A history of the American people, Vol. 2 [of 5]: Colonies and nation

"A history of the American people, Vol. 2 [of 5]" by Woodrow Wilson is a historical account written in the early 20th century. Centered on the British mainland colonies’ growth from scattered settlements into an emerging nation, it follows imperial rivalry, frontier expansion, commerce, religion, and politics as they converge toward revolution and independence. This volume likely covers the late 17th century through the Revolutionary era, highlighting how colonial society, war, and governance forged a common American direction.

The opening of this volume surveys the colonies from the late 1600s into the 1730s, showing how repeated wars and shared pressures began to knit them together. It contrasts English settlement with French military expansion down the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, and Mississippi, notes the Iroquois as a decisive barrier, and recounts King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War—raids, failed expeditions, Port Royal’s capture, and the Carolinas’ hard fighting against Spain and native confederacies. Alongside war, it traces trade under the Navigation Acts, the rise and suppression of piracy (including Kidd, Blackbeard, and Bonnet), William Penn’s conciliatory reforms, New Jersey’s shift to royal control, new colleges, and Alexander Spotswood’s forward-looking Virginia governance and Blue Ridge exploration. A long Walpole-era peace brings population growth and diversity (Scots-Irish, Germans, Huguenots), Charleston’s plantation elite, colonial assertiveness (the Zenger acquittal), slave unrest, and the tightening French cordon inland (Crown Point, Niagara, New Orleans). The section closes with James Oglethorpe’s founding of Georgia as a philanthropic, military buffer, deliberately settled by vetted Europeans such as Salzburgers and Highlanders.