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The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses.
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Italian sailor, John Cabot, sailing for the English, searched for a passage to the Pacific Ocean along the coast of Canada and Newfoundland. This became the basis for England’s claim to North America.
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Martin Luther, a German priest, protested the practices of the Catholic Church in 1517 leading to a religious reform movement called the Protestant Reformation.
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King Henry VIII defied the pope and founded the Church of England, or Anglican Church, in 1534.
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Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, sailed down the St. Lawrence River and traveled to present day Montreal, claiming the area for France.
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Sir Walter Raleigh received a charter, a document giving him permission to start a colony.
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Philip sent the Spanish Armada to England to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and the Anglican Church.
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The English captain Henry Hudson led a Dutch expedition to present day New York in 1609.The explorations of Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain gave France a claim to the north, in present day Canada, along the St. Lawrence River.
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René-Robert de La Salle claimed lands along the Mississippi River and Mississippi Valley.
