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Queen Isabella of Castile and King Jon II of Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, dividing all future discoveries in the New World between their respective nations. This treaty soon proved unworkable because of the flood of expeditions to the New World and the proliferation of different countries’ claims to its territory. 2
John Cabot explored the northeast coast of North America in 1497 and 1498, claiming Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Grand Banks for England. 4
A French sailor who explored the St. Lawrence River region between 1543 and 1542, Cartier searched for a northwest passage, a waterway through which ships could cross the Americas to Asia. He found no such passage, but opened the region up to exploration and colonization by the French. 6
Samuel de Champlain, a Frenchman, explored the Great Lakes and established the first French colony in North America at Quebec in 1608. 8
Columbus sailed to the New World under the Spanish flag in 1492. Although not the first European to reach the Americas, he is credited with the journey across the Atlantic that finally opened the New World to exploration. In 1493, he established Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola as a base for further exploration. 10
Conquistador 11
Conquistador is a general term for any one of a group of Spanish explorers in the New World who sought to conquer the native people, establish dominance over their lands, and prosper from their natural resources, including gold. The Conquistadors established a large Hispanic empire stretching from Mexico to Chile and wreaked havoc among native populations. 12
Hernando Cortes was a Spanish conquistador who went to the West Indies in 1504. In 1519, Cortes established Veracruz, the first Spanish colony in Mexico. By 1521, he had conquered the Aztec empire using horses, gunpowder, and steel weapons. 14
From 1577 to 1580, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe. Drake was a privateer, or a captain who could loot other ships. He was sent by England’s Queen Elizabeth I to raid Spanish ships and settlements for gold. Drake helped defend England against the Spanish. As a result, the Spaniards called him El Draque, or “the Dragon” 16
Leif Erikson 17
Leif Ericson is the alleged leader of a group of Icelandic people who sailed to the eastern coast of Canada and unsuccessfully attempted to colonize the area around the year 1000, nearly 500 years before Columbus arrived in the Americas 18
Henry Hudson 19
Am English explorer sponsored by the Dutch East India Company, Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name in 1609, nearly reaching present-day Albany. His explorations gave the Dutch territorial claims to the Hudson Bay region. 20
Vasco de Gama was a Portuguese explorer who was the first European to sail from Europe to India. He led four ships that sailed around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, opening a trade route that is still used today. 22
Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer who was trying to find a Fountain of Youth. Instead, he landed in Florida. 24
Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who wanted to find a sea route to the Spice Islands by sailing west around the American continent. In 1520, he led five ships across the Atlantic Ocean and south around South America through a narrow passage. This passage, which links the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, is now called the Strait of Magellan. Magellan died during the trip, but his crew was the first to circumnavigate the world and prove that the world was round. 26
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English explorer who established England’s first American colony in 1585. This settlement was off the coast of North Carolina, on Roanoke Island. 28
Roanoke 29
The first English settlement in the New World was on the island of Roanoke, off the coast of North Carolina, established in 1587. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America was born on Roanoke Island. The settlement failed, and no one knows what became of the people who first settled there. 30
The French and Indian War in North America (1754-1763) mirrored the Seven Years War in Europe (1756-1763). English colonists and soldiers fought the French and their Native American allies for dominance in North America. England’s eventual victory brought England control of much disputed territory and eliminated the French as a threat to English dominance in the Americas. 32
Mercantilism 33
Mercantilism was a theory of trade stressing that a nation’s economic strength depended on exporting more than it imported. British mercantilism manifested itself in triangular trade and in laws passed between the mid-1600s and the mid-1700s, such as the Navigation Acts (1651-1673), aimed at fostering British economic dominance. 34
Passed under the mercantilist system, the Navigation Acts (1651-1673) regulated trade in order to benefit the British economy. The acts restricted trade between England and its colonies to English or colonial ships, required certain colonial goods to pass through England before export, provided subsidies for the production of certain raw goods in the colonies, and banned colonial competition in large-scale manufacturing. 36
Mayflower 37
The Mayflower was the ship that carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic from the Netherlands to Plymouth Plantation in 1620 (the Pilgrims had fled England to the Netherlands before heading to the New World). 38
The Mayflower Compact is often cited as the first example of self-government in the Americas. The Pilgrims, having arrived at a harbor far north of the land that was rightfully theirs, signed the Mayflower Compact to establish a “civil body politic” under the sovereignty of James I. 40
Puritans 41
The Puritans were a Protestant group aiming to purify the Anglican Church. In the early 1600s, the Puritans suffered religious persecution in England and emigrated to the Americas. The first group of Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. From Boston, Puritan influence in North America spread throughout the region of New England and with it came a focus on family life and a pious restraint of passion 42
John Rolfe 43
John Rolfe was an English settler in Jamestown. He married the daughter of the chief of the Native American Powhatan tribe, Pocahontas, and introduced the Jamestown colonists to West Indian tobacco in 1616. Tobacco soon became the lifeblood Jamestown colony, bringing in much revenue and many immigrants eager for a share in the colony’s expanding wealth. 44
In 1692, several girls in Salem, Massachusetts, accused their neighbors of witchcraft. More than 100 people were tried as witches, and 19 women and one man were executed. Puritan minister Cotton Mather eventually helped stop the trials and executions. 46
Throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the English government did not enforce those trade laws that most harmed the colonial economy. The purpose of salutary neglect was to ensure the loyalty of the colonists in the face of the French territorial and commercial threat in North America. The English ceased practicing salutary neglect following British victory in the French and Indian War. 48
John Smith 49
John Smith effectively saved Jamestown when the colony was on the verge of collapse in 1608, its first year of existence. Smith’s initiatives to improve sanitation and hygiene and to organize work gangs to gather food and build shelters dramatically lowered mortality rates among Jamestown colonists. 50
