The Protestant Revolution in Maryland, also known as Coode's Rebellion, occurred in the summer of 1689 following the Glorious Revolution in England of 1688. The rebellion was prompted by the replacement of the Catholic English monarch King James II with Protestant monarchs William III and Mary II. In Maryland, Protestants, who had become a substantial majority in the colony, revolted against the proprietary government led by the Catholic Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore. The uprising reflected broader religious and political tensions that had developed in the colony over its governance and religious policies.
The rebellion was led by John Coode and involved Protestant colonists mobilizing against the Baltimore family's control of Maryland. The revolt successfully challenged the proprietary authority that had governed the colony, resulting in a transfer of power from the Lords Baltimore to direct Crown rule.
The immediate consequence of the Protestant Revolution was the effective end of Maryland's early experiments with religious toleration. Following the rebellion, Catholicism was outlawed and Catholics were forbidden from holding public office. This marked a dramatic reversal of the colony's previous approach to religious diversity. The Lords Baltimore lost control of their proprietary colony, and Maryland came under direct Crown governance for the next 25 years. Religious toleration would not be restored in Maryland until after the American Revolution, demonstrating the lasting impact of the uprising on the colony's religious and political landscape.
European colonization of North America accelerated after 1600, with England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands establishing competing settlements along the Atlantic coast, the St. Lawrence River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi Valley. The first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia (1607) struggled with starvation and conflict; the Plymouth colony (1620) and the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) followed. By the mid-1700s, thirteen English colonies stretched along the Atlantic seaboard, governed through a mix of royal charters, proprietary grants, and elected assemblies. The colonial economy depended on tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, rice and indigo in the Carolinas, and maritime trade in New England — all increasingly reliant on enslaved African labor after 1619. Conflict with Indigenous peoples over land was continuous, punctuated by major wars including King Philip's War (1675–1676) in New England and the Yamasee War (1715–1717) in the South. The French and Indian War (1754–1763), part of the global Seven Years' War, ended French power in North America and left Britain deeply in debt — triggering the taxation disputes that would lead to revolution.
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