page_title: Territorial evolution of North America prior to 1763
hierarchical_section_title: Territorial evolution of North America prior to 1763
caption_attribution_description: Non Native Political Evolution of North America
context_page_description: Before contact with Europeans, the natives of North America were divided into many different polities, from small bands of a few families to large empires. Modern anthropology assigns some larger divisions into various "culture areas", regions within which a particular set of cultural, political, subsistence and/or linguistic traits predominated. These pre-Columbian American culture areas may also roughly correspond to particular geographic and biological zones of the continent. During the thousands of years of native inhabitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. One of the oldest cultures yet found is that of the Clovis peoples. Upon the arrival of the Europeans in the "New World", Native American population declined substantially, primarily due to the introduction of European diseases to which the Native Americans lacked immunity.
  There was limited contact between North American people and the outside world before 1492. Several theoretical contacts have been proposed, but the earliest physical evidence comes from the Norse or Vikings. Norse captain Leif Ericson is believed to have reached the Island of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD.
context_section_description: Before contact with Europeans, the natives of North America were divided into many different polities, from small bands of a few families to large empires. Modern anthropology assigns some larger divisions into various "culture areas", regions within which a particular set of cultural, political, subsistence and/or linguistic traits predominated. These pre-Columbian American culture areas may also roughly correspond to particular geographic and biological zones of the continent. During the thousands of years of native inhabitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. One of the oldest cultures yet found is that of the Clovis peoples.  Upon the arrival of the Europeans in the "New World", Native American population declined substantially, primarily due to the introduction of European diseases to which the Native Americans lacked immunity.
  There was limited contact between North American people and the outside world before 1492.  Several theoretical contacts have been proposed, but the earliest physical evidence comes from the Norse or Vikings.  Norse captain Leif Ericson is believed to have reached the Island of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD.  In 1492 Columbus reached land in the Bahamas.  Almost 500 years after the Norse, John Cabot explored the east coast of what would become Canada in 1497. Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the East Coast of North America from Florida to presumably Newfoundland in 1524. Jacques Cartier made a series of voyages on behalf of the French crown in 1534 and penetrated the St. Lawrence River. These powers slowly replaced the native nations of the North American east coast and then spread into the interior.  The main powers in North America frequently fought over territory.  One of the biggest wars was the French and Indian War that ended in France leaving the continent and giving up its claims in the Treaty of Paris.  After 1763 a new power emerged, the independent United States of America.
caption: Non–Native American nations' territorial claims over North America around 1750
exif: {}