Category: North America

USA – Immigration / Settlement
When the Europeans emigrated to America by the hundreds of thousands from the 17th century, the indigenous population there could already look back on a history going back thousands of years. But soon numerous Indian tribes fell victim to either introduced diseases and epidemics or to armed violence. For a long time, the indigenous natives and the descendants of Afro-American slaves were excluded from the “inalienable human rights” to which the 13 American founding states invoked in 1776. It was only through their legal equality in the course of the 20th century that the basis for a multicultural society was laid in the USA, whereby the never-ending influx of immigrants and increased internal migration made a significant contribution to this.

BEGINNING OF COLONIZATION
The northern half of the American continent became the sphere of influence of the rival European powers Spain, France and England from the middle of the 16th century. In the course of the 18th century, the competition between these colonial powers for the development of the country emerged first and foremost from the British and then, as their successor, from the United States.

The first forays into the interior of the continent were made by the Spaniards from Mexico and the Caribbean. In 1556, St. Augustine was founded on the Florida coast as the first continuously populated city on American soil. In 1609, Santa Fe followed in what is now New Mexico. In return, the French tried to open up the continent from the northeast via the St. Lawrence River. After the rich fishing grounds around Newfoundland were regularly visited by French fishermen as early as the 16th century, the French finally settled in the area of ​​what is now the Canadian province of Québec around 1600. There they founded the capital of the same name in 1608 and named the area Nouvelle France. From here they advanced into the Great Lakes region,

The first successful settlement of the English took place on May 14th 1607 with the construction of Jamestown in the Chesapeake Bay south of the later capital Washington. This first settlement not only became the nucleus of the colony of Virginia, which had become rich through tobacco cultivation, but also of all of English-speaking America. Thirteen years later, in 1620, the legendary “Mayflower” landed near the present-day city of Boston with 149 people on board, including numerous Puritan religious refugees who were called “Pilgrim Fathers” and who subsequently settled in New England. After these beginnings, the population of the English colonies rose rapidly. In 1630 there were only 5,000 colonists living there, the number rose to 250,000 by 1700. At the time of independence (1776) the USA already had 2.5 million residents. For more information about the continent of North America, please check computerannals.com.