Colony

The American Revolution began as a dispute over how Britain governed its North American colonies. It became a struggle for independence and a challenge to the idea that people owed obedience to a monarch regardless of how they were governed.

During Elizabeth I’s reign, England hoped that a colony in North America would bring wealth and strengthen its position against Spain.

Migration helped England, and then Britain, expand its overseas colonies. Colonies needed people to farm, build settlements and work in trades. Migrants hoped to gain land, employment or greater religious freedom.

Colonies produced valuable goods such as sugar and tobacco, while trading networks brought a wider range of products to British consumers. These connections also involved exploitation: Britain became heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas and enslaved, including on plantations producing goods for overseas markets.