Curated OER
Etc: European Colonization in North America, 1500 1700
A map of North America showing the European colonization in the region up to the year 1700. The map is color-coded to show the possessions of the British, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish. The map shows the territory in...
Curated OER
Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Maps Etc: Northwestern South America, 1916
A physical and political map of northwestern South America in 1916 showing the boundaries for Columbia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia at the time. The map uses color-contouring to show elevations from sea level to...
Curated OER
Etc: Maps Etc: Routes to the Panama Isthmus, 1913
A map from 1913 of the eastern United States, the Caribbean, and the Panama Isthmus showing the directness of the steamship routes from New York and New Orleans to Colon. Since the Panama Canal did not open to commercial traffic until...
Other
Si Spain: El Descubrimiento De America
This article describes the political events that preceded the Spanish to support efforts by Christopher Columbus to head west across the Atlantic.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Indian Relations, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
One modern historical assessment and several original accounts of the mistrust, negotiations, alliances, trading, and disease transmission between European colonizers and native peoples in North America.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Africans Ii, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three illustrations and five documents about slave codes, master-slave power dynamics, and free blacks within French and Spanish settlements of the Caribbean.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Enslaved Peoples, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Two Spanish accounts of enslaved Indians in the Caribbean and enslaved Africans in Mexico and statements of the difficulty of maintaining slavery and the lurking threat of a slave revolt.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Unanticipated Changes Lead to War
Essay on the devastating changes the indigenous peoples of North America faced as Europeans encroached upon and colonized their land.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: First European Exploration and Exploitation
Essay on the exploitation and decimation of indigenous peoples as a result of European exploration, settlement, and colonization in North and South America.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Final Stage of Conquest
Essay on the battle between indigenous peoples and Europeans and the beginnings of Anglo-European domination of North America during final stage of conquest, 1740s.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Indian Wars, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Five documents representing the full range of Indian-European antagonisms, struggles for power, and outright warfare among the Spanish, Pueblo, Wampanoag, English, and French in New Spain, New France, New Mexico, and New England.
A&E Television
History.com: Native American History Timeline
Before Christopher Columbus came to America, the expansive territory was inhabited by Native Americans. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as more explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Moses Austin 1761 1821
A good resource that provides the life history of Moses Austin, one of the founders of the lead industry in America. Before he died, he had a vision of establishing an American colony in Spanish controlled Texas.
Country Studies US
Country Studies: Encomiendas
Read this good description of the encomienda system that was set up by the Spanish to reward the Spanish colonizers in the New World and to subjugate the indigenous people by requiring their labor on the granted land.
Other
Baydreaming: Powhatan
Wahunsonacock, Chief Powhatan, was the leader of the Powhatan nation of farmers and hunters during the colonization of America.
InterKnowledge Corp.
Geographia.com: History of Brazil
This site from Geographia.com covers the history of Brazil from the arrival of the Portuguese to the present. Specific explorers are mentioned and information is given on independence from colonization.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Jamestown
This site provides information about the founding and development of the settlement at Jamestown.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Manifest Destiny
From twentieth-century posters, monuments, and letters to nineteenth-century maps, biographies, and paintings, this set allows students to gain a greater understanding of how perceptions of manifest destiny have changed over time.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: History of Costa Rica
Wikipedia looks the history of Costa Rica in this general overview.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Resources: Monroe Doctrine, 1823
A transcript of the Monroe Doctrine written by President James Monroe in 1823. This document established a foreign policy that any European nations attempting to colonize in North or South America would be seen as aggression and the...
Curated OER
Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Clip Art Etc: Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (between August 25 and October 31, 1451 - May 20, 1506) was a Genoese navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean-funded by Queen Isabella of Spain-led to general European awareness of...
Curated OER
Etc: Proposed Isthmian Canal Routes, 1848 1884
A map of the proposed isthmian canal routes in Nicaragua and Panama between 1848-1884. The map shows the two chief proposals, the Nicaraguan from Greytown on the Caribbean to Lake Nicaragua and Brito on the Pacific, and the Panama...
Curated OER
Chesapeake Colonies
This site provides an extensive look into the people and events surrounding the founding of the original 13 colonies in America.
Curated OER
New England Colonies
This site provides an extensive look into the people and events surrounding the founding of the original 13 colonies in America.