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Early History of the Americas
In the “very early” history section, I reported some of what is believed about the very early development of the Americas up to when the first Europeans started to arrive. I even mentioned the Vikings settling in L’anse aux Meadows on the northern most tip of Newfoundland in 1021. Christopher Columbus in 1492, and shortly thereafter Spain and Portugal, began to set up colonies in North America. We have for example Hernan Cortez from Spain who founded Veracruz in 1519. And later the Spanish claimed all of North and South America (except for Brazil). However, shortly after this, the French came to North America and the Frenchman Jacques Cartier (1524) claimed the country to be New France and later explored much of the eastern side of North America. Somewhat later, the English started attacking Spanish treasure ships and began a new colonization. After some unsuccessful attempts, the English settled first in Jamestown (1607), and then the Pilgrim separatists came to Plymouth in 1620. These settlements were followed by many more as people emigrated not only from England, but also from many other European countries. These migrants were sometimes looking for riches, although they often left their home countries because of religious problems. The native people in North America were often not thought of as important and, since they were nomadic, it was assumed that they had no rights to the land. Therefore, the Europeans marked out areas for their homesteads and ranches, eventually taking over most of the country. There were many battles and wars concerning different parts of North America mostly between the English and French (often allied with the native Indians.) Finally English forces defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and France withdrew their forces. This meant that the native North Americans lost their French ally, and with them they lost most of their rights to the territory. It wasn’t until 1980, that the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the relocation of Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River. In what has been called the Trail of Tears, approximately 60,000 native Americans were moved. In the northern part of North America, the Hudson bay Company, founded in 1670 grew to encompass more than a third of what later became Canada. This private company was given the power in their royal charter to make laws and wage wars. In 1776, came the American revolution that eventually culminated in 13 states creating the USA. Then in the 1860s, the Americans had a civil war and shortly after this, in 1867, four of the British colonies federated to create the Dominion of Canada. |
