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De Soto explores the region between Florida and the Mississippi River.
south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, one of the first European explorers to ever do so. After building flatboats, de Soto and his 400 ragged troops crossed the great river under the cover of night, in order to avoid the armed Native Americans who patrolled the river daily in war canoes. -
1492
Columbus lands at Hispaniola in the Caribbean
Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the Caribbean in 1492 marked the beginning of contact between Europeans and
Native Americans. -
1513
Balboa "discovers" the Pacific Ocean in Panama.
he led the first European expedition to the Pacific Ocean, but news of the discovery arrived after the king had sent Pedro Arias de Ávila to serve as the new governor of Darién. -
1521
Cortés conquers the Aztecs at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City).
a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the emperor Cuauhtemoc and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. -
First permanent English settlement is founded in Jamestown Virginia.
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.Jamestown was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on 1607 -
Mayflower Pilgrims found Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.
The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and is the modern town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. -
English settlers defeat Native Americans in King Philip's war.
King Philip’s War (1676) marked the last major effort by the Native Americans of southern New England to drive out the English settlers. With tensions spilling over following the collapse of trade partnerships and aggressive expansion of colonist territories, Pokunoket chief Metacom — a.k.a. King Philip — led a bloody uprising of Wampanoag, Nipmuck, Pocumtuck and Narragansett tribes. -
France claims the Mississippi River Valley and names it Louisiana.
Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle and a larger party of explorers followed much the same route as Marquette and Jolliet. But La Salle’s journey brought him all the way to the Gulf of Mexico; where he claimed the Mississippi River Valley for his King and named it in his honor, Louisiana.
