Timeline of the European colonization of North America

This is a chronology and timeline of the European colonization of the Americas, with founding dates of selected European settlements.Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America (1971).William Langer, ed.. An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed. 1973)Melvin E. Page, ed. Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia (3 vol. 2003); vol. 2 pages 648–831 has a detailed chronology

Pre–Columbus 986: Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn't land (see also Norse colonization of the Americas). : Norse settle briefly in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.Birgitta Wallace, "The Norse in Newfoundland: L'Anse aux Meadows and Vinland." Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 19.1 (2005). online : Norse colony in Greenland dies out.

15th century 1492: Columbus sets sail aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria. 1492: Columbus reaches the Bahamas,Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the ocean sea." A live of Christopher Columbus (1942). Cuba and Hispaniola. 1492: La Navidad is established on the island of Hispaniola; it was destroyed by the following year. 1493: The colony of La Isabela is established on the island of Hispaniola.Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierr firme del Mar Oceano (General History of the Deeds of the Castilians on the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea), Madrid, 1601–1615 1493: Columbus arrives in Puerto Rico 1494: Columbus arrives in Jamaica. 1496: Santo Domingo, the first European permanent settlement, is built.First Arrivals, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/settlement/text1/text1read.htm 1497: John Cabot reaches Newfoundland.Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America (1971). 1498: In his third voyage, Columbus reaches Trinidad and Tobago. 1498: La Isabela is abandoned by the Spanish. 1499: João Fernandes Lavrador maps Labrador and Newfoundland

16th century 1501: Corte-Real brothers explore the coast of what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador 1502: Columbus sails along the mainland coast south of Yucatán, and reaches present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama 1503: Las Tortugas noted by Columbus in passage through the Western Caribbean present-day Cayman Islands 1508: Ponce de León founds Caparra on San Juan Bautista (now Puerto Rico) 1511: Conquest of Cuba begins 1513: Ponce de León in Florida 1513: Núñez de Balboa claims the Pacific Ocean and its shores for Spain 1515: Conquest of Cuba completed 1517: Francisco Hernández de Córdoba lands on the Yucatán Peninsula 1519: Founding of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (Veracruz) 1519: Álvarez de Pineda explores the Gulf Coast of the United States 1519: Founding of Panama City by Pedro Arias Dávila 1521: Hernán Cortés completes the conquest of the Aztec Empire. 1521: Juan Ponce de León tries and fails to settle in Florida. 1524: Pedro de Alvarado conquers present-day Guatemala and El Salvador. 1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano sails along most of the east coast. 1525: Estêvão Gomes enters Upper New York Bay and reaches Nova Scotia 1526: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón briefly establishes the failed settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, the first site of enslavement of Africans in North America and of the first slave rebellion. 1527: Fishermen are using the harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland and other places on the coast. 1531: Spanish found Puebla de Zaragoza and Santiago de Querétaro. 1535: Jacques Cartier reaches Quebec. 1536: Cabeza de Vaca reaches Mexico City after wandering through North America. 1538: Failed Huguenot settlement on St. Kitts in the Caribbean (destroyed by the Spanish). 1539: Hernando de Soto explores the interior from Florida to Arkansas. 1539: Francisco de Ulloa explores the Baja California peninsula. 1540: Coronado travels from Mexico to eastern Kansas. 1541: Spanish found Nueva Ciudad de Mechuacán (Morelia) 1540: López de Cárdenas reaches the Grand Canyon (the area is ignored for the next 200 years). 1541: Failed French settlement at Charlesbourg-Royal (Quebec City) by Cartier and Roberval. 1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo reaches the California coast. 1559: Failed Spanish settlement at Pensacola, Florida. 1562: Failed Huguenot settlement in South Carolina (Charlesfort-Santa Elena site). 1564: French Huguenots at Jacksonville, Florida (Fort Caroline). 1565: Spanish slaughter French 'heretics' at Fort Caroline. 1565: Spanish found Saint Augustine, Florida. (Mission Nombre de Dios) 1566–1587: Spanish in South Carolina (Charlesfort-Santa Elena site). 1568: Dutch revolt against Spain begins. The economic model developed in the Netherlands would define colonial policies in the next two centuries. 1570: Failed Spanish settlement on Chesapeake Bay (Ajacán Mission). 1576: Spanish found León de los Aldama. 1576: Martin Frobisher reaches the coast of Labrador and Baffin Island. 1579: Sir Francis Drake claims New Albion. 1583: England formally claims Newfoundland (Humphrey Gilbert). 1585: Roanoke Colony founded by English on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, failed in 1587 1598: Failed French settlement on Sable Island off Nova Scotia. 1598: Spanish settlement in Northern New Mexico. 1600: By 1600 Spain and Portugal were still the only significant colonial powers. North of Mexico the only settlements were Saint Augustine and the isolated outpost in northern New Mexico. Exploration of the interior was largely abandoned after the 1540s. Around Newfoundland 500 or more boats annually were fishing for cod and some fishermen were trading for furs, especially at Tadoussac on the Saint Lawrence.

