ABSTRACT
The “Middle Colonies” refers to the English colonies on the Atlantic Coast between the New England and Chesapeake colonies: the modern-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The first European colonizers to this area were the Dutch and Swedes (see chapter four). English conquest of New Netherland (1664), later renamed New York, paved the way for English colonization throughout the region. Despite English ownership, the Middle Colonies maintained the ethnic diversity they enjoyed under the Dutch: English settlers never comprised a majority, a characteristic the entire region maintained through the centuries. Scots, Scots-Irish, Dutch, and particularly Germans were among the many Europeans who lived in and migrated to the region. Family farms typified the countryside, with greater prosperity per capita than in New England, as many produced surpluses of wheat for sale to the burgeoning cities of New York and Philadelphia, which engaged in world trade that fostered thriving merchant and artisan communities. These two cities displayed great entrepreneurship and cosmopolitanism, and by the end of the colonial period stood at the forefront of economic, social, scientific, and political advancement in colonial America.
