Introduction

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During the 15th century, the European countries of Kingdom of spain and Portugal began sending ships on expeditions to discover new trade routes to Asia. An accidental upshot of this search was the discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 of land in the Western Hemisphere. Although he and his immediate successors failed to recognize it, he had plant another globe: the Americas. This "New World" independent all the natural wealth for which Europeans longed—and far more than. Hither were great deposits of the gold which they sought then eagerly. Here also were vast reserves of other minerals. Mile upon mile of plains, valleys, and mountains held fertile farmlands and pastures. The Europeans presently began to explore, claim, and colonize, or build colonies in, the Americas.

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Numerous European expeditions sailed beyond the Atlantic Ocean to explore this vast new land (see Americas, early exploration of the). Columbus had landed in the West Indies, islands in the Caribbean Bounding main that are office of North America. Other explorers began arriving at mainland N America, which likewise includes Cardinal America, and Due south America.

The period of exploration and discovery soon became an international race to establish colonies around the world. The European countries of England, France, Kingdom of spain, Portugal, and holland (Holland) vied with one another for most four centuries to proceeds economical advantages in overseas territories. They founded colonies in Africa, Bharat, Southeast and East Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.

Europeans viewed the Americas every bit an enormous wilderness area with great economic potential. The Americas had already been settled, even so, by many millions of people. These original occupants are now known collectively every bit American Indians or Native Americans. Their ancestors had peopled the Americas thousands of years earlier. At the time of European contact, the numerous Indian peoples spoke more than than 800 different languages and lived throughout the Western Hemisphere. They ranged from nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures to agronomical societies with highly developed empires and sizable cities.

From The Life, Travels and Adventures of Ferdinand de Soto: Discoverer of the Mississippi by Wilmer Lambert, 1858

The Europeans who wanted to settle the Americas and gain control of their wealth did not consider the Indians to be owners of their lands. They looked on the Indians every bit primitives or savages who would benefit from the introduction of European civilization and faith. European colonization of the Americas brought ruinous changes to the Indians and their ways of life. The Europeans accidentally introduced diseases to the Americas that decimated Indian populations. Europeans also enslaved large numbers of Indians, seized Indian land, and tried to destroy native cultures and religions.

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The first European countries to brainstorm colonizing the Americas were Spain and Portugal. Kingdom of spain claimed and settled Mexico, almost of Cardinal and Southward America, several islands in the Caribbean, and what are now Florida, California, and the Southwest region of the United States. Portugal gained control of Brazil. Today, the region encompassing Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean islands is known as Latin America. Considering of its colonial history, well-nigh of its people speak Spanish or Portuguese.

In North America, French republic colonized Canada and the valleys of the St. Lawrence, Ohio, Mississippi, and Alabama rivers. France as well took control of French Guiana, on the northeast coast of Southward America, and a few Caribbean islands. The Dutch settled in the Hudson River valley of North America and in some isle territories in the Caribbean. They also colonized Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and what subsequently became British Guiana (at present Republic of guyana), in northern S America. Sweden laid claim to the Delaware River valley in North America. Russia founded colonies in Alaska. England eventually ruled thirteen colonies on the Atlantic coast of N America, settled British Republic of honduras (now Belize) in Central America, and took possession of British Guiana and several Caribbean islands.

Many of these colonies were financed by European-based trading companies. These companies sought riches in the crops, furs, and minerals of the New World. Trading groups were granted large areas of land past European governments, which expected in render some of the riches of the Americas and secure settlements to uphold their territorial claims. The managers of the colonies worked their lands with servants, Indian or African slaves, or tenant farmers.

Colonizing countries fought among themselves and against local Indians for control of the land and its trading possibilities. Wars in Europe had their counterparts in nationalistic rivalries amongst American colonists. Cutthroat pirates and buccaneers hid out in the Caribbean area, threatening shipments of golden and other riches from the New World to the Old. It was non until the 19th century that nigh colonial disputes were ended either by treaty or by national independence movements. The Americas at present consist largely of contained countries.

