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Christopher Columbus convinced the King of Spain to finance an Expedition to a then unknown world. Armed with all but three ships: Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María, he set out on arguably the most well known voyage in history.
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He believed that he had landed on some part of India, so he named the natives Indians, even though they called the island Guanahani.
Amerigo Vespucci realizes that Columbus has not reached Asia, but rather a new world. America is then named after Vespucci. -
Vasco De Balboa, a Spanish conquistador, left his settlement of Santa Maria on Hispaniola, on an expedition to the western side of South America, and to becoem the first European to gaze upon the Pacific Ocean
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Cortez, a Spanish conquistador and noble, left Hispaniola for the coast of Mexico. He explored deep into the interior of Mexico, and discovered the Aztec empire. Montezuma, their leader, believed Cortes to be a serphent god, Quetzalcatl. Not long after being greeted fondly by the Aztecs, Cortez seized control of the empire with the enlisted help of some angry neighboring empires of the Aztecs, and his mistress and translator, Malinche.
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Francisco Pizarro, another Spanish Conquistador, came in peace to meet the Inca. However, when Athahulpa threw a bible on the ground because the Spanish had showed him disrespect, Pizarro decided to kidnap the emperor and take over his empire. Eventually casting Athahulpa out into the ocean on a raft with his son.
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The host of Spanish expeditions to the Americas prompted the French to do the same. Jaques Cartier explored much of what is now Canada on behalf of Fance. Namely, he discovered the native settlement of Hochelaga, which would go on to modernize and become Montreal. Through trade with the Natives, he proqured a large amount of furs which he would bring back to France, starting an obsession with exotic Furs that quickly spread throughout the rest of Europe.
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Sir Walter Raliegh brought 100 householders to Roanoke island, most of whom, where completely unskilled in self suffieicence, in July of 1585. He left them with little supplies, but promised to return a year later with more. Upon his return, he found the entire colony to be deserted, with no trace of European life anywhere.
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A group of English investors were granted a charter to the Americas by Prince James of England in order to set up a second, and hopefully more successful colony thatn Roanoke. In the beginning, the colonists struggled to stay alive due largely in part to their desire to find gold, not grow crops and farm the land. Though mortality rates were high, the colonists did survive and would go on to prosper, leading England to fund the establishment of 13 more colonies throughout Eastern North America
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Henry Hudson, an englishman working for the Dutch, travelled to what is now New York City to establish a settlement in the name of the Dutch, known as New Netherlands. The Dutch invited Germans and scandanavians to assist them in establishing New Netherlands. Their guests however, decided to turn on the Dutch, take over New Netherlands and rename it New York, after the Duke of York.
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The French Indian war, named by neither the french nor the Indians, was a war where the English were fighting the French And Inidans (though they fought on both sides) over territory, which in turn, was part of a larger territorial war going on at the time called the 7 year war. The enlgish would go on to win, and gain control of a majority of north america, leading their colonies to prosper, and their economy to prosper.
