Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 92. Reboot. Today, we begin, in earnest,

the road to the Seven Years' War by looking at the imperial system which was born out of the

glorious revolution. The first phase of British, or should I say English, imperialism, was born during the Elizabethan

era.

It saw the creation of England's first colonies, James Town and Plymouth.

If you think back to our very early episodes, you'll recall that a defining feature was disinterest.

They were theoretically subject to the motherland, but London had very little interest in doing anything in the new world unless it was forced into it.

Virginia had to be nearly destroyed in the early 1620s, remember the Poetan Wars, before the

Crown stepped in. Massachusetts spent the better part of half a century in technical rebellion, but enforcing its authority was a very low priority for England.

Fundamentally, it had more important things to deal with.

The British Isles were preoccupied with the English Civil War,

which gradually brought in the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland. Meanwhile, Europe was focused on the

Thirty Years' War. The Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria and Spain were fighting against the French, Swedes and Dutch.

The whole war started when Frederick V of the Palatinate became king of Bohemia,

and Frederick was married to Elizabeth Stewart, the daughter of King James I, and sister of Charles I. The fact

that England didn't even get involved in the 30 years war shows how much its attention was elsewhere.

Colonial affairs didn't even register. Things began to change in 1660 with the restoration of the monarchy and Charles II.

Charles slowly, but surely, started bringing the American colonies under greater control. Rhode Island was given a royal charter.

Charles expanded England's influence to the south, creating Carolina, and then seized the Dutch

colonies to create New York and New Jersey. There was an attempt to take even more control during the ill-fated dominion of New

England, but the glorious revolution changed everything, and created the second phase of English,

...