G08: Colonial America, Colonization or the Americas: European Americans

National Geographic Maps & Articles: The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by European colonization and Europeans' enslavement and forced transportation of Africans to the Americas.

Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands established colonies in North America. Each country had different motivations for colonization and expectations about the potential benefits.

Artifacts and primary source documents.

Half of the settlers in the southern colonies came to America as indentured servants—laborers working on four- to seven-year contracts to repay an agency or person for passage across the Atlantic. Once free of their contract, they were given a small tract of land in the colony. The exception to this rule was African slaves.

The first permanent English settlement in North America was organized by the London (later called Virginia) Company. On May 14, 1607, a group of 105 colonists landed in Virginia and established Jamestown. Here they built huts for homes, a storehouse, a church, and a fort. The strong leadership of Captain John Smith protected the colony from starvation and unfriendly Indians. One of Virginia’s chief sources of wealth was the growing of tobacco.