Jamestown: Facts & History
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | December 22, 2016 11:42pm ET
241 210 57 159 221 MORE
Jamestown: Facts & History
Foundations of row houses have been excavated in New Towne, where Jamestown settlers expanded to live in the 1620s.
Credit: National Park Service
Jamestown, founded in 1607, was the first successful permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. The settlement thrived for nearly 100 years as the capital of the Virginia colony; it was abandoned after the capital moved to Williamsburg in 1699. A preservationist group took over the site in the late 1800s, and today, it is part of a national historic park with tours, museums and ongoing archaeological digs that continue to reveal new findings.
Colonization of the Americas
Jamestown was not the first successful permanent European settlement in what would become the United States; that distinction belongs to St. Augustine, in Florida, which was founded by the Spanish in 1565.
At the beginning of the 17th century, England was lagging behind other nations when it came to colonization in the Americas. Spain controlled a vast empire in the New World that included much of South and Central America, Mexico, part of the Caribbean and a settlement in Florida. The Spanish were also moving into what is considered the American Southwest.
http://www.livescience.com/38595-jamestown-history.html
