European Explorers in North America

Many European explorers searched for a route to Asia through North America - the Northwest Passage -  for more than a hundred years after Columbus reached the New World.

In May 1497, John Cabot, who was from Venice, sailed from Bristol, England to North America on the ship "Matthew". After 53 days, he landed on the coast of what is now Newfoundland. Cabot was sailing for England, and he claimed the land in the name of King Henry VII.

The waters off Newfoundland, which were full of herring, cod and mackerel, were the richest fishing grounds the Europeans had ever known.

Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real were Portuguese brothers who led separate expeditions to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia between 1500 and 1502.

Giovanni da Verrazzano, who was originally from Florence, Italy but had moved to Dieppe, France, was hired by France's King Francis I to look for a western route to the Indies.

Verrazzano set sail on a French naval ship, "La Dauphine" on January 17, 1524. He arrived at the coast of what is now North Carolina and then traveled south, along the South Carolina coast. Afterwards, Verrazzano journeyed north, exploring the entire coastline up to Newfoundland.

Giovanni returned to Dieppe in July. Four years later, he landed on an island in the Caribbean, which was probably Guadeloupe. He was clubbed to death by Carib natives on landing.

The Frenchman Jacques Cartier set sail toward North America in 1535. On August 10, he and his crew sighted a vast river, which he named the St. Lawrence. Cartier followed the river as far as the site of what is now Montreal. Cartier and his crew suffered a harsh winter before they were able to return to France. They arrived home on July 15, 1536.

Samuel de Champlain, who was also French, journeyed to the St. Lawrence River in 1603. He made many voyages to "New France" over the next 30 years, and founded Quebec in 1608.

Champlain navigated hundreds of miles of the Ottawa River. He explored Lake Huron and Lake Ontario.

Two of Champlain's colleagues, Jean Nicolet and Étienne Brûlé, mapped most of the Great Lakes.

In 1578, Humphrey Gilbert, an English explorer, traveled to North America in search of a Northwest Passage to the Indies. Storms forced him to return to England. In 1583, he traveled westward again and claimed Newfoundland for England.

England's Martin Frobisher traveled to Greenland, Labrador, Baffin Island and the Hudson Strait on three voyages, which took place between 1576 and 1578.

John Davis followed Frobisher into the arctic regions of what is now Canada between 1585 and 1587.

Sir Walter Raleigh was determined to found an English colony in the Americas. In 1584, he chose to set up a colony on the island of Roanoke, off the coast of Virginia. Sir Richard Granville and Ralph Lane led an expedition in 1585. Until 1587, there were several attempts to set up a colony but they failed. The final group of colonists disappeared and it is not known what happened to them.

The English set up a successful colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.

New Amsterdam, now New York, was settled by the Dutch in 1609.

The Pilgrims arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620.