North America

== History ==
{{Main|History of North America}}

=== Pre-Columbian era===
{{Main|Pre-Columbian era}}
[[File:America 1000 BCE.png|thumb|A map of subsistence methods in the [[Americas]], including North America, as of 1000&nbsp;BCE
{{legend|#FEFE00|[[Hunter-gatherer]]s}}
{{legend|#00FE00|[[Agriculture|Simple farming societies]]}}
{{legend|#FE7F3F|Complex agricultural societies, including tribal [[chiefdom]]s and [[civilization]]s}}
]]
The [[indigenous peoples of the Americas]] have many [[creation myth]]s by which they assert that they have been present on the land since its creation,<ref name="Curtin2014">{{cite book|first=Jeremiah|last=Curtin|title=Creation Myths of Primitive America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PRK1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2|year=2014|publisher=Jazzybee Verlag|isbn=978-3-8496-4454-3|page=2|access-date=22 November 2015|archive-date=9 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209074925/https://books.google.com/books?id=PRK1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2|url-status=live}}</ref> but there is no evidence that humans evolved there.<ref name="Krensky">{{cite book|last=Krensky|first=Stephen|others=Illustrated by Steve Sullivan|title=Who Really Discovered America?|year=1987|publisher=[[Scholastic Inc.]]|isbn=978-0-590-40854-7|page=13}}</ref> The specifics of the initial [[settlement of the Americas]] by ancient Asians are subject to ongoing research and discussion.<ref name="White2006">{{cite book|first=Phillip M.|last=White|title=American Indian chronology: chronologies of the American mosaic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_VnZ8_2kSScC&pg=PA1|access-date=29 November 2011|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-33820-5|page=1|archive-date=11 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111211639/http://books.google.com/books?id=_VnZ8_2kSScC&pg=PA1|url-status=live}}</ref> The traditional theory has been that hunters entered the [[Beringia|Bering Land Bridge]] between eastern [[Siberia]] and present-day [[Alaska]] from 27,000 to 14,000 years ago.<ref name="HavilandPrins2013">{{cite book|first1=William|last1=Haviland|first2=Harald|last2=Prins|author2-link=Harald Prins|first3=Dana|last3=Walrath|first4=Bunny|last4=McBride|author4-link=Bunny McBride|title=Anthropology: The Human Challenge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bpuCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA219|date=2013|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-285-67758-3|pages=219, 220|access-date=22 November 2015|archive-date=7 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207213447/https://books.google.com/books?id=0bpuCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA219|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sonneborn-2007">{{cite book |first= Liz |last= Sonneborn |title= Chronology of American Indian History |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OKfBId96DTIC&pg=PA3 |date= January 2007 |publisher= Infobase Publishing |isbn= 978-0-8160-6770-1 |page= 3 |access-date= 29 November 2011 |archive-date= 3 January 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140103103603/http://books.google.com/books?id=OKfBId96DTIC&pg=PA3 |url-status= live }}</ref>{{efn|The receding of oceans during successive [[ice age]]s may have enabled migrants to cross the land bridge as far back as 40,000 years.<ref name=really>{{cite book|last=Krensky|first=Stephen|others=Illustrated by Steve Sullivan|title=Who Really Discovered America?|year=1987|publisher=[[Scholastic Inc.]]