Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

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

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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 .

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