Timeline of United States pre-history (before 1600)
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This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events before 1600.
[edit] 1400s
- 1492-Christopher Columbus lands on one of the Bahamas Islands, discovering the New World for 15th century Europe
- 1494-Treaty of Tordesillas divides the New World between Spain and Portugal
- 1497-John Cabot is the first European since the Vikings to reach the North American mainland, which he claims for England
[edit] 1500s
- 1513-Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses isthmus of Panama, sees Pacific Ocean
- 1513-Juan Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain
- 1519-Hernán Cortés defeats Tlaxcala, a small state neighboring the Aztec empire
- 1520s-Spanish begin conquest of Maya civilization
- 1521-Cortes destroys the Aztec empire
- 1524-Giovanni da Verrazzano, working for France, explores coastline from present-day North Carolina to Maine
- 1542-Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River, strengthening Spanish claims to the interior of North America
- 1570s-Iroquois League founded
- 1587-Sir Walter Raleigh founds Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in the New World, in the Virginia territory
- 1590-Roanoke found deserted
| None | Timeline of United States history Pre 1600 |
1600-1699 |
