European exploration in the Americas

Spain

The empire that sponsored Columbus’s voyages soon emerged as the most significant colonizer in the western hemisphere, creating a 300+ year empire that stretched all the way from California to the southern edges of Argentina and Chile. For the purposes of AP US History, we will focus primarily on Spanish colonialism in the areas that would later form much of the desert southwest of the United States as well as areas of the mountain west and extending to Florida; the city of St. Augustine, founded in 1565, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is the oldest permanently inhabited European-based city in the United States.

Amongst the most important topics you will encounter in this unit is the Columbian Exchange, the name given to the ongoing series of cultural, demographic, economic and environmental interactions stemming from Columbus’s arrival in the Caribbean through the succeeding century; there will be a more comprehensive analysis of the Columbian Exchange in lesson 2.4. You will also learn more about Spanish colonial society, including the treatment of indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans in lesson 2.5

Spain generated enormous wealth from its American colonies and sought to prevent other European powers from competing for the agricultural and mineral riches that Spain was rapidly extracting from the Americas. After the British navy defeated Spain’s famous Grand Armada in 1588, Spain was not able to prevent other European powers from establishing their own colonies in the western hemisphere.

*** Image 004 / European colonial empires 16th century ***

France

France created a significant empire in North America as well, claiming access to much of the modern midwest and along the Mississippi River as well as eastern Canada and several important Caribbean possessions, including what is now the country of Haiti. French colonialism was generally more cooperative and less confrontational than Spanish and British colonialism, largely because French settlements were typically much smaller than their European counterparts and they thus depended upon trade with indigenous societies to a greater degree.

The French also briefly established a small settlement in what is now Jacksonville, Florida, known as Fort Caroline. The French Protestants who settled there, known as Huguenots, would later be captured and killed by the Spanish that had recently settled in St. Augustine, 40 miles south of Fort Caroline.

*** Image 005 / French colonial empire ***

Great Britain

The British emerged as a later imperial power in the Americas, but would ultimately have the greatest impact on the creation of the eventual United States. British colonialism in the later United States largely began with the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, although the British had previously sought to establish the ill-fated colony at Roanoke in North Carolina twenty years earlier. In chapter 3, you will study the regions associated with British colonialism, ultimately creating the original 13 colonies that later formed the early United States. Unlike the Spanish and French, both of whom depended upon indigenous peoples for, in the case of Spain, forced labor, and in the case of France, valuable trading partners, the British largely sought to exclude and/or remove indigenous peoples entirely from British colonies.

*** Image 006 / British colonial empire ***

Netherlands

Dutch colonialism in the Americas was a reflection of their commercial and naval rivalry with the British in the 17th and 18th centuries; these rivalries would be highlighted in disputes over smuggling of goods such as Dutch East Indies (Indonesian) tea into the British colonies in North America and ultimately in Dutch support for the Americans during the Revolutionary War. The Dutch settled primarily in what is now New York, including not only New Amsterdam, the predecessor to New York City, but also in upstate New York. Dutch landlords called **patroons **rented out farmland to other colonists and settlers.

Sweden

Swedish settlement in what is now the United States was concentrated near the Delaware River in what would become the modern states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. New Sweden’s population was primarily composed of Swedes, Finns, and Dutch. New Sweden lasted not quite 20 years (1638-1655) before being taken over by the Dutch and incorporated into New Netherlands.