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The encomienda system begins, granting Indians to Spanish encomenderos as slaves. The Spaniards are tasked with protecting the natives and teaching them Christianity. The system is rife with abuses.
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columbus arrives in the bahamas
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The New World is first termed "America" by a German mapmaker who falsely credits Amerigo Vespucci with its discovery.
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Juan Ponce de Leon, sailing for Spain, explores Florida.
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Fall of Tenochtitlan: Hernán Cortés and approximately 100 Spaniards capture the capital of the Aztec Empire.
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Cortés and his men conquer the entire Aztec Empire in what will later become Mexico.
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The Spanish import the first African slaves to the territory that will later become the United States.
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The first printing press is set up in Mexico City. Printing comes to the New World.
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Jacques Cartier founds the first french colony of new france.
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Jaques carter discovers the st. louis river
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Hernando de Soto of Spain explores what is today the southeast United States.
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Gilbert aquires royal patent from Elizabeth, Queen of England, to discover and hold new territories not already claimed by other countries. He wanted to claim new land and transplant Englishmen to the Americas to settle and acquire wealth for themselves and for England. [1578]
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Gilbert began his first transatlantic sailing in 1583, claimed land in Newfoundland and because winter was approaching, decided to return home.
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Sir Walter Raleigh organizes the colonization of Roanoke Island, Virginia (today, North Carolina). The colony lasts for only one year. The second attempt to settle there in 1587 also fails with the colony disappearing sometime before 1590.
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England established the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, what is now North Carolina, in 1587. This was only a settlement that lasted for so long.
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he first English child to be born in the colonies, Virginia Dare, is born in Roanoke.
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The dutch east india company was founded to find all water routes to asia and occupy all unclaimed lands.
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England established its first permanent North American settlement, Jamestown, in 1607.
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Samuel De Champlain founds Quebec and begins to trade for furs with the natives.
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the New Netherland Company was formed by merchant groups in Hoorn and Amsterdam, and received a three-year monopoly from the Dutch government to occupy lands between New France and the English claims in Virginia
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the Dutch West India Company was formed to conduct activities in West Africa and the Western Hemisphere. Recipients of a 24-year monopoly, the investors moved first to establish a permanent settlement on the lands formerly belonging to the New Netherland Company
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a shipload of Flemish Walloons sailed to the New World, then spread themselves throughout the claim. Settlements were started along the Delaware, Connecticut, and Hudson rivers, as well as at the mouth of the Hudson
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the Dutch seized Spanish possessions in the West Indies; these islands were the foundation of what would later be known as the Netherlands Antilles.
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The colonists make a plea for help to kind Louis XIV and he responds by making it an official royal colony causing the colony to boom with life and trade.
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Robert de La Salle's journey into the Ohio Valley paves the way for more French exploration.
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Jacques Marquette and Louis Joilet take a voyage down the Mississippi to find if it leads to the Pacific Ocean.
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Robetr de La Salle journeys to the end of the Mississippi and when his journey come to an end he claims the territory and names it Louisiana.
