This course explores the development of European colonies in North America with emphasis on the English colonies that eventually formed a political union and became the United States. Rather than focusing solely on the experiences of European settlers, we analyze a series of encounters among Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans throughout the colonial period, placing these exchanges within the broader context of the emerging Atlantic World. We also use a comparative approach to examine the emergence of distinctive regional patterns among those colonies and their roles in the imperial contests of the era. Topics addressed include the organization of early American culture around the interactions of Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans in North America; the diverse origins of explorers, settlers, and migrants; the political, cultural, and economic development of English colonies; slavery and other labor systems; and the first rumblings of the American Revolution produced by tensions within and beyond colonial British America.