-
-
In 1534, Francis I of France sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River.
-
A small group of French troops were left on Parris Island, South Carolina in 1562 to build Charlesfort, but left after a year when they were not resupplied by France.
-
St. Augustine in Florida was established as a Spanish fort in 1565, the first permanent settlement in what would become the United States.
-
The Roanoke adventure began as an exploration of Virginia, named for Elizabeth the Virgin Queen. Attempts to settle Virginia were made between 1585 and 1590.
-
Captain John White left Roanoke in 1587 in order to re-supply the colony with goods from England. Upon his return in 1590, however, the people had vanished leaving inadequate clues as to where they went.
-
In 1609, the VOC commissioned English explorer Henry Hudson who, in an attempt to find the so-called northwest passage to the Indies, discovered and claimed for the VOC parts of the present-day United States and Canada.
-
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, established in 1607 near Chesapeake Bay.
-
The first Dutch settlement in America was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island in the Hudson, near present-day Albany.
-
From 1673 to 1674, the territories were once again briefly captured by the Dutch in the Third Anglo–Dutch War, only to be returned to England at the Treaty of Westminster.
-
last French and Indian War resulted in the dissolution of New France, with Canada going to Great Britain and Louisiana going to Spain. Only the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon have remained in French hands until today.