the colonists wouldnt have rebelled. (And we wouldnt be a free country today. So it worked out...)
Grade school history lessons are age appropriate and deal with concepts like discovery, settlement, goods, and nation-building. They are essential for laying a foundation. What you find enjoyable ... the nuances, the politics, and the cultural expansion ... are taught in later years.
Absolutly awsome video man ,nicley done
Thank you!
Great Work Jeffrey! THUMBS UP👍👍👍
Thank you!
I really enjoyed this video! Especially for the emphasis on trade and economic patterns as opposed to political and government patterns. I hope you do one that goes from 1750 to 1800 or so and I have a selfish reason for this, I live in western Massachusetts, close to Deerfield and so I have a local interest in understanding how my area shaped MA and US history. Also - naming the English monarch in the lower right hand corner is a GREAT idea, it's a wonderful historic book mark.
Thank you so much for the video presentation.
Thank you for watching!
Great tutorial!!! Many thanks.
Thank you!
Excellent and fascinating series. Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Great Brief, as was the first one on The First Colonies. I hope you do one , 1750 to 1783??
Thank you! I plan on just continuing through American history.
I'm from Michigan and did not know that St Ignace was the first Colony in our Territory/State...!! I really enjoy learning, and I'm fascinated by Pre-Colonial & Early Colonial history... This is an interesting series of 'Fact Oriented' information...Thanks for presenting a seemingly 'Neutral' version of our history, without an alternative agenda or placing blame or judgements.
a bit disappointed saybrook fort/colony wasnt mentioned in the previous video as well as this one. Found it because funny you then had to gloss over the fact that yale wasn't founded in new haven but actually saybrook.
Not really glossed over. Just that Saybrook was not a hospitable town and Yale was only there the 1st 15 yrs. Then moved to New Haven, where it has been ever since.
Yale was Christian and turned out amazing men, signers of the Constitution, Noah Webster, etc. until the last few decades, when it became woke and lost its way.
For the colleges he mentions Harvard, Yale, and William & Mary however I know St John’s was established aswell in 1696 if I’m not mistaken.
University of Pennsylvania, Moravian University and University of Delaware were established prior to Princeton aswell.
At approximately 14:10 you say, “There are now 13 British colonies in North America.” What about Acadia?
These are awesome. Please keep making these videos I’m learning so much and I thought I knew a lot already about colonial America. ❤❤
Thank you! I am working on the next one in the series. Should be ready in a week or two.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian I work at the National Archives in DC. If you ever want to come do a lecture for students or maybe the public; I’m sure I could set you up with one:
great stuff man, excellent job, thanks
Thank you!
@@JeffreytheLibrarian
Live on cape breton Island, st anns Bay. So much history its too bad only the victors story mostly survived
Imagine going back in time to the 1700s.
The Virgin Forests and and the Splendor of the land.
This is why a Grand Piano made with the Virgin Wood sounds so much richer then anything made today.
Would love for you to do the years 1751-1800 then another from 1801-pre civil war
The next video in the series is the French and Indian War, 1750-1763. I will get to 1763 and on soon.
@@JeffreytheLibrarian I just listened to the French Indian war video, very nice. It put the treatment of Indians into perspective for the time. I wanted to thank you for including the history of the 1st great awaking, so refreshing.
Finally, a more nuanced description also considering cities and trade in the French and Spanish colonies
Thank you!
Please include information on the Huguenots. Thank you.
Thanks for the feedback. I will continue to make more detailed videos, so we will get the Huguenots included.
The piece of music from the movie Master And Commander is a nice touch.
Solid overview. Thanks.
I appreciate your mention of the various Indian nations as the Europeans expanded territory. I always hear about them in passing, but never really know that much about them. It would be really nice to get one of your maps with just the Indian tribes location.
Also, l’ve heard a lot about the Iroquois and would also appreciate more info on them. Orson Scott Card gave them their own nation in his alternate America of Seventh Son series.
Maybe a video just on the European-Indian interactions. All we ever learned about in school were the French and Indian Wars and other conflicts.
Stone Age Tribes: no written language, no metal, no wheels.
Tribal Warfare, the winning tribe controlled the land. White tribe from Europe Won and takes control of land.
Law of the Land among Stone Age Tribes: Violence. Winner takes the land.
Can you please make a video piece about the history of the subways all over the world? I find subways very fascinating and I have researched them from an amateur standpoint. I’ve gotten to ride the subway in both New York City as well as Toronto and in my research the subways that they were once drawn or pulled by horses and the whole reason behind subways was to relieve traffic congestion on the street level. Experimental subways or subway systems were originally planned to be air tubes that would push or pull cars on a track using air pressure or vacuum systems. My understanding is that the subway system in Rochester, New York was shut down for whatever reason? I’ve also been on the subway in Cleveland, Ohio which was a very short system. I’ve also been on the subway in Toronto, Canada and in the front of the car is a placard with Korean writing. The placard was riveted to the front panel and I was able to talk to one of the maintenance guys that worked on the subway in Toronto and he told me that the subway system there in Toronto was referred to as the Rocket and the cars were actually manufactured in Korea. The train ride was very very smooth, especially when compared to some of the trains in New York City. While we’re on the subject of underground subways, I was able to make a company trip to Chicago and I was able to ride on the elevated train which was referred to as the L because it was elevated. After doing research about Chicago, I found out that they had underground tunnel systems and that system was used with horse drawn carts in order to deliver goods to the various stores in the city center and the set up was used to avoid the extremely harsh and cold weather during the winter time. My understanding is that the underground tunnel system is currently abandoned. Will you please do a video piece about the underground tunnel system in Chicago? Also, I remember downloading a movie off a bit torrent, it was a horror movie called “The Tunnel “. I watched it and it was interesting? I also remember downloading a movie from the 1970s called “The Taking of Pelham 123” starring Walter Matthau. It had to do with the high jacking of a subway car in New York City. It was a very interesting movie. This was before my time. I was a little kid. I find it very interesting as well, possibly something else to look into??
Very good. Thanks. 🙂
Im from cape breton, ft Louisburg has a rebuilt museum there.. was a great battle there at one time
I spent a week there at Fortress Louisbourg in 2010. It's a beautiful place. I will return again.
Yes there were two great battles at Louisbourg. Louisbourg fell to the British in the first siege in 1745 and again in 1758.
Found the resource page, thank you.
What about Fort Maurepas now Ocean Spring, Mississippi aka Old Biloxi?
There's a good deal of short shrift on the central gulf coast. Probably due to a Yankee influence of the Librarian (for instance he can't pronounce Natchez, Montgomery...but he did use the American simple pronunciation of New Orleans instead of a yankee trying to sound jazzy.
Fort Louis de la Mobile built in 1703 by the Bienville brothers for civilian occupation after building military forts at Maurepas and Isle Dauphine (Murder Island) around 1699.
Can you imagine him pronouncing Biloxi?
The second fort (Conde) for Mobile was built in 1711, 27 miles south of the original....but in the same county (even modern county) by the same families, under the same Royal charter, carrying the same name.
Not to mention the ignoring of Spanish Pensacola's second investment around 1701, the Apalachicola forts, the Texas coastal forts bleeding up from Mexico around 1710 to keep the French from spreading too far from the Miss Rv.
If I hazard a guess...the vid is to focus on the towns of significance in the 7 Years War and the US Revolution....so he popped in Arkansas Post, Ft Rosalie , NO and Mobile.
Great vid! As a Savannah resident, I will point out that Whitefield is pronounced “wit-field”