North America

**North America** is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. The story of North American exploration spans an entire millennium and involves a wide array of European powers and uniquely American characters. It began with the Norse’s brief stint in Newfoundland circa 1000 A.D. and continued through England’s colonization of the Atlantic coast in the 17th century, which laid the foundation for the United States of America. The centuries following the European arrivals would see the culmination of this effort, as Americans pushed westward across the continent, enticed by the lure of riches, open land and a desire to fulfill the nation’s *manifest destiny*.

## History

During the 15th century, the European countries of Spain and Portugal began sending ships on expeditions to find new trade routes to Asia. An accidental outcome of this search was the discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 of land in the Western Hemisphere. Although he and his immediate successors failed to recognize it, he had found another world: the Americas. This “New World” contained all the natural wealth for which Europeans longed—and far more. Here were great deposits of the gold which they sought so eagerly. Here also were vast reserves of other minerals. Mile upon mile of plains, valleys, and mountains held fertile farmlands and pastures. The Europeans soon began to explore, claim, and colonize, or build colonies in, the Americas.

## Timeline of Conquest

* c. 1000: Norse settle briefly in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
* c. 1450: Norse colony in Greenland dies out.
* 1473: João Vaz Corte-Real perhaps reaches Newfoundland; writes about the "Land of Cod fish" in his journal. The claims of this discovery remain entirely speculative.

* 1492: Columbus sets sail aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
* 1492: Columbus reaches the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola.
* 1492: La Navidad is established on the island of Hispaniola; it was destroyed by the following year.
* 1493: The colony of La Isabela is established on the island of Hispaniola.
* 1493: Columbus arrives in Puerto Rico
* 1494: Columbus arrives in Jamaica.
* 1496: Santo Domingo, the first European permanent settlement, is built.
* 1497: John Cabot reaches Newfoundland.
* 1498: In his third voyage, Columbus reaches Trinidad and Tobago.
* 1498: La Isabela is abandoned by the Spanish.
* 1499: João Fernandes Lavrador maps Labrador and Newfoundland

* 1501: Corte-Real brothers explore the coast of what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador
* 1502: Columbus sails along the mainland coast south of Yucatán, and reaches present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama
* 1503: Las Tortugas noted by Columbus in passage through the Western Caribbean present-day Cayman Islands
* 1508: Ponce de León founds Caparra on San Juan Bautista (now Puerto Rico)
* 1511: Conquest of Cuba begins
* 1513: Ponce de León in Florida
* 1515: Conquest of Cuba completed
* 1517: Francisco Hernández de Córdoba lands on the Yucatán Peninsula
* 1519: Founding of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (Veracruz)
* 1519: Founding of Panama City by Pedro Arias Dávila
* 1521: Hernán Cortés completes the conquest of Mexico.
* 1521: Juan Ponce de León tries and fails to settle in Florida.
* 1524: Pedro de Alvarado conquers present-day Guatemala and El Salvador.
* 1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano sails along most of the east coast.
* 1525: Estêvão Gomes enters Upper New York Bay
* 1526: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón briefly establishes the failed settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, the first site of enslavement of Africans in North America and of the first slave rebellion.
* 1527: Fishermen are using the harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland and other places on the coast.
* 1535: Jacques Cartier reaches Quebec.
* 1536: Cabeza de Vaca reaches Mexico City after wandering through North America.
* 1538: Failed Huguenot settlement on St. Kitts in the Caribbean (destroyed by the Spanish).
* 1539: Hernando de Soto explores the interior from Florida to Arkansas.
* 1540: Coronado travels from Mexico to eastern Kansas.
* 1540: The Spanish reach the Grand Canyon (the area is ignored for the next 200 years).
* 1541: Failed French settlement at Charlesbourg-Royal (Quebec City) by Cartier and Roberval.
* 1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo reaches the California coast.
* 1559: Failed Spanish settlement at Pensacola, Florida.
* 1562: Failed Huguenot settlement in South Carolina (Charlesfort-Santa Elena site).
* 1564: French Huguenots at Jacksonville, Florida (Fort Caroline).
* 1565: Spanish slaughter French 'heretics' at Fort Caroline.
* 1565: Spanish found Saint Augustine, Florida.
* 1566–1587: Spanish in South Carolina (Charlesfort-Santa Elena site).
* 1568: Dutch revolt against Spain begins. The economic model developed in the Netherlands would define colonial policies in the next two centuries.
* 1570: Failed Spanish settlement on Chesapeake Bay (Ajacán Mission).
* 1576: Martin Frobisher reaches the coast of Labrador and Baffin Island.
* 1579: Sir Francis Drake claims New Albion.
* 1583: England formally claims Newfoundland (Humphrey Gilbert).
* 1585: Roanoke Colony founded by English Roanoke Island, North Carolina, failed in 1587
* 1598: Failed French settlement on Sable Island off Nova Scotia.
* 1598: Spanish settlement in Northern New Mexico.
* 1600: By 1600 Spain and Portugal were still the only significant colonial powers. North of Mexico the only settlements were Saint Augustine and the isolated outpost in northern New Mexico. Exploration of the interior was largely abandoned after the 1540s. Around Newfoundland 500 or more boats annually were fishing for cod and some fishermen were trading for furs, especially at Tadoussac on the Saint Lawrence.

