A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 1: Colonialism and NationhoodPart 1: The Settlement of the Americas

FIRST ARRIVALS IN THE AMERICAS

Recent research in the field of genetics has

shown that the native peoples

of North and South America began settling

those continents at least 13,000

years ago. They reached the Americas

from Asia after crossing the

Bering Strait.

FIRST EXPLORERS OF THE AMERICAS

• The first Europeans reached the Americas about a thousand years ago, some time just before the year 1,000 AD.

• They were led by Leif Erikson, a Viking from Iceland, who reached the island now known as Newfoundland, Canada, while sailing for Greenland.

• Leif established a small settlement on the continentthat the Vikings called Vinland.

• After Leif died, the Viking settlement faded out.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (1492)

• The second European voyage to the Americas took place under the leadership of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

• Columbus was an Italian navigator employed by the King and Queen of Spain to chart a new course from Europe to India without sailing all the way around the coast of Africa. As the first explorer to try to reach India by sailing west instead of south and east, he reached the Americas when he came to the present-day Bahamas.

LATER EXPLORERS OF THE AMERICAS

• In the hundred years or so after Columbus returned to Spain and announced his discovery of the New World, many other European navigators journeyed to the Americas to conduct their own explorations.

• One of the most important explorations was conducted by the Spaniard Hernando de Soto in 1539. Other important voyages were made by the Englishman Henry Hudson and the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s.

EXPLORATORY VOYAGES OF HERNANDO DE SOTO, HENRY HUDSON, AND SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF THE AMERICAS

Between the early 1500s and the mid-1700s, various European powers laid claim to large swathes of territory in the Americas. The most notable claims included the English claim on the Atlantic seaboard and Hudson’s Bay, the French claim on the North American interior, and the Spanish claim on Mexico and most of South America.

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF THE AMERICAS

Other important claims were made by the Dutch in present-day New York and the Swedish in present-day Maryland. All of these claims were renegotiated, invalidated, and overwritten depending on the outcome of various wars and diplomatic disputes.

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF NORTH AMERICA

The maps above represent variationsin the European colonial claims in North America from 1660 (top left) to 1713 (bottom left) and 1754 (right).

Roanoke IslandThe Roanoke settlement failed in 1587 and, for reasons that remain unclear, all the settlers disappeared. They may have relocated to the American mainland or been assimilated into the local Native American tribes.

A FIRST ATTEMPT AT AN ENGLISH SETTLEMENT

The English made their first attempt at establishing a settlement in North America when they reached Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina in 1585. Roanoke was the birthplace of the first English person to be born on American soil, a girl named Virginia Dare.

PROBLEMS WITH SETTLEMENT

• Sir Walter Raleigh was the first to explore the coast from North Carolina to Florida. He named the area ‘Virginia’ and financed the Roanoke settlement.

• Queen Elizabeth gave Raleigh’s half-brother a charter permitting the establishment of an English settlement in North America, and Raleigh received the charter after his brother died.

• Despite the failure of Roanoke, Raleigh opened the way for the establishment of further English colonies in North America.

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 1: Colonialism and NationhoodPart 1: The Settlement of the Americas