CHAPTER 1 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT
The West Hemisphere was originally an uninhabited frontier.It’s believed that the first people to settle there were northwestern Asians about 11,500 years ago.The native Americans have lived a peaceful life until Columbus discovered the new world in 1492.The European contacts with new world produced a remarkable diffusion of culture,an exchange of humanity as well as massacre and disaster.
The fight for colonial interests among several Western European countries raised a war between England and Spain which ended with England’s victory.In 1606,JamesⅠchartered the Virginia company with two divisions,the London group of this company planted the first permanent colony in Virginia.People in Virginia even met the first legislative assembly on the continent ,what’s more,black slave trade began at that time.
Meanwhile,a congregation of English Calvinists seeking the freedom to practice Christianity landed on Massachusetts coast on a ship called Mayflower.Afterwards,more and more Puritans came to Americas and settled there and The Massachusetts Bay was soon throwing off branches to the south and west.In the summer of 16,the British Troop occupied New Netherland renamed New York without too much efforts .William Penn came into control of Pennsylvania and made this place prosperous through his benevolent fashion and liberal terms.
After a late stert and with little design ,the English outstripped the French and the Spanish in the New World.A degree of self-goveronment made the English colonies thriving.