Theme: Compared with its seventeenth-century counterpart, eighteenth-century colonial society became more complex and hierarchical, more ethnically and religiously diverse, and more economically and politically developed.

Theme: Colonial culture, while still limited, took on distinct American qualities in such areas as evangelical religion, education, press freedom, and self-government.

Theme: England's Atlantic sea-board colonies, with their population growth and substantial agricultural exports, grew and developed in importance to the English empire. So, the relationship between England and these colonies was shifting economically, politically, and culturally. Colonists sold their agricultural abundance not only to England, but also to France and the West Indies. Royal authority was checked by colonial legislatures that sometimes refused to pay governors' salaries and the famous Zenger case. Schools and colleges emerged and the cultural reliance on England began to fade.