Spain's American Empire

In land surface area, Spain's was the largest of the colonial empires in the New World. It comprised several islands in the West Indies, all of United mexican states, nearly of Central America; most of Due south America except for Brazil, and what are now Florida, California, and the U.Southward. Southwest.

Spain was the get-go of the European countries to colonize the New Earth. People from French republic, England, Holland, and Sweden did not settle in the Americas until after 1600. Spain had the advantage of nearly a full century to pale its claims.

Latin America

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By 1512 the Spanish had occupied the larger Caribbean islands. The outset Spanish towns were established on the island of Hispaniola (now divided politically into Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Master among these towns was Santo Domingo, which was established in 1496 and became the first capital of Kingdom of spain's New Globe possessions. Other Spanish settlements arose in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. From island harbors Spanish expeditions sailed to explore the coasts and penetrate the continents. They found golden, silver, and precious stones and enslaved the Indians. Aggressive men became governors of conquered lands. Christian missionaries brought a new organized religion to the Indians.

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The Castilian dream of finding bully riches in the Americas was outset realized when Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire in United mexican states in 1519–21. A few years later Francisco Pizarro with a modest force vanquished the Inca Empire and seized the treasure of Peru in South America. Gold and silver from these lands poured into the Spanish king'southward treasury, rousing the envy of other rulers. The treasure ships attracted bloodthirsty pirates and privateers.

The rich finds of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru prompted Spain to organize expeditions to the surrounding areas. Castilian conquerors (chosen in Spanish conquistadores) began taking control of Central America and many parts of South America. Other conquistadores ventured north into the southern parts of what is now the U.s.a.. The great majority of the conquistadores ruthlessly pursued gold, ability, and status.

At the aforementioned time, Castilian Roman Cosmic priests, including Jesuits, Franciscans, and others, worked to convert the Indians to Christianity. They oftentimes led the motion into borderland areas. There they established educational institutions and religious missions. They also brought the civilisation of European Spain to outposts in the New Globe, including to what are now the U.Southward. Southwest, California, and Florida.

Spanish Settlement to the North

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The explorer Juan Ponce de León claimed Florida for Spain in 1513, merely the get-go Spanish attempts to colonize the surface area failed. In 1562 a group of French Protestants (Huguenots) settled in northern Florida. This seeming threat to Castilian interests prompted an trek led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. He and his men killed most of the French colonists. They also built a fort on the site of what is at present St. Augustine, which became the first permanent European settlement in what is now the Us.

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Colonization of the region north of Mexico did not begin until very tardily in the 16th century. In 1598 a grouping of Spanish settlers arrived in the New United mexican states–Arizona area. Nigh of them, finding the climate and Indians inhospitable, returned to Mexico by 1605, merely a small start had been made in the colonization of New Mexico. The city of Santa Atomic number 26 was founded in 1610.

Kingdom of spain's other outposts in North America—Texas and California—were not colonized until the 1700s. By 1800 Texas was fiddling more than a collection of small-scale missions and the towns of San Antonio and Nacogdoches. The settlement of California was more successful: 18 missions were founded between 1769 and 1800, augmented by a number of presidios, or army posts. By 1823 California had 21 missions.

Assistants

To regulate its American empire, Spain created two organizations, the House of Merchandise to deal with commerce and the Council of the Indies to brand laws. The system of colonization was called the viceroyalty. It was begun in 1535 when Antonio de Mendoza was sent to govern Mexico as the first viceroy. The viceroys, responsible to the king, were the chief colonial officials. Nether them were the proprietors, charged with the straight assistants of the colonies.

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There were ultimately 4 major viceroyalties. New Spain—including Mexico, Central America (except for what is now Panama), and the Caribbean area islands—was set up in 1535. The Viceroyalty of Peru was established in 1543. It initially included Panama and all of Southward America under Spanish control except for the Venezuelan coast. New Granada, organized in 1717 and reestablished in 1739, assumed command of what are now Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama. The last viceroyalty, Río de la Plata, was not organized until 1776. It took accuse of what are now Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

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A controversial aspect of Spanish colonialism was the encomienda organisation, an organization nether which the government "commended" (or entrusted) the care of the Indians in a particular area to a conqueror, official, or other Spaniard. It was in fact a system for enslaving the Indians and forcing them to work in the mines, farms, and ranches. Theoretically at to the lowest degree, the Spaniards cared for the Indians' physical and spiritual needs in return for the right to their labor. In practice, Indians were oftentimes driveling and exploited. While some Spanish friars and priests condemned such slavery equally early equally 1515, landowners resisted the movement to abolish the encomienda.

