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The Middle Colonies' political groups began as small groups with narrowly focused goals. These coalitions eventually grew into diverse and large political organizations, evolving especially during the French and Indian War. [19] The Middle Colonies were generally run by Royal or Proprietary Governors and elected Colonial Assemblies.
In royal colonies, governors were appointed by the Crown and represented its interests. Before 1689, governors were the dominant political figures in the colonies. [23] They possessed royal authority transmitted through their commissions and instructions. [24] Among their powers included the right to summon, prorogue and dissolve the elected ...
The Middle Colonies consisted of the present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware and were characterized by a large degree of religious, political, economic, and ethnic diversity. [59] The Dutch colony of New Netherland was taken over by the English and renamed New York.
These colonies were part of British America, which also included territory in The Floridas, the Caribbean, and what is today Canada. [3] The Thirteen Colonies were separately administered under the Crown, but had similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, and each was dominated by Protestant English-speakers.
The early British colonies were established by private groups seeking profit, and were marked by starvation, disease, and Native American attacks. Many immigrants were people seeking religious freedom or escaping political oppression, peasants displaced by the Industrial Revolution, or those simply seeking adventure and opportunity. Between the ...
The Charter of Liberties and Privileges was an act passed by the New York General Assembly during its first session in 1683 that laid out the political organization of the colony, set up the procedures for election to the assembly, created 12 counties, and guaranteed certain individual rights for the colonists.
Term Description Examples Autocracy: Autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power (social and political) is concentrated in the hands of one person or polity, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass insurrection).
A charter is a document that gives colonies the legal rights to exist. Charters can bestow certain rights on a town, city, university, or other institution. Colonial charters were approved when the king gave a grant of exclusive powers for the governance of land to proprietors or a settlement company.