11 Facts About Thirteen Colonies

1.

Thirteen Colonies, known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America.

FactSnippet No. 641,731
2.

The Thirteen Colonies came to have very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, dominated by Protestant English-speakers.

FactSnippet No. 641,732
3.

The Middle Thirteen Colonies were established on an earlier Dutch colony, New Netherland.

FactSnippet No. 641,733
4.

All the Thirteen Colonies were part of Britain's possessions in the New World, which included territory in Canada, Florida, and the Caribbean.

FactSnippet No. 641,734
5.

Thirteen Colonies had a high degree of self-governance and active local elections, and they resisted London's demands for more control.

FactSnippet No. 641,735
6.

The Thirteen Colonies were complete with the establishment of the Province of Georgia in 1732, although the term "Thirteen Colonies" became current only in the context of the American Revolution.

FactSnippet No. 641,736
7.

Thirteen Colonies was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony over theological disagreements; he founded the settlement based on an egalitarian constitution, providing for majority rule "in civil things" and "liberty of conscience" in religious matters.

FactSnippet No. 641,737
8.

The Thirteen Colonies became increasingly divided between Patriots opposed to British rule and Loyalists who supported it.

FactSnippet No. 641,738
9.

Thirteen Colonies were religiously diverse, with different Protestant denominations brought by British, German, Dutch, and other immigrants.

FactSnippet No. 641,739
10.

Thirteen Colonies were independent of one other long before 1774; indeed, all the colonies began as separate and unique settlements or plantations.

FactSnippet No. 641,740
11.

The British crown had only recently acquired several of those lands, and many of the issues facing the Thirteen Colonies did not apply to them, especially in the case of Quebec and Florida.

FactSnippet No. 641,741