Indians living in areas controlled past the Spanish died in great numbers from the violence of conquest, exploitation, and specially diseases, such as smallpox, from which they had no amnesty. The Indians of the Caribbean area nearly disappeared. The estimated 50 million Indians living in the mainland areas at the time of their colonization had dwindled by the 17th century to only four meg. Equally the numbers of Indians bachelor for forced labor dropped, the Spaniards shipped increasing numbers of African slaves to their American colonies, especially in the Caribbean area.

Independence

Spain's colonies due north of the Rio Grande were lost to the United States in the 19th century. Florida was given upward in 1819, and war with Mexico brought the Southwest territories into the hands of the U.s. government in 1848.

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Spain'southward holdings in Mexico, Cardinal America, and S America were lost between 1810 and 1825 through a serial of revolutionary movements. But the islands of Puerto Rico and Republic of cuba remained equally colonies, and these were lost in the Spanish-American War in 1898.

The end of colonialism in Spanish America was prompted past a diverseness of factors. The American and French revolutions in the late 18th century inspired other peoples to strive for self-conclusion. The immediate impetus to decolonization came in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe between 1803 and 1814. French occupation of Kingdom of spain and Portugal in 1807 served to isolate the American colonies from the mother countries. This isolation, coupled with long-smoldering discontent in Latin America, led to the formation of nationalist and revolutionary movements. Kingdom of spain and Portugal, on the other paw, were too weakened by war at home to answer forcefully to troubles in the Americas. They could non count on assist from England in retaining their colonies. English merchants were eager to trade with the newly independent countries of Latin America, which would not have colonial trade restrictions.

In 1823, during the presidency of James Monroe, the United States proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine declaring against any further colonization or interference by Europe in the affairs of the Americas. With the help of the British navy, this doctrine forestalled whatever new colonial enterprises for several decades.

Portugal in America

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Although the Portuguese were amidst the earliest and most prominent world explorers, their efforts in the New Earth centered entirely on Brazil. After Spain made its first discoveries in the Western Hemisphere, a conflict arose between Kingdom of spain and Portugal concerning colonization rights to the New Globe. In 1494 a due north-south Line of Demarcation was established at well-nigh one,185 miles (ane,900 kilometers) west of the Cape Verde Islands. All territory east of the line fell to Portugal, while all territory due west of it went to Spain. This agreement was called the Treaty of Tordesillas. The signers of the pact were not nonetheless aware of the extent of the Western Hemisphere. By take a chance information technology happened that the region of littoral Brazil in South America became the possession of Portugal.

Brazil was "discovered" past the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvarez Cabral in 1500. The new state was of little interest to Portugal until 1530. In that year the threat of a French or Spanish incursion prompted Male monarch John Three of Portugal to order the surveying and settling of the Brazilian coastal region.

Brazil was divided into capitanias, strips of state individually colonized past a proprietor called a donatário. He, in plough, granted land to farmers. In 1549 these capitanias were united into one colony under a governor-full general at Bahia (at present Salvador).

The Portuguese farmers grew sugarcane for export to Europe. Saccharide was offset cultivated in Brazil in 1620, initially using Indian slave labor. The Portuguese increasingly began to rely on African slaves, importing some 4 million Africans to Brazil from the 1500s to the 1800s.

In 1580 Philip 2 of Spain seized the throne of Portugal. Brazil came under the command of Spain until 1640, when Portugal's independence was restored. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1822, when a bloodless revolution set an independent monarchy.

The English Colonies

Although the English colonized areas throughout the New Earth, their most significant establishment proved to exist the 13 colonies forth North America'due south Atlantic coastline. These communities, weak and struggling at first, grew and developed to go the 13 original states of the U.s. of America.

