Which european power was first to establish permanent colonies in the americas?
The Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock, December 1620 European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. New World grains such as corn kept the colonists from starving while, in Virginia, tobacco provided a valuable cash crop. By the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North American colonies. Show Here we consider the next phase of New World publicity—the essays, "true relations" and mass-produced pamphlets written to entice Europeans to join the New World venture. Some, like the Hakluyt and Peckham works in Topic 2: EXPLORATION, were directed at financiers and "adventurers." Others, such as the five included here, were aimed at potential settlers. The first three include Q&A-type sections that address specific concerns of potential settlers. The fourth selection pairs the opposing advice offered by English settlers of New England and New-York.
4. Instructions for Leaders» Reading Guide-Spanish: Monarchs' instructions for Hispaniola, 1501-English: Investors' instructions for Jamestown, ca. 1607-English: Founder's instructions for Maryland, 1633-Russian: Officials' instructions for Kodiak Island (Alaska), 1784/96-Maps: Spanish New World, 1511 (Item #2) European archives are full of written instructions to the founders and governors of New World settlements. Many of the documents are boilerplate and not engrossing reading. But some, amidst the usual orders to survey the area, build towns, and make a lot of money for the home country, reveal the personal visions and political struggles of the founders. As a whole they document the profound challenges of governing colonies in an ungovernable, i.e., unknown environment, and this is what makes them worth dissecting.
5. Missions to the Indians» Reading Guide-Spanish: Franciscan report on the New Mexico missions, 1630-French: Jesuit reports on the New France missions, 1637-1653 For the early European presence in North America, the term "settlement" includes coastal forts, trading posts, mining centers, shipping stations, farming villages, occasional towns, and a few big colonial cities. And for the Spanish, French, and Russians, "settlement" also includes Indian missions. In some areas, missions were the first significant European settlements, including the Spanish missions in New Mexico, the Gulf coast of Florida, and the Pacific coast of California, and the French missions along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and the upper Mississippi River. For many Indians, certainly, the first European they encountered was a Roman Catholic missionary. The mission reports should not be considered "religious history" alone, for the European-Indian relationships that grew from them set the political stage on which later imperial rivalries were fought. To illustrate this early influence, we read from the reports of two missionary groups—the Spanish Catholic Franciscans in New Mexico and the French Catholic Jesuits in New France.
6. Enslaved Peoples» Reading Guide-Spanish: Enslaved Indians in the Caribbean, 1500s-Spanish: Enslaved Africans in Mexico, 1537 Europeans' enslavement of Native Americans began with Columbus. As the governor of Hispaniola, he forced the Taino Indians to labor in the Spanish fields and mines, and he brought Taino slaves to Spain on his return journeys. About 50,000 Taino died within two years of Columbus's arrival, and by 1510 the Taino population had declined by nearly 90%, primarily from European diseases but also from brutal treatment. A new source of forced labor was required. In 1518 the Spanish king allowed the importation of slaves directly from Africa (previously they had been Spanish-born Africans), and the Atlantic slave trade to the western hemisphere began in earnest, finally ending over three centuries later with the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888.
7. Go Ahead?» Reading Guide-Spanish: On keeping St. Augustine and New Mexico, 1602-1611-French: On cultivating New France, 1616-English: On saving Jamestown, 1624 In 1592, a century after Columbus's first voyage, the European presence in the western hemisphere could be represented by dividing a map at 30° north latitude (near St. Augustine, Florida). South of the line, the Spanish dominated Central America, the Caribbean, and most of South America, while the Portuguese controlled Brazil. North of the line, however, there was minimal European presence. Attempts by the Spanish, French, and English to place settlements on the Atlantic coast had failed (Fort Caroline, Ajacan, and Roanoke among the failures). The French dominated the northern fur trade and joined in the Grand Banks fishing off Newfoundland, but they had yet to build a significant settlement in the hemisphere. The English, in effect, had no presence on the continent. In a space of two years, however, in 1607 and 1608, the Spanish, English, and French founded settlements north of the 30th latitude that survived despite the odds against them—Santa Fé in New Mexico (1607), Jamestown on the Atlantic coast (1607), and Quebec on the St. Lawrence River (1608). Earlier, the Spanish had built a small fort named San Agustín on the Atlantic coast of Florida. All foundered in their early years, their continued existence a matter of luck as well as policy. Finally, decisions to nurture or abandon these fledgling colonies had to be made.
Images: -Insula hyspana, woodcut in Carlo Cerardi, [Historia Baetica] In laudem serenissimi Ferdinandi Hispania[rum] regis, Bethicae [et] regni Granatae, 1494, detail. Reproduced by permission of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, #0229-6. -Construction of Fort Caroline (northern Florida), 1564, detail of hand-colored engraving by Theodore de Bry based on watercolor by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, in Le Moyne, Brevis narratio eorum qu� in Florida Americ� provincia Gallis acciderunt . . . [A brief narration of those things which befell the French in the province of Florida in America . . .], published by Theodore de Bry in series Grands Voyages, V. II, America, Pt. II, Frankfurt, 1591. Reproduced by permission of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, #08915-14. -Fort of St. Augustine, detail of John White, S. Augustini: pars est terra Florida, sub latitudine 30 grad, ora vero maritima humilior est, lancinata et insulosa, depicting the attack of Sir Francis Drake on St. Augustine, 1589, Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Hans and Hanni Kraus Sir Francis Drake Collection: G3934.S2 1589 .W4. -Abitation de Qvebecq, copper engraving in Samuel de Champlain, Les voyages du sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, 1613, detail. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada (Biblioth�que et Archives Canada), FC330 C3 1613. P. 187. -Three Saints Bay (likely), Kodiak Island, 1794, detail of drawing. Image title and repository unidentified; search in progress. Which European power first established permanent?England Establishes Permanent Colonies
Of all the European countries, England established the firmest foothold in North America. Like the other European countries, England was motivated in part by the lure of both riches and the Northwest Passage.
What was the first European power to settle in America?The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States.
Who was the first European to establish permanent contact between Europe and America?The first European community in North America was established c. 980 - c. 1030 by the Norse Viking Leif Erikson (b. c. 970 - c. 980) in Newfoundland at the site known today as L'Anse aux Meadows.
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