Early European Settlements

France and England explored and settled in the New World. These countries claimed portions of land in North America. English colonies began to grow quickly. Many of these countries saw Spain’s treasury filling with gold, and they were jealous. They wanted some of this gold for themselves. One of these people was Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a friend of the Queen in England and he was also very wealthy. He received permission to set up a colony in North America.

In 1585, Raleigh sent 100 colonists with food and supplies to Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina. The colonists thought that they would receive help and aid from the Native Americans, so they didn’t plant their own crops. The Native Americans did help the colonists for a while but that didn’t last very long. The settlers began to starve. Fortunately, Francis Drake, another explorer, stopped on one of his voyages. He brought the colonists back to England.

Raleigh lost a fortune trying to start the colony on Roanoke Island. He learned that it was too expensive for one person to start a colony. He got a group of merchants to join him in starting a colony by forming a joint-stock company. This was called the Virginia Company of London. The stockholders made plans to send colonists back. The colonists were to send furs, lumber, as well as other products back to London. These were some of the first settlers of Jamestown in Virginia off the Chesapeake Bay.