The 13 Colonies

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An earlier British colony had been established at Roanoke Island, now office of North Carolina, in 1585 by an expedition sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. The offset settlers abandoned the colony, merely in 1587 some other grouping of colonists arrived at the site. By August 1590 their colony of about 100 people had mysteriously disappeared. This "Lost Colony" left behind only the word "Croatoan" (the name of a nearby island) carved on a tree.

From The Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, by Due east. Boyd Smith, 1906

The English language founded nigh all of the xiii permanent colonies on the Atlantic declension, and they ultimately took control of the others. The showtime permanent English language settlement was Jamestown, which was established in 1607 in what is now Virginia. The second English language settlement was Plymouth, founded in 1620 in what is at present Massachusetts. This colony was later absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The English language also settled New Hampshire (1623), Maryland (1634), Connecticut (1635), Rhode Island (1636), Carolina (1653), Pennsylvania (1681), and Georgia (1733). North Carolina and South Carolina became carve up colonies in 1730. The region comprising the four most northerly English colonies—Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire—became known as New England. Today, New England also includes Maine and Vermont.

New York (1624) was originally colonized past the Dutch as New Netherland. This colony besides included the kickoff permanent settlement in New Jersey (1660). The Swedes founded the first permanent settlement in Delaware (1638), equally office of their colony of New Sweden. In the 1650s the Dutch captured New Sweden and made it role of New Netherland. The enlarged Dutch colony in turn savage to the English in the 1660s. All of the 13 colonies thus became English in spoken communication and community within a couple of generations.

English reign over the colonies barely served to conceal the neat indigenous diversity of the settlers. The 17th century saw the arrival of Germans, Bohemians, Irish, Poles, Scots, Jews, Dutch, French, Finns, Italians, Swedes, Danes, south Slavs, and other nationalities. Slave ships brought blacks from the west declension of Africa. Of the non-British colonists, the Germans who settled heavily in Pennsylvania and Georgia were probably the well-nigh numerous.

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Some settlers came to the colonies seeking religious liberty. Many of the early on English colonists were Puritans and other Protestants who wanted to reform or split up from the Church of England. Persecuted at home, they immigrated to North America, where they gear up colonies in which their religion and mode of life predominated. The Puritans were influential throughout the thirteen colonies but especially in New England. The Pilgrims, a small grouping that had broken away from the Church building of England, founded Plymouth. The Quakers settled Pennsylvania.

Economic opportunity drew great numbers of settlers from the Quondam Globe to the New. The sparsely populated colonies, not burdened with European traditions and course systems, were a wilderness waiting to be developed.

Slavery and servitude

Throughout the whole colonial era there was a persistent labor shortage. The need for an adequate work forcefulness led to the development of the systems of indentured, redemptioner, and slave labor. Indentured servants were immigrants too poor to come up to America on their ain. They sold themselves nether contract into specific periods of servitude, usually from 3 to seven years. Subsequently the fourth dimension was up, a retainer was freed from his obligation, given any money was due to him, and invested with the rights of citizenship.

Redemptioners were also immigrants too poor to get to the colonies on their own, but they arrived without labor contracts. If no relative or friend paid for their passage, the ship's captain sold them to the highest bidders for unspecified periods of service. If they managed to earn enough coin, in a few years they could "redeem" themselves and exist complimentary. Otherwise they were probable to go and remain slaves.

The indenture and redemptioner systems were legally sanctioned arrangements that slowly disappeared considering of disuse and public disapproval. The slave system was to persist in the Americas until the 19th century. The development of the slave trade from Africa and the exploration of the New World were almost simultaneous events. The Portuguese introduced slaves from Africa into Europe in the 15th century. After Europeans discovered the Americas and began settlements at that place, the Portuguese and the Castilian introduced slave labor into their American colonies.

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Shortly the peachy send companies of Europe were competing for this very assisting trade. At first most of the slaves went to the Caribbean islands. After the economies of the English colonies of North America began to prosper, slaves were introduced there. The first slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619. In the 18th century the English became the chief suppliers of African slaves to the New World.

