Page 55 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

USA A T A GLANCE  53
HISTORY OF THE USA

Man first entered North America from Siberia some 13,000 years ago, migrating
over the Bering Strait land bridge, which stood between Siberia and Alaska.
Native American civilizations thrived here for at least 10,000 years before the
United States of America was officially founded as a country in 1776 by European
settlers, who had been visiting the continent since the 16th century.

Although the early people were mostly Competing Colonies
hunter-gatherers, the ruins of ancestral The long rivalry between Spain, France,
Puebloan towns, such as Mesa Verde and Great Britain continued with the
(Colorado) and the giant pyramids at discovery of the New World in 1492.
Cahokia (near St. Louis), provide evidence Spain founded the first successful North
of more complex cultures. American colonies, in Florida in 1565
and New Mexico in 1598, combining
Early European Explorers commercial and religious interests.
European exploration began in earnest France’s first permanent settlement was
after the pioneering voyages of Columbus, at Quebec (1608), while the Dutch set
who reached the Caribbean in 1492, and up a trading post (1624) at the mouth
John Cabot, who “discovered” Newfoundland of the Hudson River. However, it was the
in 1497. Early explorers were astonished by English who gained control, with colonies
the quantity of natural resources they in Virginia (1607), New England (1620),
encountered here. Fur-bearing animals such and Pennsylvania (1681). Many early
as beavers were quickly exploited for their colonists died of disease and malnutrition.
pelts. Once Europeans began to investigate Virginia eventually became the most
further, they were able to draw heavily on the lucrative New World colony, thanks to
indigenous peoples’ detailed knowledge, and the production of tobacco. By 1700, these
use their pre-existing trails to explore the English colonies’ population was 250,000,
continent. An early map of 1507 displays the excluding Native Americans, while only
name “America,” taken from one of the New some 1,000 non-Native Americans lived in
World’s early explorers, Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish or French regions.

Christopher Columbus sets foot in the New World on October 12, 1492
George Washington before Yorktown, painted by Rembrandt Peale between 1824 and 1825

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