Existing comment:
American Origins
By the mid-eighteenth century -- 250 years after Columbus arrived in the New World -- the idea of establishing an independent nation in the Americas had not yet taken form. North America continued to be regarded as the prize in an international rivalry among Spain, France, and England, which all looked to solidify and expand their burgeoning empires. Inevitably, conflicts arose. Wars in Europe leapfrogged the Atlantic and involved colonists in the Americas. In the middle of these conflicts were the hundreds of native nations whose traditional ways of life were dramatically altered by the increasing presence of European colonists.
When the Seven Years' War between Britain and France ended in 1763, the French had lost their bid for empire in the New World. The British and Spanish still held vast and seemingly secure colonial domains. Within two decades, however, Britain would lose its thirteen colonies, and a new nation, the United States of America, would emerge. |