|isbn=978-0-590-40854-7|pages=11, 13}}</ref>}} A growing viewpoint is that the first American inhabitants sailed from Beringia some 13,000 years ago,<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/most-archaeologists-think-first-americans-arrived-boat-now-they-re-beginning-prove-it|title=Most archaeologists think the first Americans arrived by boat. Now, they're beginning to prove it|last=Wade|first=Lizzie|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|date=10 August 2017|doi=10.1126/science.aan7213|access-date=26 December 2018|archive-date=31 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131022108/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/most-archaeologists-think-first-americans-arrived-boat-now-they-re-beginning-prove-it|url-status=live}}</ref> with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the [[Last Glacial Period]], in what is known as the [[Late Glacial Maximum#North America|Late Glacial Maximum]], around 12,500 years ago.<ref name="Pauketat2012">{{cite book|first=Timothy R.|last=Pauketat|author-link=Timothy R. Pauketat|title=The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology|date=23 February 2012|publisher=OUP US|isbn=978-0-19-538011-8|page=96}}</ref> The oldest [[petroglyph]]s in North America date from 15,000 to 10,000 years before present.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/212569006/n-americas-oldest-known-petroglyphs-discovered-in-nevada|title=N. America's Oldest Known Petroglyphs Discovered In Nevada|last=Shogren|first=Elizabeth|date=16 August 2013|website=[[NPR]]|access-date=12 December 2018|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805060403/https://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/212569006/n-americas-oldest-known-petroglyphs-discovered-in-nevada|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|While not conclusive, some [[South America]]n rock painting has been dated to 25,000 years ago.<ref name=bradshaw>{{cite web|url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/south_america/serra_da_capivara/index.php|title=America's Oldest Art – The Rock Art of Serra da Capivara|last=Nash|first=George|year=2011|website=[[Bradshaw Foundation]]|access-date=12 December 2018|archive-date=24 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924163146/http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/south_america/serra_da_capivara/index.php|url-status=live}}</ref>}} [[Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|Genetic research]] and [[anthropology]] indicate additional waves of migration from Asia via the [[Bering Strait]] during the Early-Middle [[Holocene]].<ref name="SkoglundMallick2015">{{cite journal|last1=Skoglund|first1=P.|last2=Mallick|first2=S.|last3=Bortolini|first3=M.C.|last4=Chennagiri|first4=N.|last5=Hünemeier|first5=T.|last6=Petzl-Erler|first6=M.L.|last7=Salzano|first7=F.M.|last8=Patterson|first8=N.|last9=Reich|first9=D.|title=Genetic evidence for two founding populations of the Americas|journal=Nature|date=21 July 2015|doi=10.1038/nature14895|pmid=26196601|pmc=4982469|volume=525|issue=7567 |pages=104–8|bibcode=2015Natur.525..104S }}</ref><ref name="BellwoodNess2014">{{cite book|first1=Peter|last1=Bellwood|author1-link=Peter Bellwood|first2=Immanuel|last2=Ness|author2-link=Immanuel Ness|title=The Global Prehistory of Human Migration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HMTBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA194|date=2014|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-97059-1|page=194|access-date=22 November 2015|archive-date=7 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207210859/https://books.google.com/books?id=2HMTBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA194|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Krensky|first=Stephen|others=Illustrated by Steve Sullivan|title=Who Really Discovered America?|year=1987|publisher=[[Scholastic Inc.]]|isbn=978-0-590-40854-7|pages=17–27}}</ref>

Prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonists in North America, the [[Paleo-Indians|natives of North America]] were divided into many different polities, ranging from small [[Band society|bands]] of a few families to large empires. They lived in several [[Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas|culture areas]], which roughly correspond to [[Geography of North America|geographic and biological zones]] that defined the representative cultures and lifestyles of the indigenous people who lived there, including the [[Plains Bison|bison]] [[hunter-gatherer|hunters]] of the [[Plains Indian|Great Plains]] and the farmers of [[Mesoamerica]]. Native groups also are classified by their [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|language families]], which included [[Athabaskan languages|Athapascan]] and [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]] languages. Indigenous peoples with similar languages did not always share the same [[material culture]], however, and were not necessarily always allies. Anthropologists speculate that the [[Inuit]] of the high [[Arctic]] arrived in North America much later than other native groups, evidenced by the disappearance of [[Dorset culture]] artifacts from the [[archaeological record]] and their replacement by the [[Thule people]].

During the thousands of years of native habitation on the continent, cultures changed and shifted. One of the oldest yet discovered is the [[Clovis culture]] (c.&nbsp;9550–9050&nbsp;BCE) in modern [[New Mexico]].<ref name=bradshaw/> Later groups include the [[Mississippian culture]] and related [[Mound builder (people)|Mound building]] cultures, found in the [[Mississippi River]] valley and the [[Ancestral Puebloans|Pueblo culture]] of what is now the [[Four Corners]]. The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the [[domestication]] of many common [[crops]] now used around the world, such as tomatoes, [[Squash (plant)|squash]], and [[maize]]. As a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many other cultural advances were made there. The [[Maya civilization|Mayans]] developed a [[Maya script|writing system]], built [[Mesoamerican pyramids|huge pyramids and temples]], had a [[Maya calendar|complex calendar]], and developed the concept of zero around 400&nbsp;CE.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-origin-of-zer | title = What is the origin of zero? How did we indicate nothingness before zero? | first = Robert | last = Kaplan | magazine = [[Scientific American]] | date = 16 January 2007 | access-date = 19 February 2008 | archive-date = 19 March 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110319151336/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-origin-of-zer | url-status = live }}</ref>

The first recorded European references to North America are in [[Vinland sagas|Norse sagas]] where it is referred to as [[Vinland]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Groeneveld |first1=Emma |title=Vinland |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Vinland/ |website=World History Encyclopedia |access-date=12 June 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420181420/https://www.worldhistory.org/Vinland/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The earliest verifiable instance of [[pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact]] by any European culture with the North America mainland has been dated to around 1000&nbsp;CE.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Linda S. |last1=Cordell |first2=Kent |last2=Lightfoot |first3=Francis |last3=McManamon |first4=George |last4=Milner |title=L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site |encyclopedia=Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arfWRW5OFVgC&pg=PA82 |date=2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-02189-3 |page=82 |access-date=19 December 2020 |archive-date=30 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230134928/https://books.google.com/books?id=arfWRW5OFVgC&pg=PA82 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[L'Anse aux Meadows#Norse site (c. 1000)|The site]], situated at the northernmost extent of the island named [[Newfoundland]], has provided unmistakable evidence of [[Norsemen|Norse]] settlement.<ref>[[Helge Ingstad|H. Ingstad]] and [[A. Stine Ingstad]], ''The Viking Discovery of America'' (2000), p. 141.</ref> Norse explorer [[Leif Erikson]] (c.&nbsp;970–1020 CE) is thought to have visited the area.{{efn|Descriptions of sites Erikson explored seem to correspond to [[Baffin Island]], the [[Labrador]] coast near [[Cape Porcupine, Newfoundland and Labrador|Cape Porcupine]], as well as [[Belle Isle (Newfoundland and Labrador)|Belle Isle]], and a site which led him to name the country [[Vinland]] ('Wineland').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wernick |first1=Robert |title=The Vikings |date=1979 |publisher=Time-Life Books |location=Alexandria, VA |isbn=0-8094-2709-5 |pages=149–151}}</ref>}} Erikson was the first European to make landfall on the continent (excluding Greenland).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Little |first1=Becky |title=Why Do We Celebrate Columbus Day and Not Leif Erikson Day? |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151011-columbus-day-leif-erikson-italian-americans-holiday-history/ |website=National Geographic |access-date=28 May 2020 |date=11 October 2015 |archive-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328203350/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151011-columbus-day-leif-erikson-italian-americans-holiday-history/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=History – Leif Erikson |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erikson_leif.shtml |website=BBC |access-date=8 June 2020 |archive-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120185237/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erikson_leif.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Mayan culture was still present in [[Yucatan Peninsula|southern Mexico]] and Guatemala when the Spanish [[conquistador]]s arrived, but political dominance in the area had shifted to the [[Aztec Empire]], whose capital city [[Tenochtitlan]] was located further north in the [[Valley of Mexico]]. The Aztecs were conquered in 1521 by [[Hernán Cortés]].<ref name="Grunberg">Bernard Grunberg, ''"La folle aventure d'Hernan Cortés''", in ''[[L'Histoire]]'' n°322, July–August 2007 {{incomplete short citation|date=February 2014}}</ref>

