1600 - 1700

By EHarlow

  • Port Royal was established.

    Port Royal was established by traders in Acadia (Nova Scotia).

  • Queen Elizabeth Died.

  • King James made peace with Spain.

  • James I approved the formation of the Virginia Company.

    The Virginia Company was named after Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen.

  • Englishmen aboard three ships traveled forty miles up the James River to then establish their settlement.

    The three ships were the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. The ships sailed forty miles up the James River (named after the English King) in present day Virginia to the create their own establishment.

  • Quebec was established.

    Quebec was established by Samuel de Champlain, and the establishment provided the foothold for what would become New France.

  • The Dutch commissioned the Englishman Henry Hudson to discover the fabled Northwest Passage through North America.

  • Period: to

    400 English settlers arrived to the New World.

    400 English settlers arrived to the New World, but the overwhelmed colony entered a desperate "starving time" in the winter of 1609-1610.

  • Sante Fe was established.

    Sante Fe was the first European settlement in the Southwest.

  • Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

    The marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe eased relations with Powhatan.

  • John Rolfe discovered and planted Virginia's first tobacco crop.

    John Rolfe crossed tobacco strains from Trinidad and Guiana, and planted Virginia's first tobacco crop.

  • The colony sent its first cargo of tobacco back to England.

  • The Virginia Company established the House of Burgesses.

  • A Dutch slave ship sold 20 Africans to the Virginia colonists.

    This sale set the path for the beginning of Southern slavery.

  • The Plymouth Colony was founded.

  • The Netherlands chartered the Dutch West India Company.

  • Powhatan died and was succeeded by his brother, Opechancanough.

  • Opechancanough launched a surprise and killed over 350 colonists.

  • The Dutch West India Company founded New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

  • Period: to

    The reign of King Charles I.

  • Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from the Munsee Indians.

  • The colony imported slaves.

    The colony imported slaves in response to labor shortages.
  • Period: to

    The absolute rule of Charles I caused friction between the English Parliament and the king.

  • Massachusetts Bay was founded.

  • Period: to

    Twenty thousand people traveled to New England.

  • Connecticut was founded.

  • Rhode Island was founded.

  • Thomas Hooker led one hundred people and a variety of livestock in settling an area they called Newtown (later Hartford).

  • Roger Williams created a settlement called Providence.

  • An armed contingent of English Puritans from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut colonies trekked into Indian country in territory claimed by New England.

  • The colony's first African marriage occurred.

  • The execution of Charles I.

  • The Navigation Act of 1651 was passed.

  • Charles II granted the colony a royal charter establishing the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

  • France criminalized Protestantism.

  • James II worked to place the colonies on firmer administrative and defensive footing by creating the Dominion of New England.

  • Period: to

    Glorious Revolution.

    The openly Catholic and pro-French policies of James II, once again led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1688. In that year,a group of bishops and Parliamentarians offered the English throne to the Dutch Prince William of Holland and his English bride, Mary, the daughter of James II. This relatively peaceful coup was called the Glorious Revolution.

  • Colonial Massachusetts became the first place in the Western world to issue paper bills to be used as money.

  • The Lords Proprietor founded the separate province of North Carolina.

  • Period: to

    The fear of the supernatural plagued New England.

  • The Spanish king issued the Decree of Sanctuary.

    The Decree of Sanctuary granted freedom to slaves fleeing the English colonies if the converted to Catholicism and swore an oath of loyalty to Spain.