The English came to North America because of their desire to counter the
Spanish and
French influence in the New World. In the sixteenth century,
Spain became increasingly affluent and powerful due to its control over the New World. England, apprehensive about its prospects, sought to partake in the New World trade similarly to the Spanish. When Spain declined to share its wealth, English privateers commenced assaults on Spanish vessels and settlements throughout the Americas. In 1586, Sir
Francis Drake launched an attack on
St. Augustine, Florida, the principal city in
Spanish Florida, setting it ablaze. This conflict persisted for nearly two decades. Ultimately, in 1604, both nations ratified a peace treaty. Consequently, England was poised to assert its claim over North America. The English sought to emulate the Spanish by colonizing the Americas and setting up several
joint-stock companies to help generate more trade in the region.
Early settlement and colonization for the first English settlement in
Historic Jamestowne,
Virginia.English settlement in America began with
Jamestown in the
Virginia Colony in 1607. With the permission of
James I, three ships (the
Susan Constant, The Discovery, and
The God Speed) sailed from England and landed at
Cape Henry in April, under the captainship of
Christopher Newport, . English Pilgrims signing the
Mayflower Compact in 1620. The second successful colony was
Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 by people who later became known as the
Pilgrims. Fleeing religious persecution in the
East Midlands in England, they first went to
Holland, but feared losing their English identity. Because of this, they chose to relocate to the
New World, with their voyage being financed by English investors. In September 1620, 102 passengers set sail aboard the
Mayflower, eventually settling at Plymouth Colony in November. Of the passengers on the
Mayflower, 41 men signed the "
Mayflower Compact" aboard ship on November 11, 1620, while anchored in
Provincetown Harbor. Signers included
Carver,
Alden,
Standish,
Howland,
Bradford,
Allerton, and
Fuller. This story has become a central theme in the United States cultural identity. A number of English colonies were established under a system of
proprietary governors, who were appointed under mercantile
charters to English
joint stock companies to found and run settlements. England also took control over the
Dutch colony of
New Netherland (including the
New Amsterdam settlement), renaming it the
Province of New York in 1664. With New Netherland, the English came to control the former
New Sweden (in what is now
Delaware), which the Dutch had conquered from
Sweden earlier. This became part of
Pennsylvania. Many planters, slave traders and slave owners who owned black slaves were of English ancestry. A significant number of English Americans are descendants of slave owners who owned Black slaves. The white English population regarded the
black race as an inferior race, deemed suitable for enslavement. The English were mainly responsible for
slavery in the United States. The practice of slavery in Colonial America, characterized by the enslavement of Africans by white English settlers, commenced in 1640 in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia; however, it had already been adopted as a policy before this time, evidenced by the enslavement, deportation, and
genocide of Native Americans. Large plantations in the southern regions, dedicated to the cultivation of
tobacco,
rice and
cotton, became heavily dependent on the labor of African American slaves, whereas smaller farms in the northern areas, usually operated by a farmer and his family, did not necessitate slave labor to the same extent. English colonists possessed numerous slave plantations. English colonists who were white men raped
Black women and
Native American women. When the London Company sent out its first expedition to begin colonizing Virginia on December 20, 1606, it was by no means the first European attempt to exploit North America. In 1564, for example, French Protestants (Huguenots) built a colony near what is now Jacksonville, Florida. This intrusion did not go unnoticed by the Spanish, who had previously claimed the region. The next year, the Spanish established a military post at St. Augustine; Spanish troops soon wiped out the French interlopers residing but 40 miles away. Meanwhile, Basque, English, and French fishing fleets became regular visitors to the coasts from Newfoundland to Cape Cod. Some of these fishing fleets even set up semi-permanent camps on the coasts to dry their catches and to trade with local people, exchanging furs for manufactured goods. For the next two decades, Europeans' presence in North America was limited to these semi-permanent incursions. Then in the 1580s, the English tried to plant a permanent colony on Roanoke Island (on the outer banks of present-day North Carolina), but their effort was short-lived. In the early 1600s, in rapid succession, the English began a colony (Jamestown) in Chesapeake Bay in 1607, the French built Quebec in 1608, and the Dutch began their interest in the region that became present-day New York. Within another generation, the Plymouth Company (1620), the Massachusetts Bay Company (1629), the Company of New France (1627), and the Dutch West India Company (1621) began to send thousands of colonists, including families, to North America. Successful colonization was not inevitable. Rather, interest in North America was a halting, yet global, contest among European powers to exploit these lands. There is another very important point to keep in mind: European colonization and settlement of North America (and other areas of the so-called "new world") was an invasion of territory controlled and settled for centuries by Native Americans. To be sure, Native American control and settlement of that land looked different to European eyes. Nonetheless, Native American groups perceived the Europeans' arrival as an encroachment and they pursued any number of avenues to deal with that invasion. That the Native American were unsuccessful in the long run in resisting or in establishing a more favorable accommodation with the Europeans was as much the result of the impact of European diseases as superior force of arms. Moreover, to view the situation from Native American perspectives is essential in understanding the complex interaction of these very different peoples. A third group of people--in this case Africans--played an active role in the European invasion (or colonization) of the western hemisphere. From the very beginning, Europeans' attempts to establish colonies in the western hemisphere foundered on the lack of laborers to do the hard work of colony-building. The Spanish, for example, enslaved the Native American in regions under their control. The English struck upon the idea of indentured servitude to solve the labor problem in Virginia. Virtually all the European powers eventually turned to African slavery to provide labor on their islands in the West Indies. Slavery was eventually transferred to other colonies in both South and North America. Because of the interactions of these very diverse peoples, the process of European colonization of the western hemisphere was a complex one, indeed. Individual members of each group confronted situations that were most often not of their own making or choosing. These individuals responded with the means available to them. For most, these means were not sufficient to prevail. Yet these people were not simply victims; they were active agents trying to shape their own destinies. That many of them failed should not detract from their efforts.
