The Connecticut Colony was an English colony in British America. The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut, was formed in what would become the US state of Connecticut. It was first called the River Colony and was organized on March 3, 1636. It was a place for Puritan noblemen. The English took control of the colony from the Dutch by the late 1630s. The colony became a war zone between the English and American Indians, known as the Pequot War. This war helped established the self-government in the New World.