The Colonial Period
Trends and Themes of the Era
Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/chapter5.rhtml

Spain dominated the early years of European exploration of the New World, with France a
distant second. England did not get seriously involved in the New World until nearly a
century after Columbus landed.

After England defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, the balance of power in the New World
(and in Europe) shifted. After initial hardship in the colonies, English settlements showed
the New World could bring profit and offered religious freedom. A quick buildup of colonial
settlements began along the east coast of North America and continued through the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Under its mercantilist economic policy, England created laws ensuring that its colonies
existed primarily to enrich the mother country. England did not enforce these laws too
strictly, employing a policy of “salutary neglect,” for fear of alienating the colonists and
thereby helping France’s interests in the New
Exploration before Columbus
Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/chapter5section1.rhtml

By the time Christopher Columbus landed in the Western Hemisphere in 1492, the New
World had already been “discovered” more than once. First, of course, there were the Native
Americans we discussed in the previous chapter. But there is solid evidence that other
Europeans made it to the Americas long before Columbus did. Around A.D. 1000,
Viking Norsemen, led by Leif Ericson, sailed from Norway across the Atlantic Ocean
and settled in Newfoundland, in northeast Canada. These Vikings also explored some
distance up and down the coast. This settlement, however, was short-lived. The Norsemen
soon sailed back across the ocean, having had little to no effect on North America.