European Nations Vie for North America
The first Europeans to reach North America and explore its interior were the Spanish in the early 1500s, who came mainly for “gold, glory, and God.” France also established a colonial empire in North America beginning with Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s, calling their holdings New France. In 1692, La Salle, a former Jesuit priest, canoed down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming the land for France and naming it Louisiana.
Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses how European attempts at establishing a colonial empire in North America resulted in the French establishing outposts from the Great Lakes to the Gulf and why it still matters today.
Images courtesy of Library of Congress, University of South Florida, The New York Public Library, Government of Canada, National Gallery of Art, Wikipedia.
To early generations of British Americans, largely confined to the Atlantic seaboard, the area beyond the Appalachian Mountains seemed mysterious, vast, and relatively unpopulated. It was all that, but it also had a long history of exploration by other European nations and within its boundaries lay the future of America.