Introduction to North America

The earliest people in the Americas probably were Asians who crossed the prehistoric land bridge across the Bering Strait. They were largely of Mongoloid ancestry.

European Discovery

Greenland was discovered and settled by Norsemen (Vikings) in the 980's. Norse sagas of voyages from Greenland to North America about 1000 were confirmed in 1963 by discovery of the ruins of a Norse settlement on the coast of Newfoundland. It is possible that there were Viking settlements on the New England coast and in the interior of the continent. The Norse discoveries, however, were little known to the rest of Europe, and were soon forgotten.

In the early 15th century there was a revival of the geographer Ptolemy's theory that the earth is round. Throughout the century Portugal, then a major maritime power, sent ships exploring to the west. Some may have reached South America and the cod fisheries off Newfoundland, as legend suggests. The Portuguese king, however, refused to sponsor Christopher Columbus in a westward voyage to seek Asia. Columbus was financed by the king and queen of Spain, and in 1492 discovered the West Indies.

Early Exploration

In the late 15th century, Pope Alexander VI, to moderate competition between Spain and Portugal for new territory, established a boundary line separating the areas open to Spanish and Portuguese claims. As a result, Portugal was excluded from founding colonies in the West Indies and to the north.

At first Spain had the Caribbean area to itself. It colonized the most attractive islands, and began settling the Isthmus of Panama in 1509. Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce de León in 1513; Mexico was conquered by Hernando Cortez beginning in 1519. Journeys of exploration into the interior of the continent were led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1528–36, by Hernando De Soto in 1539–42, and by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540–42. Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the Gulf of California in 1540, and the California coast was claimed for Spain by Juan Cabrillo in 1542.

Meanwhile the northern European nations were searching for a northwest passage to Asia. John Cabot in 1497 reached North America in the vicinity of Newfoundland and claimed the land for England. France sent Giovanni da Verrazano along the north Atlantic coast in 1524, and Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River in 1535, beginning a bitter rivalry between England and France for possession of eastern North America.

Colonial Empires

England gained its first North American colony when it took possession of St. John's, a large fishing settlement in Newfoundland used by fishermen from many nations, in 1583. France sent colonists to what is now Nova Scotia in 1604 and moved them in 1608 to Quebec, where a permanent settlement was founded. In 1607 the English founded Jamestown Colony in Virginia and the short-lived Popham colony in Maine.

In 1609 Henry Hudson claimed the Hudson River area for the Netherlands. The first Dutch posts were founded in 1614. Colonization of New England began in 1620. Sweden settled its only American colony, on the Delaware River, in 1638, and lost it to the Dutch in 1655. In 1664 the English conquered New Netherland, ending Dutch colonization in North America. Hudson Bay, discovered by Henry Hudson in 1610, became a center for the English fur trade in 1668. Soon after the Sieur de La Salle descended to the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1682, the French began settling the Mississippi Valley, which they called Louisiana.

Spain did not long retain its monopoly in the Caribbean. England began colonizing unclaimed islands in 1625; France, in 1635. The Dutch acquired islands off South America in 1634, and Denmark began settling the western Virgin Islands in 1672.

Changes of Sovereignty

Wars among the European nations, which often extended to North America, brought major changes in the 18th century. In 1762 France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain, and in 1763 it lost Canada and the rest of Louisiana to Great Britain. France retained only some small islands off Newfoundland. Spain began settling California in 1769. The United States won its independence from Britain in 1775–83, acquiring all British-held mainland territory south of Canada.

The Russians discovered Alaska in 1741, and occupied it beginning in 1784. In 1800 Spanish Louisiana was returned to France, which then sold it to the United States in 1803. When Mexico and Central America won their independence, 1821–23, Spain was excluded from the North American mainland. In the Caribbean, most of the Spanish possessions passed to Britain or France, or became independent.

Russia established a post on the California coast in 1809, but abandoned it in 1841. Texas freed itself from Mexico in 1836 and was annexed in 1845 to the United States, which won California and the Southwest from Mexico in 1848. The Russians withdrew from the continent in 1867, when they sold Alaska to the United States. Spain lost its last Caribbean possessions, Cuba and Puerto Rico, in the Spanish-American War, 1898. In 1917 Denmark sold its portion of the Virgin Islands to the United States Canada became an autonomous member of the British Commonwealth in 1931. In 1953 Greenland, a Danish possession since the early 18th century, became an integral part of the kingdom of Denmark.

In the 1960's and 1970's, a number of the Caribbean colonies of Great Britain achieved independence. In 1979 the Panama Canal Zone, a strip of land under American sovereignty since 1904, ceased to exist, becoming part of Panama. Also that year, Greenland became largely self-governing. In the 1980's, additional British colonies in the Caribbean gained independence.