Brief early history of the US

The first “Americans” crossed the land bridge from Asia. Historians believe that they lived in what now is Alaska for thousands of years. They moved south into today’s mainland United States. They lived by the Pacific Ocean in the Northwest, in the mountains and deserts of the Southwest, and along the Mississippi River in the Midwest.

Historians believe that the Norse may have been the first Europeans to arrive. They came from Greenland, where Erik the Red had started a settlement around 985. In 1001, Erik’s son, Leif, explored the northeast coast of what now is Canada.

Remaining pieces of Norse houses were found in northern Newfoundland.

It took almost 500 years for other Europeans to reach North America, and another 100 for them to build permanent settlements. The first explorers did not know about America. They were looking for a way to go to Asia from Europe by sea. Other Europeans who arrived later—mostly Spanish and Portuguese, but also Dutch, French, and British— came for land and the riches of the “New World.”

The most famous explorer was Christopher Columbus. He was Italian, but Queen Isabella of Spain paid for his trips. Columbus landed on islands in the Caribbean Sea in 1492. He never reached what is now the United States.

In 1497, John Cabot, an explorer sailing for England, landed in eastern Canada. His arrival established a British claim to land in North America.

During the 1500s, Spain explored and claimed more land in the Americas than did any other country. Spain conquered Mexico in 1522. In 1540, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado wanted to find the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola. He started looking in Mexico and then traveled north to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and into the Great Plains.

Other Europeans, such as Giovanni da Verrazano, Jacques Cartier, and Amerigo Vespucci, explored further north. The two American continents

were named after Amerigo Vespucci.

The first permanent European settlement in North America was Spanish. It was built in St. Augustine in Florida. Thirteen British colonies to the north would later form the United States. Virginia and Massachusetts were the two earliest.

It wasn’t just explorers who settled in the New World. People started to come to the New World to live. These people were immigrants from Europe. Most people who came to the British colonies in the 1600s were English. Others came from The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. By 1690, 250,000 people lived in the New World. By 1790, there were 2.5 million people.

People came for different reasons.Some left their homes to escape war. Others looked forpolitical or religious freedom. Some had to work as servants to pay back the cost of their trip before gaining their freedom. Some, like black Africans, arrived as slaves.

In time, the 13 colonies developed within three distinct regions. The first settlements were along the Atlantic coast and on rivers that flowed into the ocean. In the Northeast, trees covered the hills and stones filled the soil, but water power was available. The Northeast was called New England, and it included Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

The economy was based on timber, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade. The middle colonies included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The weather was milder and the countryside was more varied. People worked in industry and agriculture. The society was more diverseand sophisticated.People living in New York came from all over Europe.

The Southern colonies included Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina and South Carolina. The growing season was long and the soil was fertile. Most people were farmers. Some owned small farms that they worked themselves. The wealthy farmers owned large plantations and used African slaves as workers.

The relationships between settlers and Native Americans (also called Indians) were good and bad. In some areas, the two groups traded and were friendly. As the British colonies grew they inevitably came into conflict with the natives. In most cases, as the settlements grew bigger, the settlers forcedthe Indians to move. The Europeans introduced many diseases to which the natives had little or no resistance. As a result many natives died and their number declined sharply.

As time went on, all the colonies developed governments based on the British tradition of citizen participation. In Britain, the Glorious Revolution of

1688–1689 limited the powerof the king and gave more power to the people. The American colonists closely observed these changes. Colonial assemblies claimed the right to act as local parliaments. They passed lawsthat limited the power of the royal governor and increased their own authority.

Disagreements between the royal governors and the assemblies continued. The colonists realized that their interests often were different from Britain’s interests. At first, the colonists wanted self-government within a British commonwealth. Only later did they want independence.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 886