1. Europeans in North America
Unit 2 Lesson 1

2. European Exploration Europeans traded with Asians mostly by land.
Travel was slow, difficult, and dangerous
Europeans began to look for faster and safer ways to reach Asia
Christopher Columbus
Spanish conquistadors

3. The Spanish Reach North America
August 1492  Christopher Columbus sailed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean hoping to reach Asia
October  reached the island of San Salvador in the Caribbean Sea
Thought this island was part of Asia
Native Americans named “Indians” after the Indes in Asia
He reached North America instead (unknown land).
Columbus returned to Spain with: plants, animals, gold, Native Americans from San Salvador

4. Spanish-Asian Trade Routes

5. Conquistadors
The Spanish had claimed vast areas of land in North and South America by the 1500s.
Conquistadors  Spanish explorers
Native Americans lived in many of the areas that the Spanish claimed
Many were defenseless (no horses or weapons)
Died from diseases European explorers and soldiers accidentally brought over
Europe Comes to the New World

6. The Spanish and French
Europeans established colonies in the Americas to strengthen their claims of the land.
Colony  a settlement that is ruled by a faraway government
Reasons for colonies:
find gold or riches
religious freedom
For a free voyage, indentured servants promised to work in the colonies for a number of years.

7. North America: 1750

8. The Spanish and the French
Not all people who came to the colonies were there by choice.
Native Americans = slaves
(slavery  the practice of holding people against their will and forcing them to work)
Tend to crops
Mine gold and silver
Traders captured Africans and sold them as slaves to Europeans in the colonies.
Africans also sold their own people for money.

9. New Spain New Spain Many colonies began as missions.
Land stretched from present-day Central America to California
Also had lands in the Caribbean and what is now Florida
Many colonies began as missions.
Missions  religious settlements
Priests were missionaries.
Missionaries  people who teach their religion to others
Goal = spread Christianity & strengthen New Spain

10. New Spain

11. New France
The French explored and claimed lands in present-day eastern Canada.
1608  first French settlement in North America was founded = Quebec
Reason for settlement = fur trade
European companies sent fur hunters and trappers to North America & traded with Native Americans for fur

12. New France
New France
Midwest region of the United States
Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle explored the majority of this land from 1669 – 1673
May have been the first European to see the Ohio River

13. Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle

14. New France

15. The English Colonies
The English settled mostly in present-day central Canada and the eastern United States (Atlantic Coast)
Jamestown  first English settlement, 1607
Present-day Virginia
Plymouth, MA  Pilgrims settled in 1620 for freedom to practice their religion

16. 13 C O L O N I E S

17. The English Colonies Europeans fought for years over land and trade.
North America:
French and English wanted to control the fur trade
Both wanted more land
This conflict lead to war.