Though it was not a government, or at least only a government in embryo, yet the student can see from these separate colonies, jealous of their rights, the outcoming of the United States.
Of that famous league, Massachusetts assumed control because of her greater population and her superiority as a "perfect republic." It remained in force more than forty years, during which period the government of England was changed three times.

When trouble arose between King Charles I.and Parliament, the New Englanders, being Puritans, were in sympathy with the roundheads.

In 1649 King Charles lost his throne and life, and England for a brief time became a commonwealth.

Unlike the Virginians, the New Englanders sympathized with the English republicans, and found in Oliver Cromwell, the ruler of England next to the beheaded Charles I., a sincere friend and protector.
The growth of the colony of Massachusetts was particularly healthy.

A profitable commerce between the colony and the West Indies, now that the obnoxious navigation laws were a dead letter, was created.