Exploring North America

The 1497 English expedition led by John Cabot was the first of a series of French and English missions exploring North America. Spain put limited efforts into exploring the northern part of the Americas, as its resources were concentrated in Central and South America where more wealth had been found. These expeditions were hoping to find an oceanic Northwest Passage to Asian trade. This was never discovered, but other possibilities were found and in the early 17th century colonists from a number of Northern European states began to settle on the east coast of North America.

Map of Henry Hudson's 1609–1611 voyages to North America for the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian sailing at the service of king Francis I of France- who was motivated by the "insolence" of the division of the world between the Portuguese and the Spanish- made the first recorded European to visit the Atlantic Coast of the present-day United States, having explored the coast from South Carolina to Nova Scotia, and islands such as Newfoundland. In the same year Estevão Gomes, a Portuguese cartographer who had sailed in the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan, explored Nova Scotia province sailing South through Maine, where he entered New York Harbor, the Hudson River and eventually reached Florida in August 1525. As a result of his expedition, the 1529 Diogo Ribeiro world map outlines the East coast of North America almost perfectly. From 1534 to 1536 French explorer Jacques Cartier, believed to have accompanied da Verrazzano to Nova Scotia and Brazil, was the first European to travel inland in North America, describing the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after Iroquois names, claiming what is now Canada for Francis I of France.

Henry Hudson's ship Halve Maen in the Hudson River

Europeans explored the Pacific Coast beginning in the mid- 16th century. Francisco de Ulloa explored the Pacific coast of present-day Mexico including the Gulf of California, proving that Baja California was a peninsula  but in spite of his discoveries the myth persisted in Europe that California was an island. His account provided the first recorded use of the name "California". João Rodrigues Cabrilho, a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown, was the first European to set foot in California, landing on September 28, 1542 on the shores of San Diego Bay and claiming California for Spain. He also landed on San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands, and continued as far as Point Reyes. After his death the crew continued exploring as far north as Oregon.

The English Francis Drake sailed along the coast in 1579 somewhere north of Cabrillo's landing site—the actual location of Drake's landing was secret and is still undetermined—and claimed the land for England, calling it Nova Albion. The term "Nova Albion" was therefore used on many European maps to designate territory north of the Spanish settlements.

Between 1609–1611, English Henry Hudson, after several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective Northeast Passage to India, explored the region around modern New York City while looking for a western route to Asia under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He explored the Hudson River and laid the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region. Hudson's final expedition ranged farther north in search of the Northwest Passage, leading to his discovery of the Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay. After wintering in the James Bay, Hudson tried to press on with his voyage in the spring of 1611, but his crew mutinied and they cast him adrift.