<P> Great Britain also colonised the west coast of North America, indirectly via the Hudson's Bay Company licenses west of the Rocky Mountains: the Columbia District and New Caledonia fur district . Most of these were jointly claimed as the Oregon Country by the United States from 1818 until the 49th parallel was established as the international boundary west of the Rockies by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 . The Colony of Vancouver Island, founded in 1849, and the Colony of British Columbia, founded in 1858, were combined in 1866 under the name Colony of British Columbia, and joined the Confederation in 1871 . British Columbia was expanded with the inclusion of the Stikine Territory in 1863; and upon joining Confederation the Peace River Block, formerly part of Rupert's Land, was added . </P> <P> In 1867, the colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (the southern portion of modern - day Ontario and Quebec) combined to form a self - governing dominion, named Canada, within the British Empire (the term "kingdom" was avoided so as to not provoke the United States). Quebec (including what is now the southern portion of Ontario) and Nova Scotia (including what is now New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) had been ceded to Britain by the French . The colonies of Prince Edward Island and British Columbia joined over the next six years, and Newfoundland joined in 1949 . Rupert's Land and the North - Western Territory were ceded to Canada in 1870 . This area now consists of the provinces of Manitoba (admitted after negotiation between Canada and a Métis provisional government in 1870), Saskatchewan, and Alberta (both created in 1905), as well as the Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territory (created 1898, following the start of the Klondike Gold Rush), and Nunavut (created in 1999). </P> <Ul> <Li> Roanoke Colony, founded 1586, abandoned the next year . Second attempt in 1587 disappeared (also called the Lost Colony). </Li> <Li> Cuttyhunk Island, established as a small fort and trading post by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, abandoned after one month . </Li> <Li> Virginia Company, chartered 1606 and became the Virginia Colony in 1624 <Ul> <Li> London Company <Ul> <Li> Jamestown, Virginia, founded 1607 (briefly abandoned in 1610) </Li> <Li> Bermuda, islands located in the North Atlantic, first settled in 1609 by the London Virginia Company; administration passed in 1615 to the Somers Isles Company, formed by the same shareholders . Known officially as the Somers Isles, they remain today a British overseas territory . </Li> <Li> Citie of Henricopolis, founded in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy Jamestown site and destroyed in the Indian massacre of 1622 . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Plymouth Company <Ul> <Li> Popham Colony, founded 1607, abandoned 1608 </Li> </Ul> </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Society of Merchant Venturers (Newfoundland) <Ul> <Li> Cuper's Cove, founded 1610, abandoned in the 1620s </Li> <Li> Bristol's Hope, founded 1618, abandoned in the 1630s </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> London and Bristol Company (Newfoundland) The massacre of Jamestown settlers in 1622 . Soon the colonists in the South feared all natives as enemies . <Ul> <Li> New Cambriol, founded 1617, abandoned before 1637 </Li> <Li> Renews, founded 1615, abandoned in 1619 </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> St. John's, Newfoundland, chartered by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583; seasonal settlements ca . 1520; informal year - round settlers before 1620 . </Li> <Li> Plymouth Council for New England <Ul> <Li> Plymouth Colony, founded 1620, merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691 </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Ferryland, Newfoundland, granted to George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore in 1620, first settlers in August 1621 </Li> <Li> Province of Maine, granted 1622, sold to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1677 </Li> <Li> South Falkland, Newfoundland, founded 1623 by Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland </Li> <Li> Province of New Hampshire, later New Hampshire settled in 1623, see also New Hampshire Grants </Li> <Li> Dorchester Company Colony, (Dorchester Company planted an unsuccessful fishing colony on Cape Ann at modern Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1624) </Li> <Li> Salem Colony, later Salem, Massachusetts, settled in 1628, merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony the next year </Li> <Li> Massachusetts Bay Colony, later part of Massachusetts, founded 1629 </Li> <Li> New Scotland, in present Nova Scotia, 1629--1632 </Li> <Li> Connecticut Colony, later part of Connecticut founded 1633 </Li> <Li> Province of Maryland, later Maryland, founded in 1634 The Treaty of William Penn with the Indians . Penn's Treaty was never violated . </Li> <Li> New Albion, chartered in 1634, failed by 1649--50, not to be confused with Nova Albion on the Pacific coast (see next section) </Li> <Li> Saybrook Colony, founded 1635, merged with Connecticut in 1644 </Li> <Li> Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, first settled in 1636 </Li> <Li> New Haven Colony, founded 1638, merged with Connecticut in 1665 </Li> <Li> Gardiners Island, founded 1639, now part of East Hampton, New York </Li> <Li> Province of New York, captured 1664 </Li> <Li> Province of New Jersey, captured in 1664 <Ul> <Li> divided into West Jersey and East Jersey after 1674, each held by its own company of Proprietors . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Province of Pennsylvania, later Pennsylvania, founded 1681 as an English colony, although first settled by Dutch and Swedes </Li> <Li> Delaware Colony, later Delaware, separated from Pennsylvania in 1704 </Li> <Li> Province of Carolina <Ul> <Li> Province of North Carolina, first permanent English settlements in the late 1600s (nearly a century after the failed Roanoke Colony; see Albemarle Settlements), became a separate colony in 1710 - 12 . </Li> <Li> Province of South Carolina, first permanent English settlement in 1670, became a separate colony in 1710 - 12 . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Li> Province of Georgia, later Georgia; first settled in about 1670, formal colony in 1732 </Li> <Li> Nova Scotia, site of abortive Scottish colony in 1629; British colony 1713, but this did not permanently include Cape Breton Island until 1758 . </Li> <Li> Province of Quebec, which had been called Canada under French rule . Canada was by far the most settled portion of New France . Britain gained complete control of French Canada in 1759--1761, from the events within the North American theater of the Seven Years' War; France ceded title with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 . Became Canada East in the Province of Canada, which also included Ontario (Upper Canada) as Canada West, from 1841 to 1867 . </Li> <Li> East Florida and West Florida, acquired from Spain in 1763 in exchange for returning Cuba, taken from Spain in 1761; the Floridas were recovered by Spain in 1783 . Backwoods areas almost unaffected by the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765, which unified the thirteen colonies that formed the United States, not much for abstract principles, and grateful to the crown, they declined to send representatives to the Continental Congress or to participate in any way in the independence movement . After the Second Spanish period, they were acquired by the United States in 1821 . </Li> <Li> Island of St. John, separated from Nova Scotia 1769, renamed Prince Edward Island in 1798 </Li> <Li> New Brunswick, separated from Nova Scotia in 1784 </Li> </Ul> <Li> Roanoke Colony, founded 1586, abandoned the next year . Second attempt in 1587 disappeared (also called the Lost Colony). </Li>

When did the british empire take over america