The thirteen colonies were originally settled by England. The first permanent English settlement in North America was Jamestown, Virginia, which was founded in 1607. Other English colonies were founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, and the Connecticut Colony. In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which imposed a tax on all paper goods in the colonies. This tax led to widespread protest and eventually to the American Revolution. In 1776, the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Great Britain and became the United States of America.