Virginia, founded at Jamestown in 1607, was the first permanently settled English colony in North America.
The settlement was established by the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company operating under a charter from King James I. Jamestown was built on an island in the James River and became the administrative center of the Colony of Virginia. The settlement endured severe shortages, disease, conflict, and unstable relations with nearby Indigenous peoples.
Virginia later developed representative institutions that became important in colonial political history. The House of Burgesses first met in 1619 and is commonly described as the first representative legislative assembly in the English colonies of North America.
Virginia became one of the thirteen colonies that declared independence in 1776 and later one of the original states. It also played a central role in the Revolution: George Washington was a Virginian, and the Yorktown campaign occurred within the colony. The modern state retains the colonial name, though its boundaries changed substantially over time.