Since America has been discovered the Europeans saw it as like an evasion from political and religious oppression. In addition, between 1620 and 1635 England have seen economic difficulties due to it many people couldn't find work even skilled artisans. An other determinant fact is the growing textile industry created by the industrial revolution of that time, this activity demanded an over increasing supply of wool .
 The rate of immigration to the new world has grown from a few hundreds of English people to a flood of millions of new-comers.
Several nations encouraged their people to move to America. The first immigrants to what is now the United States of America came on board of over crowded ships.
 The movement to the new world in England was not sponsored by the government but by private groups of people whose chief motive was profit.

The first of all British colonies was Jamestown, established by the Virginia Company, in 1607, which had been granted a charter from king James I for the Chesapeake bay. Lots of problems occurred in it and the Virginia Company couldn't maintain order there soon after it had become around 1624  a royal colony.

Another settlement the actual Massachusetts which was established around the year 1620 by the puritans. This religious group was oppressed in Europe so they decided to move to the new world on board the Mayflower.

  Other colonies were established by the Dutch such as the New Netherland by the year 1607, settlements in the island of Manhattan begun in 1620 which was completely purchased from the local Indians on 1624 for the reported amount of 24$. The Maryland with its first established town in 1634 near where the Potomac river flows into the Chesapeake bay.

         
          The relation between the colons and the Indians was a mixture of a friendly and a hostile attitudes. The first settlers couldn't survive unless the help of friendly indigenes who taught them how to cultivate local crops.  The eastern tribes developed trade relations with the colons. therefore those tribes had access to technology they traded for knives , weapons cooking utensils, fish hooks... so the tribes who traded with Europeans had significant advantage over their rivals. The Europeans demanded fur pelts.

         As settlers move deep into the western part skirmishes with Indians grow. The Iroquois, who inhabited the area below lakes Ontario and Erie in  northern New York   and Pennsylvania were more successful resisting European advance. The Iroquois  were a league composed of five tribes formed in 1570, In addition the league was a strong power in 1600s and the 1700s they traded with the British and fought with them against the French for the war of the dominance of America from 1754 and 1763, the British might not have won that war without the support of the league.

          In the mid-17th century the problems in England caused a lack of attention toward the British colonies. So defense measures was not provided to the colonies. Therefore, the Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut & New Heaven  colonies formed the New England Confederation, it was the first attempt at regional unity.
Further more, various rebellion movements have been seen in the British colonies. The most significant revolt  was the Bacon's Rebellion in 1675, its main motive is to defy Virginia's governor William Berkeley and so to defy the British empire. However, the revolt wasn't successful because of the death of Nathaniel  Bacon in 1676.

All those clashes returned the attention of the British  government to America. Therefore new colonies were established   New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania. In addition, the Dutch have been driven out of New Holland.

          The privates who sponsored the movement to America used all kind of methods to persuade people of the benefits to immigrate to the new world. As an  example, William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania publicized The Opportunities Awaiting Newcomers To The Pennsylvania Colony.
Those who have prison sentences to do they had been given a second chance to go to the new world instead of going to jail.
The poor colonists who couldn't finance their travel they have come to America  under the Indentured Servants System. The system works this way: If one person can not pay for his trip, one of the Colonizing agencies such as The Virginia Agency Carry him , In return indentured servants agree to work for the agency  as contract laborers, usually for four to seven years. Free at the end this term, they would be given "freedom dues" sometimes including a small tract of land.
There is one exception, is the case of Africans, the first Black people who stepped on America was brought to Virginia in 1619, at the beginning they were regarded as indentured servants who could earn their freedom but it wasn't the case and they were brought to America for a life time of involuntary servitude.

 

          Most of the people who moved to the new world, by the 17th century, were essentially English but there were also Dutch, Swedes, German, French, Africans, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese...In 1690 the American population was estimated to be a quarter of a million, it reached 2.5 million in 1775. 
To follow this demographic expansion,  Colonies developed by created towns which played the role of big commerce centers such as Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Even towns have developed to comply with the needs of their inhabitants.  Therefore, shops, markets, town halls were created, in deed Lots of docs have been built   to ensure linking between the colons and the mother nation England.
The most important factor that helped the development of the colonies is that although those colonies' citizens were from different origins ( English, Swedes, French, Danes, Scots, Irish, German, Bohemians, Portuguese,  Norwegians...) they forces their efforts together lived in harmony under a unique government. Therefore, they developed a sort of synergy that helped the economic development of the colonies. This synergy was seen especially in the middle colonies ( Pennsylvania, Delaware...) which were more cosmopolitan and tolerant then New England. The southern colonies were predominantly rural ( Virginia, Maryland, North & South Carolina and Georgia) their economy is based on the great planters and the yeoman farmers.

          During the colonial period, colons gave a major importance to education; so they begun establishing schools and colleges, Harvard in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the same period of time the of William and Mary in Virginia, the collegiate school of Connecticut which became later Yale collage.
In the Massachusetts in 1647, the Puritans required from each colony in the Massachusetts Bay having more than 50 families to establish a Grammar School( to prepare students for college) and shortly all the New England colonies followed its example. Further more in Philadelphia numerous private schools taught languages, mathematics, natural sciences...
In addition, many booksellers have made good commerce since 1680 especially in Boston. And in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1704 the first newspaper   in English was lunched, by 1745 there were 22 of them. 
The most important cultural event of that time was a religious movement known as the Great Awakening. It was a religious reaction to the the prosperity of the towns, which prompted fear that the devil was luring society into pursuit of worldly gain. 

          Along the colonial period in North America, there were lack of control by the English government. Therefore, the colonies learned bit by bit how to institute a self-government system. On major factor that helped establishing this system is that the proprietors of the colonies such as the Virginia company issued a instructions to its appointed governor providing that free inhabitants of the plantations should elect representatives  to join with the governor and an appointive council in passing ordinances for the welfare of the colony. So the free men of the colony had a voice in legislation affecting them. That was the case of most of the colonies, the king of England had transferred his immediate sovereignty over the new world settlements to stock companies and proprietors but they  must be residents  in England so settlers have no participation  in electing the members of the company.
From an other side the colonists have inherited the tradition of the Englishman's long struggle for political freedom. So the orders from the outside  withered away. In addition, the broad distance separating America from the mother nation and wideness of the colonies helped with generating a self-reliance of the settlers so soon they felt the difference between American and  English interests.
Colonial politics in the early 18th century resembled English politics in  the 17th.   The Glorious Revolution (1688-1689) that deposed James II affirmed the supremacy of parliaments. So the colonial assemblies attempted to assert their rights and liberties by holding tow significant powers by the early 18th century: The right to  vote on taxes and expenditure, and the right to initiate legislation instead of following merely the proposals of the governor. In this way, the colonial legislatures established the way of self-governing.