Administration

The earliest English language colonies—Virginia, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay—were founded by "joint-stock" companies. These private companies raised the money for colonization by selling shares to investors, who became partners in the venture. The companies operated under charters issued by the king of England. The colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire were offshoots of Massachusetts Bay.

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Maryland and Pennsylvania were founded every bit proprietary colonies: the king of England gave grants of land to individual entrepreneurs to start a colony. The entrepreneurs became the proprietors, or owners, of the colony. Maryland was founded by Cecilius Calvert (Lord Baltimore), and Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn. Settlers of these colonies were tenants of the proprietor, rather than landowners. Eventually all the other colonies except Rhode Island and Connecticut came under the jurisdiction of the English crown.

The Carolinas were founded as a proprietary colony only later came under the king's control. Georgia was started as a philanthropic enterprise, a haven for debtors and other underprivileged English people. It too became part of the king'due south domain.

Whether regal or proprietary, all of the 13 colonies eventually had their own representative assemblies and local institutions of government. Self-rule flourished in the Atlantic colonies for a variety of reasons. They were remote from England and communication was wearisome. England also did not value them as highly for their economic potential as information technology did its colonies in the Caribbean and India. The English Civil State of war and other troubles in Europe kept the mother country also occupied to bother with the afar colonies for long periods of time.

Theoretically, the only bond of matrimony mutual to the colonies was their loyalty to the king. It was the king who appointed colonial governors, and these officials were expected to deport out royal policy. Equally the decades passed, yet, the colonies found themselves drawn together past stronger ties than the monarchy. Their representative assemblies were quite similar in grapheme. All the colonies had like agronomical economies, and hence similar problems. Improved roads and shipping made communication easier. To the west, all the colonies faced the common enemy of New France and its Indian allies.

This variety of common interests eventually provided the ground of common activeness when English policies became oppressive. Until the end of the Seven Years' State of war in 1763, England had not overly interfered in colonial life. After 1763 it began enforcing restrictions on manufacturing and trade. Parliament levied directly taxes on the colonies to help it pay its armed services budget. These new policies led to revolution in 1775 and to independence in 1776.

The Caribbean and South America

Besides ruling the thirteen colonies of N America, England settled other parts of the New World. In the Caribbean area, the English colonized the Leeward Islands of Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Barbados between 1609 and 1632 and seized Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655. In Cardinal America, British buccaneers and loggers began settling Belize the 1630s. Scattered settlements on the north declension of South America were united into the colony of British Guiana (now Republic of guyana) in 1831.

Of all the English settlements in the Caribbean basin, Barbados was the most successful commercially. By 1651 it was a leading producer of saccharide. This commodity, much in need by Europeans, was introduced into the island well-nigh 1637. By 1676 the carbohydrate trade had promoted Barbados to a first-rank colony in the eyes of England. Its population was larger than that of New England, and information technology was far more prosperous.

Barbados was typical of the colonized Caribbean because information technology was not settled entirely by Europeans; rather it was captured by them and settled mainly with slaves and servants to piece of work the fields. Millions of slaves were forced into labor on the islands during the three centuries from 1500 to 1800. The commencement English language slave-trading voyage was made by John Hawkins in 1562. After the British slave trade ended in 1807, plantation owners imported indentured servants from Cathay, Bharat, and Java.

The French Colonies

The French colonized vast areas of the New Earth. They tried and failed to settle Brazil, the Carolinas, and Florida. They had greater success in the Caribbean and Canada.

The Caribbean area and South America

Past 1664 France controlled 14 islands in the Caribbean area. The principal possessions were St-Domingue (now Republic of haiti), Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Dominica. The economies were based largely on saccharide. The labor arrangement was African slavery. The island societies had a rigid class structure headed by white officials and planters (gros blancs) who governed the merchants, buccaneers, small farmers, white laborers (engagés), and slaves.

On the northeast coast of South America, the colony of French Guiana was founded virtually 1637. Ane hundred years afterwards it was still a struggling, commercially unsuccessful colony, with a population of but most 600 whites. Non until the 19th century did the colony achieve whatsoever existent prosperity. French Guiana was infamous for Devil's Island, a French penal colony off the declension that operated until the 1950s. Today, French Guiana is an overseas département (administrative district) of France.

