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Columbus sets sail to Asia in the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria with 90 men. They traveled 170 miles a day.
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Coming ashore on a small boat, Columbus arrives in what he thinks is Asia, but is really North America
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The English were interested in Cabot's ideas. Cabot lrft England in May. He crossed the North Atlantic, and explored the region around Newfoundland.
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He died, still convinced he had reached Asia.
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The Spanish colonist explored the Caribbean coast of what is now Panama. Hacking his way across the jungle, he became the first European to set eyes on the Pacific Ocean
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Juan Ponce de Leon sailed North from Puerto Rico to investigate reports of a large island . He found beautiful flowers there, so he named it La Florida. He became the first Spaniard to set foot in the United States.
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Ferdinand Magellan set out to find an Atlantic Pacific passage to Asia.
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Hernado Cortes sailed from Cuba to Mexico, and marched into the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. He took montezuma, the leader, hostage and claimed all of Mexico for Spain. The Aztecs soon rebelled, but the Spanish returned a year later, recaptured it, and built Mexico City in it's place.
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For more than a year, the small fleet of Ferdinand Magellan slowly pushed down the South American Coast, looking for a strait. They encountered new animals, and finally they found the "Strait of Magellan". Finally into the Pacific ocean, he and his crew finally reached the Philippine Islands. He was killed, but some of his fleet finally reached Spain, three years after they begun, they became the first to circumnavigate the earth.
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Giovanni explored the Atlantic coastal region from North Carolina to Newfoundland. He discovered the mouth of the Hudson river and the New York Bay.
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Pizzaro landed on the coast of Peru in 1531 to search for the Incas. In 1532 he led an army of 170 soldiers into the Incan empire, took the ruler hostage, collected his huge ransom, but killed him anyway.
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Because the pope denied a divorce to King Henry VIII, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church and set up a protestant church, The Church of England.
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The colony of Roanoke was established twice. First in 1585, then again in 1587. The first was abandoned a year after it was made. The second was unable to get to because of a war with Spain, and it dissapeared without a trace.
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The rule of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I renewed the rivalry with Roman Catholic Spain. Spain's king Phillip II hoped to make England Catholic again. He assembled a fleet of 130 warships known as the Spanish Armada. A fleet of English ships met the Spanish ships off the coast of France. The English won, and barley half of the Spanish fleet returned to Spain, defeated.
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Juan de Onate led an expedition into New Mexico in search of gold, and convert Native Americans to Christianity. He never found gold, but he established Spains first permenant settlement in the region at Santa Fe.
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Jamestown barley survived it's first year. Diseases and lazy colonists contributed to this. Luckily John Smith came along, and under his leadership Jamestown prospered.
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Samuel de Champlain established a settlement on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named Quebec.
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Hudson sailed into the Arctic, lookong for a passage to the Pacific. He reached as far as the Hudson Bay, then the icy waters halted them to a stop. His unhappy crew mutantied, put him and some others adrift in a small boat, and they were never seen again.
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Farmers in Jamestown and nearby settlements in Virginia began planting tobacco in 1612.
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In 1619, Virginia's lawmaking body, The House of Burgesses, was elected and met for the first time. The House of Burgesses could pass laws and set taxes, however it shared the power with Virginia's appointed governer, who could veto it's acts.
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In September 1620, about 100 pilgrims sailed for Virginia. After a long trip, they landed safley in America, but a storm blew them off course. Because they did not land in Virginia, they needed rules of some sort. So before they got off The Mayflower, 41 men signed the Mayflower Compact. The compact was the first document in which American colonists claimed the right to govern themselves.
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In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims set aside a day to give thanks to their good fortune.After all, they arrived in winter, too late to plant crops. The Native Americans helped them, and half of them made it through the harsh winter. This day is now celebrated as Thanksgiving.
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In 1630, tired of no religious toleration, about 900 Puritans set off for America. They were led by John Winthrop. They had formed The Massechusetts Bay Company, and established several settlements in their colony.
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George Calvert suffered discrimination in England for being Catholic. Calvert aimed to set up a colony where they could live safley.
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Williams was forced to leave Massachusetts because of his beleifs about religion. He bought land from the Native Americans, and founded the town of Providence.
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Opening in 1638, Harvard was financed by the Puritan General Court. Harvard was the first college in the English colonies.
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In 1651 the English Parliament passed the first of several Navigation Acts to support merchantilism. The acts benifited both England and the colonies, but the colonists felf the Laws favored the English Merchants.
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New Netherland acted as a barrier to the English. It kept them from expanding westward. So English forces seized New Netherland, and renamed it New York. Renaming the capital, New York City.
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New Jersey was established in 1665 whenpart of southern New York split off to form a new colony. New Jersey was at first a proprietary colony, but it became a royal colony in 1702.
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In 1675, Nathaniel Bacon organized a force of 1,000 westerners, and began attacking and killing native Americans. The governer declared that Bacon and his men were rebels. He reacted by burning Jamestown to the ground. This ended when he became sick and died.
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Penn wanted to find a place where Quakers could live peacefully. Using his connections with the king, he received a charter for an area almost as large as England. He arrived in !682. he started a "holy experiment", so people of different religious backrounds could live together peacefully.
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Parliament removed King James II from the throne, and invited his daughter and husband to rule. King William and Queen Mary signed the English Bill of Rights.
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John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, was arrested for printing some articles criticizing the governer. Zenger was charged with libel and in the court Zenger's lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, said the articles were based on fact, so it was not libel. The jurors agreed with Hamilton. The case helped establish the fundamental principal of freedom of the press.
