House of Burgesses Harvard College Cambridge Massachusetts Bay Colony Mayflower Compact Fundamental Orders of Connecticut self-government constitutionalism English dissenting Christians religious freedom native population of America declined infectious smallpox measles Dutch New Netherland mid-Atlantic education legislative Massachusetts established
The continent's first elected legislative assembly, the House of Burgesses in Virginia, was founded in 1619. In 1636, Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded as the first institution of higher education. The Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies. Many English settlers were dissenting Christians who fled England seeking religious freedom. The native population of America declined after European arrival, primarily as a result of infectious diseases such as smallpox and measles.
By the mid-1670s, the British defeated and seized the territory of Dutch settlers in New Netherland, in the mid-Atlantic region.
