1700s and the Latter Colonial Period

The eighteenth century may best be characterized as a period of social and cultural development - development of distinctive American culture with distinctive American views on autonomy and self-governance. Throughout this century, and culminating in the American Revolution, tensions mounted between colonies and the Crown.

But before we get to the American Revolution and its impact on our court systems, we must understand how the colonies evolved prior to the Revolution. Up until the middle of the century, colonies continued to be owned or operated by myriad European powers. Religion continued to dominate cultural, social, and legal matters. By the middle of the 1700s, Protestant England and Catholic France had grown to dominate most of the western world.  While some of us may think of the colonies as being English in origin, France maintained a great deal of power within the American settlements. These two world powers eventually clashed in almost a decade of war, the war that we usually call the French and Indian War.  England won, and that victory resulted in a massive overhaul of the colonial map.  England owned almost everything – the land, the colonies, and many of the colonists. Therefore, England also dominated in the way law developed in the colonies.