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Sep 15, 1492
The Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire started when Italian Explorer Columbus Sailed to The Americas while trying to find a shortcut to the Indies. Many Native Americans died during the time. The empire extended from the bottom of South America to the Middle of North America -
Oct 12, 1492
Columbus Lands in The New World
In 1492, Columbus tried to find a shortcut to the Indies. He accidentally sailed to America- thinking it was India, he called the people there Indians. -
Nov 20, 1534
New France
New France started with Jacques Cartier claiming Canada in 1534. Later in1608, Samuel de Champlain went up the St. Lawrence River and made a trading post that was called Quebec; Quebec became a base for French explorers, soldiers, missionaries, traders, and fur trappers -
Jamestown: The First English Colony
Jamestown started by a group of merchants making a company called The London Company that sent 144 settlers in 3 ships to send back goods. The people settled on a peninsula that they thought would be easy to defend, but the place had disease carrying mosquitos. -
New Netherlands
New Netherlands started when English explorer Henry Hudson, sponsored by Dutch merchants that wanted to find the northwest passage, found a deep river that he thought could take him all the way across America. It didn't but the river was named the Hudson in his honor and the land he claimed along its sides was called New Netherlands -
The Starving Time
Captian John Smith was injured in a gunpowder explosion, so he went back to England. Without Smith, the Native Americans refused to trade with the English because Pocahontas and him weren't keeping peace, and the English started starving. -
Pocahontas Marries John Rolfe
While a prisoner of the English, Pocahontas made friends. One of the friends was John Rolfe, who had found tobacco as a good crop to be raised in Virginia. Later, John Rolfe proposed to Pocahontas. Their marraige helped the relationship between the English and the Native Americans -
The Colony of Massachusetts
Puritan christians wanted to purify the church by simplifying it, but the English church didn't want that. When they started putting people in jail for not going to anglican services, some puritans moved to The Netherlands. The Netherlands wasn't home though. The puritans wanted their kids to grow up in English culture, so in 1620 a group of puritans set sail for America with a charter from England -
New Netherlands Becomes New York
England refused to recognize The Netherlands claims to the land of New Netherlands. King Charles II told his brother, James the Duke of York, that he owned all Dutch land in America if he could conquer them. Then Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherlands, got a letter from James telling him to surrender. He refused until he was told that the supply of gunpowder was useless because it was wet.
