First American colonies, 1565-1700

This presentation outlines the development of European colonies in the future United States and Canada, from 1565 to 1700.

Before European colonization of North America, many thousands of Algonquian, Iroquoian, Souian, Muskogean, Pueblo, and other Native American speakers lived throughout the continent.

The first successful European foothold above Mexico is the Spanish colony of Saint Augustine founded in modern Florida in 1565.

1585: Sir Walter Raleigh founds the first English colony in North America at Roanoke Island in future North Carolina. The colony dissolves the next year.

1587: A second colony is established at Roanoke island under John White. The first English child born in North America is Virginia dare.

In 1588, the Spanish Armada, dispatched from Spain for the purpose of invading England, is largely destroyed by a combination of the English fleet and harsh weather.

1590: John White finds Roanoke totally abandoned with only the word "Croatoan" scrawled on wood.

In spring of 1607 John Smith and 100 colonists are off the coast Virginia. The ships sail up a river, which the crew names after King James, and they found Jamestown.

Samuel de Champlain of France has a fort erected at Quebec the next year, 1608.

In 1610, the Spanish settle Santa Fe in future New Mexico, among the ancient civilization of the Pueblo.

But Jamestown is in danger in 1610. The colony is starving. Pocahontas provides food assistance to Jamestown's starving colonists.

1613: John Rolfe cultivates West Indian, or Caribbean, tobacco at Jamestown.

1619 is a critical year at Jamestown. One institution is the House of Burgesses, which is the beginnings of representative government in North America. This is contrasted by the first shipment of slaves to Jamestown in that same year.

1620: The Mayflower sets sail with Pilgrim separatists and "strangers". strangers are Mayflower colonists that are not a part of the separatist religious movement.

Plymouth is founded there in the future state of Massachusetts. The Wampanoag are there at Cape Cod.

1626: The Dutch West India Company establishes New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

1630: King Charles I grants John Winthrop a charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company. 1,000 puritans, including women and children, sail for Massachusetts. Boston is founded.

In 1634, Lord Baltimore establishes St. Mary's in Maryland, the first English Catholic community in the Americas. Lord Baltimore argues for the "free exercise" of religion for both Protestants and Catholics.

1635: The Puritans establish the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school still in use in the United States.

Harvard is founded the next year in 1636, just six years after the Massachusetts Bay settlers arrived.

Also in 1636, The scholar Roger Williams founds Providence in Rhode Island.

1637 is a tragic year for the Pequot people. New Englanders attack the Pequot at Fort Mistick in Connecticut.

Concurrently in Boston, Anne Hutchinson gains fame as a reformer who questions the power of clergy in her puritan community.

New Haven, Connecticut is founded the same year.

Also in 1638, Swedish Colonists found Fort Christina near modern-day Wilmington, Delaware.

In 1642, back across the Atlantic, England falls into Civil war between parliament and the crown.

Also in 1642, a French mission is founded at Montreal.

In 1649, King Charles I is executed, and Parliament's victory over the crown will result in an England that has no king for 11 years.

Also in 1649, the General Assembly of Maryland grants an Act Concerning Religion, or the Act of Religious Toleration.

1664: The English capture New Amsterdam from the Dutchman Peter Stuyvesant.

1670: Charles Town is founded in Carolina, the new colony named after King Charles.

1671: The French Jesuits found a mission at St. Ignace in Michigan and another mission in De Pere near Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In 1673, the French further their interior exploration. Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet travel from St. Ignace to Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Also in 1673 the French establish the fur trading station Fort Frontenac just above Lake Ontario.

In 1675, New Englanders are engaged in a full-scale conflict against the region's Algonkian nations. This is King Philip's War.

In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon rises up against Jamestown.

Out west in 1680, the pueblo people revolt against Spanish rule, driving the Spanish from Sante Fe.

1682: William Penn, holding a charter to start a new colony, founds Philadelphia.

Also in 1682 the French explorer La Salle reaches the mouth of the Mississippi River.

1686: The French establish a trading post at Arkansas Post, an early European bastion in the lower Mississippi.

The infamous witch-hunt craze strike Salem, Massachusetts, just north of Boston, in 1692.

1699: Williamsburg is established as the capital of Virginia.

Film by Jeffrey Meyer
Music by Dan Bodan "Mongrel Dance"