The Archaic Period is the term for the history of humans in America during a period of about 5,000 years beginning around 8000 BCE. There were migrations from Asia by land (across the Bering land bridge) and by sea.
The most elaborate civilizations emerged in South and Central America and in Mexico. The Incas created the largest empire in the Americas. Meso-American societies included the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec. The peoples north of Mexico did not develop empires as large or political systems as elaborate.
European exploration of the new world began in earnest in the late 15th century. Christopher Columbus landed on Caribbean islands while attempting a voyage to reach eastern Asia. Spanish conquistadors, including Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, conquered a substantial part of the Americas, lured by dreams of treasure. The Spanish fort established in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, became the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spanish Empire had become one of the largest in the history of the world. Diseases, including smallpox, decimated native populations, as did the deliberate policy of subjugation and extermination. Natives were the principal labor source for the Europeans. As early as 1502, European settlers began importing slaves from Africa.
England’s first documented contact with the New World came in 1497 when John Cabot sailed to the northeastern coast of North America. The “Lost Colony” of Roanoke was established in 1587. The first enduring English settlement in the New World was established at Jamestown, in Virginia, in 1607. France founded its first permanent settlement in America at Quebec in 1608. Henry Hudson‘s explorations led to a Dutch claim on territory in America and to the establishment of a permanent Dutch presence in the New World.
—December 2020
Lance Jones 