Timeline of the European colonization of North America

Pre–Columbus

• 986: Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn't land.
• : Norse settle briefly in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
• : Norse colony in Greenland dies out.

15th century

• 1492: Columbus sets sail aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
• 1492: Columbus reaches the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola.
• 1492: La Navidad is established on the island of Hispaniola; it was destroyed by the following year.
• 1493: The colony of La Isabela is established on the island of Hispaniola.
• 1493: Columbus arrives in Puerto Rico
• 1494: Columbus arrives in Jamaica.
• 1496: Santo Domingo, the first European permanent settlement, is built.
• 1497: John Cabot reaches Newfoundland.
• 1498: In his third voyage, Columbus reaches Trinidad and Tobago.
• 1498: La Isabela is abandoned by the Spanish.
• 1499: João Fernandes Lavrador maps Labrador and Newfoundland

16th century

• 1501: Corte-Real brothers explore the coast of what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador
• 1502: Columbus sails along the mainland coast south of Yucatán, and reaches present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama
• 1503: Las Tortugas noted by Columbus in passage through the Western Caribbean present-day Cayman Islands
• 1508: Ponce de León founds Caparra on San Juan Bautista
• 1511: Conquest of Cuba begins
• 1513: Ponce de León in Florida
• 1513: Núñez de Balboa claims the Pacific Ocean and its shores for Spain
• 1515: Conquest of Cuba completed
• 1517: Francisco Hernández de Córdoba lands on the Yucatán Peninsula
• 1519: Founding of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz
• 1519: Álvarez de Pineda explores the Gulf Coast of the United States
• 1519: Founding of Panama City by Pedro Arias Dávila
• 1521: Hernán Cortés completes the conquest of the Aztec Empire.
• 1521: Juan Ponce de León tries and fails to settle in Florida.
• 1524: Pedro de Alvarado conquers present-day Guatemala and El Salvador.
• 1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano sails along most of the east coast.
• 1525: Estêvão Gomes enters Upper New York Bay and reaches Nova Scotia
• 1526: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón briefly establishes the failed settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, the first site of enslavement of Africans in North America and of the first slave rebellion.
• 1527: Fishermen are using the harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland and other places on the coast.
• 1531: Spanish found Puebla de Zaragoza and Santiago de Querétaro.
• 1535: Jacques Cartier reaches Quebec.
• 1536: Cabeza de Vaca reaches Mexico City after wandering through North America.
• 1538: Failed Huguenot settlement on St. Kitts in the Caribbean.
• 1539: Hernando de Soto explores the interior from Florida to Arkansas.
• 1539: Francisco de Ulloa explores the Baja California peninsula.
• 1540: Coronado travels from Mexico to eastern Kansas.
• 1541: Spanish found Nueva Ciudad de Mechuacán
• 1540: López de Cárdenas reaches the Grand Canyon.
• 1541: Failed French settlement at Charlesbourg-Royal by Cartier and Roberval.
• 1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo reaches the California coast.
• 1559: Failed Spanish settlement at Pensacola, Florida.
• 1562: Failed Huguenot settlement in South Carolina.
• 1564: French Huguenots at Jacksonville, Florida.
• 1565: Spanish slaughter French 'heretics' at Fort Caroline.
• 1565: Spanish found Saint Augustine, Florida.
• 1566–1587: Spanish in South Carolina.
• 1568: Dutch revolt against Spain begins. The economic model developed in the Netherlands would define colonial policies in the next two centuries.
• 1570: Failed Spanish settlement on Chesapeake Bay.
• 1576: Spanish found León de los Aldama.
• 1576: Martin Frobisher reaches the coast of Labrador and Baffin Island.
• 1579: Sir Francis Drake claims New Albion.
• 1583: England formally claims Newfoundland.
• 1585: Roanoke Colony founded by English on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, failed in 1587
• 1598: Failed French settlement on Sable Island off Nova Scotia.
• 1598: Spanish settlement in Northern New Mexico.
• 1600: By 1600 Spain and Portugal were still the only significant colonial powers. North of Mexico the only settlements were Saint Augustine and the isolated outpost in northern New Mexico. Exploration of the interior was largely abandoned after the 1540s. Around Newfoundland 500 or more boats annually were fishing for cod and some fishermen were trading for furs, especially at Tadoussac on the Saint Lawrence.

