#american_history 

## The Portuguese
Prince Henry of Portugal ushered in a new era of exploration, so in 1498-1499 a group of Portuguese made a landfall. The one who was it first was a former farmed (lavrador in Portugues), so the land was named Tierra de Lavrador. Still known in English as the Land of Labrador.

## Columbus
Columbus' sponsors were Queen Isabella of Castille and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. He sailed with 3 ships: the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the Pinta.

In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Americas into 2 spheres of influences: Spanish and Portuguese.

## The Spanish
The Spaniards pretty much conquered a lot of land and suppressed the local [[Native American tribes]]. The homes of the Pueblo indians gave rise to the legend about the seven cities of gold called Cibola.
In 1539 Hernando de Soto, formerly a captain under Francisco Pizarro, landed at Tampa Bay and marched all the way to the Mississippi River searching for gold. He was considered a god by the indians, so he was buried secretly in 1541 after his death.
Perhaps the most destructive meeting between the Indinas north of Mexic oand the Spanish was the one between Francisco Vasquez Coronado and the Pueblos, where the former robbed, killed, and forcibly converted the latter to Christianity.

## The French
In 1524, the French sent Giovanni da Verrazano along the coast of North America searching for a passage through the Americas. In 1535 Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River. Near the Indian village of Hochelaga was a mountain named by Cartier Mount Royal, the site of present-day Montreal.

The first permanent French settlemenet, in Quebec, was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain.

Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet explored the Great Lakes and the Upper Misssissippi.

Robert Cavelier, Siuer de La Salle, explored the lower Mississippi in 1682 and claimed the entire river valley, which he named Louisiana, for Louis XIV of France.

Main goal of the French was to spread their religion and establish fur trade.

## The English & The Dutch
In 1497 [[The Tudors|king Henry VII of England]] sent Giovanni Caboto, known as John Cabot, to search for new lands tand to set up trading posts. He landed on an island  that he named New Founde Lande - Newfoundland. There is little evidence to suggest what happened to Cabot after the year 1500. He is know considered to have been lost at sea.

In 1587 Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed across the Atlantic, hoping to found a settlement on Newfoundland. However, on the return trip Gilbert and his party were lost at sea.

In 1609-1610 Henry Hudson - an Englishman employed by the Dutch - explored the New England coast and went up the Hudson River as far as Albany.