=== Post-contact, 1492–1910 ===
{{main|European colonization of the Americas}}
{{further|Timeline of the European colonization of North America|British America|French America|New Spain|Russian colonization of the Americas}}
[[File:QueenAnnesWarBefore.svg|thumb|A 1702 map of North America showing forts, towns, and (in solid colors) areas occupied by [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonial settlements]]]]
During the so-called [[Age of Discovery]], Europeans explored overseas and staked claims to various parts of North America, much of which was already settled by indigenous peoples. Upon Europeans' arrival in the "[[New World]]", indigenous peoples had a variety of reactions, including curiosity, trading, cooperation, resignation, and resistance. The [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous population declined]] substantially following European arrival, primarily due to the introduction of Eurasian diseases, such as [[smallpox]], to which the indigenous peoples lacked immunity, and because of [[American Indian Wars|violent conflicts]] with Europeans.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Concise History of World Population: An Introduction to Population Processes |last=Massimo Livi Bacci |first=Malden |place=Massachusetts |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2001 |edition=3rd |isbn=978-0-631-22335-1 |pages=42–46}}</ref> Indigenous culture changed significantly and their affiliation with political and cultural groups also changed. Several linguistic groups [[Language death|died out]], and others changed quite quickly.

On the North America's southeastern coast, Spanish explorer [[Juan Ponce de León]], who had accompanied Columbus's second voyage, visited and named in 1513 ''[[Spanish Florida|La Florida]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bergreen|first=Lawrence|author-link=Laurence Bergreen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC|title=Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1493–1504|publisher=Penguin Group US|year=2011|isbn=978-1-101-54432-7|page=127|access-date=13 September 2020|archive-date=17 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217004027/https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC|url-status=live}}</ref> As the colonial period unfolded, Spain, England, and France appropriated and claimed extensive territories in North America eastern and southern coastlines. Spain established permanent settlements on the Caribbean islands of [[Hispaniola]] and [[Cuba]] in the 1490s, building cities, putting the resident indigenous populations to work, raising crops for Spanish settlers and panning gold to enrich the Spaniards. Much of the indigenous population died due to disease and overwork, spurring the Spaniards on to claim new lands and peoples. An expedition under the command of Spanish settler, [[Hernán Cortés]], sailed westward in 1519 to what turned out to be the mainland in Mexico. With local indigenous allies, the Spanish [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire|conquered the Aztec empire in central Mexico]] in 1521. Spain then established permanent cities in Mexico, Central America, and Spanish South America in the sixteenth century. Once Spaniards conquered the high civilization of the Aztecs and Incas, the Caribbean was a backwater of the Spanish empire.

Other European powers began to intrude on areas claimed by Spain, including the Caribbean islands. France took the western half of [[Hispaniola]] and developed [[Saint-Domingue]] as a cane sugar producing colony worked by black slave labor. Britain took [[Barbados]] and [[Jamaica]], and the Dutch and Danes took islands previously claimed by Spain. Britain did not begin settling on the North American mainland until a hundred years after the first Spanish settlements, since it sought first to control nearby [[Ireland]].

===English settlements===
{{Main|British America}}
The first permanent English settlement was in [[Jamestown, Virginia]] in 1607, followed by additional colonial establishments on the [[East Coast of the United States|east coast]] from present-day [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] in the south to [[Massachusetts]] in the north, forming the [[Thirteen Colonies]] of [[British America]]. The English did not establish settlements north or east of the [[St. Lawrence River Valley|St. Lawrence Valley]] in present-day Canada until after the conclusion of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Britain's early settlements in present-day Canada included [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's, Newfoundland]] in 1630 and [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]] in 1749. The first permanent French settlement was in [[Quebec City, Quebec]] in 1608

===Seven Years' War===
{{Main|Seven Years' War}}
With the British victory in the [[Seven Years' War]], France in 1763 ceded to Britain its claims of North American territories east of the [[Mississippi River]]. Spain, in turn, gained rights to the territories west of Mississippi, which then served as a border between Spain and Britain's territorial claims. French colonists settled [[Illinois Country]] after several generations of experience on North America, migrating over the Mississippi River to regions where Spain was not present and where they were able to leverage their earlier Louisiana French settlements around the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. These early French settlers partnered with midwest indigenous tribes, and their mixed ancestry descendants later followed a westward expansion all the way to the [[Pacific Ocean]] on the present-day [[U.S. West Coast]].

