There are several theories on who discovered America. Christopher
Columbus (1451–1506) was not the first foreigner to land on its shores,
but he was among the first to encourage Europeans to establish regular
channels of contact with the New World. In the decades following
Columbus’s journey of 1492, many European countries explored the
New World. While their exploration and trading efforts were generally
successful, establishing settlements and permanent colonies were more
difficult tasks.
Spain
Columbus’s voyage was funded by the monarchs of Spain. Spain continued to explore the New World after Columbus’s success. It concentrated
on Central and South America, where gold and silver were abundant.
While Spain explored the geography and populations in North America, the lack of gold and silver deposits discouraged Spain from focusing its
efforts there.
As Spanish fleets carried New World treasure back to Spain, they
tended to stay along the Florida coast before heading out to sea. For this
reason, the Florida coast became a haven for pirates. In 1565, the
Spanish government created a permanent settlement as a base for warships to protect the Spanish sailing ships. Called St. Augustine, it was the
first European settlement in what became the United States.
Spain made early forays into the area of New Mexico, but since it
too lacked riches, no permanent settlements were pursued for some time.
In 1598, a group of missionaries arrived among the Native Americans
and opened a small outpost. The missionaries worked to convert the
Native North Americans to Christianity. A greater Spanish settlement
eventually evolved with the founding of Santa Fe in 1610. Isolated from
the major centers of the Spanish colonies, these settlements were never
too important in the power struggle to control North America.
France
Impressed with the Spanish importation of wealth, France undertook its
own exploration of the New World. In 1524,
King Francis I (1494–1547) commissioned a
Florentine navigator, Giovanni da Verrazano (c.
1485–1528), to search for the elusive ”Passage to
the Orient,” an all-water route from Europe to
Asia. Though he did not find one, Verrazano did
map much of the east coast of North America.
Later voyages by Jacques Cartier
(1491–1557) brought the French expeditions
into Canada from the St. Lawrence River.
Attempts to settle this area were abandoned after
harsh winters, and the French never committed
to creating colonies like the English did.
The history of France in America is really a
history of trade based mainly on furs. Expansion
of New France, which went into regions now
known as Minnesota, down the Mississippi
River, and into Louisiana by 1700, were motivated mostly by trade interests. Netherlands
Dutch claims in America stemmed from the trading posts and commercial centers of the Dutch West India Company. Around 1625, it established its first settlement at New Amsterdam (the area that would
become New York). Challenged by Indian wars and slow growth, the
colony was nearly devastated by 1645.
Under new leadership, the colony grew to almost four thousand by
1650. It became an important base for the Dutch maritime fleet, which
dominated world trade at the time. Conflicts in 1664 with the English
forced the Dutch out, and its areas would become English.
England
Like France and Spain, England’s initial efforts to build settlements in
the wilderness of the New World met resistance from Native Americans.
English persistence eventually brought success, and colonies began to
flourish.
In 1585, a colony supported by a charter granted to English adventurer and writer Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) was established along the
Carolina coast. Called the Roanoke Colony, its settlers were ill-prepared
to do the work required to build a viable community. In 1590, relief
ships arrived from England, but the colony had mysteriously vanished.
It is often referred to as the Lost Colony.
The failure of Roanoke delayed further English colonization efforts
until the early 1600s. A single charter was granted to two companies, the
Plymouth Company and the London Company, to plant two colonies.
The Plymouth Company’s settlement on the Maine coast at Sagahadoc
failed quickly.
The London Company, however, established a colony in 1607 on
the James River, calling it Jamestown. Though it encountered many difficulties, it managed to survive, and eventually the settlers mastered living in the New World. Jamestown was the first permanent English
settlement in America, the successful beginning of a large movement of
English settlers to the New World.
In 1620, another group of settlers sailed to America aboard the
Mayflower. Several of the passengers were Puritans, or Pilgrims, who
were seeking religious freedom in the New World. Though their original
intentions were to settle in Virginia, the group landed and stayed at Plymouth (eventually Massachusetts). The success of this colony
quickly attracted others who settled in the area of New England.
By 1630, Jamestown and Plymouth were quite successful, and there
were fur trading and fishing villages scattered along the New England
coast. In 1629, a group of English merchants organized another venture
and moved the Massachusetts Bay Company to New England. In early
1630, seven hundred passengers arrived in Massachusetts to start the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Within a year, they had established seven
towns, including Boston. This effort sparked the beginning of the Great
Migration, in which over twenty thousand people emigrated to America
by 1642.
By 1650, English settlements had a population of almost fifty-five
thousand. Another proprietary, or business-owned, colony had been established near the Chesapeake colony of Virginia. Called Maryland, it
competed in the production of tobacco and was a haven for Catholics in
the New World. Similar proprietary colonies established Pennsylvania,
the Carolinas, and New York. Religious dissenters from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony established Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
New Hampshire.
By the end of the seventeenth century, twelve of the original thirteen colonies (excepting Georgia) had been founded. Five major cities
developed as centers of trade and commerce along the Atlantic seaboard
between Maine and South Carolina. The English colonies were
thriving.
Conflict and motivation
Choosing to live in the colonies meant living a difficult and dangerous
life. Challenging weather, illness, and conflict with Native Americans
made life perilous. For many colonists, however, the benefits of life in the
New World made the efforts worth the risks. Many Protestants found religious freedom to practice their Christian faith in supportive, likeminded communities. Those who could not find enough work in
Europe were assured of land and work in the New World. Business
investors knew the riches to be had from the natural resources and new
crops.
While ultimately beneficial and profitable for many Europeans, colonization of the New World proved harmful to other societies. Native
Americans, who had lived in the New World for hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans, lost the power struggle for control of North
America. Most Native American societies perished, and the few that survived did so barely on often marginal lands. At the same time, the need
for cheap agricultural labor in the New World resulted in the enslavement of Africans until slavery in the United States was abolished in 1865.