This series examines English colonies in North America from their establishment in the early seventeenth century to their break away from Britain in the 1770s. It will examine why the English felt the need for colonial expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, why they chose North America and how they went about creating new societies three thousand miles from home. While much of the module will be arranged chronologically, time will be set aside for the consideration of several social, ethnic, and cultural themes that do not fit quite so neatly into this format.