Covers the exploratory and settlement expeditions of Leif Erikson, Christopher Columbus, Hernando de Soto, Henry Hudson, and Samuel de Champlain. Concludes with the exploratory expeditions of Sir Walter Raleigh, and the founding and failure of the Roanoke settlement.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 1: Colonialism and Nationhood
Part 1: The Settlement of the Americas

2. FIRST ARRIVALS IN THE AMERICAS
Recent research
in the field of
genetics has
shown that the
native peoples
of North and
South America
began settling
those continents
at least 13,000
years ago.
They reached
the Americas
from Asia after
crossing the
Bering Strait.

3. FIRST EXPLORERS
OF THE AMERICAS
• The first Europeans reached the
Americas about a thousand
years ago, some time just
before the year 1,000 AD.
• They were led by Leif Erikson,
a Viking from Iceland, who
reached the island now known
as Newfoundland, Canada,
while sailing for Greenland.
• Leif established a small
settlement on the continent
that the Vikings called Vinland.
• After Leif died, the Viking
settlement faded out.

4. CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS (1492)
• The second European voyage
to the Americas took place
under the leadership of
Christopher Columbus in 1492.
• Columbus was an Italian
navigator employed by the King
and Queen of Spain to chart a
new course from Europe to
India without sailing all the way
around the coast of Africa. As
the first explorer to try to reach
India by sailing west instead of
south and east, he reached the
Americas when he came to the
present-day Bahamas.

5. LATER EXPLORERS
OF THE AMERICAS
• In the hundred years or so after
Columbus returned to Spain
and announced his discovery of
the New World, many other
European navigators journeyed
to the Americas to conduct
their own explorations.
• One of the most important
explorations was conducted by
the Spaniard Hernando de Soto
in 1539. Other important
voyages were made by the
Englishman Henry Hudson and
the Frenchman Samuel de
Champlain in the early 1600s.

6. EXPLORATORY VOYAGES OF HERNANDO DE SOTO,
HENRY HUDSON, AND SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

7. EUROPEAN
SETTLEMENT OF
THE AMERICAS
Between the early 1500s and the
mid-1700s, various European
powers laid claim to large swathes
of territory in the Americas. The
most notable claims included the
English claim on the Atlantic
seaboard and Hudson’s Bay, the
French claim on the North American
interior, and the Spanish claim on
Mexico and most of South America.

8. EUROPEAN
SETTLEMENT OF
THE AMERICAS
Other important claims were made
by the Dutch in present-day New
York and the Swedish in present-
day Maryland. All of these claims
were renegotiated, invalidated,
and overwritten depending on the
outcome of various wars and
diplomatic disputes.

9. EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
OF NORTH AMERICA
The maps above represent variations
in the European colonial claims in
North America from 1660 (top left)
to 1713 (bottom left) and 1754 (right).

10. Roanoke Island
The Roanoke settlement
failed in 1587 and, for
reasons that remain
unclear, all the settlers
disappeared. They may
have relocated to the
American mainland or been
assimilated into the local
Native American tribes.
A FIRST ATTEMPT AT AN ENGLISH SETTLEMENT
The English made their first attempt at establishing a
settlement in North America when they reached
Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina in 1585.
Roanoke was the birthplace of the first English person
to be born on American soil, a girl named Virginia Dare.

11. PROBLEMS WITH
SETTLEMENT
• Sir Walter Raleigh was the first
to explore the coast from North
Carolina to Florida. He named
the area ‘Virginia’ and financed
the Roanoke settlement.
• Queen Elizabeth gave Raleigh’s
half-brother a charter permitting
the establishment of an English
settlement in North America,
and Raleigh received the
charter after his brother died.
• Despite the failure of Roanoke,
Raleigh opened the way for the
establishment of further English
colonies in North America.

12. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 1: Colonialism and Nationhood
Part 1: The Settlement of the Americas