New France

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The largest French colony in the New World was New France. This region comprised most of what are now eastern Canada and the portion of the United States from the Appalachians in the east to the Missouri River in the westward and from the Great Lakes in the north to the Gulf of United mexican states in the due south. To the n of New France was the large territory controlled by the Hudson's Bay Visitor, an English language trading clan.

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Starting about 1540, French fishers annually fished off the Newfoundland coast and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The first colonization efforts were led past Samuel de Champlain, the "Father of New France." He helped to constitute the colony that became Port-Purple (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia). This fur-trading mail service and fishing hamlet was the first organized settlement in Acadia (the French possessions on the Atlantic seaboard) as well as the first permanent European colony in North America north of Florida. Champlain founded Quebec in 1608 and explored as far west as Lake Huron by 1615.

For all the vast area the French laid claim to in North America, New France was never finer colonized. Many permanent communities were founded, just the main interest of the mother country was commercial exploitation. The fur trade, far more lucrative than farming or fishing, became the basis of the economy. This led the French to explore widely in the region, to forge strong alliances with the local Indians, and to set forts and trading posts. Just the population of New France never grew to the aforementioned extent as that of the English colonies. By 1754, on the eve of the French and Indian War, the population of New France was only about 55,000.

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During the 17th century a vast number of Frenchmen—traders, missionaries, and soldiers—traversed the wilderness from eastern Canada to New Orleans. They ventured throughout the whole Great Lakes region and the Mississippi Valley, claiming the territory for the king of France. Some of the near notable explorers were Jacques Marquette, Jean Nicolet, Pierre Radisson, Louis Jolliet, Louis Hennepin, and Daniel Greysolon, sieur (lord) DuLhut. The most famous of all the explorers was René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. In 1682 his expedition descended the Mississippi River from the Illinois Territory to the Gulf of Mexico.

Within this vast midsection of North America, many permanent settlements were founded, including Detroit, St. Louis, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. Under French rule all these settlements remained borderland outposts. Only after 1800, when citizens of the The states began trekking westward in search of plentiful, inexpensive land, did they really abound.

In a vain attempt to encourage emigration to North America, French republic instituted a colonization policy based on seigneuries, grants of state that were to exist parceled out to farmers or other inhabitants. In Canada in that location was some increase in clearing during the 2d one-half of the 17th century, just afterward 1700 most French Canadians were native-born. Since the seigneurial estates could non compete with the allure of the fur trade, specially for young men, agriculture was crippled in the French colony.

During the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, France and England were ofttimes at war. The wars they fought in Europe by and large had counterparts in the colonies—Male monarch William'due south War (1689–97), Queen Anne's State of war (1702–13), King George's State of war (1744–48), and the French and Indian War (1754–63), a phase of Europe's Seven Years' War.

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These wars were generally detrimental to France'south colonial holdings. After Queen Anne'southward War, the British caused French Acadia, renaming it Nova Scotia. The French and Indian War was the nigh costly for France. By 1760 the British had conquered all of Canada and the French settlements on the Corking Lakes. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the conflict, ceded all of New France due east of the Mississippi River, except for New Orleans, to England. New France ceased to be in 1803 when the United states purchased the territories west of the Mississippi from French republic, in what is known every bit the Louisiana Purchase.

New Netherland

The Netherlands began exploring the New World in the early 17th century. For years the Dutch struggled to win their independence from Spain. When Spain annexed Portugal in 1580, the Spaniards gained control of the Asian trade. The Dutch realized that Spain might exist weakened by striking at its trade. They formed the Dutch East Bharat Company and dispatched Henry Hudson, an English language sea captain, to find a shortcut to Asia. Hudson entered the Hudson River in 1609 and ascended information technology to the site of what is now Albany, New York.

The settlement of the Dutch in the New World was led by commercial traders nether the sponsorship of the Dutch West India Company, a articulation-stock company founded in 1621. Three years later the Dutch colony of New Netherland was founded in what is now New York State.

