Dominion of New England - Definition and Overview

The Dominion of New England was the name of a short-lived administrative union of English colonies in the New England region of North America. The union was decreed in 1686 by King James II as a measure to enforce the Navigation Acts and to coordinate the mutual defense of colonies against the French and hostile Native Americans. In 1687, the colonies of New York and New Jersey were added to the dominion.

The use of the word "dominion" in the title is unrelated to its use in the later Dominion of Canada.

Although the New England colonists had previously sought a loose voluntary association in the New England Confederation, the imposition of a centralized authority from England was highly unpopular. The actions of dominion governor Edmund Andros in promoting the Church of England, and well as the behavior of English soldiers garrisoned at Boston, greatly angered many colonists in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Following the overthrow of James II in the Glorious Revolution in 1689, the Dominion ceased to exist.