Initially formed in 1607, British Colonial America was established as the 1st permanent colony in Jamestown on the Chesapeake Bay by the London Company; a year earlier, King James I of England had granted charters to the Plymouth Company & the London Company for the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in North America It grew as a regional area as more people arrived, becoming the United States of Americal in 1776 [ source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_colonization_of_the_Americas#Early_colonization,_1607%E2%80%931630 ]