Summary of The Establishment of the Thirteen Colonies by Don Nardo

What made the colonization of the US unique was the diversity of the people came together: people who came voluntarily and involuntarily as well as the people who were already here.

The first people were the Native Americans who came across the Bering land bridge and spread across the Americas.  The Indians of the Northeastern Woodlands of northern Canada to southern Florida were split into groups based on what languages they spoke.  They started out as hunter gatherers and eventually became farmers and grew many native crops.  

 In 1492 Columbus landed in the Caribbean. However he was not first European to sight and set foot in the Americas.  Sometime between AD 985-989 Leif Eriksson sailed from Greenland to Labrador, but did not return to the Americas.  Columbus' landing sparked a mass migration of Europeans explorers.  These visitors traded with the natives and brought back good to their European countries.

Religious persecution and the desire to escape poverty led many settlers to journey across the Atlantic to North America. They landed in the Northern US and set up towns and trading posts. They learned farming skills from the Native Americans.  Some Africans were forced to come to the Americas to work as slaves.

Colonies were established in Massachusetts, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Georgia.  Most of the colonist believed that the native americans were inferior. They colonist desire for expansion into native lands brought them into armed conflict. The colonists continually expanded their land and forced Native Americans to move.