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The Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock, December 1620
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| European nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape
religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. New World grains such as corn kept the colonists from starving while, in Virginia, tobacco provided a valuable cash crop. By the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North
American colonies.
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| Choose Another Time Period
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| "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!"
"Patrick Henry Was Born"
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| A Mover and a Quaker
"William Penn Was Born"
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| A River from Canada to Asia?
"Jacques Cartier Sailed Up the St. Lawrence River"
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| A Settlement with Unsettling Challenges
"Jamestown Was Established"
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| Bubble Bubble, Toil, and Trouble
"Salem Witch Trials"
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| Can I Get Your Autograph, Mr. Hancock?
"John Hancock Was Born"
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| Deerfield Invasion
"Raid of Deerfield, Massachusetts in Queen Anne's War"
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| Do You Know This Founding Father?
"John Jay, One of the Nation's Founding Fathers, Was Born"
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| Fighting For Freedom
"Stono's Rebellion"
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| Freedom in Rhode Island
"Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island, Arrived in Boston"
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| How Harvard University Got Its Name
"Clergyman John Harvard Died"
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| Land Ho!
"Christopher Columbus Saw Land!"
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| Livingston, I Presume
"Statesman Robert R. Livingston Was Born"
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| Reading the Stars
"Mathematician and Astronomer Benjamin Banneker Was Born"
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| Sailing to Albany!
"Henry Hudson and His Crew Sailed into the River that Would Bear His Name"
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| Saved by Pocahontas
"John Smith Became a Leader of Jamestown"
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| The Clever General
"Nathanael Greene Was Born"
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| The Clue In The Letter
"George Washington Was Born"
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| The First Synagogue in the British Colonies
"First Jewish Synagogue Was Dedicated in the United States"
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| The Multitalented Mr. Jefferson
"Thomas Jefferson Was Born"
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| The Oldest City in the U.S.
"A Spanish Expedition Established St. Augustine in Florida"
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| The Tale and Music of Old Maryland
"Maryland Day"
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What impact did the Europeans have on the Americans?
As Europeans moved beyond exploration and into colonization of the Americas, they brought changes to virtually every aspect of the land and its people, from trade and hunting to warfare and personal property. European goods, ideas, and diseases shaped the changing continent.
What was the impact of European colonization?
Colonialism's impacts include environmental degradation, the spread of disease, economic instability, ethnic rivalries, and human rights violations—issues that can long outlast one group's colonial rule.
What was the greatest impact of European colonization of North America?
Perhaps European colonization's single greatest impact on the North American environment was the introduction of disease. Microbes to which native inhabitants had no immunity led to death everywhere Europeans settled.