Search results
Apr 27, 2020 · Saint Augustine, Florida, established in 1565, is the oldest European settlement in the continental United States. The first settlement established in what is now U.S. territory was Caparra, the first capital of Puerto Rico, established in 1508. Plymouth, established in 1620 in present-day Massachusetts, was the colony of the so-called Pilgrims.
Oct 19, 2020 · The first European community in North America was established c. 980 - c. 1030 by the Norse Viking Leif Erikson (b. c. 970 - c. 980) in Newfoundland at the site known today as L'Anse aux Meadows. This settlement was temporary, however, and the Norse left to return to Greenland after a little over a year, inspiring no further expeditions to the ...
- Joshua J. Mark
The first European countries to begin colonizing the Americas were Spain and Portugal. Spain claimed and settled Mexico, most of Central and South America, several islands in the Caribbean, and what are now Florida, California, and the Southwest region of the United States. Portugal gained control of Brazil.
American Discovery Viewed by Native Americans, a 1922 painting by Thomas Hart Benton, now housed in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and the early 19th century.
The first known European explorers to arrive on the continent, Vikings from Scandinavia led by Leif Eriksson (c. 970–1020), appeared around 1000 C.E. and established a temporary settlement in the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland.
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985.
While it is true that Columbus visited Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in 1493, Ponce de Leon was the first known European to reach the present-day United States mainland. [4] On September 25, 1513, Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean once he crossed the Isthmus of Panama .
