Five centuries ago, the America was a new world waiting to be explored. Seamen from the great naval powers of Europe embarked in a series of discoveries that would later bring colonist and settlers. John of England discovered New Finland and explored its coast hoping to find a route to Japan. Spain explored the east coast of Florida and the Florida keys. Italian Giovanni explored the Atlantic coast for search for passage to the Indies. Jack Cardia of France sailed the Saint Laurence River to Montreal, Spanish explorer Hernando Desoto traveled the southeast from 1539 to 42 while his compatriot Francisco De Coronato searched the southwest and the southern Great Plains for the mythical seven cities of Sabula.
In 1565, the Spanish rivers which barred colonization have found that Saint Augustine, the first permanent settlement in America. The English founded their first colony at Ranch in 1585 but it later disappeared without a trace. This then suspended English colonial efforts until 1606 when the London Company was authorized to establish settlements. In 1607, they established James Town as the first permanent English settlement; the first permanent French settlement was founded by Samuel Douche Shamplian at Quebec at 1608.
Searching for a North West passage to Asia, English navigator Henry Hudson explored the Delaware Bay in New York Harbor. Across the continent, the Spanish setup Santa Fe in 1610 to serve as an administrative to missionary centers. The new world became a haven from the old. In search for religious freedom, the pilgrims landed in 1620 and started the first English colony in New England. The Dutch were not to be left out; they established their first settlement at Fort Orange in 1624 now known as Albany New York. Then they also made the most famous acquisition of all, purchasing Manhattan Island to Samuel Amsterdam. Then they also joined in starting the first Swedish colony at Fort Cristina, now Wellington Delaware.
By 1650, the Swedish and New Sweden, the Dutch and New Netherlands and the British in Virginia and New England were firmly established in the mid Atlantic region. But as each colony expanded, beside existing European rivalries, tensions developed that soon brought the colonies in conflict. During the first Angler Dutch war, the English seized the Dutch outpost of Fort Wood Hope. Two years later, the Dutch took control of the Delaware Valley from Sweden. The English regarded New Amsterdam as blocking their westward expansion so they decided to take it. Dutch governor Peter surrendered in 1664 and the British renamed the city New York in honor of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles the second.
By the end of 1664, three European powers remained in North America. The British controlled most of the eastern seaboard and a large region north. The French had settlements from Quebec to Montreal in influence over the interior, in Spain have claimed over Florida and the Southwest but with few settlements. The next century would see greater expansion and exploration, the English had settled in Carolina and Charleston in 1670 while the French explored the interior. Marquette and Juliet traveled the central Mississippi in 1673, the upper Mississippi area in 1680 and them descendent to the great river to the gulf of Mexico claiming the entire Mississippi water shed in the name of France and naming it Louisiana after King Louie the 14. After receiving a charter for Pennsylvania, William Pan established Philadelphia in 1682. Colonization increased, the Spanish founded Pensacola in Florida in 1698. The French build a mission at Tahoka, the first permanent settlement in Louisiana and the British to declare the interior and expand.
The Spanish built on the southwest, Albakurkie was founded, the French setup Mayville, capital of Louisiana until 1720 and the oldest permanent settlement in present day Louisiana. Expanding to French development, Spanish missions were established in Texas and then San Antonio. In 1718, New Orleans was founded due to its location on the Mississippi near the Gulf of Mexico. The English expand itself with the arrival of settlers in savannah Georgia in 1733. By 1754, British and French began to compete as colonist fight for territory. British influence extended along the eastern seaboard with an area around the Hudson Bay.
The French claimed eastern Canada and Louisiana territory and the Spanish were widely scattered over Florida, Texas and the far southwest. A fight started over the Ohio River valley, an English fort, which is now Pittsburg, was taken over by the French; a contingent under George Washington built Forth Necessity nearby but was lost it in July of 1754. It was the beginning of the French and Indian war. The British captured Quebec in 1759 and the French surrender of Montreal in 1760 seriously eroded the French resistance. Concerned that a British victory would upset the balance of power, Spain joined the war against Britain in 1762 but Spain did not tilt the balance, Britain prevailed. In the treaty of Paris of 1763 which ended the war with much in its favor. Britain gained all of North America, east of the Mississippi river including Canada and Florida.
To compensate Spain for the lost of Florida, France ceded all its territory west of the Mississippi. The Indians have been a force on the war especially with their race on the frontier. To implicate the Indians, the British parliament passed the proclamation of 1763, which forbid colonial advancement west of the divide. Reinvented by colonist to move west, this decree was the first of many acts to lead to the American Revolution.
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