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Christopher Columbus gets financial help from the King and Queen of Spain
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Christopher Columbus sets sail with three ships, the Pinta, Nina, and the Santa Maria. Columbus sails on the Santa Maria.
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Columbus and his crew land at the Americas, which they believed to be Asia at the time.
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After sailing through what is now known as the Bahamas, Columbus came away empty handed with no treasure or valuables to show for his endeavors. He returns to Spain.
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Columbus' second journery came away with the same result, empty handed with no treasure. This time though he left his brothers behind with colonists to set up a colony in the wake of his return.
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Spain paid agian for Columbus' third trip, he was hoping to come back to a colony of sorts set up by his brothers. When he returned he got the exact opposite. The colony was a mess and he was also arrested for the crimes that were committed there.
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The London Company sponsors an expedition for the colonizing of Virginia
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Jamestown was founded by the colonists of the London Company. By the end of the year only 32 of the original 105 colonists were still alive. This was due to starvation as well as the spread of disease.
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Captain John Smith is captured by the Chief of the Native Americans, Powhatan. It just so happens that the daughter of the Chief, Pocahontas, saves him from his death.
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110 additional colonists arrive to Jamestown from the London Company.
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The first exports from Jamestown to England are sent, these exports include lumber and iron ore.
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Native tobacco is first planted and harvested by the Virginia colonists.
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A Dutch trading port is set up in lower Manhattan.
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With a few years gone by with tobacco being harvested, it essentially has become the cash crop of Virginia. It is an essential export staple of early colonization in Virginia.
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Smallpox has become an epidemic and has decimated Native Americans.
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20 Africans are brought to Jamestown by a Dutch ship and are for sale as indentured servants. This marks the beginning of slave trade in colonial America.
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The Mayflower Compact is signed by the 41 men. The Mayflower Compact establishes a form of local government in which the colonists agree to abide by majority rule and to cooperate for the general good of the colony. The compact gives way for other local colonies to establish a government of their own.
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The first session of the first legislative assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses is convened in Jamestown, consists of 22 burgesses which represent 11 plantations.
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The Mayflower ship lands at Cape Cod, Massachussets with 101 colonists on board.
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The first treaty is signed between the colonists and the Native Americans. It consists of the Plymouth Pilgrims enact a peace pact with the Wampanoag Tribe. This was possible because of the aid of an English speaking Native American, Squanto.