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About 1626 the city of New Amsterdam was founded on Manhattan Isle (now the eye of New York City). Peter Minuit of the Dutch West India Visitor "purchased" the island from local Indians with trinkets valued at lx guilders (ofttimes said to be worth $24). Yet, the Indians did not recognize any individual buying of country and so probably believed that they were agreeing only to share the isle. The Dutch built 30 houses on Manhattan that aforementioned twelvemonth.

The first colonists from the netherlands included gratis citizens, who could own their ain homesteads and receive two years of complimentary provisions. Other colonists were indentured servants, who had to piece of work under contract for a term of service on Dutch West Bharat Visitor farms. In 1629 the Dutch established the patroon system. Patroons were free citizens given large grants of land by the Dutch government. They held such rights equally the privilege of holding courtroom hearings in their areas. There were five large patroon land grants settled forth the Hudson River from New Amsterdam to Fort Orange (now Albany, New York).

The Dutch authorities hoped that this system would promote self-sufficient and profitable settlement of their function of the New World. All the same, the colony never attracted big numbers of Dutch settlers. With the Netherlands enjoying prosperity and social stability, there was footling motive for its people to exit their homeland. The Dutch Due west India Visitor was also more interested in developing its fur-trading posts than in establishing permanent farming settlements.

As the colony expanded, violent conflicts broke out between Dutch colonists and local Indians. Even more devastating to the Dutch were their conflicts with the English. In 1653 the Dutch built a wall across lower Manhattan Isle to defend their city against whatever English or Indian attacks. This is the wall for which Wall Street—the financial center of New York City—is named. In 1664 English military forces captured New Amsterdam, renaming information technology New York in award of the Knuckles of York. Although temporarily retaken by the Dutch, New York became permanently English language under the terms of the Treaty of Westminster in 1674.

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The Dutch tried and failed to colonize Brazil betwixt 1624 and 1654. They did succeed in planting one other colony in South America and several in the Caribbean. They settled Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), in northern S America, and half-dozen Caribbean islands: Curaçao (taken from Kingdom of spain in 1634), Aruba, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, Saint Martin, and Saba. Presently Aruba, Curaçao, and Saint Martin are democratic countries within kingdom of the netherlands, while Bonaire, Saba, and Saint Eustatius are special municipalities within that country.

New Sweden

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Sweden entered the race for the colonization of the New Globe in the 1630s with the germination of the New Sweden Company. Peter Minuit had switched his loyalties from the Dutch to the Swedes. He helped this trading organization to plant Fort Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware) on the Delaware River in 1638. In 1643 the Swedes expanded to a settlement of log cabins at Tinicum Isle, also on the Delaware River. It was the kickoff European settlement in what is now Pennsylvania. The Swedes too established Fort New Korsholm virtually the mouth of the Schuylkill River in 1647. They captured Fort Casimir (at present New Castle, Delaware) from the Dutch in 1651. Fort Casimir was especially critical considering it protected the route to the rest of the Swedish colonies. In 1655 the governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, seized Fort Christina and recaptured Fort Casimir, making New Sweden a part of New Netherland.

Russian federation in North America

The expansion of Russia into North America began during the reign of Peter the Great, the tsar who ruled from 1689 to 1725. He was determined to compete with other European countries in getting a foothold in the New World. The expansion of the Siberian fur merchandise motivated the explorations that somewhen resulted in the European discovery of Alaska.

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Soon before his expiry, Peter commissioned Capt. Vitus Bering, a Dane serving in the Russian navy, to investigate a possible land connection between Siberia and North America. Bering's beginning voyage, in 1728, did not succeed in locating 1. On his voyage of 1741 he did arrive at the southern coast of Alaska. His transport was wrecked, however, and he died there. The expedition'south survivors returned to Russia with sea-otter pelts. For the next several decades the Russians exploited the fur trade of the region.

Russians established communities and fur-trading posts at Captain'southward Harbor on Unalaska Island in 1773, Kodiak in 1792, and New Archangel (at present Sitka) in 1799. Every bit the Russians moved into Alaska, other European trading groups and colonial powers began to converge on the surface area. To fend off competition, a trading monopoly, the Russian-American Company, was formed in 1799. New Archangel became the center of all the company'south commercial activity. Besides the Russian trading post, the settlement had a shipbuilding industry, a foundry, a sawmill, and a machine shop.

