In 1497 an Italian sailor named John Cabot arrived in Newfoundland on a mission for the British king. Cabot’s journey provided the basis for British claims in North America.

In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert received a patent from Queen Elizabeth to colonize the lands in the New World which other European nations had not claimed yet. He was lost in the sea during one of his voyages, but his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, took up the mission. In 1585 Raleigh established the first British colony in North America on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina. Queen made him a knight and allowed to name the land in North America  Virginia after her. However, the colony  was abandoned and a second effort two years later also proved a failure.

Only in 1607 the British established their first successful colony in North America – Jamestown in Virginia. People who had come to Jamestown were more interested in finding gold than in farming and were not prepared to live in the wilderness. Among them Captain John Smith emerged as the dominant figure. Despite quarrels, starvation and Indian attacks, he led the colony through its first year. In 1609 Smith had to return to England and the colony descended into anarchy. During the winter 1609-1610 the majority of the colonists succumbed to disease. Only 60 of the original 300 settlers were still alive by May 1610. That same year the town of Henrico, now Richmond, was established farther up the James River. Life in Virginia was hard. But in1612 a development occurred that revolutionized Virginia’s economy. John Rolfe began cross-breeding imported tobacco seed with native plants and produced a new variety that was pleasing to European taste. The first shipment of this tobacco reached London in 1614. Within a decade it had become Virginia’s chief source of revenue.

In general, different groups of people left Britain and came to settle in America. Some wanted to escape political oppression, others were unable to find work in their native country, because economic difficulties swept England between 1620and 1635. Still others sought the freedom to practice their religion, like Roman Catholics in Maryland or Quakers in Pennsylvania. There were people who left their homeland for adventure or hoping to find gold. Some came to America as convicts. But many Americans believe that actual colonization started when Pilgrim Fathers, some of whom were Puritans, founded Plymouth in 1620.

They had set out for Virginia on board the Mayflower. A storm sent them for north and they landed at Cape Cod, present-day Massachusetts. Believing themselves outside the jurisdiction of any organized government, the men wrote a formal agreement to abide by "just and equal laws” drafted by leaders of their own choosing. That was the Mayflower Compact. The Pilgrims began building their settlement during the winter. Nearly half the colonists died because of disease. Fortunately, neighboring Indians taught them how to grow maize. By the next fall the Pilgrims had a plentiful crop of corn and a growing trade based on furs and lumber.

In 1630 a new wave of immigrants arrived on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, bearing a grant from King Charles the 1-st to establish a colony. The Massachusetts Bay colony played a significant role in the development of the entire New England.

By the middle of the 18-th century there were three distinct regional groupings of colonies: New England, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies.

New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and  New Hampshire) had stony lands that were not suited for farming. People worked on the sea, on grain mills and saw mills, timber providing for shipbuilding. Trade and business developed.

In the Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey), with better soil and climate, wheat growing existed in addition to crafting and trade.

The Southern Colonies (Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Georgia) depended on agriculture. They had large plantations of tobacco, rice and cotton. Slave labor was widely used there.