Chapter III

The Early European Colonies

From 1492 to 1607 is a long time. It is 115 years. During that period, only Spain had colonies in North America. Spain was strong enough to keep other Europeans out of North America. But Spain did not have enough people to send settlers to live there. So most of North America was inhabited only by Indians. By 1607, there were more than 150,000 Spanish settlers in the New World. In 1502, Spain began bringing Black slaves to the New World. The Spanish brought a huge number of Black slaves from Africa. The Portuguese brought Black slaves to Brazil. Nobody counted the number of slaves. Historians know that there were at least 150,000 Black slaves in the New World before the first Englishman came to live in America. Some historians think that the Spanish and Portuguese had as many as a million Black people in the New World before the first English came.

The first European settlements in what is now the United States were Spanish. The city of St. Augustine in Florida began in 1565. This was 42 years before the English came to Virginia. A large number of Spanish people came to live in Mexico. The Spanish Mexicans had settlements in New Mexico before the English came to live in North America. The oldest cities in the United States began as Spanish cities.

In 1588, there was a terrible hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. The Spanish navy did not know about it and it sailed right into the middle of it. The winds were so strong that many of the Spanish ships were broken and went to the bottom of the ocean. Thirty years of war between England and Spain began at this time. At the end of the war, England was strong enough to protect settlers in North America. Spain was no longer strong enough to claim all of North America. The first great division of North America among the European powers began.

Spain claimed Florida, Texas, and the land that is now the southwestern part of the United States.

In 1607, the first English settlers came to Virginia. They wanted to get rich by finding gold in the ground. They looked and looked for it, but they did not find any, because there wasn't any. The Indians gave the English some tobacco to smoke. The English liked it and took some back to England. Men in England liked tobacco and wanted to buy more. The English settlers began to plant tobacco in Virginia and sell it in England. Tobacco grew better in Virginia because the climate is warmer. The English settlers in Virginia earned a lot of money by selling tobacco in England and in Europe. However, they needed more workers to grow the tobacco. In 1619, a Dutch ship had sailed to Cuba and to the other nearby Spanish islands. There the Dutch bought some Black slaves. The ship then sailed to Virginia and the slaves were sold there to work in the tobacco fields. This was the beginning of slavery in Virginia. At first, the slaves were brought from the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. Later slaves were brought from Africa. With slaves, the English settlers could grow much more tobacco to sell at a good price. Not very many English men married Indian women. Most of them brought wives from England.

More and more English came to Virginia. They wanted to become rich by growing tobacco. For this, they needed more and more land which they took from the Indians. When the Indians saw that the English were taking their land, they began to dislike the English.

Less than a year after the English came to Virginia, the French sailed up the St. Lawrence River and settled in Quebec, Canada. At that time, coats and hats made of beaver skin became very fashionable in Europe. All the kings and queens and rich people of Europe wore them. A few of the Frenchmen hunted beavers, but most of them began to barter with the Indians. French men went to live in the Indian Villages and opened trading posts there. In exchange for beaver skins, the French gave the Indians guns, ammunition, blankets, glass beads, whisky, and other things made in Europe. The English did not want the Indians to have guns and were angry with the French for selling guns to the Indians. But the French wanted the Indians to have guns so that they could bring more beaver skins to the trading posts. As a result, the French and the Indians became very good friends. Very often the French men married Indian women. The French explored much of North America looking for places where they could barter with the Indians. All of the places they explored, they claimed for France. Canada and the Mississippi River valley were clamed by France. In 1682, the French settled in Louisiana. Afterwards, they built cities at important points along the Mississippi River and along the Great Lakes. In the beginning, the two great rivers of North America, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi belonged to France.