A number of English colonies are established under a system of independent Proprietary Governors, who are appointed under mercantile charters to English joint stock companies to found and run settlements.England also takes over the Dutch colony of New Netherland (including the New Amsterdam settlement) which is renamed the Province of New York in 1664.

With New Netherland, the English also come to control the former New Sweden (in what is now Delaware), which the Dutch had conquered earlier.

This later becomes part of Pennsylvania after it is established in 1680.