Indentured servants usually worked for about seven years and after their time was up, they were promised fifty acres of their own land. Most, however, never received the land that was promised to them. .
After the discovery of tobacco, many other settlements began to come about in New England and around Virginia. The new settlements economies differed somewhat from Virginia's, but all had a steady income. The New England settlements were especially different because it was too cold to grow tobacco, so other products like iron, rum and cider were made to replace it. This economic stability worried the English because they felt they were losing control of their colonies. They believed in a mercantilist system, which saw two main sources of national strength: wealth and military power, and without control of the colonies the English had neither. So in 1660 and 1663, the Navigation Acts were introduced. Under the Navigation Acts, England banned all trade with the colonies except in colonial or English built ships. The acts also required that certain colonial products and imported European goods be taken to England first. This created a middleman in England who received enormous profits from the trade. Other legal acts like the Iron Act and Molasses Act followed. The Iron Act prohibited the making of any iron products in the colonies and the Molasses Act put a high tax on imported molasses. All of these legal acts benefited the English but mostly these acts were ignored and the colonists turned to smuggling.
During the 1750's, colonists wanted to expand and start settling in the Ohio Valley, which was occupied by the French. This caused the Seven Years War between the British and French. The outcome of this war had a huge impact on the colonies and their relationship with Great Britain. First of all, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 was signed and France lost all of its mainland colonies.
