Colonies Founded in the USA Trivia Quiz

The first Spanish attempt to colonize Florida, Pensacola was founded by Tristan de Luna y Arellano as Santa Maria de Ochuse in August, 1559. A hurricane in September sank several ships and drove the colonists further inland, but the settlement was abandoned in 1561. The Spanish returned in 1698 and built a fortified town which eventually became the city of Pensacola.

French explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere founded Fort Caroline in June, 1564 near present day Jacksonville, Florida. Meant as a haven for the French Protestants known as Huguenots, the settlement was plagued by food shortages and trouble with Native Americans before it was destroyed by the Spanish in September, 1565.

St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in September, 1565. Located some thirty miles south of the French colony of Fort Caroline, St. Augustine was the base from which the French settlement was attacked and destroyed. The colony was the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years, and was ceded to the United States by Spain in 1821.

It is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the contiguous United States.

The English unsuccessfully tried to set up a colony near Roanoke Island, off the coast of present day North Carolina, in 1585. A second attempt was made in 1587, with over 100 colonists, including women and children. The governor returned to England for supplies, but was delayed by the war with Spain and did not return until 1590, finding the site abandoned. No trace of the "Lost Colony" has yet been found.

Jamestown, Virginia was established by the English in May, 1607, and became the first permanent English colony in what is now the United States. The first three years in the settlement were very difficult, with disease, food shortages, and war with the local native population almost causing it to be abandoned, but the cultivation of tobacco for export back to Europe saved the colony.

Fort Nassau, on the upper Hudson River near present day Albany, New York, was founded by the Dutch in 1615. It was the first Dutch colony in the present day USA. The site was a trading post for furs, as well as a fortified military post, but was only populated by soldiers and traders.

The original fort was damaged by weather and rebuilt several times, but was abandoned in 1618. The Dutch built Fort Orange on the site in 1624.

The Plymouth colony was founded in December, 1620, by colonists containing a religious group known as the Pilgrims, separatists from the Anglican Church. The settlement was built on a site that had been abandoned by Native Americans, so land had already been cleared for crops, and the settlers were helped by having peaceful relations with the Wampanoag nation.

The colony of New Amsterdam, located on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in what is now New York, was founded by the Dutch in 1625. Initially a fur trading post, a settlement grew up around the fort and New Amsterdam was made the capital of the New Netherlands colony. The colony was captured 39 years later by the British in 1664 and renamed New York.

The colony of Maryland was founded by Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1634 under a charter granted by King Charles I in 1632. Calvert wished to establish a safe haven for English Catholics during the religious wars then raging in Europe, while the King and his ministers wanted a colony to offset the Dutch in New Netherlands colony further north.

The Providence Plantations colony was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, an English Puritan who had been exiled from the Massachusetts Bay colony. The land for the settlement was given to Williams by the Narragansett nation. The colony was a haven for religious dissidents from the stricter Puritan colonies in Massachusetts and Plymouth.

The colony eventually became the state of Rhode Island.

Situated near present day Wilmington, Delaware, Fort Christina was founded by Sweden in 1638. The commander of the expedition was Peter Minuit, the Dutch former director of the New Netherlands colony. The Swedes were in almost constant conflict with the larger Dutch colonies in the area, and mercenary forces employed by the Dutch West India Company took the fort 17 years later, in 1655.

The Dutch claimed the northern part of the Delaware River and had some small trading posts in the area, and settlers from the Swedish colony of Fort Christina had moved into the area now known as Pennsylvania as early as 1635. The colony was officially founded by William Penn in 1682, after he was granted a charter from King Charles II. Penn also founded the capital city of Philadelphia in the same year.

Even though the Spanish had explored Louisiana, they never established a colony in the area. French explorers founded Fort Maurepas in 1699 in what is now called Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to forestall any Spanish presence in the area. This was the beginning of French settlement of Louisiana.

King George II of England, the colony's namesake, granted a royal charter to General James Oglethorpe in 1732. Oglethorpe wanted a colony of small farmers who could guard the border against incursions by the Spanish in Florida. Oglethorpe even banned slavery in the colony, but this law was rescinded in 1751.

A number of the first colonists were people from English debtor's prisons. The first settlement was founded at Yamacraw Bluff in February, 1733, which is now the site of the city of Savannah.

Kodiak Island, Alaska, had been explored by Russian fur traders in 1763. The first Russian settlement was established at Three Saints Bay in 1784. Most of the Russians on the island were fur traders, though farmers and craftsmen, with their families, arrived in 1793.

The Russians forced the local natives to hunt and fish for food, and also to trap and process furs for them, disrupting native society and spreading European diseases that killed off large numbers of the natives.