The finding of AmericaThe race for world trade and search for new trade routes led to the discovery of America. Christopher Columbus believed that the earth is round and that it was possible to sail around it. After an eight-week voyage in 1492 Columbus landed on one of the Bahamas Islands, believing that he had discovered India. He therefore named the native people Indians. Some other explorers tried the voyages. Another Italian sailor, Amerigo Vespucci, gave the new world its name.
The first English colonyIn 1607 a colonizing company, founded in London sent the first colonists across Atlantic. They landed in Virginia and called their settlement Jamestown.In 1619, a Dutch ship arrived with some Negroes who were sold to the colonists. Thus Negro slavery began in the English colonies.
