Timeline of the European colonization of North America

This is a chronology and timeline of the European colonization of the Americas, with founding dates of selected European settlements.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Pre–Columbus

986: Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn't land (see also Norse colonization of the Americas).
c. 1000: Norse settle briefly in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.^[4]
c. 1450: Norse colony in Greenland dies out.
1473: João Vaz Corte-Real perhaps reaches Newfoundland; writes about the "Land of Cod fish" in his journal.

15th century

1491: Columbus sets sail aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
1492: Columbus reaches the Bahamas,^[5] Cuba and Hispaniola.
1492: La Navidad is established on the island of Hispaniola; it was destroyed by the following year.
1493: The colony of La Isabela is established on the island of Hispaniola.^[6]
1493: Columbus arrives in Puerto Rico
1494: Columbus arrives in Jamaica.
1496: Santo Domingo, the first European permanent settlement, is built.^[7]
1497: John Cabot reaches Newfoundland.^[8]
1498: In his third voyage, Columbus reaches Trinidad and Tobago.
1498: La Isabela is abandoned by the Spanish.
1499: João Fernandes Lavrador maps Labrador and Newfoundland

16th century

1501: Corte-Real brothers explore the coast of what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador
1502: Columbus sails along the mainland coast south of Yucatán, and reaches present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama
1503: Las Tortugas noted by Columbus in passage through the Western Caribbean present-day Cayman Islands
1508: Ponce de León founds Caparra on San Juan Bautista (now Puerto Rico)
1511: Conquest of Cuba begins
1513: Ponce de León in Florida
1513: Núñez de Balboa claims the Pacific Ocean and its shores for Spain
1515: Conquest of Cuba completed
1517: Francisco Hernández de Córdoba lands on the Yucatán Peninsula
1519: Founding of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (Veracruz)
1519: Álvarez de Pineda explores the Gulf Coast of the United States
1519: Founding of Panama City by Pedro Arias Dávila
1521: Hernán Cortés completes the conquest of the Aztec Empire.
1521: Juan Ponce de León tries and fails to settle in Florida.
1524: Pedro de Alvarado conquers present-day Guatemala and El Salvador.
1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano sails along most of the east coast.
1525: Estêvão Gomes enters Upper New York Bay and reaches Nova Scotia^[9]^[10]
1526: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón briefly establishes the failed settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, the first site of enslavement of Africans in North America and of the first slave rebellion.
1527: Fishermen are using the harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland and other places on the coast.
1531: Spanish found Puebla de Zaragoza and Santiago de Querétaro.
1535: Jacques Cartier reaches Quebec.
1536: Cabeza de Vaca reaches Mexico City after wandering through North America.
1538: Failed Huguenot settlement on St. Kitts in the Caribbean (destroyed by the Spanish).
1539: Hernando de Soto explores the interior from Florida to Arkansas.
1539: Francisco de Ulloa explores the Baja California peninsula.
1540: Coronado travels from Mexico to eastern Kansas.
1541: Spanish found Nueva Ciudad de Mechuacán (Morelia)
1540: López de Cárdenas reaches the Grand Canyon (the area is ignored for the next 200 years).
1541: Failed French settlement at Charlesbourg-Royal (Quebec City) by Cartier and Roberval.
1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo reaches the California coast.
1559: Failed Spanish settlement at Pensacola, Florida.
1562: Failed Huguenot settlement in South Carolina (Charlesfort-Santa Elena site).
1564: French Huguenots at Jacksonville, Florida (Fort Caroline).
1565: Spanish slaughter French 'heretics' at Fort Caroline.
1565: Spanish found Saint Augustine, Florida. (Mission Nombre de Dios)
1566–1587: Spanish in South Carolina (Charlesfort-Santa Elena site).
1568: Dutch revolt against Spain begins. The economic model developed in the Netherlands would define colonial policies in the next two centuries.
1570: Failed Spanish settlement on Chesapeake Bay (Ajacán Mission).
1576: Spanish found León de los Aldama.
1576: Martin Frobisher reaches the coast of Labrador and Baffin Island.
1579: Sir Francis Drake claims New Albion.
1583: England formally claims Newfoundland (Humphrey Gilbert).
1585: Roanoke Colony founded by English on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, failed in 1587
1598: Failed French settlement on Sable Island off Nova Scotia.
1598: Spanish settlement in Northern New Mexico.
1600: By 1600 Spain and Portugal were still the only significant colonial powers. North of Mexico the only settlements were Saint Augustine and the isolated outpost in northern New Mexico. Exploration of the interior was largely abandoned after the 1540s. Around Newfoundland 500 or more boats annually were fishing for cod and some fishermen were trading for furs, especially at Tadoussac on the Saint Lawrence.

