The First Europeans

The first Europeans to arrive in North Americas were Norse, traveling from Greenland, where Eric the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif spent at least one winter in what is now Canada.

In 1497, five years after Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean, a Venetian sailor named John Cabot arrived in Newfoundland on a mission for the British king. It is his quickly forgotten journey later provided the basis for British claims to North America.

Columbus, of course, never saw the mainland United States, but the first explorations of the country were launched from the Spanish possessions he helped to establish. The first exploration of the continent was made by a group headed by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 when a group of men under his guidance landed on the Florida coast near the present city of St. Augustine.

In 1522 Mexico was conquered by the Spaniards who made reliable maps of the Atlantic coastline (1529). The Italian Amerigo Vespucci described an account of his voyage to a “New World” and the name “America” stated to be used speaking of the continent. The expedition by Hernando De Soto (a veteran conquistador of Francisco Pizarro) explored the southeastern United States from Florida as far as the Mississippi River in 1539.

In 1540, another Spaniard, Francisco Coronado, in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola, reached the Grand Canyon and Kansas, but what is more – some horses escaped from his party and the Plain Indians soon became masters of horsemanship.

While the Spanish were pushing up from the south, the northern portion of the present-day united States was being explored by Giovanni da Verrazano (a Florentine who sailed for the French) and Frenchman Jacques Cartier who explored the area of the St. Lawrence River and thus laid the foundation for the French claims to North America, which were to last until 1763.

The first Quebec Colony established by French Huguenots collapsed, the second settlement was destroyed by the Spanish who, in their turn, established a town – St. Augustine – which became the first permanent European settlement in what is now the U.S.

The colonies in Mexico, the Caribbean and Peru made Spain very rich and soon England began to take interest in the New World. In 1578 Humphrey Gilbert received a patent from Queen Elizabeth to colonize the “heathen and barbarous lands” in the New World which other European nations had not yet claimed, but he was lost at sea. In 1585 Raleigh took up his mission and established the first British colony in North America, which as well as the second effort two years later proved a failure. Only 20 years later the British would succeed – Jamestown was founded in 1607.

First European settlements

The first English immigrants crossed the Atlantic long after the Spanish had established their colonies in Mexico, the West Indies and South America.

Most European emigrants left their homes o escape political oppression, to seek freedom to practice their religion, or for adventure. The first half of the 17^th century was difficult for England. Unemployment, poor crops and the Industrial Revolution made people seek their fortunes outside the country. Oliver Cromwell’s victory over the King led many royalists to cast their lot in Virginia. The emigration from England was not directly sponsored by the government but by private groups of individuals whose chief motive was profit.

By 1640 the British had solid colonies along the New England coast and the Chesapeake Bay; in between were the Dutch and the tiny Swedish community. To the west were the original Americans, the Indians.

At first, trade with the European settlers brought advantages to the Indians: they got knives, axes, weapons, cooking utensils, fish hooks. But the steady influx of settlers into the backwoods regions of the Eastern colonies disrupted Indian life. Loss of the land, lack of the game led to uprisings. In 1570 the five tribes of the Iroquois joined to form the “Ho-De-No-Sau-Nee”, or League of the Iroquois. The League was run by a council made up of 50 representatives from each of the five member tribes.

No tribe was allowed to make war by itself. It passed laws to deal with crimes such as murder. The League took the side of the British in their war against the French (1754-1763) and helped them to win the war. The American Revolution split the League – for the first time the council did not reach a unanimous decision on whom to support. As a result, everyone fought against the Iroquois and the League never recovered.