Timeline of United States pre-history (before 1600)

This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events up to 1599.

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

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 Verrazano, 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

Beginnings to 1599
History of the United States


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