* 1604 – Acadia – French
* 1605 – Port Royal – French
* 1607 – Jamestown – English
* 1607 – Popham Colony – English
* 1608 – Quebec – French
* 1610 – Cuper's Cove – English
* 1610 – Kecoughtan, Virginia – English
* 1610 – Santa Fe – Spanish
* 1611 – Henricus – English
* 1612 – Bermuda - English
* 1615 – Fort Nassau – Dutch
* 1615 – Renews, Newfoundland – English
* 1618 – Bristol's Hope – English

* 1620 – St. John's, Newfoundland – English
* 1620 – Plymouth Colony – English
* 1621 – Nova Scotia – Scottish
* 1622 – Province of Maine – English
* 1623 – Portsmouth – English
* 1623 – Stage Point – English
* 1623 – Dover – English
* 1623 – Pannaway – English
* 1623 – New Castle – English
* 1623 – Fort Nassau – Dutch
* 1624 – St. Kitts – English
* 1624 – Governors Island – Dutch
* 1625 – Cape Breton – Scottish
* 1625 – New Amsterdam – Dutch
* 1626 – Salem – English
* 1630 – Massachusetts Bay Colony – English
* 1630 – Pavonia – Dutch
* 1631 – Saint John, New Brunswick – English
* 1632 – Williamsburgh – English
* 1633 – Fort Hoop – Dutch
* 1633 – Windsor, Connecticut – English
* 1634 – Maryland Colony – English
* 1634 – Wethersfield – English
* 1635 – Territory of Sagadahock – English
* 1635 – Saybrook Colony - English
* 1636 – Providence Plantations – English
* 1636 – Connecticut Colony – English
* 1638 – New Haven Colony – English
* 1638 – Fort Christina – Swedish
* 1638 – Exeter – English
* 1638 – Hampton, New Hampshire - English
* 1639 – Bridgeport, Connecticut – English
* 1639 – Newport – English
* 1639 – San Marcos – Spanish
* 1640 – New Stockholm – Swedish
* 1640 – Swedesboro – Swedish
* 1642 – Montreal – French
* 1651 – Fort Casimir – Dutch
* 1652 - York, Maine
* 1653 - Biddeford, Maine
* 1658 - Scarborough, Maine
* 1660 – Bergen – Dutch
* 1665 – Elizabethtown – English
* 1666 – Newark – English
* 1668 – Sault Ste. Marie (Michigan) - French,
* 1669 – English Neighborhood – Dutch, English,
* 1670 – Charleston – English
* 1678 – New Paltz, New York – French
* 1679 – Acquackanonk – Dutch
* 1680 – Fort Crevecoeur (Peoria, Illinois) – French
* 1682 – Pennsylvania – English
* 1683 – Fort Saint Louis (Illinois) – French
* 1683 – East New Jersey – Scottish
* 1684 – Stuarts Town, Carolina – Scottish
* 1685 – Fort Saint Louis (Texas) – French
* 1686 – Arkansas Post - French
* 1691 – Fort Pimiteoui (Fort Crevecoeur, Peoria, Illinois) – French
* 1698 – Pensacola, Florida – Spanish
* 1699 – Louisiana – French