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Dutch East India Company is founded
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French First Trading Settlement in North America
Establish Port Royal in Acadia (present day Nova Scotia). Fur trade became the pattern of French colonization -
Establishment of Jamestown
Virginia Company established Jamestown as the first lasting British settlement in the New World -
Dutch Settle on Manhattan Island
Henry Hudson discovered the Hudson River in an attempt to find the fabled "Northwest Passage." Manhattan became launch point for future settlement and for attacking Spanish trade. -
First Tobacco grown in Virginia
John Rolfe planted the first tobacco strains. Tobacco boomed and within 15 years American colonists were exporting over five hundred thousand pounds of tobacco per year. Tobacco saved Virginia from ruin. -
Slavery born in Virginia
twenty Africans sold by the Dutch to the Virginia colonists -
Pilgrims found Plymouth Colony
The Pilgrims, immigrants of both English and Dutch origin, landed and founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. -
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British Puritans Migrate to New England
An estimated twenty thousand people, mostly Puritans escaping growing persecution from Church of England, emigrated from Britton to New England. It became known as the "Great Migration." -
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Pequot War
War between Piquot tribe and New England settlers in Massachusetts Bay. Colonists sold hundreds of Native Americans into slavery in the West Indies -
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Governor Kieft's War
Dutch colonists in New Netherlands pushed back against Algonquian tribes in New York and New Jersey -
Parliament wins "civil war" in England
Charles the First loses civil war to Parliament, and is beheaded. Changed completely the political climate in Britton and its relationship to American colonies. -
British settle in Jamaica
Settlement quickly turns island into major slave market for the West Indies -
Charles Town Established
This British colony in Carolina was part of Charles II's scheme to strengthen English control over the Eastern Seaboard in defiance of Spanish claims to the area. -
Glorious Revolution
This relatively peaceful coup gave the British crown to Dutch Prince William of Holland and his English bride, Mary. The colonies believed that this move would confirm the centrality of Protestantism and liberty in English life.