1.	The first English settlers

2.	Pilgrim Fathers

3.	Friendly American Natives (Indians)

4.	Another religious group

5.	The Civil War (1861-1865)

6.	World War I.

7.	World War II.

"The Pilgrims didn’t have enough food and many of them were sick. Winter in that country is sharp with cruel storms. The frozen ground and the deep snow made it difficult for them to build houses. Before spring came, half of the little group of settlers was dead. But the Pilgrims were determined to succeed. The fifty survivors built better houses.
Friendly American Natives (Indians) gave them seed corn and showed them how to plant it. They also showed the Pilgrims the best places to catch fish. As the harvest that summer and autumn was good, the Pilgrims wanted to give thanks to god for their good fortune. After the example of the American Indians who thanked nature for the food, the pilgrims decided to celebrate their first harvest with a feast of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day has become a national holiday and is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November.
Another religious group, known as the Quarkees founded the colony called Pennsylvania, while some English Catholics settled in the colony, which they called Maryland.
Within the next few years the Pilgrim Fathers were followed by thousands of other settlers: English, Dutch, Irish… They called their new home New England which is an area of the north – eastern United States including the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
By the end of the 18 th century, the whole of the eastern coast of north America had been colonised. There were 13 colonies under the British rule. The colonies supplied the mother country with raw materials and did not compete in manufacturing.
When Britain asked to contribute to the coast of maintaining the British army through raised taxes, there was a serious opposition to this taxation as there were no American – elected members in the British Parliament. The whole affair culminated by the famous Boston Tea Party when on the night of 16 December 1773 all cargoes of tea of the British East India Company were thrown into the sea.

The British Parliament reacted to this “act of vandalism” by closing Boston harbour. Representatives from the American colonies met in Philadelphia in September 1774 replied by composing a trade embargo on Boston. A war became unavailable. "