European Colonization of North AmericaThe invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by European colonization and Europeans' enslavement and forced transportation of
Africans to the Americas. Subjects Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History
|
|
The Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock, December 1620
|
| European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape
religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. New World grains such as corn kept the colonists from starving while, in Virginia, tobacco provided a valuable cash crop. By the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North
American colonies.
|
|
| |
| Choose Another Time Period  |
| "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!"
"Patrick Henry Was Born"
| |
| |
| A Mover and a Quaker
"William Penn Was Born"
| |
| |
| A River from Canada to Asia?
"Jacques Cartier Sailed Up the St. Lawrence River"
| |
| |
| A Settlement with Unsettling Challenges
"Jamestown Was Established"
| |
| |
| Bubble Bubble, Toil, and Trouble
"Salem Witch Trials"
| |
| |
| Can I Get Your Autograph, Mr. Hancock?
"John Hancock Was Born"
| |
| |
| Deerfield Invasion
"Raid of Deerfield, Massachusetts in Queen Anne's War"
| |
| |
| Do You Know This Founding Father?
"John Jay, One of the Nation's Founding Fathers, Was Born"
| |
| |
| Fighting For Freedom
"Stono's Rebellion"
| |
| |
| Freedom in Rhode Island
"Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island, Arrived in Boston"
| |
| |
| How Harvard University Got Its Name
"Clergyman John Harvard Died"
| |
| |
| Land Ho!
"Christopher Columbus Saw Land!"
| |
| |
| Livingston, I Presume
"Statesman Robert R. Livingston Was Born"
| |
| |
| Reading the Stars
"Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin Banneker Was Born"
| |
| |
| Sailing to Albany!
"Henry Hudson and His Crew Sailed into the River that Would Bear His Name"
| |
| |
| Saved by Pocahontas
"John Smith Became a Leader of Jamestown"
| |
| |
| The Clever General
"Nathanael Greene Was Born"
| |
| |
| The Clue In The Letter
"George Washington Was Born"
| |
| |
| The First Synagogue in the British Colonies
"First Jewish Synagogue Was Dedicated in the United States"
| |
| |
| The Multitalented Mr. Jefferson
"Thomas Jefferson Was Born"
| |
| |
| The Oldest City in the U.S.
"A Spanish Expedition Established St. Augustine in Florida"
| |
| |
| The Tale and Music of Old Maryland
"Maryland Day"
|
|
Who landed in America first?
It's an annual holiday that commemorates the day on October 12, 1492, when the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus officially set foot in the Americas, and claimed the land for Spain.
1492. The first lasting contact between indigenous Americans and Europeans came as Arawak, Taino, and Lucayan peoples encountered the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his Spanish ships.
Who were the first European settlers in America?
The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
Where did the Native Americans go after?
Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River – specifically, to a designated Indian Territory (roughly, present-day Oklahoma).
| 