17th century

• 1604: St. Croix Island – French
• 1605: Port Royal – French
• 1607: Jamestown – English, first permanent English settlement
• 1607: Popham Colony – English
• 1608: Quebec – French
• 1609: New York Harbor – Dutch
• 1610: Cuper's Cove – English
• 1610: Kecoughtan, Virginia – English
• 1610: Santa Fe – Spanish
• 1611: Henricus – English
• 1612: Bermuda – English
• 1615: Fort Nassau – Dutch
• 1615: Renews, Newfoundland – English
• 1618: Bristol's Hope – English
• 1620: St. John's, Newfoundland – English
• 1620: Plymouth Colony – English
• 1621: Nova Scotia – Scottish
• 1622: Province of Maine – English
• 1623: Portsmouth – English
• 1623: Stage Point – English
• 1623: Dover – English
• 1623: Pannaway – English
• 1623: New Castle – English
• 1623: Fort Nassau – Dutch
• 1624: St. Kitts – English
• 1624: Governors Island – Dutch
• 1624: New Amsterdam – Dutch
• 1625: Cape Breton – Scottish
• 1626: Salem – English
• 1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony – English
• 1630: Pavonia – Dutch
• 1631: Saint John, New Brunswick – English
• 1632: Williamsburgh – English
• 1633: Fort Hoop – Dutch
• 1633: Windsor, Connecticut – English
• 1634: Maryland Colony – English
• 1634: Wethersfield – English
• 1634: La Baye (Green Bay) - French
• 1635: Territory of Sagadahock – English
• 1635: Saybrook Colony – English
• 1636: Providence Plantations – English
• 1636: Connecticut Colony – English
• 1638: New Haven Colony – English
• 1638: Fort Christina – Swedish
• 1638: Exeter – English
• 1638: Hampton, New Hampshire – English
• 1639: Bridgeport, Connecticut – English
• 1639: Newport – English
• 1639: San Marcos – Spanish
• 1640: New Stockholm – Swedish
• 1640: Swedesboro – Swedish
• 1642: Montreal – French
• 1651: Fort Casimir – Dutch
• 1652: York, Maine
• 1653: Biddeford, Maine
• 1658: Scarborough, Maine
• 1660: Bergen – Dutch
• 1665: Elizabethtown – English
• 1666: Newark – English
• 1668: Sault Ste. Marie – French
• 1669: English Neighborhood – Dutch, English,
• 1670: Charleston – English
• 1671: St. Ignace - French
• 1673: Prairie du Chien - French
• 1678: New Paltz, New York – French
• 1679: Acquackanonk – Dutch
• 1680: Fort Crevecoeur – French
• 1680: El Paso – Spanish
• 1682: Pennsylvania – English
• 1683: Fort Saint Louis (Illinois) – French
• 1683: East New Jersey – Scottish
• 1684: Stuarts Town, Carolina – Scottish
• 1685: Fort Saint Louis (Texas) – French
• 1686: Arkansas Post – French
• 1691: Fort Pimiteoui – French
• 1696: Dorchester, South Carolina - English from Massachusetts
• 1698: Pensacola, Florida – Spanish
• 1699: Louisiana – French

18th century

• 1701: Detroit – French
• 1702: Mobile – French
• 1706: Albuquerque – Spanish
• 1711: Beaufort, South Carolina - English
• 1714: Natchitoches – French
• 1714: Germanna, Virginia – Germans from Hessen-Nassau
• 1716: Natchez – French
• 1717: Germanna, Virginia – Germans from Baden-Württemberg
• 1718: New Orleans – French
• 1718: San Antonio – Spanish
• 1721: Germanna, Virginia – Germans
• 1721: Greenland – Danish
• 1729: George Town, South Carolina - English and French Huguenots
• 1729: Baltimore – British
• 1733: Province of Georgia – British
• 1734: Culpeper, Virginia – Germans
• 1738: Culpeper, Virginia; some to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – Germans
• 1741: Guanajuato – Spanish
• 1763: St. Louis – French
• 1769: San Diego – Spanish
• 1770: Monterey – Spanish
• 1775: Tucson – Spanish
• 1776: San Francisco – Spanish
• 1777: San Jose – Spanish
• 1781: Los Angeles – Spanish
• 1784: Kodiak Island – Russian
• 1791: Santa Cruz – Spanish