European nations came to the Americas to increase their
wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among
the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is
now the United States.
By 1650, however, England had established a dominant
presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to
escape religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth,
Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the
colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. New World
grains such as corn kept the colonists from starving while, in Virginia,
tobacco provided a valuable cash crop. By the early 1700s enslaved Africans
made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2
million people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North American colonies ( http://www.americaslibrary.gov/)
