It is very difficult to say just when colonization began. The first hundred years after Christopher Columbus's journey of discovery in 1492 did not produce any settlement on the North America continent but rather some Spanish trading posts further south, a great interest in gold and adventure, and some colorful crimes in which the English had their part. John Cabot, originally from Genoa but a citizen of Venice, was established as a trader in Bristol, England, when he made a journey in 1497. But his ship, the Matthew, with its crew of eighteen, did no more than see an island (probably off the New England coast) and return home. He and his son made further voyages across the north Atlantic which enabled the English crown to claim a "legal" title to North America. But for a long time afterwards the Europeans' interest in America was mainly confined to the Spanish activities further south.

　　The first beginning of permanent settlement in North America were nearly a hundred years after Columbus's first voyage. The Englishman Sir Walter Raleigh claimed the whole of North America for England, calling it Virginia. In 1585 he sent a small group of people who landed in Roanoke Island, but they stayed only for a year and then went back to England with another expedition, led by Drake, in 1587. A second group who landed in 1587 had all disappeared when a further expedition arrived in 1590.

　　The first permanent settlement in North America was in 1607. English capitalists founded two Virginia companies, a southern one based in London and a

northern one based in Bristol. It was decided to give the name New England to the northern area. The first settlers in Virginia were little more than wage slaves to the company. All were men and the experiment was not very successful. Many died. Those who survived lived in miserable conditions. By 1610 the colony had only a thousand people.

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