13 August 2015

European colonies in the Americas, 1776



Most Yanks are completely oblivious to the fact that there were many more British colonies in North America in 1776 than just the thirteen represented in the stripes on the U.S. flag.  In addition, fourteen colonies rather than thirteen joined the rebellion in 1775 that became a revolution.  So, while fourteen rebelled against Great Britain, seven did not.

Once I got to writing a list of these, I couldn’t stop myself from going all-out and listing all the colonies of European powers in the Western Hemisphere in 1776.

Maine was part of Massachusetts Bay until 1820.

Vermont seceded from New York in 1777 as New Caledonia initially, then became the Republic of Vermont, which it remained until entering the Union as a state in 1791.

Gardiner’s Island is a small island in the bay of the same name at the eastern end of Long Island, New York.  Its owner had been granted the status of independent colony by the Crown as early as 1639, when the rest of what is now New York was the New Netherlands.  After the revolution, the island came under the jurisdiction of the town of East Hampton, New York.

Officially the “Three Lower Counties on the Delaware River”, when it declared independence from Great Britain, the already autonomous colony seceded from Pennsylvania as Delaware.

West Virginia at the time was merely western Virginia, and remained so until seceding from the secessionist commonwealth in the Civil War to become its own state in 1863.

Rupert’s Land was the one part of North America still owned by a proprietary company.

St. John’s Island became Prince Edward Island in 1798.

Illinois Country is roughly equivalent to what became Northwest Territory, or the Old Northwest, in 1787.  Until 1763, it was Upper Louisiane east of the Mississippi River.  While in British hands, it was recognized as Indian Territory, save for a few British forts.

The colonies of East Florida and West Florida were established in 1763 when Spain traded them to Great Britain for Louisiane west of the Mississippi River.  After they reverted to Spain in 1783, Spain retained the division.

The territory north of West Florida to the Ohio River, what had once been Lower Louisiane east of the Mississippi River, was a protectorate territory known as the Indian Reserve.  Its affairs involving Great Britain were handled out of the West Florida capital of Pensacola and came under the British Indian Department.  It was later denominated the Southwest Territory by the United States.

Norwegian colonies

In North America

Greenland

British colonies

In North America

*Province of Massachusetts Bay (which then included Maine)
*Province of New Hampshire
*Connecticut Colony
*Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
*Province of New York (including Vermont until 1777)
*Colony of Gardiner’s Island (absorbed by New York in 1783)
*Province of Pennsylvania
*Province of New Jersey
*Colony of the Three Lower Counties (now Delaware)
*Province of Maryland
*Colony of Virginia (including West Virginia)
*Province of North Carolina
*Province of South Carolina
*Province of Georgia
Rupert’s Land (owned by Hudson’s Bay Company)
Province of Quebec (formerly Canada and including Illinois Country)
Colony of Newfoundland
St. John’s Island (Prince Edward Island)
Colony of Nova Scotia (including New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island)
Province of East Florida (east of Suwanee River)
Province of West Florida (west of Suwanee River north to 31°N)
Indian Reserve of 1763 (technically a protectorate of UK)

*The fourteen colonies which seceded from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1776.

In the Caribbean

Colony of Bermuda
Colony of the Bahamas
Colony of Jamaica and dependencies
        Island of Jamaica
        Cayman Islands
        Belize
        Mosquito Coast
        Bay Islands
Colony of Barbados
Colony of Grenada
Colony of Tobago
Colony of Dominica
Colony of the Leeward Islands
        St. Christopher
        British Virgin Islands
        Anguilla
        Antigua
        Barbuda
        Montserrat
        Nevis
        St. Vincent

Virreinato de Nueva EspaƱa

In North America

Reino de Mexico
        Provincia de Panzacola (Pensacola)
        Ducado de Atlixco
        Marquesado del Valle de Oaxaca
Capitania-General de La Florida (until 1763)
Provincia de Luisiana (under Capitania-General de Cuba)
Comandancia y Capitania-General de las Provincias Internas
        Alta California
        Baja California
        Nueva Navarra
        Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico
        Tejas y Nuevas Filipinas
        Nuevo Vizcaya
        Nuevo Extremadura
        Nuevo Leon
        Nuevo Santander
        Nuevo Reino de Galicia
Capitania-General de Yucatan
Capitania-General de Guatemala
        Guatemala
        Costa Rica
        Nicaragua
        El Salvador
        Honduras
        Chiapas

In the Caribbean

Capitania-General de Cuba
        Provincia de Luisiana
Capitania-General de Santo Domingo
Capitania-General de Puerto Rico
Spanish Lesser Antilles (Trinidad, Tobago)

In the western Pacific

Capitania-General de las Filipinas
        Philippines
        Marianas
        Carolines
        Moluccas
        Palau
        Northern Taiwan

Other Spanish colonies

In South America

Virreinato de New Granada (including Panama)
        Intendencia de Caracas (Capitania-General of Venezuela after 1777)
Virreinato de Peru
Virreinato del Rio de la Plata
Capitania-General de Chile

French colonies

In the Caribbean

Saint Domingue (now Haiti)
French Lesser Antilles
        St. Lucia
        St. Martin
        Guadeluope
        Martinique
        Saint Barthelemy

In South America

Guiana

Dutch colonies

In the Caribbean

Dutch Lesser Antilles
        Aruba
        Sint Maarten
        Bonaire
        Curacao
        Saba
        Sint Eustatius

In South America

Surinam
Essequibo
Berbice
Demerara

Danish colonies

In the Caribbean

Danish Lesser Antilles (Virgin Islands:
        St. Thomas
        St. Jan
        St. Croix

Portugese colonies

In South America

Vice-reagrupamento do Brasil
        Estado do Brasil
        Estado do Maranhao e Piaui
        Estado do Grao-Para e Rio Negro

Russian colonies

In North America

Russkaya Amerika
        Alaska
        Colony Ross in California
        Schaffer’s short-lived colonies on Oahu and Kaua’i in Hawai’i

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