Five centuries ago, the Americas were a new world waiting to be explored. Seamen from the great naval powers of Europe embarked on a series of discoveries that would later bring colonists and settlers whose legacy lives on today in the names of cities, states, streets and rivers. John Cabot of England discovered New Finland and explored its coasts, hoping to find a route to Japan. Juan Ponce de Leon of Spain explored the East coast of Florida and the Florida Keys. Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the Atlantic Coast in search of a passage to the Indies. And Jacques Cartier of France sailed the Saint Lawrence River to Montreal.
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto traveled the southeast from 1539 to 1542, while his compatriot, Francisco de Coronado, searched the southwest and the Southern Great Plains for the mythical seven cities of Cibola.
In 1565, the Spanish reversed the policy which barred colonization and founded St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement in America. The English founded their first colony in Roanoke in 1585 but it later disappeared without a trace. This suspended English colonial efforts until 1606, when The London Company was authorized to establish settlements. In 1607, they established Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement. The first permanent French settlement was founded by Samuel de Champlain at Quebec in 1608.
Searching for a Northwest Passage to Asia, English navigator Henry Hudson explored the Delaware Bay and New York Harbor. Across the continent, the Spanish set up Santa Fe in 1610 to serve as an administrative and missionary center. The New World became a haven from the old. In search of religious freedom, the pilgrims landed at Plymouth 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. And they also made the most famous acquisition of all, purchasing Manhattan Island to found New Amsterdam.
Sweden also joined in, starting the first Swedish colony at Fort Christina, now Wilmington, Delaware. By 1650, the Swedish in New Sweden, the Dutch in 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 Anglo-Dutch war, the English seized the Dutch outpost of Fort Good 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 Stuyvesant surrendered in 1664 and the British renamed the city New York, in honor of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II.
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 and influenced over the interior, and Spain had claim over Florida and the southwest but with few settlements.
The next century would see greater expansion and exploration. The English settled in Carolina at Charleston in 1670, while the French explored the interior. Marquette and Juliet traveled to Central Mississippi in 1673. Louis Hennepin, the upper Mississippi area in 1680 and as so descended the great river to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming the entire Mississippi watershed in the name of France and naming it Louisiana, after King Louis XIV.
After receiving the charter for Pennsylvania, William Penn established Philadelphia in 1682, colonization increased. The Spanish founded Pensacola in Florida in 1698. The French built a mission at Cahokia, the first permanent settlement in Louisiana, and the British began to clear the interior and expand. The Spanish built on the southwest. Albuquerque was founded in 1698. The French setup Mobile, capital of Louisiana until 1720 and Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in present-day Louisiana.
Responding to French development, Spanish missions were established in Nacogdoches, 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 expanded south with the arrival of settlers in Savannah, Georgia in 1733. In 1754, British and French interests began to compete, as colonists vied for territory. British influence extended along the eastern seaboard, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, and as far west as the Appalachian Mountains, with an area around the Hudson Bay. The French claimed Eastern Canada and the 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 built as what is now Pittsburgh, was taken over by the French, a contingent under George Washington, built Fort Necessity nearby, but was ousted 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 French resistance. Concerned that a British victory would have set the bounds of power, Spain joined the war against Britain in 1762. But Spain did not tilt the balance. Britain prevailed and the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ended the war, was much in its favor.
Britain gained all of North America, East of the Mississippi River, including Canada and Florida. To compensate Spain for the loss of Florida, France ceded all its territory West of the Mississippi. The Indians have been a force in the war, especially with the raids on the frontier. To placate the Indians, the British Parliament passed the Proclamation of 1763, which forbid colonial advancement west of the Appalachian divide. Resented by colonists eager to move west, this decree was the first of many acts to lead to the American Revolution.
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