Explorers and Colonizers in North America
When the first Europeans arrived in America they had no idea that the entire continent was occupied and had been occupied for thousands of years. Here is a map that shows the distribution of tribes in 1492.
I. Norse - landfall before 1,500 BP.
1. Established colonies on what is now called Greenland and Nova Scotia 2,000 BP.
A. Stone architectural remains.
B. Incised runes provide linguistic evidence.
C. Norse history says colony lasted three years, then driven out by Indians.
2. Leifur Eirίksson - Leif Erikson (c. 975 - before 1025 A.D.)
A. Born in Iceland, raised in Greenland.
B. Presumably the first European to set foot in North America.
II. Spain
1. Began to explore Americas with support of Ferdinand & Isabella 1,500 BP.
A. Chain of dominion begins in Santo Domingo, a Caribbean island, in 1492.
a. Extended control from Santo Domingo to Cuba by 1515.
b. Extended reach from Cuba to Vera Cruz, Mexico by 1519.
c. Takes Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), the Aztec capital, in 1520.
d. Establish control of sea port of Acapulco by 1535.
e. Extended control from Acapulco to Baja California by 1540.
f. Temporary retreat from Southwest and Gulf Coast c. 1540.
g. Extended control from Baja California to San Francisco in late 1770s.
h. Spain surrenders claim to North American land to French in 1808.
i. "Plan of Iguala" proclaims Mexican independence in 1821.
j. Santa Anna repels Spain's attempt to retake Mexico in 1828.
2. Some Spanish personalities
A. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (? - 1543)
a. Supervised pitching of ships in Cuba for invasion of Mexico, 1514.
b. Given Honduras/Guatemala and the Indian people who lived there to Cabrillo as personal property.
i. His slaves mined silver out of the land in Honduras.
ii. He used captured Indian women and girls as sex-slaves.
c. Decided to exploit California and died after a fall during a "skirmish" with Natives on Channel Islands.
B. Hernán Cortéz (1485 - 1547)
a. Distinguished himself with Diego-Velasquez against Cuba in 1511.
b. Received by the Emperor in Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), 1519.
c. Took control of Tenochtitlan in 1521.
d. Went broke looking for more gold in the American Southwest.
C. Francisco Coronado (1510 - 1553)
a. Went broke leading a group of 1500 colonists through the Southwest in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola. MAP.
b. Visited nearly every village on the Rio Grande 1540 - 1542.
D. Hernando de Soto. (1500?-1542)
a. Joined Francisco Pizarro against the Inca in what is now Peru 1533.
b. Arrived with 600 men south of what is now Tampa Bay FL in 1539.
i. Planned to capture and ransom Indians for gold.
ii. Much known for killing Indians for "sport."
c. Fought his way to the Mississippi River, first European to see it.
i. Died of a fever on the River bank.
III. France
1. Giovanni da Verranzano explored the New World for France in 1524.
2. Jacques Cartier, in 1534, first in a long line to seek a Northwest Passage.
3. Meanwhile established the town of Mobile, AL.
4. Next attempt at settlement was by Samuel de Champlain in 1638.
5. Infiltrated Native families to keep goods flowing through traditional Native conduits into French hands.
6. Claim all of Mississippi River drainage for France.
7. "Treaty of Paris" settled French and Indian war in February 1763, gave all of North America east of the Mississippi, other than New Orleans, to the British.
IV. Netherlands
1. Henry Hudson sailing for a Dutch company sees America in 1609.
2. The first Dutch settlement in North America was built in late 1614.
A. New Netherlands almost equaled modern day NY, DE, CN, and NJ.
3. New Amsterdam founded on modern day Manhattan Island in 1626.
4. Dutch relations with Native people abominable, slaughter, torture.
A. Native trade systems kept operating to bring goods to Dutch hands.
B. Import counterfeit white wampum attempting to break Iroquois economy.
5. Surrender New Amsterdam to British in 1664.
6. Withdraw completely from America in 1674.
A. New Netherlands exchanged with the Brits for Surinam in South America.
IV. England
1. England on the East Coast
A. A 1585 scouting expedition returns from North America with two Native Americans. Roanoke Colony attempted on what is now an island off NC. disappeared.
a. Formed by Sir Walter Raleigh.
b. Once rescued by Sir Francis Drake.
c. Birthplace of Virginia Dare, first American-born English colonist.
d. Deemed a failure when all colonists disappear.
B. Stock Companies begin to claim patents (tracts of land) for colonization
a. London (Virginia) Company and Plymouth Company settle James River area 1606.
i. Most colonists die of starvation or skirmishes with Indians and Dutch and French for the first few years, none allowed to go home.
ii. In 1620 London Virginia Company accepts the 102 passengers of Mayflower as indentured servants for seven years in exchange for a share of land.
aa. 41 were English Puritan Separatists exiled to Holland.
bb. None-the-less all 102 are called Puritans.
b. Popham Colony attempted in Maine in 1607.
i. Colonists return home after one year.
c. Cuppers Cove Settlement in Newfoundland in 1610.
d.Massachusetts Bay Company charter granted in 1630.
i. Establish Boston.
ii. Annex Maine to Massachusetts
C. Take over New Netherlands in 1664.
a. Also claim former New Sweden, later a part of Pennsylvania.
D. Acquires the French New France Colony in 1763, later to become Canada.
E. Acquires the Spanish Florida Colony in 1763.
2. England on the Pacific Coast
A. 1578 Francis Drake sails into San Francisco Bay (?)
B. Cook arrives 1778.
C. Oregon border dispute.
a. England claimed Oregon but could not colonize it.
i. American colonists to Oregon settled dispute
IV. Sweden and Finland
1. Colonists arrive in 1638 and establish colony on the Delaware River
A. Competition with the Dutch.
a. Take control of New Sweden (modern day PA) in 1665.
B. Plagued by food shortages.
C. Maryland colonies ceded to William Penn in 1681.
III. Russia
1. First appear in America under the orders of Peter the Great
A. commissioned Bering to make the voyage from Kamchatka in Siberian coast.
a. two voyages 1728 and 1741
B. by 1760 Aleuts were so pissed off they retaliated
a. caused Peter to open the way for trading companies
b. Aleut women and girls taken as sex slaves, Aleut men for labor.
2. Spainish colony under leadership of de Anza in Monterey in 1770 preempting Russians
3. Russian American Fur Company chartered in 1796
A. slow start because of lack of ships
B. established Sitka which was starved out
a. declared capital of Russian Alaska in 1602.
C. Went to San Francisco in 1806.
D. Fort Ross, Mendocino County established in 1812.
a. sold to John Sutter in 1841 after sea otter extinguished.
E. Russia relinquishes control of California and withdraws to Alaska.
