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Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria sailed out on August 3, 1492. In months, Columbus’s fleet would reach the shores of what Europeans saw a new world, America. Thinking Columbus has successfully reached the East Indies, he called the natives, los indios, which means Indian. Scholars believed he landed on an island in the Bahamas in the Carribean Sea now known as Hispaniola. He claimed the land for Spain and named it San Salvador.
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The buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americans was known as the Atlantic Slave Trade, which became a massive enterprise. Bewtween 1500 and 1600, nearly 300,000 Africans were transported to the Americas.
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Soon after landing in Mexico, Cortés learned of the vast and wealthy Aztec Empire.Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, was convinced at first that Cortés was a god wearing armor. Then, he agreed to give the Spanish explorer a share of the empire's existing gold supply. In late Spring of 1520, Cortés's men killed many Aztec warriors while celebrating a religious festival. The Aztecs rebelled against the Spanish and drove Cortes's forces out. Cortés conquered the Aztecs in 1521 because of guns and disease
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In 1532, another conquistador, Francisco Pizzaro, marched a small force into South America. He and his army of 200 men met the Incan ruler, Atahualpa, near the city of Cajamarca. Atahualpa came with 30,000 unarmed men. The Spaniards waited in ambush, crushed the Incan force, and kidnapped Atahualpa.
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Explorations of the Spanish & French inspired the English. in 1606, a company of London investors recieved from King James a charter to found a colony in North America. The company's three ships, and more than 100 settlers pushed out of an English harbor. Four months later, in 1607, they reached the coast of Virginia. Colonists claimed the land as theirs and named the settlement Jamestown in honor of their king. Jamestown became England's first permanent settlement in North America.
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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.
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In 1754, a dispute over land claims in the Ohio valley led war between the British and French on the North American Continent, also known as the French and Indian War. It was called that because Indians and French worked together to fight the British. The war became part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years War. The British colonists and British army defeated the French in 1763. The French surrendered their North American holdings.
