The First settlement in North Am_考试试题_职称英语

The First settlement in North America

It is very difficult to say just whencolonization began. The first hundred years after Christopher Columbus'sjourney of discovery in 1492 did not produce any settlement on the NorthAmerica continent but rather some Spanish trading posts further south, a greatinterest in gold and adventure, and some colorful crimes in which the Englishhad their part. John Cabot, originally from Genoa but a citizen of Venice, wasestablished as a trader in Bristol, England, when he made a journey in 1497.But his ship, the Matthew, with its crew of eighteen, did no more than see anisland (probably off the New England coast) and return home. He and his sonmade further voyages across the north Atlantic which enabled the English crownto claim a "legal" title to North America. But for a long timeafterwards the Europeans' interest in America was mainly confined to theSpanish activities further south.

The first beginning of permanent settlement inNorth America were nearly a hundred years after Columbus's first voyage. TheEnglishman Sir Walter Raleigh claimed the whole of North America for England,calling it Virginia. In 1585 he sent a small group of people who landed inRoanoke Island, but they stayed only for a year and then went back to Englandwith another expedition, led by Drake, in 1587. A second group who landed in1587 had all disappeared when a further expedition arrived in 1590.

The first permanent settlement in North Americawas in 1607. English capitalists founded two Virginia companies, a southern onebased in London and a northern one based in Bristol. It was decided to give thename New England to the northern area. The first settlers in Virginia werelittle more than wage slaves to the company. All were men and the experimentwas not very successful. Many died. Those who survived lived in miserableconditions. By 1610 the colony had only a thousand people.

1. We know for sure that colonization began atthe end of the 15th century