It was never as prosperous as Connecticut and was finally joined to that colony.
[Sidenote: Reasons for union.] [Sidenote: Articles of Confederation, 1643.] [Sidenote: New England towns.

_Higginson_, 47-79.] 55.

The New England Confederation, 1643 .-- Besides the settlements that have already been described there were colonists living in New Hampshire and in Maine.

Massachusetts included the New Hampshire towns within her government, for some of those towns were within her limits.
In 1640 the Long Parliament met in England, and in 1645 Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans destroyed the royal army in the battle of Naseby.

In these troubled times England could do little to protect the New England colonists, and could do nothing to punish them for acting independently.
The New England colonists were surrounded by foreigners.