17th century + Early European Settlements in North America Year Settlement Nationality / Notes 1604 St. Croix Island French 1605 Port Royal (Annapolis Royal) French 1607 Jamestown English, first permanent English settlement 1607 Popham Colony English 1608 Quebec French 1609 New York Harbor Dutch 1610 Cuper's Cove English 1610 Kecoughtan, Virginia English 1610 Santa Fe Spanish 1611 Henricus English 1612 Bermuda English 1615 Fort Nassau Dutch 1615 Renews, Newfoundland English 1618 Bristol's Hope English 1620 St. John's, Newfoundland English 1620 Plymouth Colony English 1621 Nova Scotia Scottish 1622 Province of Maine English 1623 Portsmouth English 1623 Stage Point English 1623 Dover English 1623 Pannaway English 1623 New Castle English 1623 Fort Nassau Dutch 1624 St. Kitts English 1624 Governors Island Dutch 1624 New Amsterdam Dutch 1625 Cape Breton Scottish 1626 Salem English 1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony English 1630 Pavonia Dutch 1631 Saint John, New Brunswick English 1632 Williamsburgh English 1633 Fort Hoop Dutch 1633 Windsor, Connecticut English 1634 Maryland Colony English 1634 Wethersfield English 1634 La Baye (Green Bay) French 1635 Territory of Sagadahock English 1635 Saybrook Colony English 1636 Providence Plantations English 1636 Connecticut Colony English 1638 New Haven Colony English 1638 Fort Christina Swedish 1638 Exeter English 1638 Hampton, New Hampshire English 1639 Bridgeport, Connecticut English 1639 Newport English 1639 San Marcos Spanish 1640 New Stockholm Swedish 1640 Swedesboro Swedish 1642 Montreal French 1651 Fort Casimir Dutch 1652 York, Maine 1653 Biddeford, Maine 1658 Scarborough, Maine 1660 Bergen Dutch 1665 Elizabethtown English 1666 Newark English 1668 Sault Ste. Marie (Michigan) French 1669 English Neighborhood Dutch, English 1670 Charleston English 1671 St. Ignace French 1673 Prairie du Chien French 1678 New Paltz, New York French 1679 Acquackanonk Dutch 1680 Fort Crevecoeur (Peoria, Illinois) French 1680 El Paso Spanish 1682 Pennsylvania English 1683 Fort Saint Louis (Illinois) French 1683 East New Jersey Scottish 1684 Stuarts Town, Carolina Scottish 1685 Fort Saint Louis (Texas) French 1686 Arkansas Post French 1691 Fort Pimiteoui French 1696 Dorchester, South Carolina English from Massachusetts 1698 Pensacola, Florida Spanish 1699 Louisiana French

18th century Year Settlement Origin 1701 Detroit French 1702 Mobile French 1706 Albuquerque Spanish 1711 Beaufort, South Carolina English 1714 Natchitoches French 1714 Germanna, Virginia Germans from Hessen-Nassau 1716 Natchez French 1717 Germanna, Virginia Germans from Baden-Württemberg 1718 New Orleans French 1718 San Antonio Spanish 1721 Germanna, Virginia Germans 1721 Greenland Danish 1729 George Town, South Carolina English and French Huguenots 1729 Baltimore British 1733 Province of Georgia British 1734 Culpeper, Virginia Germans 1738 Culpeper, Virginia; some to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Germans 1741 Guanajuato Spanish 1763 St. Louis (Missouri) French 1769 San Diego Spanish 1770 Monterey Spanish 1775 Tucson Spanish 1776 San Francisco Spanish 1777 San Jose Spanish 1781 Los Angeles Spanish 1784 Kodiak Island Russian 1791 Santa Cruz Spanish

References