The new territories did not even have a recognised currency – at Harvard, one student offered to pay the fees with a cow.

By British standards, American history is recent history, though full of change and event. Even as late as 1600, Spain and France shared dominion of the North American continent with Great Britain. It was only the following century that saw the firm establishment of the New England colonies, followed by the rapid extension of British sovereignty over ever-increasing territory – the result of victory over the French in the Seven Years’ War, the Louisiana Purchase of all the French land west of the Mississippi and the brutal annexation of Native American territory.

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