The first colonization of North America

-The first contacts with Europeans took place around 1000 with the arrival of the Vikings from
Greenland and Iceland reaching the coasts of Labrador . Norwegian explorer Leif Ericson arrived in
America 400 years before Christopher Columbus , establishing a settlement in Vinland on the northern
tip of Newfoundland , Canada . After a period of exploration sponsored by the great European nations,
the first settlement was established around 1600 .

-In 1497 , only 5 years after Columbus' first voyage, John Cabot , in the service of the King of England,
arrived on the North American coast of Labrador. The French exploration begins with Jacques Cartier,
who had sailed on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the St. Lawrence between 1534 – 1541.

-The corsair Walter Raleigh landed at Hatteras Head in North Carolina in 1584 , claiming for England the
Tentire Atlantic coast, between parallels 35 and 45. He named the region Virginia , in honor of the Virgin
Queen.Elizabeth I .

-In 1607 , the space officially became a British colony after on April 26 , three British ships funded by the
Virginia Company of London docked, bringing with them the first 107 English settlers to the New World,
including the famous Captain John Smith 

- in 1716 - 1717 and in 1718 Louisiana became the center of French colonization in the Mississippi .The
French found the city of New Orleans . In the conflict between the naval powers England and Spain,
British pirates confiscated many shipments of gold and goods from the Spanish colonies on their way
home..

- The most famous pirate was Henry Morgan, who occupied and plundered the merchant ships around
the Spanish region of Panama, with his British-backed adventurers. In 1674 , he was named a knight, so
that the following year he became British governor of the Jamaican colony.