The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

The European colonization of the Americas was a centuries-long process that began with early exploration in the late fifteenth century and culminated in the establishment of vast colonial empires across the Western Hemisphere. European interest in the Americas was initially driven by economic motives. Following Christopher Columbus’s transatlantic voyage in 1492, Spain and Portugal were the first European powers to establish permanent footholds in the New World. Spanish conquistadors subdued major indigenous empires such as the Aztecs and Incas and established viceroyalties that extended from Mexico City to Lima. These colonies produced vast wealth for Spain, particularly through silver mining and plantation agriculture, and relied heavily on forced labor, including the brutal encomienda system and the importation of enslaved Africans.

Other European powers, observing Spain’s immense profits, soon entered the competition. The French explored the interior of North America, claiming the Mississippi River basin and founding settlements in Canada such as Quebec (1608). The Dutch established a short-lived colony called New Netherland, which included the city of New Amsterdam, later captured by the English and renamed New York in 1664. England’s colonization efforts began in earnest with the founding of Jamestown, in present-day Virginia, in 1607. Over the next century and a half, the English crown established 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast, stretching from Georgia to Massachusetts. These colonies varied widely in structure and purpose, with some founded as commercial ventures and others as religious havens. Despite national differences, all European colonizers sought to extract resources and wealth from the Americas. Colonization brought the widespread appropriation of land, the displacement and decimation of Indigenous societies, and the expansion of transatlantic slavery. European trade routes became deeply tied to colonial production, with triangular commerce linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the exchange of manufactured goods, human beings, and raw materials.

In British North America, the colonial experience was shaped by a relatively high degree of local autonomy. While the British crown appointed governors and enforced certain trade regulations, most colonies were governed through locally elected assemblies. These assemblies controlled taxation, militia organization, and civil law. Colonists, particularly those of English descent, saw themselves as entitled to the rights of Englishmen, including the right to self-government and protection under common law. The political culture of the colonies encouraged civic participation, public debate, and a growing sense of shared identity, even amid regional and religious diversity.

By the mid-18th century, Britain had emerged as the dominant colonial power in North America. As described in the prologue of The British Are Coming, a series of imperial measure sought to raise revenue through direct and indirect taxation. Colonists responded with protests, boycotts, and the argument that taxation without representation was a violation of their liberties. Underlying these political disputes was a deep transformation in colonial society.

By the 1770s, the American colonies had grown significantly in population, wealth, and self-confidence. Literacy rates were high, newspapers and pamphlets circulated widely, and Enlightenment ideas about liberty, natural rights, and the social contract found receptive audiences. Many colonists believed they were not simply resisting unjust taxes but defending a way of life that had developed over generations of relative autonomy. At the same time, colonization had created lasting inequalities and tensions. Indigenous peoples had been violently displaced or pushed westward. African slavery had become a central institution, particularly in the South. Class divisions, religious conflicts, and frontier violence persisted. Yet for many white colonists, the Revolution would be cast as a struggle for self-determination against imperial overreach.