failed to reveal the gold or treasure European settlement in what would
his men sought . However, his par- become the United States .
ty did leave the peoples of the re-
The great wealth that poured into
gion a remarkable, if unintended, Spain from the colonies in Mexico,
gift: Enough of his horses escaped the Caribbean, and Peru provoked
to transform life on the Great Plains . great interest on the part of the other Within a few generations, the Plains European powers . Emerging mari-Indians had become masters of time nations such as England, drawn
horsemanship, greatly expanding in part by Francis Drake’s success-
the range of their activities .
ful raids on Spanish treasure ships,
While the Spanish were pushing began to take an interest in the New
up from the south, the northern por- World .
tion of the present-day United States
In 1578 Humphrey Gilbert, the
was slowly being revealed through author of a treatise on the search
the journeys of men such as Giovan- for the Northwest Passage, received
ni da Verrazano . A Florentine who a patent from Queen Elizabeth to
sailed for the French, Verrazano colonize the “heathen and barba-
made landfall in North Carolina in rous landes” in the New World that
1524, then sailed north along the At- other European nations had not yet
lantic Coast past what is now New claimed . It would be five years before
York harbor .
his efforts could begin . When he was
A decade later, the Frenchman lost at sea, his half-brother, Walter
Jacques Cartier set sail with the hope Raleigh, took up the mission .
— like the other Europeans before
In 1585 Raleigh established the
him — of finding a sea passage to first British colony in North Amer-
Asia . Cartier’s expeditions along the ica, on Roanoke Island off the coast
St . Lawrence River laid the founda- of North Carolina . It was later aban-
tion for the French claims to North doned, and a second effort two years
America, which were to last until later also proved a failure . It would
1763 .
be 20 years before the British would
Following the collapse of their try again . This time — at Jamestown
first Quebec colony in the 1540s, in 1607 — the colony would succeed,
French Huguenots attempted to set- and North America would enter a
tle the northern coast of Florida two new era .
decades later . The Spanish, viewing
the French as a threat to their trade
EARLY SETTLEMENTS
route along the Gulf Stream, de-
stroyed the colony in 1565 . Ironical- The early 1600s saw the begin-
ly, the leader of the Spanish forces, ning of a great tide of emigration
Pedro Menéndez, would soon estab- from Europe to North America .
lish a town not far away — St . Au- Spanning more than three centuries,
gustine . It was the first permanent this movement grew from a trickle
10
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
of a few hundred English colonists woods . The settlers might not have
to a flood of millions of newcomers . survived had it not been for the
Impelled by powerful and diverse help of friendly Indians, who taught
motivations, they built a new civi- them how to grow native plants —
lization on the northern part of the pumpkin, squash, beans, and corn .
continent .
In addition, the vast, virgin forests,
The first English immigrants extending nearly 2,100 kilometers
to what is now the United States along the Eastern seaboard, proved
crossed the Atlantic long after thriv- a rich source of game and firewood .
ing Spanish colonies had been estab- They also provided abundant raw
lished in Mexico, the West Indies, materials used to build houses, fur-
and South America . Like all early niture, ships, and profitable items
travelers to the New World, they for export .
came in small, overcrowded ships .
Although the new continent was
During their six- to 12-week voy- remarkably endowed by nature,
ages, they lived on meager rations . trade with Europe was vital for ar-
Many died of disease, ships were ticles the settlers could not produce .
often battered by storms, and some The coast served the immigrants
were lost at sea .
well . The whole length of shore pro-
Most European emigrants left vided many inlets and harbors . Only
their homelands to escape political two areas — North Carolina and
oppression, to seek the freedom to southern New Jersey — lacked har-
practice their religion, or to find op- bors for ocean-going vessels .
portunities denied them at home .
Majestic rivers — the Kennebec,
Between 1620 and 1635, economic Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna,
difficulties swept England . Many Potomac, and numerous others —
people could not find work . Even linked lands between the coast and
skilled artisans could earn little the Appalachian Mountains with
more than a bare living . Poor crop the sea . Only one river, however, the
yields added to the distress . In ad- St . Lawrence — dominated by the
dition, the Commercial Revolution French in Canada — offered a water
had created a burgeoning textile passage to the Great Lakes and the
industry, which demanded an ever- heart of the continent . Dense forests,
increasing supply of wool to keep the resistance of some Indian tribes,
the looms running . Landlords en- and the formidable barrier of the
closed farmlands and evicted the Appalachian Mountains discour-
peasants in favor of sheep cultiva- aged settlement beyond the coastal
tion . Colonial expansion became plain . Only trappers and traders
an outlet for this displaced peasant ventured into the wilderness . For
population .
the first hundred years the colonists
The colonists’ first glimpse of built their settlements compactly
the new land was a vista of dense along the coast .
11