Early Relations with Europeans

The first documented encounter of Europeans on the Eastern seaboard of the United States came with the Hernando De Soto expedition through the Southern United States from 1539-1542. This expedition was responsible for introducing diseases into that region, and also resulted in several battles with various tribes.

Spain was successful in establishing the first permanent settlement at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565.

The next encounter was the failed Roanoke Colony led by Sir Walter Raleigh of England in 1584. At first, the local tribes bartered with the colonists, but this was during a time of a severe drought, and when the local tribes grew more reluctant to trade, relations deteriorated. The fate of the colonists is still a controversy.

By 1578 there were about 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland and sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for the natives' well worn pelts. The French fur trade was undertaken by Francis Grave (a merchant) and Chauvin (a captain) in 1599 when they acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and their attempt to establish a colony at the mouth of the Saguenay River was a direct result of their desire to profit from trading native fur pelts for European goods.

England attempted again to colonize, first in 1606 with the Popham Colony in present-day Maine, and again in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. The latter became the first permanent English settlement in the United States. The Popham Colony interacted with the Abeneki tribe, but failed to establish cooperation. Jamestown's breakdown in relations with the Paspahegh and Powhatan tribes resulted in the First Anglo Powhatan War, which ended with the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.

In 1610 a teenage Étienne Brűlé was sent by Samuel de Champlain to live with the Hurons for a year as a sort of 'exchange student'. Champlian, in turn, accepted the company of a Huron youth named Savignon who accompanied him back to France. The two cultures made a successful rendezvous the next year and the young men returned to their respective groups to report their experiences.

In 1620, a group of Puritans, who were heading for the Hudson River, got blown off-course and settled at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, instead, during a harsh winter. In the autumn of 1621, they celebrated a three-day thanksgiving feast with the native Wampanoag people, without whom they would not have survived the winter of 1620.

The Great Migration continued into the 1630s and 40s, creating many settlements in New England and the Virginia colony. Dutch colonization activities proceeded in an overlapping Pequot War. Meanwhile, Spanish and French colonization were also proceeding on other areas of the continent.

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