Abstract
American sports has evolved from the simple folk games and premodern pastimes of the colonial era to the highly complex, commercial spectacles of the early twenty-first century.Many factors shaped the development of sports in colonial British America and in the United States. Among the most significant were industrialization, urbanization, and ideological and cultural trends, especially those involving religion, social class, ethnicity, race, and gender. During the Colonial era the English, Dutch, and other European settlers who established the thirteen colonies that became the United States, brought with them pre-modern pastimes and folk games that had been popular amusements in the Old World for centuries. These included the early versions of cricket, baseball, golf, football, and bowling, and also foot racing and pitching quoits (similar to tossing horseshoes). Combat sports such as wrestling, boxing, and cudgeling (fighting with sticks), and animal and blood sports, especially bull baiting and cockfighting were also enjoyed in great fervor.