English immigration after 1776 Cultural similarities and a common language allowed English immigrants to integrate rapidly and gave rise to a unique Anglo-American culture. An estimated 3.5 million English immigrated to the U.S. after 1776. English settlers provided a steady and substantial influx throughout the 19th century. A number of English settlers moved to the United States from Australia in the 1850s (then a
British political territory), when the
California Gold Rush boomed; these included the so-called "
Sydney Ducks" (
see Australian Americans). In prior eras there were English-centered cultural events such as
Morris dance events and
Saint George's Day. There had been conflicts between English immigrant groups and Irish immigrant groups. A magazine article from
The Republic in 1852 had criticized English immigrants for remaining loyal to the British Crown. During the last years of the 1860s, annual English immigration grew to over 60,000 and continued to rise to over 75,000 per year in 1872, before experiencing a decline. The final and most sustained wave of immigration began in 1879 and lasted until the depression of 1893. During this period English annual immigration averaged more than 82,000, with peaks in 1882 and 1888 and did not drop significantly until the financial panic of 1893. The depression of 1893 sharply decreased English emigration to the United States, and it stayed low for much of the twentieth century. This decline reversed itself in the decade of World War II when over 100,000 English (18 percent of all European immigrants) came from England. In this group was a large contingent of
war brides who came between 1945 and 1948. In these years four women emigrated from England for every man. While differences developed, it is not surprising that English immigrants had little difficulty in assimilating to American life. The American resentment against the policies of the
British government was rarely transferred to English settlers who came to America in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Throughout American history, English immigrants and their descendants have been prominent in every level of government and in every aspect of American life. Known informally as "WASPS" (see
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), their dominance has slipped since 1945, but remains high in many fields. Eight out of the first ten American presidents (and an even higher proportion of out of the 45 persons to serve as president), as well as the majority of sitting congressmen and congresswomen, are descended from English ancestors. The descendants of English expatriates are so numerous and so well integrated in American life that it is impossible to identify all of them. While they are the third-largest ethnic nationality self-reported in the 1990 census, they retain such a pervasive representation at every level of national and state government that, on any list of American senators, Supreme Court judges, governors, or legislators, they would constitute a plurality if not an outright majority. In 2011, Lucy Tobin of
The Guardian wrote that, as of that year, it was not common to see English cultural heritage expression nor events in the United States. often because many had been involved in government back in England. In the original
Thirteen Colonies, most laws contained elements found in the English
common law system. The majority of the
Founding Fathers of the United States were of English extraction. A minority were of high social status and can be classified as
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). Many of the prewar WASP elite were Loyalists who left the new nation. While WASPs have been major players in every major American political party, an exceptionally strong association has existed between WASPs and the
Republican Party, before the 1980s. A few top Democrats qualified, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt. Northeastern Republican leaders such as
Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts,
Prescott Bush of Connecticut and especially
Nelson Rockefeller of New York exemplified the pro-business liberal Republicanism of their social stratum, espousing internationalist views on foreign policy, supporting social programs, and holding liberal views on issues like
racial integration. A famous confrontation was the 1952 Senate election in Massachusetts where
John F. Kennedy, a Catholic of Irish descent, defeated WASP
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. However the challenge by
Barry Goldwater in 1964 to the Eastern Republican establishment helped undermine the WASP dominance. Goldwater himself had solid WASP credentials through his mother, of a prominent old Yankee family, but was instead mistakenly seen as part of the Jewish community (which he had never associated with). By the 1980s, the liberal
Rockefeller Republican wing of the party was marginalized, overwhelmed by the dominance of the Southern and Western conservative Republicans. Asking "Is the WASP leader a dying breed?" journalist Nina Strochlic in 2012 pointed to eleven WASP top politicians—typically scions of upper class English families. She ended with Republicans George H. W. Bush elected in 1988, his son George W. Bush elected in 2000 and 2004, and John McCain, who was nominated but defeated in 2008.
Relations with Native Americans When English colonists initiated the establishment of colonies on the North American continent, they aspired to coexist harmoniously with their Native American neighbors. The English believed that their indigenous counterparts would acknowledge the superiority of English civilization and would seek to imitate the English colonists. Regrettably for the English settlers, the Native Americans were not inclined to fulfill these expectations. Equally troubling for the colonists was the fact that several of their own found Indian culture more appealing than English society. This situation alarmed colonial leaders, prompting all colonies to take measures to prevent their citizens from adopting Native American lifestyles. The English colonists exhibited an unquenchable desire for Native American lands. To rationalize their appropriation of Indian territory, English officials and colonists relied on three specific justifications. Firstly, they asserted their claim to the land by virtue of discovery. Secondly, they claimed the land through conquest. Lastly, they contended that they had a superior right to the land because they could utilize it more effectively than the Native Americans. Land was arguably the most significant source of tension in Anglo-Indian relations during the colonial era. ==Language==