• The First Americans to reach America were Native Americans who crossed the land bridge from Asia..

• In the second half of the 15th century, European sailors began to plan voyages that would take them beyond the limits of the world they knew. The new interest in the world came in part from the Renaissance, but the main reason was to set up new trading links with spice-producing lands in Asia.

• Christopher Columbus sailed on the Santa Maria with his crew member Juan de la Cosa, owner and master

• Diego de Arana, master-at-arms and Luis de Torres, interpreter.

• In the 15th to 19th centuries, their populations were ravaged, by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first Native American group encountered by Christopher Columbus, the 250,000 Arawaks of Haiti, were enslaved. Only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was extinct before 1650.

• Here is a chart of the founding years of the original colonies of British North America.

• Virginia (1607) Massachusetts (1620) New Hampshire (1623) Maryland (1634) Connecticut (1635) Rhode Island (1636) Delaware (1638) North Carolina (1653) South Carolina (1663) New Jersey (1664) New York (1664) Pennsylvania (1682) Georgia (1732)

• They are also called the Thirteen Original States, because they where the first states that ratify the US Declaration of Independence of 1776. More about that later in my 13 colonies timeline.

• The French and Indian War was a part of The Seven Years' War. It took place between 1754 and 1763. The name refers to the part of the Seven Years' War that was fought in what is now the United States and Canada. The war was between the French with Indian allies and the British with British-American and Indian allies. The war is called The Conquest War in Quebec and Ontario, Canada

• [change] Causes of the War• There were many causes for the war. Some

included:• [change] Outcome• The fighting in North American stopped on

Sept. 8, 1763. It ended with the surrender of Montreal and all of Canada to Britain. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. France lost all of its North American lands east of the Mississippi. All of Canada was given to Britain except for two small islands near Newfoundland. France got the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.

• By 1776, the population of the colonies had reached 2.5 million people. This was about one third the population of Britain. There were now many roads connecting the individual colonies, and newspapers kept them informed about each other. The colonies were beginning to think of themselves as Americans, not as separate colonies. Many colonists were split over the issue of independence. There were both rich and poor colonists on both sides of the independence issue.

• Large landowners like George Washington, and wealthy businessmen like John Hancock were in favor of independence. There resented British control over their lives, and British interference in their business. On the other hand, some rich colonists were afraid they would lose their wealth if the revolution succeeded. Their wealth was heavily connected to British trade and the British government. Some poor colonists didn't want to be controlled by the wealthy colonists. They either believed the King of England treated them well, or just didn't want to cause trouble.Over time, support for independence grew as issues like taxation without representation angered the local population.