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Early discoveries Map of North America (1621). Main article: Norse colonization of the Americas There was limited contact between North American people and the outside world before 1492. Several theoretical contacts have been proposed, but the earliest physical evidence comes to us from the Norse or Vikings. Norse captain Leif Eriksson is believed to have reached the Island of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD. They named their new discovery Vinland. The only Norse site yet discovered in North America is at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. The Norse colonies were later abandoned. The Viking voyages did not become common knowledge in the Old World, and Europeans remained ignorant of the existence of the Americas, until 1492. It is written in Raccolta delle Navigationi e Viaggi ( 1550–1556 ) of Giovanni Battista Ramusio that in June 1492, before Christopher Columbus leaves the South of Spain, Jehan Denis returns to Honfleur with two boats loaded with goods of Mexico.[citation needed] As part of a general age of discovery Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus proposed a voyage west from Europe to find a shorter route to Asia. He eventually received the backing of Isabella I and Ferdinand II, Queen and King of newly united Spain. In 1492 Columbus reached land in the Bahamas. Almost 500 years after the Norse, John Cabot explored the east coast of what would become Canada in 1497. Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the East Coast of North America from Florida to presumably Newfoundland in 1524. Jacques Cartier made a series of voyages on behalf of the French crown in 1534 and penetrated the St. Lawrence River. Successful colonization Main article: European colonization of the Americas European colonization of the Americas First colonization British Couronian Danish Dutch French German Italian Norse Portuguese Russian Scottish Spanish Swedish Colonization of Canada Colonization of the U.S. Decolonization v t e Initially, European activity consisted mostly of trade and exploration. Eventually Europeans began to establish settlements. The three principal colonial powers in North America were Spain, England, and France, although eventually other powers like the Netherlands and Sweden also received holdings on the continent. Settlement by the Spanish started the European colonization of the Americas.[21][22] They gained control of most of the largest islands in the Caribbean and conquered the Aztecs, gaining control of present-day Mexico and Central America. This was the beginning of the Spanish Empire in the New World. The first successful Spanish settlement in continental North America was Veracruz in 1519, followed by many other settlements in colonial New Spain and Spanish Florida. The first successful English settlements were at Jamestown (1607) (along with its satellite, Bermuda in 1609) and Plymouth (1620), in what are today Virginia and Massachusetts respectively. The first French settlements were Port Royal (1604) and Quebec City (1608) in what is now Nova Scotia and Quebec. The Fur Trade soon became the primary business on the continent and as a result transformed the indigenous North American lifestyle. Further to the south, plantation slavery became the main industry of the West Indies, and this gave rise to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade. |
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