Types of American Colonies

American History 231-01 February 8, 2014 Different Types of American Colonies There are different types of English colonies, including Royal, proprietary, and private as the most common types. These are three very different types of colonies and had different rules associated with them. Each colony was a part of one of these types, but some even switched between the three types of colonies. These switches came from changes in power and needing different types of government to make this happen. Royal colonies were the most common form of government in the colonies at the time of colonial America. Almost every single colony was a royal colony at one time or another, although many switched from proprietary or private before becoming a royal government. A Royal colony was administered by a royal governor and council that was appointed by the British crown. This means that this type of government had a chief executive officer which, in most cases was called a governor. The Governor was appointed by the Crown that was the head of that colony, and the Governor position was very replaceable and needed no reason to ever be replaced. However, to make the colonies feel as though they have a say the British rulers let the colonies have an assembly. The Royal Colonies had a representative assembly that was elected by the people. These assemblies had very little say, but it made the people feel like they had some sort of control over the government and the choices that are made for them. As stated previously, many of the colonies were a Royal Colony at one time. These colonies include: Virginia (1607-1776), New Hampshire (1679-1776), New York (1685-1776), Massachusetts (1691-1776), New Jersey (1702-1776), North Carolina (1719-1776), South Carolina (1729-1776), Maryland (1691-1715), and Georgia (1752-1776). All of these colonies ended before or during 1776 because the Revolutionary War stopped the colonies from having to go through Britain before making decisions on