Final answer:
The colonies started to come together due to economic ties, their political system, intellectual trends, religious developments, and imperial wars.
Step-by-step explanation:
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, several factors led to the colonies in British North America coming together. Firstly, the colonists became somewhat self-sufficient because of their economic ties to the mother country through the mercantilist system. Secondly, the colonists defined their rights by the British political system they lived under, which they considered enlightened. Thirdly, intellectual trends and religious developments helped to increase ties between the colonists that did not exist in the seventeenth century. Finally, the imperial wars between Britain, France, and Spain brought the colonists' similarities sharply into focus and exacerbated tensions between the colonies and the mother country.