Colony Timeline of Events

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Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception. The metropolitan state is the state that owns the colony...

Timeline of Events

1583

8.5.1583

Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.

1607

5.14.1607

Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony.

1619

12.4.1619

38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).

1682

8.24.1682

William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.

1683

10.6.1683

William Penn brings 13 German immigrant families to the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.

1784

9.22.1784

Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

1840

5.22.1840

The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.

1856

2.7.1856

The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the second piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.

1890

1.1.1890

Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.

1910

8.29.1910

Japan changes Korea's name to ''Chōsen'' and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.

1914

8.26.1914

World War I: the German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.

1940

8.26.1940

Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.