<P> The colony, which was taken over by Britain in 1664, left an enduring legacy on American cultural and political life . This includes secular broad - mindedness and mercantile pragmatism in the city as well as rural traditionalism in the countryside (typified by the story of Rip Van Winkle). Notable Americans of Dutch descent include Martin Van Buren, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Frelinghuysens . </P> <P> New France was the area colonized by France from 1534 to 1763 . There were few permanent settlers outside Quebec and Acadia, but the French had far - reaching trading relationships with Native Americans throughout the Great Lakes and Midwest . French villages along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers were based in farming communities that served as a granary for Gulf Coast settlements . The French established plantations in Louisiana along with settling New Orleans, Mobile and Biloxi . </P> <P> The Wabanaki Confederacy were military allies of New France through the four French and Indian Wars while the British colonies were allied with the Iroquois Confederacy . During the French and Indian War--the North American theater of the Seven Years' War--New England fought successfully against French Acadia . The British removed Acadians from Acadia (Nova Scotia) and replaced them with New England Planters . Eventually, some Acadians resettled in Louisiana, where they developed a distinctive rural Cajun culture that still exists . They became American citizens in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase . Other French villages along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers were absorbed when the Americans started arriving after 1770, or settlers moved west to escape them . French influence and language in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast was more enduring; New Orleans was notable for its large population of free people of color before the Civil War . </P> <P> The strip of land along the eastern seacoast was settled primarily by English colonists in the 17th century along with much smaller numbers of Dutch and Swedes . Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that employed forms of unfree labor such as slavery and indentured servitude and by a British policy of benign neglect (salutary neglect). Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants . Salutary neglect permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders . </P>

When was the term united states of america first used