17th century

1604: St. Croix Island – French
1605: Port Royal (Annapolis Royal) – French
1607: Jamestown – English
1607: Popham Colony – English
1608: Quebec – French
1610: Cuper's Cove – English
1610: Kecoughtan, Virginia – English
1610: Santa Fe – Spanish
1611: Henricus – English
1612: Bermuda – English
1615: Fort Nassau – Dutch
1615: Renews, Newfoundland – English
1618: Bristol's Hope – English
1620: St. John's, Newfoundland – English
1620: Plymouth Colony – English
1621: Nova Scotia – Scottish
1622: Province of Maine – English
1623: Portsmouth – English
1623: Stage Point – English
1623: Dover – English
1623: Pannaway – English
1623: New Castle – English
1623: Fort Nassau – Dutch
1624: St. Kitts – English
1624: Governors Island – Dutch
1624: New Amsterdam – Dutch
1625: Cape Breton – Scottish
1626: Salem – English
1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony – English
1630: Pavonia – Dutch
1631: Saint John, New Brunswick – English
1632: Williamsburgh – English
1633: Fort Hoop – Dutch
1633: Windsor, Connecticut – English
1634: Maryland Colony – English
1634: Wethersfield – English
1635: Territory of Sagadahock – English
1635: Saybrook Colony – English
1636: Providence Plantations – English
1636: Connecticut Colony – English
1638: New Haven Colony – English
1638: Fort Christina – Swedish
1638: Exeter – English
1638: Hampton, New Hampshire – English^[11]
1639: Bridgeport, Connecticut – English
1639: Newport – English
1639: San Marcos – Spanish
1640: New Stockholm – Swedish
1640: Swedesboro – Swedish
1642: Montreal – French
1651: Fort Casimir – Dutch
1652: York, Maine
1653: Biddeford, Maine
1658: Scarborough, Maine
1660: Bergen – Dutch
1665: Elizabethtown – English
1666: Newark – English
1668: Sault Ste. Marie (Michigan) – French
1669: English Neighborhood – Dutch, English,
1670: Charleston – English
1678: New Paltz, New York – French
1679: Acquackanonk – Dutch^[12]^[13]
1680: Fort Crevecoeur (Peoria, Illinois) – French
1680: El Paso – Spanish
1682: Pennsylvania – English
1683: Fort Saint Louis (Illinois) – French
1683: East New Jersey – Scottish
1684: Stuarts Town, Carolina – Scottish
1685: Fort Saint Louis (Texas) – French
1686: Arkansas Post – French
1691: Fort Pimiteoui – French
1698: Pensacola, Florida – Spanish
1699: Louisiana – French

18th century

1701: Detroit – French
1702: Mobile – French
1706: Albuquerque – Spanish
1714: Natchitoches – French
1714: Germanna, Virginia – Germans from Hessen-Nassau
1716: Natchez – French
1717: Germanna, Virginia – Germans from Baden-Württemberg
1718: New Orleans – French
1718: San Antonio – Spanish
1721: Germanna, Virginia – Germans
1721: Greenland – Danish
1729: Baltimore – British
1733: Province of Georgia – British
1734: Culpeper, Virginia – Germans
1738: Culpeper, Virginia; some to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – Germans
1741: Guanajuato – Spanish
1763: St. Louis (Missouri) – French
1769: San Diego – Spanish
1770: Monterey – Spanish
1775: Tucson – Spanish
1776: San Francisco – Spanish
1777: San Jose – Spanish
1781: Los Angeles – Spanish
1784: Kodiak Island – Russian
1791: Santa Cruz – Spanish

References

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[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

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Timeline of the European colonization of North America

Contents

Pre–Columbus

15th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

References