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The first Europeans to reach North America were Icelandic Vikings, ledby Leif Ericson, about the year 1000. Trać es oftheirvisithavebeenfoundinthe Canadian province ofNewFoundland,but the Vikingsfailedto establishapermanentsettlementandsoon tost contactwith the newcontinent.

Ac ting on be half of the S pardsh crown, in 1492, the Italian nawigator Chiistopher Columbus saile d west from Europę and landed on one of the Bahama Islands (San Sak/ador) in the Canibean Sea.

THE COLONI AL ERA

The first successful English cobny was found at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.

A few ^ears la ter, English Puritans came to America to escape religtous persecutbn for their opposition to the Church of England. In 1620, the Puritans founded tłie Plynouth Cobny in what laterbecame Massachusetts. Plymouth was the second permanent British settlement in North America and the first in Ne w England.

7hanJcsgj.\ing - observed annualy to commemoraźe the l“harvestat Plymouth Colony in 1621, when ą/ter a winter of suffeńng and $tarvaiion the Pilgńms celebr ated theirfrstyear of swvival in the Afew World with a hareestfeast and prayers of thanks to God.

Ne w England is a region in the northeaste m comer of the United S tates, bordere d by the Atlantic Cteean, Cariada and the State of New York, consisting of 6 States. Maine, New Hampshire, Yermont, Ivkssachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

In 1636 an English clergynan named Roger Williams left Massachusetts and founded the colony of Rhode Island, bas?d on the principals of religbus freedom and separatton of church and State, two ideals that were lateradoptedbyframers ofthe US Constitutton.

By 1733 English settlers had founded 13 colonies, along the Atlantic coast, from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south.

Elsewhere in North America, the French contro lled Canada and Louisiana, which included the vast Mssissipi River watershed. France and England fought several wars during the ló^century with North America be ing drawninto everyone.The end oftlie Seven Years War in 1763 left England in control of Canada and allof North America east of Mississipi.

Soon afterwards England and ifs cobnies ware in conflict, because of the raising taxes, m part to defray the cost of fightmg the Seven Years War, and expected Americans to todge British soldiers in their homes. The cobmsts resented the taxes.

Stamp Ac t (1765)

Ali the taxeswere, exceptone ontea, were removed, butin 1773 agroupof patriotsrespondedby staging the Boston Te a Party. Disguised as Indians, the yboarded British merchant ships and dumped 342 crates of tea into Boston Haibor.

Cobnial leaders convened the First Continental Congress in 1774 to discuss the colonies opposition to British rule.

Warbroke outonApnl 19,1775 (Revoluttonary War), when British soldiers confronted American patriots ledbyPaul Revere and John Hancock. The mainbattles w^re m Lexington and Concord.

On July4, 1776 the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence (a document announcing the separation of thirteencobnies from Britam and creation of the United States).

The pnncipal author of the Declaration was Thomas Jefferson, the other włio helped to create it was (among the others) Benjamm Franklin.