British in the Americas 1480-1815, The

by Mcfarlane,Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780582209497
• ISBN10: 0582209498
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1994-12-12
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Of northern European nations, the British had the greatest impact on the Americas. Their history there embraces far more than the colonies that became the United States: England had been in the New World for a century before those colonies were established, and the British presence long outlived their loss. This integrated account of that involvement spans the entire arc of British territories from the Caribbean to Canada, and the entire period from the first appearance of the English to the disintegration of the British and other Euro-American empires. A fascinating story, engrossingly told, it fills a major gap in current historiography.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	x
List of Maps	xi
Preface	xii
Introduction	1	(6)
PART ONE Emergence of Empire, 1480-1642	7	(86)
English Explorations in the Atlantic	9	(26)
The European discoveries	10	(2)
Early English voyages to the West	12	(4)
Elizabethan adventures in the Americas	16	(5)
Colonial experiments	21	(3)
English colonizing experiments: conditions and consequences	24	(11)
First Colonies	35	(21)
English expansion in the early seventeenth century: context	36	(2)
Reconnaissance	38	(2)
Companies and colonies	40	(2)
Virginia: The first years	42	(5)
Settlement in New England	47	(3)
The West Indies	50	(6)
Migrants and Settlers	56	(37)
The 'Great Migration'	56	(2)
British migration to the Americas: general characteristics	58	(5)
New England	63	(5)
The Chesapeake Bay colonies: Virginia and Maryland	68	(5)
The West Indies	73	(3)
The English and the Indians	76	(7)
English America in the mid-seventeenth century	83	(10)
PART TWO Expansion and Consolidation, 1642-1713	93	(122)
The Expansion of Empire	95	(32)
Repercussions of the English Civil War in America	96	(2)
Commerce and colonial policy	98	(5)
Caribbean colonialism: the age of the buccaneers	103	(5)
English expansion in North America	108	(7)
Anglo-America at the end of the seventeenth century	115	(4)
Consolidation and conflict	119	(8)
English Colonies in the Caribbean	127	(25)
English territories in the Caribbean	128	(2)
The Sugar Revolution	130	(2)
Plantation society	132	(3)
The West Indian plantocracy	135	(2)
Slavery	137	(4)
Slave resistance	141	(2)
The West Indian colonies: character and trajectory	143	(9)
The North American Colonies	152	(36)
English North America: regions	154	(3)
Puritan America: the New England region	157	(6)
Plantation America: the Chesapeake region	163	(4)
Plantation America: the Carolinas	167	(2)
Polyglot America: the Middle Atlantic colonies	169	(5)
Frontier America	174	(1)
Slavery in North America	175	(5)
North American society: character and trajectory	180	(8)
Government and Politics	188	(27)
Foundations of colonial government	189	(6)
Colonial government after the English Civil War	195	(3)
Rebellion and royal government in the late seventeenth century	198	(4)
The Glorious Revolution and the colonies	202	(3)
Government in the colonies	205	(3)
The distribution of power	208	(7)
PART THREE Transformations of Empire, 1713-1815	215	(98)
War, Trade and Empire, 1713-1776	217	(35)
The expansion of British Power	218	(2)
Imperialist rivalries and colonial wars	220	(5)
Expansion in the British Atlantic economy	225	(4)
Colonial population growth	229	(5)
Colonial commerce and economic growth	234	(6)
The colonies and the colonial system	240	(3)
The Anglo-American colonies after the Seven Years War	243	(9)
Crisis of Empire	252	(32)
Imperial reorganization	253	(2)
Colonial resistance to reform	255	(2)
From resistance to rebellion	257	(4)
Origins of revolution	261	(11)
The overthrow of British government	272	(2)
Breaking British power: The American War of Independence	274	(3)
The emergence of the United States	277	(7)
Realignments of Empire	284	(29)
After the American Revolution: Britain and the United States	285	(3)
Imperial realignments in North America	288	(5)
Repercussions of revolution in the Caribbean	293	(4)
The attack on slavery	297	(4)
Britain and the fall of the Euro-American empires	301	(5)
British America after 1815: The transition from the first to the second British Empire	306	(7)
Epilogue	313	(4)
Bibliography	317	(18)
Maps	335	(11)
Index	346