Because the Russians in Alaska were unable to achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture, they founded a new colony, Fort Ross, in northern California in 1811–12. They hoped that the farms in this area would be able to supply enough nutrient for the residents of Alaska. This venture never became profitable, and Fort Ross was abandoned in 1841.

The Russian government repeatedly tried to maintain a fur monopoly in Alaska and to control the waters surrounding the colony. Despite its efforts, Europeans and Americans began to move into the region during the commencement half of the 19th century. By 1850 hundreds of non-Russian whaling vessels were operating well-nigh Alaska. The great distance of Alaska from the Russian capital at St. Petersburg fabricated it virtually incommunicable for the tsar to enforce whatsoever regulations or prohibitions.

Alaska State Library, Alaska Buy Centennial Committee Photograph Drove (Image Number: ASL P20-181)

With the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, Russian forces had to exist concentrated in Europe. This meant that Alaska, so far away, could not exist securely held and dedicated. In 1857 the Russian government minister to the United States suggested that Alaska might be for sale. The American Civil State of war prevented any transaction from taking place immediately. Finally, in 1867, a treaty was negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward by which the United States purchased Alaska for 7.ii million dollars.

The Finish of Colonialism in the Americas

For the near office, the countries of the Western Hemisphere became independent from Europe in the l-year period from 1775 to 1825. The United states of america won its independence in 1776, and Mexico and Key America became free of Spanish dominion in 1821. Except for the Guianas, the countries of Southward America became independent of Spain and Portugal between 1810 and 1825. British Guiana did not gain its independence until 1966 (as Guyana), and Dutch Guiana did not do so until 1975 (equally Suriname). French Guiana became an overseas département (administrative district) of France.

Canada became a self-governing rule within the British Empire in 1867 under the terms of the British N America Human action. In 1926 Canada, along with the other nations of the imperial Commonwealth, was recognized as an autonomous community inside the empire. Not until 1982 did Canada promulgate its own constitution, thus freeing it to implement its ain laws without the supervision of the British Parliament. Canada remained a member of the Democracy.

Colonialism generally persisted for longer in the West Indies than in the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Haiti, which won independence from French rule in 1804, is a notable exception. Cuba and Puerto Rico did not become free of Spain until 1898, when they were ceded to the United States. Cuba shortly achieved formal independence. The rest of the Westward Indies remained under colonial rule until afterwards World War II, when in that location was a full general move throughout the world to decolonize overseas possessions. Most of the European colonial powers lost their remaining holdings later on 1945. Most of the British Westward Indies, including Jamaica and Barbados, became fully contained. In other Due west Indian societies, the old colonies were incorporated into their mother country or remained in association with information technology. Martinique, Réunion, and Guadeloupe became départements of France. The former Caribbean colonies of kingdom of the netherlands accomplished various degrees of independence within the Dutch kingdom. Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth in association with the United States.

Boosted Reading

Burgan, Michael. The Castilian Conquest of America (Chelsea House, 2006).Englar, Mary. Dutch Colonies in America (Compass Point Books, 2009).Gibson, One thousand.B. New Netherland: The Dutch Settle the Hudson Valley (Mitchell Lane, 2007).Hernández, R.E. Early Explorations: The 1500s (Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2008).Johnston, Lissa. A Brief Political and Geographic History of Northward America: Where Are New France, New Netherland, and New Sweden? (Mitchell Lane, 2008).Nardo, Don. The Age of Colonialism (Lucent, 2006).Ollhoff, Jim. Building a New Globe (ABDO, 2011).Pratt, M.1000. A Timeline History of the Thirteen Colonies (Lerner, 2014).Stefoff, Rebecca. Exploration and Settlement (Sharpe, 2008).Webb, S.P. A Chronology of North American Exploration (Capstone, 2017).Worth, Richard. Voices from Colonial America: New France 1534–1763 (National Geographic, 2007).