European timeline

  • The French seized control

    During the 1600s, the nations of Europe also colonized the Caribbean. The French seized control of present-day Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. The English settled Barbados and Jamaica. In 1634, the Dutch captured what are now the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba from Spain.
  • They named the colony jamestown.

    In April 1607, the approximately 105 English colonists who had set sail from England landed in Virginia. They named their colony Jamestown, after the monarch who had approved the financing of a new settlement.
  • In 1620 pilgrims found a second English colony

    In 1620, a group known as Pilgrims founded a second English colony, Plymouth, in Massachusetts. Persecuted for their religious beliefs in England, these colonists sought religious freedom. Ten years later, a group known as Puritans also sought religious freedom from England’s Anglican Church. They established a larger colony at nearby Massachusetts Bay.
  • The Dutch clamied the region and Dutch merchants formed the Dutch West India Company In 1621,

    The Dutch claimed the region along these waterways. They established a fur trade with the Iroquois Indians. They built trading posts along the Hudson River at Fort Orange (now Albany) and on Manhattan Island. Dutch merchants formed the Dutch West India Company. In 1621, the Dutch government granted the company permission to colonize the region and expand the fur trade. The Dutch holdings in North America became known as New Netherland.
  • John Cotton would Emigrate to Massachusetts.

    John Cotton was a Puritan leader who, in 1630, offered some information to fellow Puritans leaving England for Massachusetts. Cotton himself would emigrate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633.
  • Charles the 2 granted his brother the Duke of York permission to drive out of the dutch.

    In 1664, the English king, Charles II, granted his brother, the Duke of York, permission to drive out the Dutch. When the duke’s fleet arrived at New Netherland, the Dutch surrendered without firing a shot. The Duke of York claimed the colony for England and renamed it New York.
  • Marquette explores Mississippi river

    In this image, Jacques Marquette explores the Mississippi River in 1673. His and others' exploration of the Mississippi helped to establish France's empire in North America. Most people who moved to French colonies in North America were traders, not settlers.
  • The french and Indian war.

    In 1754 a dispute over land claims in the Ohio Valley led to a war between the British and French on the North American continent. The conflict became known as the French and Indian War. The war became part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years’ War. Britain and France, along with their European allies, also battled for supremacy in Europe, the West Indies, and India.
  • Trading

    France’s North American empire was immense. But it was sparsely populated. By 1760, the European population of New France had grown to only about 65,000. A large number of French colonists had no desire to build towns or raise families. These settlers included Catholic priests who sought to convert Native Americans. They also included young, single men engaged in what had become New France’s main economic activity, the fur trade.
  • The french surrendered their North America holdings.

    In North America, the British colonists, with the help of the British Army, defeated the French in 1763. The French surrendered their North American holdings. As a result of the war, the British seized control of the eastern half of North America.