===American Revolution===
{{Main|American Revolution|American Revolutionary War}}
In 1776, after various attempts to reconcile differences with the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]], the [[Thirteen Colonies]] in British America sent delegates to the [[Second Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]], who unanimously adopted the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] on July 4, 1776, written primarily by [[Thomas Jefferson]], a member of the [[Committee of Five]] charged by the Second Continental Congress with authoring it. In the Declaration, the thirteen colonies declared their independence from the British monarchy, then governed by King [[George III]], and detailed the factors that contributed to their decision. With the signing and issuance of the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies formalized and escalated the [[American Revolutionary War]], which had begun the year before at the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] on April 19, 1775. Gathered in Philadelphia following the war's outbreak, delegates from the thirteen colonies established the [[Continental Army]] from various [[Patriot (American Revolution)|patriot militias]] then engaged in resisting the British, and appointed [[George Washington]] as the Continental Army's military commander.

As the American Revolutionary War progressed, France and Spain, both then enemies of Britain, began to ultimately see the promise of a potential American victory in the war and began supporting Washington and the American Revolutionary cause. The [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]], in turn, was supported by [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessian military]] units from present-day [[Germany]].

In 1783, after an eight-year attempt to defeat the American rebellion, King George III acknowledged Britain's defeat in the war, leading to the signing of the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] on September 3, 1783, which solidified the sovereign establishment of the [[United States]].

===Westward expansion===
{{Main|Westward Expansion Trails}}
{{Further|Lewis and Clark Expedition|Louisiana Purchase|United States Exploring Expedition}}
[[File:Professor G. Droysens Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas 1886 (134038141).jpg|thumb|right|European colonization of North America and the [[Territorial evolution of the United States]] by [[Gustav Droysen]]]]
By the late 18th century, Russia was established on the [[Pacific Northwest]] northern coastline, where it was engaged in [[maritime fur trade]] and was supported by various indigenous settlements in the region. As a result, the Spanish were showing more interest in controlling the trade on the Pacific coast and mapped most of its coastline. The first Spanish settlements were attempted in [[Alta California]] during that period. Numerous overland explorations associated with [[voyageurs]], [[fur trade]], and U.S. led expeditions, including the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis and Clark]], [[John C. Frémont|Frémont]] and [[United States Exploring Expedition|Wilkes]] expeditions, reached the Pacific.

In 1803, during the [[presidency of Thomas Jefferson]], the third [[U.S. president]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] sold France's remaining North American territorial claims, which included regions west of the Mississippi River, to the U.S., in the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. Spain and the U.S. settled their western boundary dispute in 1819 in the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]]. Mexico fought a lengthy war for independence from Spain, winning it for Mexico (which included Central America at the time) in 1821. The U.S. sought further westward expansion and fought the [[Mexican–American War]], gaining a vast territory that first Spain and then Mexico claimed but which they did not effectively control. Much of the area was in fact dominated by indigenous peoples, which did not recognize the claims of Spain, France, or the U.S. Russia sold its North American claims, which included the present-day U.S. state of [[Alaska]], to the U.S. in 1867.

===Canada and Panama Canal===
{{Main|Canada|Panama Canal}}
In 1867, colonial settlers north of the United States, unified as the dominion of [[Canada]]. The U.S. sought to dig a canal across the [[Isthmus of Panama]] in present-day [[Panama]] in Central America, then a part of present-day [[Colombia]]. The U.S. aided Panamanians in a war that resulted in its separation from Colombia. The U.S. subsequently carved out the [[Panama Canal Zone]], and claimed sovereignty over it. After decades of work, the [[Panama Canal]] was completed, which connected the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] and [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] oceans in 1913 and greatly facilitated global shipping navigation.