The First Europeans in the Americas

12.3.1 The Spanish and the Portuguese

When the first English settlers came to America in 1607, the Spanish had been settling the New World for more than a century already. Theoretically, what the Spanish called Las Indias (because Columbus was convinced that he had reached Asia) was a territory exclusively reserved for the subjects of the Spanish crown,^[575] and not to all of them, as the general rule was that only Castilians had the right to travel to Las Indias.

The reality was, however, that the Spanish and Portuguese were only present in Central and South America, save for some expeditions launched by the Catholic Monarchy in the sixteenth century, to explore what is today the southern United States. Among these was that of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado (1540-1542), who crossed what is modern-day Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma.^[576] North America, however, remained a largely virgin territory until French, Dutch and English explorers and settlers came to this geographic area.

12.3.2 French and Dutch Expeditions

In the sixteenth century the French, as a result of initiatives backed by King Francis I, began to explore North America, with Giovanni da Verrazano conducting expedi­tions to Newfoundland and on to New York Bay, and Jacques Cartier reaching modern-day French Canada (Quebec and Montreal) (Love 2006, 70). During the seventeenth century, French settlement in America advanced significantly thanks to the efforts of Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), who, after establishing the colony of Acadia, founded the city of Quebec in 1608 (Fischer 2008, 227-253), and crossed North America on its major rivers, travelling down the Mississippi, reaching its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico, and taking possession of a territory which later came to be called “Louisiana” in honor of France’s King Louis XIV.^[577]

The Dutch began their operations in the Americas with attacks beginning in 1624 on Portuguese possessions in Brazil, which allowed them to occupy San Salvador de Bahia (1625), and Pernambuco (1630). As a result, they managed to settle in the territory of present-day Dutch Guiana (Surinam) and the island of Curacao in the Antilles.

In 1626, Peter Minuit bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians on behalf of the Dutch West India Company and founded the city of New Amsterdam (today New York) at the mouth of the river discovered by English navigator Henry Hudson in 1609.^[578] The city would remain in Dutch hands until 1667, when it was conquered by the English, redubbed “New York” in honor of the Stuart Charles II’s brother, the Duke of York, owner of the entire area, ceded to him by his brother the king.^[579]

12.3.3 The Origins of the English Presence in America

The British first reached North America when John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son, respectively, made two trips in 1497 and 1498, during which they discovered the coast of Labrador and, probably, what is today the Hudson River. However, as the Bristol ship owners who had financed their travels concluded that the lands they discovered lacked commercial value, the Cabots eventually entered the service of the Spanish crown.^[580]

12.4