History of North America

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Articles about the

History of North America.

Pre-colonial America

History of the Americas

European colonization of the Americas

British colonization of the Americas

Dutch colonization of the Americas

French colonization of the Americas

Russian colonization of the Americas

Spanish colonization of the Americas

Swedish colonization of the Americas

History of Greenland

History of Canada

History of United States

History of Mexico

History of Central America

History of the Caribbean

History of Chinese immigration to Canada

Many natives of North America, when the Europeans found them, were semi-nomadic tribes and chiefdoms of hunter-gatherers; others were sedentary and agricultural civilizations. Many formed new tribes or confederations in response to European colonization. Well-known groups included the Aztec, Maya, Huron, Mohawk, Apache, Cherokee, Sioux, Mohegan, Iroquois, and Inuit.

Factors supporting Asiatic migration are discoveries in Cassiar, British Columbia of Chinese coins identified as circulating in China in 2000 BCE, in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia, of large Buddhist charms of a type not manufactured for 1500 years, in Nanaimo, British Columbia of a Japanese sword eleven feet underground.^{[citation needed]} Linguist Father Jean Marie Le Jeune recorded that he found evidence of Hebraic words in native languages in British Columbia, possibly stemming from early Jewish influence in China.^{[citation needed]} Anthropological models of migration to the New World also provide insight into the earliest history of North American indigenous people.

The first Europeans known for certain to have reached North America (Newfoundland) are the Vikings, who called it Vinland. They reached it around the year 1000 CE. While some settlement activity took place, they did not leave much of a mark on the continent.

See also L'Anse aux Meadows

After Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage, the Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive to stay. They gained control of most of the largest islands in the Caribbean and conquered the Aztecs, gaining control of Mexico and Central America.

While some smaller powers like the Dutch and Swedish had minor holdings on the continent, the mainland and most of the islands were divided among the Spanish, the French, and the English empires.

Almost 500 years after Leif Ericson, in 1497, John Cabot explored the east coast of what would become Canada. Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the East Coast of America from Florida to presumably Newfoundland in 1524. Jacques Cartier made a series of voyages on behalf of the French crown in 1534 and penetrated the St. Lawrence River.

The first successful English settlements were at Jamestown (1607) (and its satellite, Bermuda (1609)) and Plymouth Rock (1620), in what are today Virginia and Massachusetts respectively. The first French settlements were Port Royal (1604) and Quebec City (1608) in what is now Nova Scotia and Quebec.