Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 94. 13 colonies. 13 colonies is an odd phrase.

If I say it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The 13 original American colonies. They rebelled against Britain and became independent, forming the United States of America.

However, the term is problematic. It oversimplifies and it hides true history, leading to myth.

Many simply think that the American colonies rebelled, but they didn't. Only 13 did.

Others did not. In 1763, there were 18 British colonies on continental North America.

New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Knesskut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,

Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Quebec.

13 colonies turned rebel. Five did not.

Understanding why is one of the first steps to understanding the American Revolution.

Indeed, I would advise the listener to be extremely cautious of any narrative of the American

Revolution. That doesn't begin with the 18 colonies. but we're getting ahead of ourselves. The latter

five colonies were not added to the empire until 1763, the year which closed the seven years

war. For the moment, we need to focus on our colonies and what the situation was for them in the

mid-18th century. As we have established in our episodes on New England,

and as was mentioned in our look at mercantilism in the last few episodes,

the primary function of New England within the British imperial system was as a trading post. It was the middleman,

between the American colonies and the motherland. The site which took advantage of this more than

any other was Boston. Its population expanded from 7,000 in 1690 to 17,000 in 1740, making it the largest town in the English colonies.

Boston was the source of Massachusetts' power. It and Virginia were the two most powerful of the colonies. Boston operated essentially as a city

state with a population directly involved in democracy. Virginia had greater sophistication, but Boston

was becoming a centre of learning with its Latin school

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