Explorers from Europe

It was the Spanish who began the lasting European occupation of America. When Columbus returned to Spain he took back with him some jewelry that he had obtained in America. This jewelry was important because it was made of gold. In the next 50 years thousands of treasure-hungry Spanish adventurers crossed the Atlantic Ocean to search for this precious metal.

To sixteenth century Europeans America was a place where nothing was impossible. Some even believed that there they might discover a way to regain their lost youth. Ponce de Leon was a Spanish man who came to the New World with Columbus for the explorer's second voyage. The Amerindian people told de Leon that to the north lay a land rich in gold. This northern land also had all even more precious treasure - a fountain whose waters gave everlasting youth to all those who drank from it. In the spring of 1513 de Leon set off in search of the magic fountain. Ponce de Leon never found the Fountain of Youth.

In the years that followed other Spanish men took the search for gold to North America. Between 1539 and 1543 Fernando de Soto and Francisco Coronado explored much of the southern part of what is now the USA. Coronado traveled north from Mexico searching for the «Seven Cities of Gold», that Amerindian legends said lay hidden somewhere in the desert. He never found them.

The growing wealth of Spain made other European nations envious. They became eager to share the riches of the New World. These countries were England and France.

By the seventeenth century plenty of people in Europe were ready to settle in America. Some hoped to become rich by doing so. Others hoped to find safety from religious or political prosecution. In the hundred years after 1600 Europeans set up many colonies in North America for reasons like these.